Cindy,
We had a very successful day camp program when I was at Pamplin Historical Park & The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier in Petersburg, Virginia. Our leadership team was very conscious about the possibility of being sued and was, therefore, very careful about visitor safety. I don't believe we had an additional insurance rider for our day camp program or our overnight camp programs (although I know our insurance company was aware we did these programs). Perhaps we were opening ourselves up to a lawsuit, but we had faith in our policy that when we were acting in loco parentis, a staff member must be accompanied by another staff member when in the presence of a child. The day camp had about 20-30 campers per session and we dedicated four staff members to the program. I'm also sure that we had parents sign a hold-harmless agreement as part of their registration. Although I've been told that those really aren't worth the paper they are written on if you go to court. We always worked on the assumption that if we could prove that we were not negligent, we would be able to prove our case in court. Maybe we were naïve. Fortunately, we did the program for at least 8 years and didn't have any problems.
Best of luck,
Andrew H. Talkov
Exhibit Coordinator for Virginia's Civil War
Virginia Historical Society
428 N. Boulevard
P.O. Box 7311
Richmond, Virginia 23221-0311
Phone: 804-340-2276
Fax: 804-355-2399
Email: [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Cindy Boyer
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 4:06 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Summer day camps and insurance
Do any of you operate a day camp, or other program where the children participating are under the direct supervision of your staff or volunteers? In other words, they are not in attendance with parents or chaperones.
If yes, do you carry a separate insurance rider to protect your organization against the threat of being falsely accused of abuse?
We have had this rider for several summers, and it is becoming prohibitively expensive. It may actually sink our summer program.
What is your experience with this sort of thing? Have any of you actually faced a situation from which this insurance is designed to protect you?
And apologies if necessary - I feel as if I've already asked this question some time ago, but I don't recall getting responses. I guess that's déjà vu all over again. It seems the responses I got were about how to keep the kids safe. We have an excellent policy in place. This is not about keeping the kids safe, its about protecting your institution from being destroyed by a lawsuit.
Cindy Boyer
Director of Museums and Education
The Landmark Society of Western New York
133 S. Fitzhugh St.
Rochester NY 14608
(585) 546-7029 ext. 12
www.landmarksociety.org
Our mission is to discover, protect and revitalize the architectural and related cultural heritage of the Rochester region, and to educate and inform our community about that heritage.
1937-2007 - Landmark Society's 70th Anniversary!
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