How is eligibility checked for USA Climbing events?

This article outlines exactly what happens 'behind the scenes' when a climber enters a USA Climbing event.

When is eligibility checked?

Eligibility for events is always done based on the date of entry. The Platform will allow a user to enter for an event as long as they hold all of the pre-requisites at that time. The standard pre-requisites for most USA Climbing events are:

• Valid Membership
• Valid SafeSport
• Valid Background Screening

Why are athletes showing as ineligible?

Although the Platform allows users to enter if they meet the requirements, an additional check is done after payment to ensure the dependencies will be valid through to the conclusion of the event. If one of the attributes lapses between entry and the event date, the 'Entry List' page will flag that user as 'Ineligible'.

The system will run regular checks on entry data to upgrade an entry to 'Eligible' as soon as the climber takes the required action (renews their membership, takes their SafeSport refresher etc).

Is the athlete notified?

The athlete will receive a number of notifications informing them in the week leading up to the event that their entry is ineligible. These emails are in addition to the renewal reminder emails that are sent for attributes.

The registered 'Event Organizer' will also receive an email the day before the event giving a breakdown of all athletes in an 'Ineligible' state.

What do organizers need to do?

Organizers should check the 'ineligible' athletes on the day of the event. If the admin panel is showing these athletes as 'Ineligible' they should not be permitted to compete.

The Entry List

Just because a user is showing on the external entry list does not mean they are eligible to compete. This list shows all paid for entries and does not publicly display eligibility for data protection purposes.

Why are dependencies checked like this?

There are a number of reasons why events are configured in this way.

Firstly, some items have limits on when they become available for renewal. SafeSport for example can only be refreshed 30 days prior to expiry. This means entries to block registration for an event that was taking place in 6 months time, there is a strong likelihood that a number of athletes would miss out as they would have a SafeSport certification that was expiring before then but be unable to refresh until a later period.

Secondly, there are a number of factors that can effect eligibility right up until the day of the event. For example:

• A user may be manually suspended
• There may be an 'Admin Hold' placed on the profile
• The athletes auto-renewal payment may fail and therefore make the membership invalid
• Their background screening may be flagged
• The athlete may receive a refund for their membership that 'unwinds' their membership validity
• The athlete could dispute their membership payment and win, thus unwinding their membership validity.