Forums >Off the Beaten Path>Gen Liability Insurance for running club/expo booth
The club I belong to was granted a booth at an expo for a local race. The race organization is requiring a certificate of insurance for $1mm general liability insurance in order to have a booth at the expo. The club doesn't have any insurance at all so I have done some looking into, and the prices are significant - at least when considering this is not an expense we have ever had. Makes me think it'd be better to abandon the booth than buy the insurance. Can anyone recommend a low cost provider? (and separately, does anyone have any real life running club insurance experiences that would cause you to recommend getting it regardless, or advise not to waste the money on it regardless?)
Rhode Island Road Runners
Is your club a USATF club? If so you have liability insurance through them. If it doesn't cover this then I would just bag the expo.
mta: It seems USATF club liability insurance could cover the expo:
COVERED ACTIVITIES:Sanctioned events and approved activities include: 1. Track and field athletic competitions and all necessary and usual ancillary activities such as registration, warm-up and pre-event instruction, awards ceremonies and expositions that are organized, sponsored, sanctioned or approved by USATF.
Details.
Runners run
I'm curious... Why on earth would an Expo require insurance for a group setting up a booth there? Just what is it that is supposed to be 'insured' against? I believe our local running club has 0 insurance at all. Thus, all those "do it at your own risk" disclaimers on the race brochures and the etc.
I'm just lost on how the race that is sponsoring the expo can require insurance, and just what is it they are trying to insure against. How would they ever be liable for anything that occurred at an expo?
The Plan '15 → /// "Run Hard, Live Easy." ∞
KL: As far fetched as this may seem, the coverage could be for the structure of the booth falling on someone, someone on the club acting inappropriately to the public, and others could think of some other events that might call in the need for the gen liability coverage.
KMB: The USATF suggestion is good. You could also try other running clubs in your area to see what types of coverage, if any, they carry.
If too expensive, I would agree, forgo the expo.
Best of luck to you.
Thanks MM. I contacted them last night but haven't heard back yet; we are members via our NET&F membership (apparently). Hopefully it pans out... I guess like most legal areas, it depends on the interpretation.
As I understand it, GL insurance is also referred to as slip and fall insurance... so if i have too many beer samples at the expo and fall (again).
Hate reading the sites hawking insurance... makes me scared to go outside, much less do anything.
Thanks again.
I think there is a way to print an insurance certificate off the USATF website if you have your club's login credentials. You should be able to just send that cert to the race organizers. I would just use the assumptive close: "Insurance certificate attached, see you at the expo. Thanks."
www.USLI.com [Berkshire Hathaway Company] -- specializes in non-profits -- great products - - low min premiums.
the owner wants to ensure there is coverage in place by those business invitees who come to the premises
Send me an IM and I can give you more details -- I would guess $300 / annual for $1m in coverage
2012= under-goaled
Also Road Runners Club of America has a GL program for Running Clubs
Tessa
Agree, if you are affiliated with one of the associations (Road Runners Club of America, USATF, etc.) you should be covered, but you need to ask -- they don't send you a certificate, you have to request one.
And every organization, non profit, low key, or otherwise, should have liability insurance. People will sue over anything. How about if you have a table at the expo and someone drops something under the table, bends down to retrieve it, hits their head on the table, and requires stitches in his/her forehead? Or one of the booth staff puts a bottle of sports drink on the table, there's a person standing talking to the staff, the sports drink gets spilled and the iPhone in the customer's purse is drowned.
Not only does liability insurance pay damages for which the club is legally liable, it also pays defense costs even if the case is dismissed. These can be more than the lawsuit amount. (see iPhone example)
I am not at all surprised that the expo organizers require a certificate of liability insurance. They want to make sure that they don't wind up with their insurer defending a case solo because they are one of the named defendants along with an exhibitor that doesn't have any insurance.
This post should not be taken as legal advice and if you have any questions you should consult an attorney licensed to do business in your state. And in the interest of full disclosure, my California insurance agent/broker license number is 0A71705.