How terrorists almost shut down COP
by Keith Finn
Have you ever seen a show on PBS called ‘Connections’? The show details how seemingly disparate events interconnect to create unexpected outcomes. When those cretins crashed into the WTC on 9/11/2001, they set off a chain of events that is affecting how COP can run our activities. Insurance companies took an enormous hit from the tragedy, and they are re-thinking the level of risk they will accept. This change in policy caused our insurance carrier to cancel our general liability policy – not because we had a bad track record, but because they are not going to insure ANY organizations like COP anymore.
I am writing this on 8/1/2002 - After a 2 month search, we have insurance. The policy has limitations and conditions that we have to analyze to see how it will affect trips and programs. We are still actively searching for insurance that will not impose these limitations, but have had no success as of 8/1. COP activity leaders and the Risk Management Committee are working on their programs to see what we will have to change to comply with the insurance company regulations. We do know that our cost for insurance has doubled, and this is going to affect the cost of all our programs. Stay tuned for further updates, but all trippers have to realize that since 9/11, there is nothing but uncertainty in the risk management / insurance industry. COP cannot exist without general liability insurance, so if we have to modify certain programs and events to comply with the policy, we will do that. We hope to have a minimum impact on trip leaders and trippers, but some changes are inevitable.