Looking at the application for membership forms for WMUK v1 (WER), I note that applicants for guarantor membership must be 18 or over (presumably for legal reasons). So the handling of personal data for under 18s is a non-issue for this.
For supporting members the form also asks for a date of birth, but I don't understand why this is needed? The acompanying text states:
I hereby apply to become a supporting member of Wikimedia UK and by signing this application confirm that I support the aims of Wikimedia UK and shall not bring the organisation into disrepute. I am aware that being a supporting member of Wikimedia UK does not confer any rights regarding the actions and decisions which may be taken by Wiki Educational Resources Ltd.
I am not a lawyer, but it is my understanding that the signature of a parent or guardian is not requried for this type of agreement for those aged 13 or over. And, even if it is required, I do not beleive that we need to know that it is a parent/guardian's signature rather than the applicant's signature.
I say this because if we do need to know whether someone is under 18 or not, there is no need for us to ask about it. If there is no way of knowing the age of a person from their form, then I cannot see that requiring a CRB check of those processing the forms is legal.
Alternatively we may state that we cannot accept applications from those under 16, but we are able to accept applications from parents/guardians of under 16s on their behalf (and word the form apropriately so we don't know when this is the case)
(I know that this may not be exactly the same as for WMUK v2, but they are likely to be similar)
On Wed, 10 Sep 2008, Andrew Turvey wrote: On a side issue, if everyone agrees with me on the second issue - needing to CRB the membership secretary - we may need to change the timetable and possibly push back the AGM for a month, because we wont be able to accept membership applications until after the CRB is received back.
Unfortunately it isn't that simple. From discussions with people I know who work in the childcare sector, and thus have had many CRB checks and dealt with requiring CRB checks of others, the time taken for the results of a CRB check to come through can vary between about 14 days and 7 months. I do not think it reasonable to hold up the progress of WMUK in this manner for a CRB check that is not legally /required/.
Chris