I don't know about anywhere else, but the old
saying about weather in Texas
is true. If you don't like it, wait a few
minutes and it will change! You
cannot always know what's going to
happen to your trail. Even if you check
it a day or two before the
ride, things can still happen. Shoot, I know of
things happening to the
trail DURING the ride (flash flooding). There's
nothing you can do
about it.
Another thing -- I haven't managed a ride, but have seriously
been
contemplating doing so and am furthering my "ride manager education"
every
chance I get. However, I can tell you this in all honesty -- if
you're
going to post all these warnings, etc. in writing and have references
made
to them in the waiver, there goes pre-entries. Also, who is going
to
prepare this? THERE ARE NEVER ENOUGH VOLUNTEERS!!! People
don't realize
that you have to have volunteers BEFORE the ride and AFTER
it. For example,
trail neither clears nor marks itself and ofttimes, it
must be UNMARKED
after the ride. Endurance is just like anything else
-- a certain group of
people show up to do the work while everyone else comes
up to ride. It is
amazing to see the epiphany folks undergo when they
can't ride but decide to
stay and volunteer during the ride. No, I'm
not talking about crewing for
someone else.
Not only do people not
listen at ride meeting, a lot of times, they don't
even attend. Whose
fault is that if they're sitting in their camp shooting
the bull and drinking
a coldbeer?
You also said: "It's interesting to note that the legal
issue with the
skiing case was not liability, but the parent's right to sign
a waiver on
behalf of a minor." Was that the legal issue? That
point of law would
stretch to everything parents do with regard to their
children, including
consenting to invasive medical treatment. I don't
think parent's signing
the waiver is the issue. It seems to be a
question of negligence on the
part of the property owner and/or
coach.
Let's face it folks, we are a "litigation-happy" society and full
of people
who don't think they're responsible for their own stupidity.
Period!
Hanging all the lawyers won't solve the problem (although I'd donate
the
rope to hang a few of them I know). The problem is that the court
(whether
a judgment comes from the bench or a jury of your peers) makes stuff
like
this a lucrative business. Lawyers don't award damages, they only
seek
them.
Milinda Ellis
Jewett,
Texas
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