Hi raisinsasm
Come and try us out again. You are welcome to join us as a guest. No obligations! We just got back from a four day kayak camping trip in the Ten Thousand Island chain, awesome. Coming back we had a gentle breeze, thirty five mph. It was a good time!
We hope to see you on the water soon.
Franklin
Excellent Point About The “Minor!”
ACA Membership Benefits
First, let me introduce myself. I am the new Recreation Outreach Director for the American Canoe Association. I started in this position on January 2. Prior to coming here, I worked at the REI store in Bailey’s Crossroads for nearly 10 years and before that was in various positions across the country with the American Red Cross, Health and Safety Services. As you can see, I believe in working for organizations that work to make the world a better place; organizations that give back and don’t just think about the bottom line. That is why I was drawn to the American Canoe Association; it is an organization that is trying, as our motto says, to make the world a better place to paddle.
I have been reading and hearing a lot since I came on board last month and one of the things that strikes me is that there is some confusion about what exactly the ACA dues get a club or a member. Some people see the dues as payment for insurance and question the cost. Others aren’t sure what the benefits are. Let me say as someone who is new to ACA, I feel that there is a lot of value to being both an ACA member and a club member.
First of all, as a paddler, you want to be sure that you can get out on the water when you want and pretty much where you want. Maybe you enjoy the beauty of nature. Maybe it’s the pure exertion of paddling that appeals to you. Maybe you enjoy seeing the world from a different viewpoint or just want to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Whatever the reason, without an organization like the ACA working to help keep waterways clean and protected, laws equitable and providing training programs to help all paddlers be safe and savvy on the water, your ability to paddle might be a lot more restricted and less enjoyable.
Here are some very current examples. The ACA is part of the Outdoor Alliance, a coalition of organizations representing human-powered recreationists throughout the US. You can read more about the Alliance on its website – http://www.outdooralliance.net/. ACA and the Alliance are working hard to keep our public lands open and accessible for human-powered recreation, and to ensure that the management practices of federal agencies preserve the health and sustainability of our public lands, so that we can have the kind of outdoor experiences we all value.
Working with his counterparts from other alliance member organizations, the ACA’s Stewardship and Policy Director, Paul Sanford, spent two days this week (2/21-22) on Capitol Hill talking to Congressional offices about management of our public lands, and about the potential adverse consequences to recreation from the Administration’s proposed budget for 2008. Alliance representatives met with the House and Senate Natural Resources Committee staff, Appropriations Committee staff, and with personal staff from the offices of about two dozen members, many of whom sit on key committees. To all of them, the Alliance delivered the message that ALL of our public lands (not just the National Parks) are important and deserve adequate funding.
The Alliance Policy Directors also met with senior managers from the U.S. Forest Service to raise concerns about the exclusion of the public from some Forest Service management processes. We delivered a simple message loud and clear: The public should be involved in management of our public lands, and in decisions about the fate of recreational resources.
The ACA’s Policy Director works on other issues, too. ACA is heavily involved in the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA), the national organization of state government officials that manage boating regulatory and law enforcement agencies in state governments. ACA’s involvement in NASBLA has allowed us to educate the boating law administrators (BLAs) about the potential impacts of state regulations on paddlers. We think this has paid big dividends. The model laws produced by NASBLA are much more sensitive to paddlers’ concerns than they were just a few years ago, and the “rush” to impose motorized boating rules on non-powered boaters has slowed considerably.
Next week, ACA’s Policy Director will speak at the Eastern Rivers Summit in Shepardstown WV. He will be encouraging senior managers from the National Park Service to expand recreational opportunities in Park Service units by setting up water trails.
Without the financial support of its members, the ACA would not be able to have a Stewardship and Policy Director on staff. This is a direct benefit of being a member of ACA. This benefit may not always be visible, but it is there. The National Office is working on enhancements to our communications tools to enable us to do a better job of telling paddlers what they are getting for their money. You can look for that this spring. In the meantime, we will continue to work on behalf of paddlers to lower barriers and protect high-quality paddling opportunities.
Second, it is fun to belong to a group of mostly like-minded people. You can meet new friends, learn skills, discover places you didn’t know existed or try things you wouldn’t normally do on your own.
Third, the whole is bigger than the sum of the parts and, as a group, a lot more can be accomplished on a local as well as a national level. The American Canoe Association is a nationwide, not for profit organization that is in service to the broader paddling public by providing education on matters related to paddling, supporting stewardship of the paddling environment, and enabling programs and events to support paddlesport recreation. So, while we are working for the general public, it is our members who enable us to do this work and serve a larger good. It is ACA and Paddle America Club (PAC) members who put a face to the ACA in their local communities. As a member of ACA, you show your concern and support of all the work the ACA does. This work may not always be visible but we are out there with other organizations and like-minded people fighting to protect the waterways and rights of paddlers. (See point number one)
Fourth, PACs, and therefore members, do receive insurance coverage for events that they hold – races, paddlefests, multi-day trips, afternoon paddles, banquets, etc. Insurance does cost money and often has a lot of paperwork/reporting attached to it. It can be a bit confusing as well as the most tangible benefit that members see when it comes time to renew a PAC membership. That is probably why it gets the most “air” time at meetings or on message boards. Some people may feel they are being ripped off or question why insurance is even needed given that their club has never had to use it. My brief response to those comments is 1) insurance is expensive and the ACA is doing it’s best to keep costs for all clubs down and 2) you don’t give up your car or house insurance just because you have never used it. An article from Croydon Consulting, reprinted with permission, outlines the reasons clubs should be concerned about insurance and what type of insurance is best to have. I encourage you to review it and feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.
From the posts on this message board, it is clear there are some misunderstandings about what happened with our insurance coverage in late 2004. The story is somewhat complicated, but there was no bait and switch and no six-month gap in coverage. Furthermore, coverage for our Paddle America Clubs (PACs) remained in place, uninterrupted, throughout the calendar year.
The short story goes like this: After working hard for the most of the year to improve the quality of service we were receiving from our previous carrier, we stopped accepting applications from non-PAC clubs and ACA instructors on November 7, 2004. As such, we did not provide insurance for activities registered after that date. Given some of the uncertainties we were facing with the 2004 policy, we thought it made sense to stop extending coverage to new events not yet in our system, and so we froze that portion of the program for the last 7 weeks of the calendar.
However, we did not cancel or discontinue the entire program. We honored our commitment to provide insurance for activities registered BEFORE that date, even if they were held after that date. We also provided coverage for PAC activities registered after that date so long as the PAC followed the required advanced registration procedures. In essence, we declined to provide coverage for some (but not all) of the events we did not yet know about on November 7. Nobody had coverage and then lost it.
During those two months, we worked very hard to find another carrier, and were successful in obtaining very good coverage from American Specialty, a highly-rated carrier. That coverage became available to everyone on January 2, 2005, though we did not finalize our fee structure until later that year. American Specialty’s coverage continued through 2006 and now is available for 2007.
There is no doubt that this coverage is expensive. However, we believe it is worth the money because of the quality of the coverage. Our policy provides coverage on all classes of whitewater and open water, without many of the common policy exclusions that limit the scope of coverage. Our agent and insurance carrier also provide excellent service.
There may be cheaper policies out there. However, clubs that shop for insurance based solely on price should be careful. Before they bind coverage, they should request a specimen copy of their policy and read it carefully to make sure it does not contain exclusions that limit the scope and value of their coverage.
One of my responsibilities is to improve communication between paddlers, clubs and the ACA. I need your help to do that. Contact me regarding problems, concerns and even kudos you may have. Happy Paddling!
I wish you luck
– Last Updated: Feb-24-07 1:40 AM EST –
in the past few years the ACA has done a really poor job of communicating with the PACS. So poor in fact, that a lot of PACS have quit the ACA (mine included). When we asked legitimate questions regarding insurance costs or event sanctioning, we were usually given poor or even condescending answers, if any answer was received at all.
I personally sent a letter with an event insurance payment stating that we would no longer be using the ACA because the cost of event insurance was eating into what we were able to raise for our charity event, to which I received no response for almost two months. When I did receive a response, it was just a bunch of double speak about how the ACA's insurance was the worlds finest and that we could not equal the quality of the coverage for te price.
That combined with the obscene price increase of membership for PACS as well as the hefty per person insurance costs as well as a total lack of response or support in general is why we "voted with our feet" and have encourage other clubs to do likewise.
We can take what we save in insurance and PAC membership and put to good use right here where we live.
Look to the future
I am sorry to hear about your bad experience with the ACA in the past. I hope you will give us another chance in the future - I think you will see a difference.
Its not just mine
If you browse these pages, or (this is a crazy thought) TALK to some of the clubs that have quit, you might get some ideas on why people are growing more and more unhappy with the ACA. It goes way deeper than insurance costs. I can tell by your initial response that you are still in “butterflies and puppy dogs and everything is right with the world” mode in your new job and I do not want to spoil the feeling, but I heard the same stuff from the last guy.
What I keep hearing from people in my travels is, “we send all this money to the ACA and all we get is Paddler Magazine”. People like to feel they are getting something more in return or that they are being at least listened to when thay have a comment or a concern. If we ran our clubs with as little input from the members as you all do, we would not have no members,
To the one issue that you raise regarding canoe registration, Where were you guys either time it became an issue in Texas, how about Florida? Invisible, thats where.
What people see or read is ACA officials giving each other awards and patting themselves on the back for one thing or another, but they see no one paying any attention to the thing that directly impact them. I hazard to guess how many more clubs would quit today if they were not keeping the membership alive for their members who hold training certifications?
Well said.
And screw the certifications. 
Had to say it…
leading easier trips
I talked to someone this weekend that said she didn’t join FSKA because we didn’t have easy trips. I wish we had easier trips also. It seems that the people that aren’t great paddlers might lead more trips if we understood the rules a little more. It seems to me that there are plenty of trips in Florida where there really isn’t any danger.
It seems like a waiver is a good idea. Even if the waiver simply says “I’m going paddling. You’re welcome to come along. But I’m taking no responsibiity for you. And you’re signing this waiver to acknowledge that.”
Although, I have felt very appreciative to be allowed on trips that helped me increase my skills. And I have felt appreciative that I wasn’t left behind when I didn’t know the way back.
I paddle by myself some time. But it is fun to paddle with others. And that’s what the club is all about. Bringing kayakers together.
Susan
dropped re-insurance
I don’t know about ACA insurance being dropped, but the PPA’s CBIZ dropped me for no reason/no warning due to inability to get their re-insurance.
I never had any claims, injuries, or inquiries.
And when they were allowed back into PPA, CBIZ thought they were doing me a favor by offering premiums in the range of $3k for Florida flatwater.
Found a general liability policy for $1k premiums a year for the same coverage.
And I still qualify for food stamps!
off thread sorta
ACA could make a showing in Tallahasse at the upcoming meeting of the FWC’s BAC regarding upcoming testing requirements aimed at the paddle sports.
The last time ACA was in Florida at a BAC meeting (12/05?), it gave fuel to the fire about the registration issue. The USCG ate it up. Of course the ACA recieves funding from the USCG and they feel they want a payback for the funding.
On second thought, maybe their attendance would not be a good thing. It might guarantee the need for a pre paddle testing requirement.
I should have read the ACA…
letter first.
Last sentence in paragraph seven about the abatement of the “rush” to require testing along the lines of the motor boaters.
No abatement here, the RUSH is ON in Florida. They are just slow in getting it written to the satisfaction of the marine industry association.