We have received this letter from Paul O'Reilly of IPMS/Victoria Scale Modelers in Vancouver, BC, one of our Region 13 Chapters. As you can see, the insurance coverage that IPMS/USA provides is a great help to Chapters hosting a contest.
With this information, membership alone to IPMS/USA will help you out as a Chapter.
Attached is the application for insurance for our event scheduled
for 18 September 2010. While we intend to have a contest every year at
this time (the Saturday after the second Monday of the month) we were
unable to last year due to greatly increased insurance costs and venue
rental fees. Thanks to IPMS/USA and the fact we've registered ourselves
as a not-for-profit organization we've been able to reduce the costs
substantially. I'm not sure if other clubs have has similar problems
but the insurance coverage offered by IPMS/USA should be shouted from
the roof tops to those doubting the efficacy of the organization! The
Contest Director, Tim Cotey, is listed as an Information Addressee above
should you wish to contact him directly.
In explanation - the
insurance costs were preventing us from running our annual contest to
the point we were going to run them every other year. Six years ago we
got insurance for $100 then it went up to $175 then $200, $400 and the
killer was the $1,000 bill two years ago. At the same time the venues
were upping their fees, too. As we were not registered as a
not-for-profit club they decided to charge us fees commensurate with a
commercial operation. The registration as a not-for-profit club was
completed last year and the venue fees dropped by 50%. With the
insurance coverage from IPMS/USA our insurance costs fell from crushing
to non-existent. For this reason alone I think it would be wise for
IPMS/USA to point this issue out to all the non-believers that refuse to
see the benefit in joining. I'm not sure if the other IPMS
organizations also have insurance coverage but I do know IPMS Canada
does not. It would be interesting to find out, though and see how IPMS
fairs on that subject. I did check to make sure the IPMS insurance
coverage would be valid here in Canada and it is so there might be an
attraction to non-USA clubs to join via Region 13 membership.
Please ensure the covering letter includes the following organizations:
The Memorial Park Society,
Mary Winspear Centre @ Sanscha
2243 Beacon Ave, Sidney, BC, V8L 1W9
Canada
ph: 1-250-656-0275
Paul O'Reilly
Chapter Contact
Victoria Scale Modellers
