As we have started this boating season, the RMCC officers have been discussing our ACA affiliation, paddling safety, and our club waiver (in addition to a lot more fun stuff!). As I look back over my years with the club, I cringe at a few trip incidents I’ve experienced or heard about, but all in all we have a darn good record of safe paddling and have not, to my knowledge, ever been even threatened with a lawsuit.
That said, my job here is to remind all of us of RMCC requirements and recommendations for safe paddling. While we are primarily motivated by a desire to have safe, fun trips, we are also motivated to protect ourselves from litigation. Since our club is an ACA Paddle America Club, we are under the umbrella of the ACA’s liability insurance policy. The policy covers the RMCC, officers, trip coordinators, and all event participants because we are either ACA annual members OR ‘event members’ that pay the $10 event fee. For this insurance to cover us, however, all participants must sign the ACA’s waiver (either annual waiver or event waiver) and understand and follow all of the ACA’s safety requirements.
To redouble our efforts to paddle safe, we are asking each trip coordinator to remind their trip participants of ACA requirements. In addition, ACA tasks trip coordinators with specific responsibilities regarding managing their groups and enforcing ACA requirements. We are asking YOU to both understand what the ACA and RMCC require and recommend and to cooperate with your trip coordinator in fulfilling those requirements. And finally, as we go forward renewing our memberships or gaining new members, each member will be asked to affirm, as a condition of membership, that they have read, understand, and will adhere to ACA’s safety requirements during our ACA-sanctioned trips.
Thanks for reading this post and for your help to ensure that we continue to have both fun and safe paddling events – covered by ACA liability insurance – just in case.
See the important documents linked below and if you have any concerns about our safety requirements or recommendations, please contact me.
Kathryn Mutz, RMCC President
The documents to read and understand are:
- ACA’s: Risk Management Requirements
- RMCC’s: ‘Requirements and Recommendations for ACA-Sanctioned Events’ summarizes the ACA requirements and adds a few RMCC recommendations.
- Optional: Summary of ACA’s Liability Insurance coverage
All of these documents are also linked on our website’s Trip Organization page.