After considerable discussion, we wish to provide you with the following information and tell you of the procedures that need to be followed if an insurance claim is to be made.

The insurance broker will only work with the authorised officers of the ring and do not want to be contacted by individuals who may be members of the insured organisation. Their expectation is that all members will communicate through the authorised officers who will confirm the appropriateness of any request. In their words “… authorised officers who are notified to them from time to time…” The notified officers (who had to fill in a form before we could get the current policy renewed) are the Bag and the Squire of the Australasian Morris Ring.

The form of insurance we have is a type which deals with variable membership, for example volunteer staff and participants at an event like the folk festival. As such, the brokers require the authorised officers to have procedures in place to validate a claim, but do not require a list of members of the insured organisation be provided to them (because they would forever have to change it).

Therefore, the following information and procedures note the way we wish to operate if a claim is to be made:

Membership
Members of the AMR are the sides that have paid subscription. They are not the individuals within a side.
Members of the AMR that have also paid insurance as per our records (as kept by the Bag) are covered by the current AMR insurance policy.
In addition, an individual can pay membership and insurance separately as agreed at the AGM 2005.

Dancers are members and are insured by the AMR if the Squire of a side that has paid insurance and subscription to the AMR says they are. In other words, it is up to the member sides to decide their own membership. This can be done however the side agrees upon (ie people who have paid subs, or everyone on the current contact list, or ….whatever).

Our point of contact with member sides for insurance purposes is via the executive of the side (usually the Squire, Bag or Foreman) not the individual members. We can be flexible about this once the formalities are done to ensure speedy processing.

Claim Procedure:
If a claimable incident occurs, the Squire of the relevant side should advise the Squire or Bag of the AMR as soon as possible. The squire of the side making the claim needs to be prepared to validate:
· that the person making the claim is a member of the side (if not a member of the public or an inanimate object)
that the incident was during legitimate Morris Activity (for example, dancing, watching a gig or being a building near a gig, or cutting sticks)
the nature of the injury or damage

The Squire of the side should be prepared to sign a statutory declaration of this information if necessary.

At this point the Squire/Bag of the AMR will contact the insurance broker to get the ball rolling and will forward requirements back to the side.

The squire of the insured side must be prepared to validate any claim to the AMR. To validate a claim the AMR authorised officers require a signed statement of what occurred from the Squire and another member of the claiming side who witnessed the event (but is not making a claim).

However, the insurance company might want some more information. It would probably be a good idea to grab the following as soon as you can:
Contact details of people involved
Photographs, if possible, of damage
Receipts of any monies paid and why
Any doctors’ certificate and statements of injury and treatment
Any other information relayed to the Squire of the side making the claim, as required by the insurance broker.

Some examples:

1. “Scratch” Sides
Tylers Oz is a “scratch” Morris side with dancers from all over Australia who meet for fun and social gigs. The side is not a member of the AMR, but most/all? dancers are from other sides that are members of the AMR. If a dancer is injured during a Tylers gig, the person would need to claim through the Squire of their primary (AMR member) side. In this case, their primary Squire would need to validate their membership and another person who is a member of Tylers who witnessed the incident (preferably the Tylers Squire) would need to sign a statement describing what happened. There are some consequences of this:
It is up to each member side of the AMR to decide if they will support new, developing or social sides by allowing their members to participate in these (secondary) groups (and there are several now) and be covered by the primary sides’ membership to the AMR and insurance cover.
It is up to individuals to ensure that they are covered by a primary side before they participate in a secondary side gig or practice.
This does not provide cover for third party or property claims unless the AMR agrees to support (secondary) emerging or fun groups whose membership is covered by another primary side with membership and insurance through the AMR. One of the objectives of the AMR is to promote Morris and this is arguably an example of fostering both social strength in Morris culture and an opportunity to learn new styles and develop further interest in the traditions.

2. Property Damage
This is more obvious and would be damage to a building, surface or object caused by the performance of Morris at an event or practice, that could not have been anticipated eg a broken stick breaking a window.

3. Injury To A Dancer Or Musician (or member of the public watching a footup)
Also obvious – for example, broken ankles or knuckles that occur during a footup or practice, or injury caused by flying parts of a broken stick or treading on some unsuspecting bystander. Long term injury to knees etc, caused by persisting to dance long after various body parts have indicated that it’s time to stop, might be another matter altogether!

4. Member Of Public Doing Workshop.
If an insured member side of the AMR runs a workshop with members of the public participating, the participants are covered in the event of injury as above.

Squire:
Steve Dancer
stephendancer@hotkey.net.au