In the late 1990’s our insurance carrier came to us as part of our annual insurance review and made some strong recommendations regarding improvements in our club-wide risk management practices.

Up until that point both staff and volunteer trips and workshops, while operating very safely, were in need of upgrading of their risk management standards based on significant legal changes and challenges in the outdoor recreation industry. The primary legal and insurance related changes included:

• A substantial increase in successful lawsuits against outdoor recreation clubs based on negligence or misconduct, as well as an increasing number of caseloads in litigation involving frivolous suits
• An overall trend in the insurance industry to significantly raise the insurance rates for outdoor recreational and educational organizations
• A change in perception, by the courts, of the historical differences between professional guides and volunteer trip leaders, with the courts more narrowly looking at the differences between the two.

Until recently the Volunteer Protection Act, AMC’s General Liability Insurance, some state and local Good Samaritan statutes, and the morals and ethics of society were enough to protect a trip leader or employee. However, new case law and precedents have shown that by not clearly stating the risks and inherent dangers in outdoor recreational/educational activities to participants, and developing/initiating leadership training standards club wide; the individual, sponsoring organization, and insurance provider were at risk of significant losses. Therefore, the AMC began a program to completely revise its staff led and volunteer led activities and workshops.

• Based on Massachusetts case law in support of release agreements, the insurance company advised the AMC to institute a release agreement (waiver) for staff and volunteer activities. These were developed in conjunction with national and local counsel with advice from national professionals in the outdoor recreation industry.
• The Chapters Committee, OLDC, and relevant staff developed waivers for all staff workshops, Major Excursions, VMF’s, and chapter based volunteer led activities. Initially voluntary, they all became mandatory at the discretion of the BOD on June 1, 2004. The Chapters Committee was granted an extension to give them time to notify and work with their internal leader education committee on this issue, until Oct 1, 2004.
• The AMC created an internal Risk Management Team and mandated development of a “best practices” manual for all staff led activities. This included, but was not limited to annual leadership training, safety reviews, emergency action plan, crisis communication chart, accident/incident reports, and release agreements.
• Through the OLDC and the Chapters Committee and approved by their voice vote at several club wide meetings, the volunteers coordinated revisions and changes in the Leadership Guidelines and Requirements (first created in 1996) that reflected the overall direction of risk management in the AMC.

AMC leaders are required to notify all participants about the element(s) of risk in the activity through the use of the Volunteer Release Agreement. Participants are required to sign the agreement prior to participating in the activity. Based on the changing nature of the inherent risks of each individual trip, participants are required to sign the Volunteer Release Agreement prior to each AMC activity (excluding social events, slide shows, dinner programs, etc.).

As a part of the AMC’s ongoing effort to ensure that our waivers are providing the organization and its representatives with adequate legal protection, the release agreements were reviewed by legal council and revised in 2006. This revision included the addition of language to recognize that we have minor participants attending volunteer led trips along with an accompanying adult. To the extent that is practical, minor participants old enough to read and understand the language in the release agreement should sign along with their legal guardian. While the signature of the legal guardian is mandatory for a minor to participate on any AMC activity, it is at the leaders discretion to decide if that guardian must also attend the trip or if they are comfortable allowing a minor attend a trip with a different adult family member or family friend.

Any questions about this change should be directed to leadership@outdoors.org