Liability Insurance

[earl]

So I was at a Christmas party the other night and meet a new friend who turns out to be a 6th grade math teacher at a local school. I figured he might be interested in a solar outreach so I brought up the topic. Next thing you know we were planning the event, talking about ideas and then the question of liability insurance came up in conversation.

He is going to check with the school but I was wonder if I should be looking into having some kind of personal liability insurance in case something happens during the event. I image it’s not a bad idea to have some kind of insurance but then that brings up an additional question of how much. I guess you could see if the school would sign a release of liability for the event.

For those more experienced … thoughts?

[solarchat]

Well,

The topic has come up with my attorney. I supposedly have imsurnace through the NASA Solar System Ambassadors Program but I hope I never have to use it. I attempted to buy a policy from several vendors in 2009 but found no one interested in selling it to me. I am just very careful but i guess you are assuming some liability. I would imagine that the school would be liable for any event that they invite.

[solarchat]

that post from "Amy Pearson" was a scam. Do not click the link. That profile has been deleted...

[Bill E.]

I was told If you are invited to an event then the event organizer would hold the insurance.But I don't know how true it is. Would be nice to be married to a lawyer.

[swisswalter]

Hi Bill


oh no, never ever with a lawyer. Stephen's Natalie must be the absolut exception. I'm so happy for Stephen. I never ever met a warm-hearted lawyer

[solarchat]

me neither......she is absolutely ferocious in the courtroom. I told her if she ever leaves I'm going with her rather than face her in court...

[vidman]

me neither......she is absolutely ferocious in the courtroom. I told her if she ever leaves I'm going with here rather than face her in court...


Now that IS funny....I don't care who you are!

[marktownley]

Certainly in UK schools, as a teacher, if I do any work with the solar scopes and students, by definition I am insured - just as in the same way as if i'm in my design workshop and students use woodworking machinery for instance.

I think one of the key things an outreach provider could demonstrate to reassure a school or other such organisation as to the safety and robustness of their activity is a comprehensive risk assessment. Whilst I can hear some of you groaning at this thought, this is actually something that is going to be generic to us all here, as the risks are all going to be pretty much the same in most cases...

For instance, my experience is that people are concerned as to whether viewing the sun is safe - after all, from an early age it is drummed into us not to look at the sun, so I guess this is understandable. After reassurance I find the next question of concern I get asked is whether the filter will 'fall off' or 'crack'; In all honesty both these events are extremely unlikely... I've found myself that the biggest risk is a trip hazard from the tripod/pier, then followed by sunburn. We now give out suncream at our school when we have a sports day in the summer and in the past I have made available suncream to the students if a group is out for any length of time.

Maybe if we collectively make a 'big list' of what we see as potential risks with our branch of outreach we could put a 'risk assessment' document together that all club members could use to show to schools, hospitals, shopping malls etc that the outreach that we are proposing is a well thought out and a planned activity where potential hazards and risks have been identified with appropriate control measures put in place to remove or reduce the risk ensuring the safety of all taking part...

If people are happy to throw things in to a 'list of risks' i'm happy to collate all this into a risk assessment document that could be used by all club members as part of their 'due diligence' for outreach events...

Mark

[Montana]

Excellent Mark, thank you. I think this is probably the reason this chap at the hospital is doing everything he can to avoid me at the moment. I was just going to go for it and set up for work colleagues only during the Stargazing live week. It was just going to be 'at your own risk' then if no one was 'blinded' use this as a 'see, they survived' plea to the hospital. A risk assessment sounds great.

For Ha all I can think of is sunburn and tripping over the tripod.

I guess for white light if a Baader solar foil was used, how safe is the filter attached. Have a UV/IR block filter attached to the eyepiece?

How safe are the solar glasses if they have a slight scratch?

and I guess the risk of being trampled in the rush to the telescope

Regards
Alexandra

[solarchat]

All this sounds like giving the place a lot more reasons to say no. Just set it up out in public somewhere and let people come up to look. Word will spread and then others will invite you.

If there is some sort of risk document created, I will need to run it through my legal staff before it can be used for a CBSAP event. I dont want to give anyone any more reasons to sue me.. We are lawsuit happy here inthe states and this all sounds like a risk-increasing document to my pocketbook...

[marktownley]

All this sounds like giving the place a lot more reasons to say no. Just set it up out in public somewhere and let people come up to look. Word will spread and then others will invite you.

If there is some sort of risk document created, I will need to run it through my legal staff before it can be used for a CBSAP event. I dont want to give anyone any more reasons to sue me.. We are lawsuit happy here inthe states and this all sounds like a risk-increasing document to my pocketbook...

Tee hee hee, I hear what you're saying Stephen. It is a litigous society we live in these days... :blink: