Can anyone recommend an inexpensive policy for the above?
Our group want to run a beginners ride every month, all year round.
I believe that the CTC policy only covers 5 non members on a ride (in which case we need to look elsewhere). Can anyone confirm if this is correct, or have I misunderstood the (incomprehensible) T&Cs?
British Cycling offers cover at £60 per ride, which we can't afford.
What does your club use for Public Events ?
here's the benefit of my two weeks or calling around, writing to insurers, talking to BC, CTC, LCC, Sutrans, The Tandem Club......
You're almost right about the five rule. Except that it's five times five and it's not strictly speaking a rule. But, essentially, member groups can't run rides for non-members unless they list them as events. Now......I considered running all the FNRttCs as events, but another consideration comes in to play, and that's this. If you do your job properly, but some numpty causes an injury, then you would want the injured person to have some recourse. And, for that reason, I decided that I wanted everybody on the ride to have 3rd party.
So we went 'affiliated'. The club affiliates to the CTC for a £25 set up fee and an annual fee of (iirc) £60 (although this year there's a bit of a special offer and I don't think we'll pay anything). Individuals join for £16. If you start signing up people regularly you may get the membership bods to set you up something like this...
http://regonline.activeeurope.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=1088046 saving you the trouble of filling out forms and seeing cheques go astray in the post. Affiliate members get a card, discounts at shops, legal advice and so on....
So...if you're not bothered about people having 3rd party, register the rides as events. If you are, and I think you should be, go affiliated.