Events & Safety : a notice to All Members

To All APGAI Ireland Members

Dear Member,

We recognise that you as individuals are bringing forward projects which relate to your region or contacts and which involve using either the APGAI Ireland name, insurance or fellow instructors to deliver the event. These can range from Fairs & Festivals or School/Council programmes through to a variety of activities which you have developed or been approached to assist in delivery. We welcome these as aiding our members to earn a living and in promoting our Association.

We also see our role as giving you every possible assistance with delivering a profitable and professional event. That said, our insurance provider and our own officers have raised issues that may cause us problems if the Committee is not kept informed about larger projects in order to ensure that what is proposed is compliant with APGAI Ireland’s ethos, rules and insurance undertakings.

To assist you in your endeavours we have appointed Damian McElholm as Events Officer and Lawrence Finney as Safety Officer to work with you and the Committee in all Outreach programmes.

The process we believe is simple. If you are considering getting involved in an activity outside of your normal individual instruction or guiding, you should send some details to Damian or Lawrence who can then discuss any requirements, prerequisites or assistance you may need to consider. As discussed at the 2011 AGM, it is now mandatory that you must be current with all your required certificates including Access NI /Gardai clearance to work with Children & Vulnerable Adults, a valid First Aid Certificate and provide a specific Risk Assessment for the activity and the venue(s).

Other issues we may be able to help you with could range from ratios of instructors to pupils, hiring, borrowing or purchasing equipment, printing using our logos etc. We can also assist in negotiations and meetings plus the planning and management of the event if required (fees may apply but these will be advised immediately). We can further advise what costs you should budget for and what a pricing guideline might be. It could also be our role to organise staff for you although you can specify who you would prefer etc.

Of course, if you are running larger-scale events or courses under your own personal or business insurance, that aspect will not apply although we would appreciate it if you could keep us informed of any activities which you are running under an APGAI Ireland banner.

We commend this scheme to you to assist you get the best out of the opportunities that come your way but we must also clearly point out that if this process is not followed, we could find that our insurance will not cover any claim that arises or that we expose APGAI Ireland to attack from those who do not wish us well.

Joe Stitt

Chairman, APGAI Ireland