Starting a Riding Club - Some Questions

[zoeshiloh]

Being sick to the teeth of the St Edmunds riding club, some friends and I have decided to start our own!! OH is willing to sponsor and help with setup costs, I have enough people to form a committee, and we are already planning shows and clinics with some top riders. Now all we need are some venues to host training days and shows, and I have to find out about insurance. As a riding club, what sort of insurance would we need? We are looking to affiliate to the BRC next year once we have fulfilled all the criteria (I have been sent an information pack). Has anyone set up a riding club before? What sort of things do we need in place before we start organising training days etc?

 

[Equus Leather]

I'm in the process of setting up my own too.

I have found the major problem is the insurance. Like you, I looked at affiliation and this will be a goal for next year.

Keep it small for the first year.

We are aiming for 3 ridden events this year, with 5 non-ridden events. Insurance wise, the places you use (if they are regular places other RC's use like local XC courses, schools etc ) should and need to have PLI. If you are in receipt of payment, which you probably will be, you will need your own insurance. A yearly cost would be unfeasible for the first year when I looked into it, so have gone down the 'event insurance' road. However, for one event (a XC clinic with a 4* instructor) was going to be £250 in insurance for the day alone. It was the same for a Pleasure Ride day.

To get around this we may have to organise members pay their fees on the day to the person who runs the course/arena, and they give a 'donation' to the RC in order for us to make some money for the pot.

The other problem we may encounter is why would people pay to join our club? Promotion and membership fees need to be thought about. As for committee you only need the bare minimum to begin with (too many cooks and all that).

You'll need to open a bank account for the RC, but the most important thing is the insurance....it's catch 22 as if you affiiliate then you get insurance through them, but you cant affiliate until you've run some events....

 

[Shipley]

If you affiliate to BRC you get the insurance but its help by SEIB might be worth calling them. Let me know if you need any help as I organise clinics for our RC and happy to give any help I can (I am only up the road to you)

 

[Equus Leather]

It was SEIB who I got my quotes from. Trouble is a brand new club can't affiliate to the BRC as you have to meet certain criteria (have to have held a certain number of ridden events, must have £250 in an RC bank account etc etc).

 

[Shipley]

But I thought they did a yearly policy similar to the RC one but more money that unaffiliated RC use, We have a couple in our area that are unaffiliated you could call them ?

 

[zoeshiloh]

What sort of quotes were you getting for a year's insurance? I am in the process of contacting several companies for quotes, but it would be good to have a rough idea. There are a lot of businesses that would benefit from sponsorship, so that is a possible route to go down. I am a bit confused by the whole BRC affiliation thing to be honest - do the BRC provide all your insurance once you are affiliated, or do you still need to provide your own??

 

[Shipley]

They provide it all you pay a fee per member to them an it covers your shows / members only. You should have got the info with St edmunds with your anual membership card

 

[ester]

one of my clubs, having got to a certain size (+100) has found it cheaper to arrange their own insurance and have deaffiliated.

insurance via BRC covers your 3rd party liabililty insurance for all events you run. afaik

the price you pay to BRC depends on membership numbers, it is done in bands so I think <30, 30-100, 100+ or something like that anyway!

 

[Equus Leather]

To affiliate you need:

# The club has 20 adult riding members of 18 years of age and over.

# A committee comprising at least a chairman, treasurer, secretary and two others.

# Club must have held four committee meetings (minutes to be available).

# The Club must not exist for social or insurance reasons.

# Club to have its own bank account with a minimum balance of £250.

# Clubs to have held a minimum of two competitions, one instructional or training event during the past year.

So pretty difficult for a new club to hit it's prerequisite.

I was quoted in excess of £1800 for the years insurance based on 3 ridden events and 5 non-ridden events. It's a minefield, especially for the non-ridden events if food is being offered etc etc.

 

[Equus Leather]

Bit more info:

Once the initial registration fee of £50 (first year only) has been received, your club secretary will receive all relevant paperwork. BRC Areas may also charge an annual affiliation fee in addition to the registration fee &#8211; for example, 50p-£1 per member or a flat fee of £30, so please bear this in mind when setting up your club membership fees. Your Area Liaison Committee will be informed so they may invite your club to area meetings and so on.

Your club will be provisionally affiliated for one year, after which our representative may either approve the club for full affiliation, or choose to visit you again. We will inform you in writing when this assessment/visit becomes due.

Fees
Once a club becomes fully affiliated the following fees apply (2010)

Payable by 31 January each year:

80 members or less £125.

81 members or more £140.

This Corporate Insurance Fee is paid by BRC directly to South Essex Insurance Brokers (SEIB).

Payable by 1 June each year:

Cost per member £9.50

This fee covers the cost of running the BRC movement.

 

[zoeshiloh]

I've got the information pack from BRC, so have all that info, thank you anyway Equus Leather. It's interesting re the quote for £1800 as this is far more than I have so far been quoted. I will be contacting SEIB later today.

 

[Kat]

I've not organised a riding club, but a suggestion for your non-ridden event to get round problems of providing refreshements etc. Talk to your local pubs, some will let you use their function room on an unpopular day and provide a few nibble basically for free just because you will be boosting the takings on a usually quiet night.

When I worked in a pub we used to lay on butties and chips for a jazz club who used to come on a tuesday. If they weren't there we would have been deserted, they all bought a few drinks each so it soon became worthwhile. For a lecture type event that might be worth considering.

 

[Equus Leather]

Good point Katt. However, when I was discussing this with SIB they told me I still had to have insurance for a pub event, incase someone decided to sue the riding club for something that goes wrong there (ie food poisoning etc). Madness!

Good luck Zoe, let us know how you get on x