[MR] Answer to Herveus re: Minor Medical Authorization

[Michael Houghton]

Howdy!

On Mon, Mar 01, 2004 at 11:03:45AM -0500, Klawiter.Kathryn at epamail.epa.gov wrote:
> 
> Fellow Atlantians,
> 
> This came through blank last time, and I apologize.  I'm not entirely
> certain why it chose to do so, so I’m sending it again, with the hope
> that it will come through better this time.
> 
Much better...thanks!
> 
> 
> Herveus wrote:
> 
> I understand the value of requiring a medical authorization form
> for minors not accompanied by parent/legal guardian.
> 
> I do wonder why the requirement for it to be notarized. Was that
> an Atlantian decision or was that imposed by SCA, Inc. I have not
> seen anything on the corporate web site about a requirement that
> they be notarized.
> 
> yours,
> Herveus
> 
> Herveus,
> 
> You ask a good question.  The guidance we received from SCA Corporate
> Headquarters indicated that the Minor Medical Authorization form must be
> notarized if required by the locality.  Upon investigation, we
> discovered that this meant the locality of the event, or more
> accurately, the locality of the nearest appropriate health care
> provider.  This would require the Kingdom to ascertain exactly which
> locations required notarized forms and which did not, and then make this
> fact apparent to trolls, autocrats, and attendees.  To make this task
> harder, the information would constantly be changing, as localities
> changed their procedures.  As a result, the Kingdom of Atlantia decided
> to simplify matters for all by requiring the notarized form at all
> events.  This way, everyone knows that they have a form that is valid
> and can use the same form for any event in the Kingdom.

OK. That answers the question. 

It does beg another one. 

Are there any localities known to demand that the form be notarized?
I realize that a thorough canvass of the kingdom would be non-trivial,
and I'm not trying to suggest that there was any negligence in not
doing so. I am, however, curious to know if any specific need was
identified, or if this was done primarily for simplicity.
> 
> However, I would point out a significant difference between waivers and
> Minor Medical Authorizations that is not well-understood – unlike
> waivers, Minor Medical Authorizations can be specified to last any
> amount of time, and are not handed in to the event staff.  In other
> words, if an adult (not a parent or guardian) is going to take a minor
> to multiple events over multiple years, then he or she only ever needs
> one notarized Minor Medical Authorization form, and can use that one
> form over and over again.  Although this doesn't negate the difficulty
> of finding a notary to get the initial form signed, it does mean that it
> can be a one-time difficulty.
> 
Yep. I realize that, and I think most expositions I have heard tried to
point this out clearly, but thank you for repeating it.

yours,
Herveus
-- 
Michael and MJ Houghton   | Herveus d'Ormonde and Megan O'Donnelly
herveus at radix.net         | White Wolf and the Phoenix
Bowie, MD, USA            | Tablet and Inkle bands, and other stuff
                          | http://www.radix.net/~herveus/