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Club Recreational Activities and Liability Insurance

• Club Outdoor Leadership Requirements & Guidelines
• NY-NoJ Chapter Leadership Development & Safety
• AMC Outdoor Leadership Development Introduction
• Leader's Liability, Leadership Instruction Paper

Recreational Activities

1. Activities and events sponsored and conducted by any unit of of the Appalachian Mountain Club shall be in support of and consistent with the traditions and principles of the Club.
2. Chapters, activity, camp and facility committees are authorized to approve outings and activities within the fields of expertise of their approved AMC member-leaders, as long as the outing does not require travel to a location greater than 500 miles from any Chapter's jurisdiction, or exceed 10 days in duration. Outings in excess of 500 miles or longer than 10 days shall be classified as Major Excursions and must be approved by the Major Excursions Committee. Requirements for Major Excursions and their leaders are the responsibility of the Major Excursions Committee and are detailed in their Handbook for Major Excursion Leaders.
3. Any outing authorized by an activity sponsoring Club unit may be classified as an Interchapter Excursion at the discretion of the leader(s) and the sponsoring Club unit, and with the concurrence of the Interchapter Excursions Committee, or the Interchapter Canoe Committee for canoe and kayak outings. The approving Interchapter Committee may impose requirements on the outing in addition to the requirements of the sponsoring Club unit. Generally, Interchapter Excursions are longer than a 3-day weekend, have few potential participants from a single chapter, and/or have a Club-wide appeal.
4. Activity sponsoring Club units as well as the Major Excursions Committee and Interchapter Committees and trip leaders are authorized to charge service fees for authorized outings. These fees may be charged to each of the participants as appropriate. The fees are to reimburse the sponsoring Club unit and the outing leaders for the cost of services rendered to the outing. These services may include expenses such as liability insurance, advertising, phone, printing, postage, equipment provided, advice and consultation service, etc.

Liability Insurance

1. The Appalachian Mountain Club maintains a general liability insurance policy insuring the Club and its volunteers against damages arising out of acts of authorized persons in furtherance of official Club activities. The liability policy includes coverage for defense costs.
2. To assure liability coverage for an ACTIVITY, it must meet the following criteria:
   1. The activity must be approved and scheduled by a sponsoring Club unit as above.
   2. The activity must have a previously designated and approved AMC member-leader. The publicity for the activity must include the name of the designated AMC leader.
   3. The approved activity must be advertised or publicized to the membership in some type of official AMC publication. The following publications are suitable:
      
      1. AMC Outdoors - This is a traditional method and the current rules for listing apply.
      2. Sponsoring Unit Publications - Schedules, newsletters, etc. are also traditional and the current rules apply.
      3. Postings - Camps and Club facilities generally post a list at the beginning of each week, or other time period, of their approved outings scheduled for that period.
      4. Phone Line/Voice Mail - A telephone answering machine, computer or service maintained by the sponsoring Club unit that verbally announces approved outings and the leader to call.
      5. Computer Systems - Read-only files maintained on a computer system by the sponsoring Club unit containing listings of approved outings that can be viewed or downloaded by persons with a personal computer and modem, e-mail or Internet access. (The posting of activities by individuals to public accessible newsgroups or bulletin board systems does not constitute approval of the activity as an AMC outing.)
         (NOTE: The listing of activities on phone lines or any computer media must be done with caution, because there is widespread public access to this information. Many trip leaders do not wish their names, phone numbers or addresses broadcast to the general public.)
      6. Non-publicized
         1. Activities that require a limited group of AMC members (e.g. a hike for urban youths or a canoe trip for the handicapped), may not be suitable for publication to the full membership or the public. These trips must receive prior written approval from the sponsoring Club unit.
         2. Outings that are approved by the sponsoring unit but cannot be advertised by any of the approved methods above because of time restraints. For these outings to be considered an AMC sponsored activity, the sponsoring Club unit must keep a log consisting of the dates of the request and approval, the date of the activity, the leader, the kind and general location of the event, as well as all other completed report forms that the sponsoring unit requires for publicized trips.
3. Leader(s) must meet the following criteria:
   1. The primary and designated leader must be an AMC member, who is approved as a leader for this type of activity by the sponsoring Club unit.
   2. Other persons who are appointed by the designated leader to perform co-leader or assistant leader functions are also covered. Whether these leaders are AMC members or not, they are considered AMC leaders acting under the authority of the AMC member-leader, who is ultimately responsible for the event.
   3. They may not accept any compensation for their leadership, other than reimbursement for normal expenses such as mileage or out of pocket expense, or as defined by the sponsoring Club unit.
4. Persons or businesses that an AMC member-leader contracts with or hires as a third party, to provide expertise, facilities, services or equipment for an activity, are NOT COVERED by the AMC liability insurance. Anyone hired as a third party should have adequate insurance. In addition, leaders who hire a third party should obtain a certificate of insurance from the third party with the AMC listed as a named insured, although it is recognized that in some instances this may not be feasible for overseas activities.

This Document was Approved by the AMC Outdoor Leadership Development Committee
Acting Under the Authority of the AMC Board Of Directors on
October 26, 1996.

Suggestions for revisions, additions or deletions should be submitted to:
Joe Kuzneski, < >
Chair, AMC Outdoor Leadership Development Committee