NYSSRA-Nordic individual & club membership renewals are now due for the 2025-2026 season. Below are a couple of reminders.

Background Screenings

NYSSRA Nordic requires annual background screenings for individuals serving as coaches or volunteers in a position of authority over &/or with frequent contact with athletes. Volunteers with only incidental and observable contact with minors are exempt from this requirement. The background screenings completed for NYSSRA-Nordic by NCSI include an automatic re-screening the following year with no action needed by the coach or volunteer.

Each club is required to provide a list of all such coaches or volunteers at the time that they send in their annual sanctioning forms (or note that there are no such coaches in that club). This is a mandatory requirement. Failure to comply will result in a rejection of the club’s sanctioning request. If you have already sanctioned your club for the 2025-26 season, please submit that information if you have not already done so.

Licensed coaches and volunteers who have already gone through a background screening with USSA, USBA &/or some other source (employer, police, scouts etc.) should provide a copy of their background screening “green light” confirmation. This will avoid the need to do a new screening and will also save NYSSRA-Nordic the expense. If a coach or volunteer does not already have proof of a background screening, they will be required to complete a screening application. This is a quick and easy online process and the cost is paid by NYSSRA-Nordic.

As a reminder, coaches need to be members of NYSSRA-Nordic and can take advantage of a reduced membership rate on SkiReg if they are not active racers or already part of a family membership. It would be helpful if the coaches would renew their membership each year prior to the club submitting their names to NYSSRA Nordic, but not mandatory.

**Any coaches or volunteers without a background screening or who have not joined NYSSRA-Nordic should not be participating in club events with minors! Please see the NYSSRA-Nordic Background Check Policy posted on the FORMS page of the website for more information.

Certificates of Insurance & Additional Insureds

Insurance Certificates &/or Additional Insureds can only be requested after a club has officially sanctioned with NYSSRA-Nordic. As in the past, all you need to do is provide the name and address of the entity that is looking for a certificate &/or additional insured status. This is typically submitted with your club sanctioning paperwork, but it can also be submitted at other times throughout the year as needed. Please see the FORMS page of the website for further details & instructions.

As a reminder, if an entity needs any specific verbiage on a certificate of insurance, please make sure that you know exactly what they need before you submit the request! This is most common with governmental agencies such as New York State.