RE: [Paddlewise] Club Insurance, Liability, and Overcoming Inertia

Actually, the ACA insurance, though it cost more than it used too, is still
a good deal, IMO.

The cost for a sanctioned event is $20 if done ahead of time.
If you don't sanction prior to 2 weeks before the event it is an additional
$25. So, if you group members are all insured and you want to have an
insured, sanctioned event then the cost is about 50 bucks. Perhaps not worth
it if you and 5 buddies are going for a paddle. On the other hand, if there
are 10 of you, friends of friends, then perhaps it is a better idea. It
costs an additional $10 if they are not ACA members.

FWIW,
Steve Bailey




-----Original Message-----
From: owner-paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net
[mailto:owner-paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net]On Behalf Of Patrick Maun
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2005 12:35 PM
To: Paddlewise
Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Club Insurance, Liability, and Overcoming Inertia

At 10:45 AM -0400 6/30/05, Jim Farrelly wrote:
>[SNIP]
>   Does your club have insurance? We are looking into ACA, PAC and
>private insurance. The paperwork requirements for the ACA insurance are
steep.


Our club recently left Subaru, er, I mean the ACA due to the
increased cost of doing any sort of event with them. If I recall
correctly, you now must register any club event with them and pay a
$25 dollar fee. So no more impromptu events. We still insure our
yearly ACA classes through them but our members are no longer
automatically in the ACA. So we lose our Paddler subscription (such a
great loss that) and the club get tp spend the saved money on a new
trailer.

Liability insurance has been a complete mess in the this country (the
US) for awhile now. Some very high profile cases like the ice
climbing death in Ouray have made it prohibitive to get good
liability insurance. A local group who has sponsored a yearly rowing
and paddling marathon has cancelled this years race due to the
increased cost of insurance.

Maybe some of the more legally inclined could provide details and
those of you in other countries could site examples of how insurance
works in your respective countries. For example, when I lived in the
Netherlands in order to climb with one of the national clubs (they
love their clubs in Holland), you had to get your personal "climbing
insurance" policy. Seems heavy-handed except that the policy was easy
to get and cost next to nothing.

-Patrick

>From kgo_at_imaginelan.com Thu Jun 30 14:45:37 2005 -0400
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>From owner-paddlewise Thu Jun 30 11:42:20 2005
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Subject: [Paddlewise] Find a Kayak Club?
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 14:41:50 -0400
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The recent discussions on kayak clubs has made me wonder if there's one
in the Washington DC area? Or is there a site listing kayak clubs?
Thanks!

Lucius Kahng, systems administrator
(703)841-3206 W  -  (571)331-7634 M

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net
[mailto:owner-paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net] On Behalf Of Rob Robinson
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2005 1:46 PM
To: Jim Farrelly; Paddlewise
Subject: RE: [Paddlewise] Club Insurance, Liability, and Overcoming
Inertia


I understand what you're feeling.  I retired from a large aerospace
company
that had a paddling club for employees/retirees.   Some of the members
were
great to me when I first got into the sport.  Eventually I gained enough
skill to become a certified instructor, and wanting to give back to the
sport helped train beginners and led many trips for the club.  We used a
company approved waiver form for club activities, and were told "we had
insurance".  At some point a friend advised me that my largest exposure
was
not in losing a liability lawsuit, but in the cost of having to
personally
retain a lawyer to defend myself regardless of a suits outcome.  I asked
the
company if they would provide an attorney to defend me should a suit
occur
but they refused to answer this question.  I stopped participating in
activities with this club.

Next I joined Washington Kayak Club, a large private club that provides
many
hosted trips, pool sessions during the winter, and classes and clinics
during the paddling season.  I became a member of this clubs board.  I
discovered we had commercial insurance for our pool sessions as it was
required by the various municipal authorities, but we didn't have any
liability coverage for classes, trips, or clinics.  I volunteered to
survey
available insurance and after the board voted to become an ACA PAC
member
volunteered to become the Insurance Chair and act as the go-between to
satisfy ACA's reporting requirements and the clubs coverage needs.  We
rocked along like this for several years, but last year as part of a
general
liability insurance shake-up ACA lost their insurance carrier.  The ACA
paperwork reporting requirement that existed before has become even more
restrictive.  My club decided to remain a PAC member for now but, the
decision is not unanimously popular:)

I applaud your attempt to get your club members involved in paddling
safety,
from May through September myself and another instructor host a weekly
2-hour lake safety session for our club.  We've been doing this for
quite a
few years now.  Even though WKC is very involved in paddler training not
all
members are highly skilled or motivated to become so.  Our safety
sessions
are not heavily attended but some of the beginners of a few years ago
are
now accomplished paddlers, even instructors, and that's very gratifying.
It
IS a way to give back to the sport we love.

I worked as a pro for a short while and know how expensive private
lessons
are.  It's even more expensive for one-on-one instruction.  I don't have
any
idea how beginners could afford to get the level of training that clubs
like
mine can provide.  All that said, the day my club stops providing
liability
coverage is the day I stop participaing in club events.


Jim said:
 The almost heart attack at the safety clinic I hosted has been churning
in my mind.  <snip>
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