As a ride manager of many years I've been extremely
disappointed in AERC's knee jerk reaction to the both last year's "additionally
insured" clause and to this year's "you must use our insurance." Last year
I received a not very nice phone call from the Regional Director threatening to
pull the sanctioning from my ride three days before the event for not
having provided an additionally insured certificate to the AERC office 30 days
before my ride "as the rule requires." This was by the way the first
contact of any kind I received from AERC regarding the issue. After a
thorough investigation on my part 1.) the rule does not state 30 days before the
event and 2.) AERC had the certificate in their files three MONTHS before
my event, it had just been misfiled. For those managing rides this is not
the type of "support" needed three days before the event.
Now we have the issue of being
forced to use an insurance provider at a higher cost than I've already arranged
for. I also manage both CTR's and Endurance on the same weekend. If
I'm being forced to carry both insurances for the event I'm going to strongly
consider not managing both types of rides. I don't manage the
ride to make money, I do it for the perpetuation of the sport.
However, at some time you just have to ask yourself why? My husband keeps
asking me to just write a check to our local riding club for $500 and
be done with it. Why go through the time and
aggravation. Additionally if I don't use the
insurance program I normally use through our club, the cost to others in our
plan go up. So now not only do I have to pay more, but now other CTR rides
in our area costs will increase as well because I'm not using our clubs
policy.
Seriously annoying, I don't believe this was
very well thought out on the AERC director's part as I was asked about it
literally hours before the vote.
It's one thing for AERC to provide this as an
option for ride managers who can't find an insurance provider. It's
entirely another to require it.
MKS
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