didEnterRegion works in foreground but not background or other VCs

If the app is running and the CLLocationManagerDelegate class is the foreground (i.e. visible) then the didEnterRegions triggers and I get both the NSLog as well as the AlertView. However, I get nothing when the app is in the background or, essentially, if the screen is showing anything but the delegate class.

I have set "App registers for location updates" under "Required background modes" in the plist although I'm not sure that's even necessary.

Here's what I think is the relevant code although I may be wrong (and will gladly add more). I should note that everything in viewDidLoad is wrapped in an if which checks if region monitoring is available and enabled.

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    NSLog(@"MapViewController - viewDidLoad");
    self.locationManager.desiredAccuracy = kCLLocationAccuracyNearestTenMeters;
    self.locationManager.distanceFilter = kCLLocationAccuracyNearestTenMeters;    
    self.locationManager.delegate = self;
    [self.locationManager startMonitoringSignificantLocationChanges];
}

- (void)locationManager:(CLLocationManager *)manager didEnterRegion:(CLRegion *)region
{
    NSLog(@"MapViewController - didEnterRegion");
    NSLog(@"MVC - didEnterRegion - region.radius = %f", region.radius);
    UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"entered region..." message:@"You have Entered the Location." delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:@"OK"  otherButtonTitles: nil];
    alert.tag = 2;
    [alert show];
}

here is where I get the list of regions being monitored, in AppDelegate.m:

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{

// other code

NSLog(@"LISTING ALL REGIONS MONITORED");
    NSArray *regions = [self.locationManager.monitoredRegions allObjects];
    if (!regions) {
        NSLog(@"no regions found");
    } else {
        NSLog(@"got %d monitored regions", [regions count]);
        for (int i = 0; i &l