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RMA - Risk Management AuthorizationPrintable

What is an RMA?
RMA is part of the "Risk Management" program which is intended to protect children from individuals who may pose a risk to them. Within Washington Youth Soccer, this means that a Background Check has been completed and the results of that check are acceptable for your role per Washington Youth Soccer guidelines AND it means that Washington Youth Soccer has no reason on record for a you to be suspended from your ability to participate in Washington Youth Soccer programs.

Go to [a1]Washington Youth Soccer's web site for a description of their process.

Once you receive your RMA clearance, it is valid for one year and must be renewed each year. Approximately 10-30 days before the expiration date, Washington Youth Soccer should automatically submit a request to redo the background check. HOWEVER, there are many reasons this automatic process may not work. For example, the credit card on file may have expired. Assuming this process works correctly, you do not need to resubmit an RMA request. You should not rely on this being done automatically. You can check the status of your RMA clearance in the Affinity web site. You do not need to take any action on the LWYSA referee site. The LWYSA site automatically checks the RMA file each time you access the system.

What is my RMA status in LWYSA
To see the status that LWYSA has for you RMA (1) Log on to the system, (2) Click on Profile, (3) Click on the Biography tab. This will show you when LWYSA thinks your RMA will expire - based on the information that LWYSA receives from the Affinity system. If you think this is incorrect, you must FIRST check your information in the Affinity system. The information below should help you complete this.
I need help. What can I do?
  1. You need an Affinity ID: Registration link for referees: [a1]http://wys-refereerma.affinitysoccer.com
  2. You forgot your Affinity password: [a2]http://wys-bgc.affinitysoccer.com/public/forgotpassword.asp?sessionguid=
  3. You think you followed all of the instructions, including the steps below - and the LWYSA system still thinks you are not cleared: Please follow the steps below EXACTLY, then send an email to [a3]refereewebmaster@lwysa.org
I thought I did this, why doesn't your system say I am cleared?
Affinity makes your background check information available via a secure access from our system. This access takes information we have on file in our system and looks for a matching name (and other information) in the Affinity system. If no match is found, it looks like you have not completed your background check.

To correct this, please follow all of these steps EXACTLY.

  1. Verify that you have completed the background check process in Affinity. Do this by logging on to the [a1]Affinity system. DO NOT RELY on notes you have been sent. Actually log on to the system! On your "My Account" page you should find a section called "Registration Applications". One of these should say "201X Referee RMA Pool" (the 201X should have the current year). If you have been a referee a while, you may have multiple entries here - for each year a background check was completed. In the lines under that heading you should find your name, your RMA number, and a "Risk Status". It should say "Approved" under "Risk Status" and include an expiration date. If you do not see this, then your background check has not been completed. Go back to the Washington Youth Soccer instructions and make sure you have followed them precisely. If you believe you have, you will need to contact Affinity for assistance. Nobody in LWYSA can help with this.
  2. AFTER you have completed step 1, then if it says "Approved" under "Risk Status", and the "Expires" date is in the future, you have a valid RMA, but for some reason our system is not detecting it, or Affinity is not reporting it. The most common reason for this is that the name you submitted your background check under in Affinity is different than how you are registered with LWYSA (for example, you used "Elizabeth" in one system and "Beth" in the other). Log on to your [a1]Affinity account and look at your name there, including middle. Then, log on to the LWYSA system, go to Services, Profile, and click on the ALL tab. If you have a different name in each system, then go to the RiskMgmt line in your LWYSA profile and put your name in there EXACTLY the same as it is in the Affinity system. Log off, then log back on. The other common error is that you have entered a different birthdate in the each system. Look CLOSELY at what you have entered in both systems and make sure they are both the same. Incredibly, over half the time I have contacted Affinity technical support for the inability to find a background status - a birthdate has been entered wrong on either the LWYSA system or Affinity. Look CLOSELY at that information.
  3. If things now say "Approved", you have resolved the problem. If they say anything else, such as "Cleared" or "None", you'll need to let us know. For us to resolve the problem, you must copy ALL of the contents under the "201X Referee RMA Pool" heading in Affinity into a note and send it to "refereewebmaster@lwysa.org". Please use copy/paste or better yet, a screen capture of EVERYTHING including your name to all the way after the Risk Management status. Do not just send us your RMA number. That will not help us solve whatever problem exists. Also include your date of birth as entered in the Affinity System. PLEASE do not try and guess the information we need. Copy ALL of the contents.
What do the different RMA Status words mean?

On various forms, you may see different terms that apply to your RMA status. If we note this as "Affinity", these are status codes from the new system. If we note these as "Bonzi", they are from the former Washington Youth Soccer process. Codes include:

Approved
Your background check has been processed, and our system has verified the results are satisfactory for you to participate.
Not Affinity
You had a prior background check. However, because Washington Youth Soccer has changed their processes, you must obtain a new background check through the Affinity system.
EXPIRED
At one point you had a valid RMA, but that RMA is no longer valid. RMAs are only valid for a limited time. This just means that you need to get a new background check completed. It "should" happen automatically - but sometimes things happen with systems.
None
Our system has found your name in the Affinity system, but it does not look like you had a background check done yet.
NOT CLEARED (obsolete)
This is an old code. You need to have a new background check completed using the Affinity system.
Review Committee
This means that something is in place that is preventing the process from stating that you are "Approved". This means that a Washington Youth Soccer committee has to look at the results of the background check for some reason instead of just allowing the system to interpret the results. Local associations (LWYSA and EKCSRA) have nothing to do with that committee and do not have details of what is causing the review. That is managed by Washington Youth Soccer. Note: A review can be triggered by a wide range of things - some will result in not permitting a person to participate, but some may just be technical issues that returned an unexpected result.