We offer the following example to help everyone better understand how our software makes random selections. You could work this out in real life, but for now, just follow along using your imagination.

First, you need some small pebbles--as many as you have participants in your pool. This could be as few as ten or as many as ten thousand. Label each pebble with a unique participant identification--perhaps their name, social security number, or employee number.

Next, put all the pebbles in a bag and shake it well. Pull each pebble from the bag and, starting at the "twelve o'clock" position, arrange the pebbles in a complete circle clockwise on the ground. All done? We now have all your participants arranged in a random order in this circle.

Determine how many selections you want to make from this pool (and a separate number of alternates if you wish any). Next, just to make sure we are truly random, pick a number between one and the total number of pebbles in your circle. You will use this number in the next step.

Look again at the twelve o'clock position and spot the first pebble you put down. Count pebbles clockwise until you have counted equal to the random number you just selected.

Now you are ready to make the actual selection(s). Continuing clockwise around the circle, pick up pebbles until you have the number of selections you want. Put these aside in their own pile. This is your primary selection of "winners." Continuing where you left off, pick up the number of pebbles equal to the number of alternates you want to choose and put them aside in the order you selected them.

When doing your selections, it is perfectly acceptable if you pass the twelve o'clock position. In fact, that will happen in many cases. Realize that you can only pick up to 100% of the pool—no more. Everyone agrees that each participant had an equal and random chance of being selected, right?

Look at the participant identification on each of the pebbles in the "winners" pile, write down the names in order by company number, home base code, and then participant number. You can put each company on a separate piece of paper if you like. Do the same with the alternates, except note the order each alternate was selected so they can be used in that order.

This simulation closely resembles how our software systems create each random selection and then prints the lists. But this software does so much more. It makes a record of each step taken and removes any possible bias that a human being could introduce. It also creates the result records automatically and foils any attempt to tamper with or change the selections.

Can you find any way that, if conducted properly, this method would favor any individual or group? Can you imagine how a participant's name, employee number, social security number, company, home base, hire date, occupation, or whether they have previously been selected could influence the outcome? As we said before, there is no way.

We consider unbiased random selection to be the cornerstone of every drug testing program. If that random element is altered, your whole program could collapse on itself.

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