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The primary purpose of a risk management plan is not the avoidance of
legal liability. Its purpose is the maintenance of a quality program;
that is, one which deals reasonably and fairly with its campers and their
families. A program that delivers what it says it will deliver, and does
so in the context of reasonable management of the risks, is not assured
of “safety” or freedom from lawsuits. But generally, if such a level of
performance is achieved, legal liability issues are minimized and take
care of themselves.
Good programs develop good risk management plans; and a good risk management
plan will employ the principles of AMI — Analyze, Manage and Inform. This
“AMI rule” is simple, important and easy to remember.
Analyze
The beginning point in the formulation of your plan is an analysis of
what you are doing and why. Alignment of your choice of activities with
the goals that you purport to serve is absolutely essential. Your mission
or goal statement should be the North Star of your program and if your
activities, structure, and schedule do not serve that mission, it will
lead to confusion, and worse, among your staff and clientele. Importantly
if these “surplus” activities include risks — and they certainly will
— you are placing your staff and clients in jeopardy unnecessarily.
Another essential alignment is that between your program’s desired and
expected outcomes and the desired and expected outcomes of the camper
and his or her parents. Confusion in this regard can lead to at least
disappointment and frustration and possibly a claim that the program did
not perform as it led the family to believe it would. Arguments in this
regard range from failure to provide certain activities or learning opportunities,
to failure to warn of the consequences of certain behaviors.
In this era of heightened competition in the outdoor recreation industry
— from which camps are certainly not immune — programs are striving to
be more interesting, more exiting, and more innovative than their competitors.
Ordinary camping activities now include a climbing wall and other challenge
course elements, extended wilderness experiences, and trips into urban
settings and public venues — even foreign countries. These innovations
carry new risks previously unanticipated. New activities often require
the services of third party vendors — public and private. This increasingly
popular method of satisfying the variety of experiences sought by the
public carries certain risks. You are expected to use care in your selection
of such vendors and may be responsible for their acts or omissions which
cause harm to a camper.
The careful administrator will be sure that innovations serve the mission
of the camp. That mission, of course, will vary with the uses and functions
offered. If a camp allows its facilities to be rented for a corporate
conference, recreation event, or outdoor education program for example,
the new risks and obligations must be understood, the goal of the “camp”
modified, at least for that function, and the expectations regarding responsibilities
and outcomes must be shared with all concerned.
The most important aspect of this analysis “leg” of the AMI rule is to
limit activities and risks to those which are manageable and serve the
mission of the camp and the expectations (hopefully shared) of the program
and the campers. A vigorous analysis conducted by a responsible program
administrator will eliminate activities and their risks which do not advance
the purposes of the program, and will then turn to the business of managing
the risks of those activities which are determined to be essential. Determine
how well you do what you do (stop doing what you don’t do well, or hire
more qualified staff); with whom you are doing it (an issue of qualified
and trained staff and an informed and qualified clientele); and when and
where you do it (understanding the environment and conditions in which
your various activities will take place).
Manage
The Analysis described above should leave your program with only those
activities which are consistent with your mission and only those risks
which can be reasonably managed.
Each activity, and your program as whole, has certain inherent risks
— those which simply come with the territory. Without such risks, the
activities would be very different, or eliminated altogether. The risk
of falling off a horse or out of a canoe, or stumbling on a trail are,
generally, inherent risks of these respective activities. If you eliminate
the risk, you will not get on a horse, you will not get in a canoe (at
least not on the water) and you will not venture off a concrete or asphalt
path. Your campers do not expect, and your mission statement does not
contemplate-cannot tolerate-the inactivity that would result if you were
to attempt to eliminate the inherent risks of what the public thinks of
as traditional camp activities.
In addition to inherent risks, of course, are other risks which may present
themselves and which may be the result of careless acts or omissions on
the part of staff or participants (negligence), of circumstances of the
environment or facilities which could and should have been known or foreseen
but were not, and, always, of that unforeseen event — a bolt out of the
blue — which can cause injuries. Generally a program has no legal duty
to protect a participant from the inherent risks of an activity. But a
responsible program watches those risks carefully, attempts to reduce
the prospects of harm arising from those risks, and certainly avoids enlarging
those risks through acts or omissions.
Management responsibilities arise in a number of areas. These would certainly
include at least the following:
- adequate disclosure to and collection of information from participants
(see below);
- appropriate and well functioning equipment;
- emergency protocols, practices and policies which are clearly understood
and appropriate to the tasks;
- an understanding of environmental conditions, including grounds and
structures involved in the activities;
- maintenance of records of important aspects of the operation, including
near misses and serious incidents, medical records of the campers, and
personnel matters;
- a fair and well functioning administration which maintains morale
at a high level and provides reasonable logistical support;
- screening and supervision of participants and staff; and
- selection, training, and policies regarding termination of staff.
Inform
The third leg of our AMI approach to risk management calls for the disclosure
of aspects of the activities and other experiences likely to be encountered,
for the benefit of campers and parents. Disclosure is particularly important
regarding those activities with which campers and parents may not be familiar,
and which might represent some departure from traditional camping — challenge
course activities; backcountry trips; means of transportation, including
to urban areas; reliability of various means of communication, including
to remote situations; the use of third party providers and vendors, certain
emergency medical help issues; and expectations regarding behavior and
the consequences of failing to meet those expectations.
A participant in your program deserves, fairly, to know what to expect.
Perhaps more significantly, a person or family affected by an event or
condition cannot be assumed to have consented to participation in that
situation if they don’t know of it beforehand. (It’s very difficult to
convince a jury that an eleven year old child could have “just said no”
to a jump off a thirty foot overhang into a natural pool.) Failure to
disclose the prospect of a remote field trip, or the absence of radios,
for example, may allow a family to make a claim that would not otherwise
be available to it.
Another aspect of “inform,” of course, is to collect information from
the camper so that you can determine the camper’s suitability for the
activities. An alternative might be to provide enough information to the
camper and his or her physician regarding the requirements of the activities
so that the camper and a medical professional can decide the issue of
suitability.
This matter of informing, or disclosure, is as important as the other
two parts of AMI. The purpose is to eliminate surprises and disappointments
so that a camper and his parents cannot say of an activity which may have
produced an injury: “ I had no idea that... .”. Or “Had we known about
that we certainly would never have . . .”
So there you have it: AMI. ANALYZE what you are doing and why, with whom,
where and with what capability. Eliminate risky activities that don’t
serve your announced goals and objectives. MANAGE well the activities,
and their risks, which your analysis determines should be a part of your
program. Finally, INFORM your participants and their parents of what they
can expect.
Unfortunate things can happen to the best camping programs. What we do
involves risk; but the rewards are tangible and give us confidence that,
even in the face of the risks, the experience is a valuable one for our
campers. Following the AMI rule is no guarantee of freedom from accidents
or liability, but it puts you well down the road to a quality program
that serves your campers fairly and whose risks are reasonably managed.
Originally published in the 2002 Winter issue
of The CampLine.
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