Paperwork

Paperwork drives me nuts.

I teach Jiu-Jitsu as a club activity at the local high school. Should there be a lot of paperwork involved in that? I am actually lucky, as the vice principal does most of such stuff for us, but there is still more than enough left over.

The school district wants each kid's family to fill out a waiver. This thing is about ten pages long, but I suppose it's necessary.

The Jiu-Jitsu association also wants something similar. This one is only six pages long and gets sent off to HQ in California. This one is a big, fat pain.

They state that they want a copy of the form sent every three months, along with any new members' waivers. I suppose this means that a photocopy of the waivers already registered would be fine, but that isn't stated clearly. In any case, they expect a bundle of paper to be sent four times a year.

If you are negligent, no waiver on earth will legally protect you.

So what about frivolous legal action. All a waiver does is provides proof that you realize that an activity has inherent risks, but they are not necessary.

Suppose you joined a boxing club, got punched in the nose, and tried to sue. Claiming that you didn't know you could get punched while doing boxing wouldn't get you anywhere. Our club is Jiu-Jitsu, for Pete's sake. Can anybody claim that they didn't know they'd get thrown on the ground, or sat on, or have their limbs pulled on?

The funny thing is, the school form just let's us know if the parents give permission more than any real protection against liability.

The Jiu-Jitsu association forms are there to protect the association against lawsuits. You get that? How the hell could anybody in Canada sue Americans living in America over some injury suffered in Canada?

These aren't easy forms either. There is a ton of initialing, and lots and lots of nasty little blanks to fill in.

Waste of paper, in my humble opinion. I bet they just do it as a matter of course, so I must as well.