How to train door staff to check IDs: a 15-minute session

What a house session covers that a state course does not

A state-approved server course is not about any one venue: in California and Illinois the certificate belongs to the person and goes with them from one employer to the next. What belongs to your door is yours to teach: tonight's minimum age, the IDs your house accepts, the words your staff use to refuse and the manager they call.

The bar door policy is the source text. The session takes the lines that matter at the rope and says them out loud, so whoever works the door on a given night gives the same answers as everyone else.

It fits in 15 minutes because it focuses on what is specific to the venue. The check itself is in how to check IDs at the door, which new staff can read before their first shift.

California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, RBS Frequently Asked Questions235 ILCS 5/6-27.1, Responsible alcohol service server training (Illinois General Assembly)

The 15 minutes, part by part

Five parts, with suggested times. Hold it at the door station or wherever the team gathers before doors open, with the door policy and a phone running the scanner to hand.

1. 1

   The house rules (three minutes)

   Tonight's minimum age, who gets carded, which IDs the house accepts and the re-entry rule. Read them from the door policy rather than from memory, and say what is different tonight, such as an 18-and-over event or a guest list.

2. 2

   What the scan does and what staff do (three minutes)

   Name the checks the scan makes and the ones it leaves to staff. The scan works out the age against the venue's minimum, flags an expired ID, checks the Banned list and checks the barcode on US and Canadian licenses and state IDs for signs of forgery. Staff match the face, feel the card, ask a question when something is off and make the call.

3. 3

   The refusal line (four minutes)

   Each person says the house line once, out loud, to someone playing the guest, then says it again when the guest pushes back. The lines for each reason, and what to do when a guest argues, are in how to refuse entry at a bar.

4. 4

   When to call the manager (three minutes)

   Name the manager on duty and how the door reaches them, then the moments that go to them: a card that a question and a second ID did not settle, a guest who keeps arguing after the line, a banned guest, any request to let someone in past a refusal and anything that goes in the incident log.

5. 5

   Questions and tonight's details (two minutes)

   Take questions, then the details of the night: the expected crowd, who opens a second lane if the line backs up and whether everyone on the door has signed in with their own PIN.

The manager part is also where staff hear that a refusal will be backed. California's alcohol regulator lists managers supporting their employees' decisions to refuse service among its good ID policies. For a card that may belong to someone else, the steps before the call are in borrowed IDs at the door.

California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, Checking Identification

Running it so it sticks

End with three questions answered aloud by different staff members. The answers show who was listening and what needs saying again next time.

• What do you say to a guest whose ID we will not accept?
• What can you do when the scan says UNDERAGE?
• Who do you call when a guest will not take no for an answer, and how?

Use scenarios from the door's own nights. A refusal that went badly last weekend is closer to what staff will meet than an invented one, and the team can agree on what to do differently next time.

Keep a short record of each session: the date, who attended and what it covered. Training records are among the papers an owner pulls together after a failed compliance check.

How often to run it

A new hire gets it before the first shift on the door, together with the written door policy to read and sign. After that, the triggers are the things that change what the door does: a new house rule, an incident or a refusal that went wrong, a change in your state's law and a busy night ahead, such as Halloween or Thanksgiving Eve.

Between triggers, a fixed cadence keeps it from lapsing, for example a session each month before the busiest shift of the week. Washington's liquor penalty rules give an employee training plan with annual training on liquor laws, and a signed acknowledgment of the business's alcohol policy on file for each employee, as examples of mitigating circumstances.

WAC 314-29-015, Penalty guidelines (Washington State Legislature)

State server training programs

Several states run their own server training, and some say plainly whether door staff are part of it. The table shows five of them. Each state's guide covers its ID laws in full.

The states differ on door staff. California counts anyone who checks IDs for entry as an alcohol server, and Illinois's law names anyone whose job includes checking ID for entry. Oregon's commission says staff who check ID at the door or work as a bouncer or security need no service permit, as long as they do not also mix, serve or sell alcohol or supervise those who do. Washington's permit law speaks of making, selling, serving or handling alcohol and does not mention checking IDs.

In Texas, TABC's FAQ says no state law requires certification. Among its conditions for not taking administrative action against a license over an employee's sale to a minor, three concern certification and written policies:

• The employee who made the sale holds a current certificate from a TABC-approved school
• Staff who sell, serve or deliver alcohol, together with their immediate managers, certified within 30 days of hire
• Written policies for responsible alcohol service that each employee has read and understands

The other three are that the seller is not the owner or an officer of the company, the employer does not encourage breaking the law and there have not been three or more such violations in 12 months.

TABC refers readers to Section 106.14(a) of the Alcoholic Beverage Code and its own rule 34.4. Section 106.14 is covered in after a failed compliance check.

Other state guides cover a training rule of their own, among them South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota.

California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, RBS Frequently Asked Questions235 ILCS 5/6-27.1, Responsible alcohol service server training (Illinois General Assembly)RCW 66.20.310, Alcohol server permits (Washington State Legislature)Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, Alcohol Service PermitsTexas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, TABC certification FAQs

Where AgeShield fits in the session

A few of the scanner's settings carry the session's rules to the door. Turn on staff sign-in and each scan records who made it, by personal PIN. Scan-only staff sign in with a PIN on the phone and scan, with no access to the hub, and each phone is signed in by scanning a QR code from the hub.

Two of the session's answers are built in. Staff have no override for an underage result, so the answer to "what can you do when the scan says UNDERAGE?" is the same on every phone. Letting a guest in after a failed ID check and letting in a banned guest are separate settings, both off for a new venue until the owner switches them on. When staff do override, they pick a reason such as Manager Authorised, which is saved with the visit, and the audit log records who did it and when.

For the part of the check that stays with staff, the app's challenge questions give them a question to ask when something feels off, and the app reveals the answer from the ID for the questions it can. An owner can also set a minimum scan mode for the venue, which staff can make stricter on their phone but not weaker.

After a shift, every visit shows in Scan Activity and the audit log in the hub: who scanned, when, the result, the scan mode and what staff decided. The overrides and their reasons are material for the next session.