I wanted this to get some more exposure so I’m posting here.
This is the real deal.
The AHA Staff and others including Crispy Frey of our GC and Luke Dobrich of West Insurance have spent a lot of time researching and putting this program together.
Bring this up with your clubs and I really encourage participation, the sooner the better.
Your Club must be registered with the AHA. (easy to do, and free)
Your Club does not have to be incorporated, though there are advantages to being so.
Your members do not have to be AHA members (though we would like them to be).
[quote]Quote from: garyg on July 23, 2014, 11:19:49 AM
It is official, the AHA has a signed agreement with West’s Insurance, which is now providing a package of General Liability ($1M/$3M) and Liquor Liability ($1M/$3M) insurance for AHA Registered homebrew clubs, covering meetings and events with up to 1000 attendees. The cost to clubs is just $3.50/member (paid in one lump sum to West’s). The initial enrollment deadline is September 1, though clubs will be allowed to enroll at various times following that deadline. The program is dependent on getting enough clubs signed up by September 1 for the underwriter to justify moving forward, so we are hoping to have several clubs enroll before the deadline.
Details on coverage can be found on the West’s Insurance website at http://westinsurance.com/homebrew-home.html. Questions about the coverage should be directed to West’s, as they are the experts on this program.
The AHA has opted not to receive any financial compensation from the program, as we wish to keep the enrollment cost low and maximize the number of clubs that can take advantage of this great insurance product. There was clearly a need for an affordable, nationwide insurance option for clubs that includes liquor liability and we are very please to assist clubs in meeting that need.
What about clubs (like ours) who have members as well as ‘free loaders’. How are the free loaders accounted for? For instance, we have 55 paid members and approximately 35-50 more free loaders who are very hard to keep track of. They don’t think they “use the club enough” to pay dues or declare their name/email but will come to every outside event we have (non - meeting events). What then?
This is more of a question for Luke, the West Insurance agent.
The facts as I understand them.
The cost is $3.50 per person (NOT member) per year. This mean if a membership is a husband/wife, that counts as 2.
from West’s FAQ [quote]Is there a hosted event attendance limit?
-Club hosted events up to 1,000 attendees are automatically included in the policy. Coverage can be provided for hosted events over 1,000 attendees for an additional premium. The insurance carrier would require a special event application to be completed that will provide information on the larger event. This application can be found on www.westinsurance.com/aha
[/quote]
How does this apply to your events?
This Insurance IS a VERY SIGNIFICANT benefit for all clubs. The cost is EXTREMELY good.
I don’t know the nature of the events these ‘freeloaders’ are going to, and I don’t think I could give an opinion om anything considered a grey area, and I certainly don’t want to mislead here.
I would point out that because they attend these events they could be held liable for anything that happened at the event and use that as a enticement to join your club.
By outside events, I mean public pouring events, club parties (holidays and otherwise), or social meetings at bars.
I need to get a call into our lawyer, since I’m not well versed in legal speak and the FAQ leaves a lot of unanswered questions.
I guess my main question is how to determine the amount of people we are paying for. It’s next to impossible to figure out how many randoms we have at any given time, so if we had to come up with that number… Well, it’d be mostly made up!
Review of the actual policy language would be necessary to determine how the coverage treats these people. I would assume that, generally, they would be treated like non-member guests brought by members or guests at a public function. Typically under an insurance policy the non-members would not be protected from liability from something they do to another person or property but the club would be covered for liability to those non-members or to those harmed by the non-members who come after the club. But commercial policies are often less standardized and are interpreted differently than homeowner or personal auto policies so without the actual language it is impossible to accurately address this issue. But certainly one that needs to be addressed because this is an issue for many clubs.
Is there a way to contact Luke? We need to know how a “member” is defined within the policy before we could even fill out the application. We are a new club that does not have bylaws, a board of directors or a formal membership program. We only have three meetings under our belt with 11 attendees at the first and 33 at the third.
Another question that popped up with one of the clubs I’m in… If the club gets the insurance for say 50 people… and then during the term we get 15 new members… They wouldn’t be included right? Would we have to call and have each new member added each time? Or are they SOL until the next term…
I asked Crispy this at NHC and I think he said they would be covered and would have to be added at next enrollment. Though I imagine if you were a 15 member club and added 100 members that might be different.
This really makes one think for the future about participating (i.e., contributing homebrew when allowed by state law) in events involving uninsured clubs…it may be quite a recruitment tool for growing membership in insured clubs at least as to enlightened homebrewers.