Re: [Philmont]: Registered in Your Unit

Remember, I'm not a lawyer. Please keep it in mind. Here goes:

All Scouts and adults who are registered in the BSA are automatically
covered under the BSA's umbrella policy for liability, which I believe
is currently 20 million dollars. The insurance offered on the National
Tour Permit is the BSA sponsored Accident and Health Insurance (NOT
Liability), which can be purchased either as an automatic or optional
part of your ReChartering (varies by Council), or (if you don't already
have it) as an option for a High Adventure Crew.

For example, until about three years ago, the A&H Insurance was an
option here in National Cap, and was paid for through a form provided in
the ReChartering package. (BTW, I ALWAYS purchased this for my Unit -
it's the cheapest insurance in the world.) Three years ago, it was made
an automatic part of the ReChartering fee here, so no longer optional.
As of last February, it adds one dollar to the ReChartering fee for each
individual, adult or Scout. It may be a little more now, I don't know.

However, though I believe the BSA wants to make it nationwide, Accident
and Health Insurance remains an option in many Councils. So you will
get the form with your ReCharter packet, or with your High Adventure
packet from virtually any BSA National or Council-run High Adventure
Base. If you already have the insurance, you don't need to purchase it
twice, but if you don't, it is (again) my strong recommendation that you
purchase it. It's a hell of a deal.

If you have an independent Crew, with Scouts and Advisors from multiple
Units, and your Council still offers insurance only as an option, I
would purchase the A&H Insurance for the Crew, even if most members are
already covered. Either that or demand proof that the individual Units
represented in the Crew are all already carrying the insurance.
Otherwise, Murphy's Law will ensure that the one uninsured Scout or
Adult will be the one who injures himself.

BTW, we have an adult here who tripped going down the stairs of his
Church during an Cub Scout event. Total costs to date? Over $40,000.
Yes, you're reading that right. The BSA insurance has covered every
dime that his personal insurance did not. Again, a hell of a deal,
folks; don't be pinching pennies here!

On liability, though there are some horror stories out there, in reality
the BSA will cover you for just about anything that does not involve
criminal negligence. They will deny this, of course, but that's pretty
much how it works out. The negative publicity for failure to cover,
even in a borderline case, would be extremely harmful to the BSA (if the
BSA failed to cover, a large number of Chartered Partners would
instantly dump their Scout Units). So they bite the bullet and do the
right thing, even for the idiots who deserve everything they would
otherwise face.

But not always.... Do not wear blinders on liability - in today's
hyper-litigious society, everyone is liable. I have a $2 million
liability policy on myself --- and wonder if it's enough. Your
Chartered Partner *is* liable - and this is why they're supposed to be
paying attention to what is going on in their Scout Units. Unscrupulous
lawyers do not care who is truly at fault in a liability case - rather,
they look for who has the deepest pockets. If you have six different
Chartered Partners represented in your Crew, you can be sure that all of
them will be named, along with the Adult Advisors, your Council, the
camp or base, and the BSA (and the Archangel Gabriel, if they could
figure out a way to serve him). You would hope that the BSA lawyers
will step in and request the Court to substitute themselves (the BSA)
for all the other named parties (as they're supposed to), but there is
no assurance of such. But again, the BSA has a very good track record
of backing up their people, except in the most egregious cases of
misconduct.

So again, my understanding is that dual-registering all members of a
Crew in the "home" Unit is a mechanism for (somewhat) limiting the
liability - keeping it more within the straight line of Unit - Chartered
Partner - BSA.

Clear as mud?

- Dr. Bob

Joe Tavares wrote:
> It seems to me the only liability protection offered is that from the BSA
> when you fill out your BSA National Tour Permit, where it asks if you wish
> to use the insurance offered by the BSA (why they even ask, I don't know).
> That being the case, and assuming you make the obvious choice to use that
> insurance, then every registered Scout or Scouter making the trip is
> insured, the charter org doesn't hold any liability, unless perhaps in a
> civil court, where no amount of insurance would protect them. So cobbling
> together a troop should not be a problem.
>
> I do have some first hand knowledge of a crew with members not part of the
> chartered org, one of the boys did get hurt from the alien troop and the BSA
> insurance worked as designed.
>
> Joe
>

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Received on Fri Nov 5 06:42:49 2004