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question on insurance if you act as a mentor

john lucas

john lucas

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This is probably for John Hill but I'm sure he's rather busy right now with the symposium just around the corner. We have started a mentoring program with our club and the question came up, if you are helping someone learn to turn, (I suppose we could call it teaching but it's not really a formal class) Are you covered by the AAW insurance. It is, or maybe could be, called a club sponsored event. Is there a difference if they come to your shop or you go to theirs. Inquiring minds want to know. Personally I figure anyone dumb enough to sue me doesn't have enough money to get a good lawyer anyway.
 
John, there used to be something called a "hold harmless" agreement that might be relevant to your question. Others more knowledgable might comment on this. Just a thought.
 
Skill Enhancement sessions

John,

For a number of years I ran a periodic Skill Enhancement session in my shop. At some point I thought about the insurance and made sure that those sessions were sanctioned by the club, putting them under the AAW umbrella. At least I thought they were covered. Maybe not. 😕
 
John - You could get in touch with John Buso. He's in the Palm Beach (Florida) club I belong to and worked on the insurance stuff with John Hill. He's a great guy. If you need a contact number or email, let me know.

Ed
 
Thanks Ed, I will look him up in the directory. I felt like it would be covered but you never really know so I thought I would ask.
 
The extras I had added to my insurance contract included students in my shop (mentoring sessions, not for pay), friends in my shop, shows, product in my vehicle, teaching sessions, and liability for my DVD. This is in addition to coverage for the shop, supplies, and tools. I believe the AAW policy only covers your business for woodturning only. I am also a LLC, so if anyone does sue me, they can only sue the business.
robo hippy
 
The AAW policy is very limited in what it will cover, so make sure you know what you have coverage for and what you don't. I was given advice to just keep my mouth shut about what I was actually doing so as not to ruin a chance of getting a policy. Guess what? That might work for getting someone to issue a policy, but it is a false security. If you are doing one of those things, and someone makes a claim as a result, they won't cover it anyway.

I have a policy through the Hartford that covers my teaching, my DVDs, product liability, visitors to the shop, and off site work, as well as the usual fire and theft stuff. But regardless of who writes the policy, they are going to cover you for what they are covering you as written in the policy. If you keep quiet or deceive them by changing numbers, you will not be covered.
 
When Bill mentioned the Hartford, I checked them out and got a policy for about 2/3 of what I was paying and it covered more things.
robo hippy
 
A funny thing about insurance policies - they are a legal document that only covers what they specifically say they will cover, and nothing more. There is no reading between the lines or thinking what you thought it said.

The AAW policy is what it says it is - a very limited coverage. No amount of wishful thinking or conjecture will make it anything more than that.
 
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