Our insurance allows for legal rides (not races or illegal races).  Due to the lack of route, permits, and the behavior of alley cat riders the y are usually too illegal to argue in court.  So play their game....

1) Make sure that the alley cat organizers are not directly affiliated with your organization.
2) Make sure the organizers don't have a penny to their name.  No house, no car, no trust fund, no wealthy parents.  Because waivers mean nothing in court, the fact that someone has "nothing" is the best insurance going.
3) Structure the event like critical mass so it is hard for people to figure out who the organizers are.
4) Have those organizers donate the proceeds to your organization.  "Proceeds will benefit..."
5) In the case of an incident (someone gets hit) become the most amazing support network that person has ever seen.

On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 3:36 PM, joshua muir <muirjoshua@gmail.com> wrote:
American Specialty does cheap club insurance that involves club events.

As far as orgs doing events, I think that would be a good way to do it, but more often it's just individuals putting events on, sometimes using facilities of places like the Bike Church.  My model is keeping it informal and yes, hoping for the best.

josh


On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 1:49 PM, Velocipede Bike Project <info@velocipedebikeproject.org> wrote:
Hey all--

I've noticed a bunch of groups out there sponsoring events that include
alley cats and such.  All the people I've talked to about liability have
always said that we, as an entity couldn't sponsor a ride with out paying
a ton for insurance.  I know that some groups use bike club insurance to
cover rides, but I've always assumed that most insurance companies
wouldn't cover an event like an alley cat.  Am I wrong?

 How have you guys dealt with the issue of liability for rides and alley
cats?  just ignore it and hope for the best? other sneaky things?  I
always feel like such a stick in the mud when people want us to do alley
cats and we say we can't cause of liability....

-beth
velocipede bike project
baltimore, md

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Joshua Muir
joshua@santacruzhub.org

Frances Cycles -- francescycles.com
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