Possible Answer for MARC/MAFCA Insurance Woes

Steve Ciccalone

Steve Ciccalone

Well-known member
I have a suggestion for MARC/MAFCA that may alleviate all the current insurance issues and provide no cost coverage to their chapters hosting local events for club members and/or the public.

I'm a former national Board of Directors member of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America (AMCA). The AMCA consists of approximately 11,000 members worldwide so it is slightly larger than MARC and smaller than MAFCA. Annual dues are $30.

The National provides blanket insurance coverage at no cost to chapters. Note this is blanket coverage and not the "opt-in" coverage that MARC apparently has (I'm not sure about MAFCA). There are two policies, the first being an "errors and ommisions" type that indemnifies all the National board members and chapter officers from individual or broad claims whether from club members or the public. The second is a liability policy that covers the National and a chapter hosting a "national" or local event. There is a 10 swap meet/show schedule over the course of the year. Members and the public may attend. There are also 3-4 national roadruns a year (typically 3 day rides). Only AMCA members may participate. The liability policy covers the National and host chapter except to the extent that if a rider has an accident out on the road, his or own insurance applies. Riders also sign liability waivers at the start of these events (although it has been argued that these may not hold up in court). We also have a European Chapter that holds a big event. I'm not sure if coverage is extended to them but I will find out. The sites of these events typically ask for a liability certicate including them as an "additional insured." These are procured and provided at the start of the meet season and are sent to all the sites. If a chapter is hosting a "local" event, a chapter officer merely contacts the carrier for the rider and it is sent, sometimes the same day.

Coverage is provided by one of the major Antique Auto insurance carriers. If any MARC/MAFCA BOD member is interested, please contact me personally for further discussion and I'll put you in touch with the current AMCA BOD member who handles the club's insurance. Again, there is no cost to the chapters, the public is covered and while not cheap, it is not burdensome to the National.
 
Mike, it is decidedly not the same, otherwise you wouldn't have to wait on MARC for the cert. You could have contacted the carrier directly for the "additional insured" cert for the site owner. Also, as I pointed out, with the exception on National roadruns that are exclusively for AMCA members, all persons attending, whether members or not, are covered by the policy.
 
Mike V. Florida said:
With the exception of the swap meets it sounds like what MARC has now.
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Not even CLOSE Mike...take a look again and you will see, this is a great suggestion, the problem is that the BOD of MARC probobly wont even look at it now that the standard terms is "We made a prudent business decision based on our Attorney recommendation"
 
Have you looked at the AACA, we ask in advance for a certificate, give them the name of property owner and they send us a ceritficate for the car show, Bruce
 
OK let's take a look;

"...otherwise you wouldn't have to wait on MARC for the cert. You could have contacted the carrier directly for the "additional insured" cert for the site owner. "

I thought you were talking about the european clubs.

"Also, as I pointed out, with the exception on National roadruns that are exclusively for AMCA members, all persons attending, whether members or not, are covered by the policy."

That leaves the swap meets. So if I read your message right.

Road runs (tours) are covered by the insurance just like MARC.
Chapter Swap meets are covered, not like MARC.
Chapters can contact the insurance company directly, also not like MARC.
The national club sponsers and the local chapters put on 10 swap meet/shows, MARC does less of them.

So with the exception of the contacting the carrier directly, what else did I get wrong that I'm "Not even CLOSE"?
 
You are still missing the main point Mike, the AMCA policy will cover non-members at any event, either a national or local event, with the exception of the roadruns that are reserved for AMCA members only.
 
I want to re-think the insurance from AACA, the Insurance protects the parking lot/land owner and liabilty, cars are covered by each car owners coverage, will have to dig out our certificate of Insurance supplied to us from AACA, Bruce
 
Hi Steve,
Sounds like another option but I think it is pretty similar. Let me explain. VML covers all of our MARC activities including parts swaps and car shows and parades. The only exception is of course, timed events and hill climbs. All MARC members are covered.
The MARC BOD has determined that in order to reduce risk they are not giving out Certificates of Insurance (COI) to any region applying for a Parts swap, car show or parade.
Any region not needing a COI is covered for any event they want to run. It is not a problem with the insurance company it is a decision made by the BOD and the club lawyer who has said these events are hi risk and in order to reduce risk we will not allow them. The problem is they are only refusing coverage to those regions applying for a COI. The event is still covered it is just you cannot get the COI to prove it. This is confusing to all of us.
I hope this helps to understand the issues,
Ken:)
 
Ken Ehrenhofer said:
The MARC BOD has determined that in order to reduce risk they are not giving out Certificates of Insurance (COI) to any region applying for a Parts swap, car show or parade.
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So the next step is to reduce the risk even more. Let make a move to ban gatherings of more then 50 members in one place, I know we can even reduce the risk further if we eliminate cars from any event as well. I can see it now at the national meet with only 50 people in attendance. The fine point would be done by photos of the different areas.
 
Ken, the MARC/MAFCA policies seem much more restrictive. All of the AMCA national except roadruns revolve around swap meets that all members and the PUBLIC are encouraged to attend. AMCA chapters are unencumbered when planning local events as they know they can get a COI. In this day and age, no hosting site will rent a facility without being additionally insured so if MARC (and possibly MAFCA) deny COIs to chapters there is virtually no way they will ever be able to put on a local event.

Also, are chapter officers also indemnified for errors and ommisions as the national board officers probably are? Again, this is the case for the AMCA.

I'm not trying to cause trouble here. I'm pointing out that with a little effort, both clubs could have better coverage for perhaps very little more money. The more the activities, the greater the promotion of the hobby.

AMCA vintage racing events are covered by ARMA (American Racing Motorcycle Asso) policies which are relatively low cost.

Now you would thing that with the general perception of bad, drunken hoodlum bikers, insurance would be expensive and difficult to get but it's not.
 
Mike V. Florida said:
So the next step is to reduce the risk even more. Let make a move to ban gatherings of more then 50 members in one place, I know we can even reduce the risk further if we eliminate cars from any event as well. I can see it now at the national meet with only 50 people in attendance. The fine point would be done by photos of the different areas.
Click to expand...

I agree with Mike on this!

Between sue happy lawyers and insurance companies, a lot of what we used to have fun doing is either not allowed, against the law, or has gotten prohibitively expensive. Things sure aren't like they used to be, and it's not for the better. :(
 
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