I didn’t say it was OK, I just said that’s what happened.
Based on what I see in the events submitted to the USCF, some TDs do a rather poor job checking memberships at their events. Sometimes this is just sloppiness, sometimes it’s procrastination, and sometimes it’s just a case of getting the event started and (hopefully) clearing up the membership issues during the event. I’ve been guilty of all of the above.
My goal for the new online registration system was to try to deal with the membership issues as early as possible, preferably BEFORE accepting the registration. In part, this is because I don’t believe the TDs at national events should be the ones running around collecting memberships.