text: There isn't any intrusive questions on the vetting or questionnaire form on the new membership site. There are basic questions on the vetting form that everyone had already been using. I looked over several different states JotForm application and they're all pretty much the same. The questionnaire is a little lengthy but it's a good starting point when doing the personal interview. National isn't running "backgrounds" on new applicants. We see the applications as they come in, then it's up to the state to do the actual vetting. 1 place to maintain a "personnel file" where National and the state can see members information (National organization, National needs to know who it's members are). They move to a different state, their information goes with them (since it's stored securely). They get in trouble, state leadership can note it on their account. And so on. If Chris (or any of the ones that provided false information regarding the website) had signed up on the website, he/they would have seen the questions were not obtrusive, there isn't that many of them (from start to finish it takes about 15 mins to complete registration). We could have been a lot more pushy or brash with the questions but we kept it simple. No violation of privacy, we don't ask for mother's maiden name, DOB, SSN, your blood type, what you had last night for dinner or for you to turn over your first born child. It costs money to run a true "background" on someone and you would need at least their DOB, possibly a SSN but the applicant would have to sign and agree to it and in my opinion, provide the funds to cover the cost of the background. AP National nor the State shouldn't have to eat that cost. (That's a topic for another day)You're not doubling the work by utilizing the website, there is no redundancy. They start at the Membership website by registering. They fill out the vetting form and questionnaire then submit them. The state uses the vetting form and questionnaire from there to continue the vetting process within the state. You (the state) do the "background", set up the interview and vett them. Then you simply let myself know if the applicant is either approved or not, I update their role on the Membership website, they log back in and update their profile and submit it. That completed the registration. Uniformity across the board for every state, everyone is doing the exact same thing. (Some states were slacking in their way of vetting.) Say you have a natural disaster/emergency in your state. As a state leader you can log in to the Membership website and do a search by keyword, ex. "generator". If 5 people in your state have listed "generator" as an available asset to AP, those 5 people will come up in your search. You then have 5 people with their contact information available where you can build a team to go with their generators to the area where the disaster happened. You don't have to fumble through 100 paper/digital applications trying to find someone who is CPR certified, TCCC, shooting instructor, IT, or whatever the case may be because you now have the ability to utilize 1 website where that information is stored securely and easily accessible anywhere you have internet access. There are MANY benefits to the Membership site. I just wish folks would register and give it a go before they turn their noses up to it.There is a new applicant, an army veteran, on the Membership website from Colorado that emailed asking how long it takes to hear from someone. He's just waiting to be contacted since he signed up on the site.