[Regia-NA] Incorporating?

[Jeffrey Fulton]

The Knights of St. Denys, our equestrian group, performs twice a year at the Kentucky Horse Park.  We do parades, a Living History camp, jousting demonstrations and live steel fighting in the manner of Fiore.  We also do church faires, timelines and school & library convos.  We have never been asked for insurance in six years.  My insurance agent (who has video taped us before and knows what we do) said as long as we don't accept any money, than each individual is covered under their own medical insurance policy for injury, and by their homeowners policy for liability.  If we purchase group insurance, that implies a recognized risk, and increases the odds for lawsuits by the unscruplous attorneys (THAT narrows them down a lot!!!) because of the increase in the limitations of 1/2 mil. for homeowners to 2 mil. for event policies.
So no insurance is necessary UNTIL you start getting paid for events.
I was in a Renn. Faire group for 5 years (who also had no insurance) and they decided to incorporate.  It cost $1,600.00 and took a year, eating up all of their money for a year and eventually contributing to their breaking up.  (Although huge egos were more to blame.)

I personally feel very strongly about any sort of affiliation with the SCA.  I feel it is a LARP group, and will undermine our credibility to the point that I would be embarrassed to say I was a part of GS.

Bjorn

"Matthew Amt" <mamt@lrcm.usuhs.mil> wrote:

>Hello, all,
>
>   Not to be sounding like a nay-sayer, here, but is incorporating and
>having group insurance really necessary?  My own group, the Twentieth
>Legion, is incorporated in Maryland though we do not have federal non-profit
>status, and we do not have insurance.  In 11 years, no host site has asked
>once about our status, and only one (for a parade somewhere in New York) was
>requiring insurance so we simply didn't go.  Now, we have done most of our
>events at either Marietta Mansion (county-run) or Fort Washington (federal
>park), maybe that makes a difference.  It's quite possible that if we spread
>out to more sites we'd see some need for corporate status, but it hasn't
>happened so far, yet.  All it means is that I have to keep scrupulous
>accounts of our money and fill out tax forms each year.  Not a big deal if
>it IS necessary, but...
>
>    One theory that I've heard is that if you are incorporated and someone
>decides to sue, they can't target individuals.  It's a nice theory, but no
>idea how well it holds up in practice, or if it means that your life isn't
>ruined by some idiot's litigous whim.  With Regia NA doing fighting demos
>(which we Romans don't do), and the resulting very slight possibility of
>things going into the spectators, etc., that may make it all worthwhile. 
>Oh, and once you sign up for insurance, you HAVE to bring in enough money to
>pay for it, of course.  So dues and paying events become very important.  (I
>almost returned my Romans' dues money this year because we were spending so
>little, mostly on stamps and some food for events.)
>
>    Usually, though, if you tell a site that you are a group, all they want
>to know is how many people you are bringing and how much straw you'll need. 
>Had I known that when the Legion was founded, I wouldn't have bothered
>incorporating.
>
>   Any other groups have experience to share?
>
>    Matthew/Aelfric/Quintus
>_______________________________________________
>list-regia-na mailing list
>list-regia-na@lig.net
>http://www.lig.net/mailman/listinfo/list-regia-na
>


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