I would suggest even putting this information--that the PTO is, under Army Regulations, an individual entity and liable for any accidents,etc during PTO events. Therefore insurance will be bought and paid for out of PTO funds every year so as to cover any instances that might arise with a $$ limit (give details of what the Board deems to be the minimum policy coverage). Make sure that all Board Members have this as well as new/current members (do you normally give each new member a copy of the consitution?). I don't believe that it should be made a huge topic of discussion--that will just open up a can of worms. If it is brought up, just say that it has always been such but not known until now and that the Board/Members have voted/adapted your Constitution to show such and remedied the issue by purchasing coverage. Remind EVERYONE that you are safer now that they were last year.

Tonya, it sounds like you could use a litte reassurance. If you have insurance through NPN, then your liability coverage limit is $1 million plus attorney fees. For example, if suit were brought against your PTO and the PTO incurred legal bills of $500,000 (which is astronomical), then the policy would pay the $500,000 plus a judgement against the PTO for up to $1 million. If you are talking about a skate party, 99% of the time, a broken arm or leg is usually the only injury that comes out of that. In the case of a bounce house accident, 99% of the time, you may be looking at a couple of stitches or busted lips. It would take an extremely serious accident for a judgement of over $1 million to take place. If the members are still worried about this, then I would encourage them to visit their local insurance agent to look at getting a personal umbrella policy for themselves. Outside of your group being incorporated, possibly having coverage under the school's insurance if your event is on campus, having your PTO insurance, and then a personal umbrella policy, there isn't anything else that a volunteer could do to cover themeselves.

Thanks for responding! You're right I am a military mom! We are a PTO on an Army post. We operate under the Department of Defense. We as in the whole school system on this post have just learned that we are considered private organizations according to Army Regulations.We have supposedly always fallen under this catagory but we just got a new superintendent who pointed out the fact that we were not running according to policy. We made our own constitutions and ran accordingly. Now we have to have our constitution and bylaws passed through the army and it has to be stated in our constitution that we are liable for anything that were to happen that we are responsible for(skate night,fall festival...), not our school.In our constitution it is manditory that we state that the general membership is liable if we are sued for more than our insurance or if we are dissolved by our post commander and our assets don't cover any debt that we may have. This is all very new to us and has us all a little shocked. Parents/teachers aren't wanting the "what if" when they pay their membership. We had a parent quit her publicity coordinator position yesterday because she said as a volunteer she shouldn't be liable for anything,and that it was wrong for moneies we raised to go to pay for insurance,not to the kids.Does your PTO have these same guidlines as far as liability? Are we over reacting because this is all new to us? I feel a little over whelmed.I'm not a seasoned(2 years only) vice-president(now acting president)and could use any advice you've got!

It sounds like you're not an incorporated group? Incorporation helps protect against individual liability for different things, although you would still need insurance. Since it sounds like you're somehow part of the military (I'm assuming, since you say you have to have your constitution approved through the military post commander), as opposed to being an independent organization, maybe that's not an option for you.

Maybe if you could be a little more specific about how you're set up and why people are now concerned about joining? What do they now think they're going to be sued over? There are lots of people here in unincorporated PTOs, and who have insurance, who don't have problems getting people involved (well, at least not due to fears of liability).

Our Pto has just found out that we are liable (under Army Regulations as a private organization) for any law suit that may come against us. They say we have always been liable, but we are just finding out about this. Our president is resigning(health reasons) and I am left with getting our new constitution together and getting this years activities going. We have done nothing so far due to the fact that we have to revise our constitution and have it approved through our military post commander.
We have purchased insurance and I felt confident about that and relieved to know we have been liable always and at least now we are covered!My main issuse is how do I go about letting our parents know that we are liable but have insurance and still get them to join our PTO. A lot of people I've spoken with (this includes teachers) don't want to join now.I've been told by higher ups to just let it go(don't tell them we're aware that we're liable,just tell them we've got insurance) because we've purchased insurance and are covered but, I feel dishonest and I don't feel it's right to not explain this to our parents. We were all(PTO board and general membership) ignorant to the fact we were liable.I think they have a right to know this and need some advice on how to let them know with out scaring them off and causing problems.I could go on forever about the issuses this has raised but for now I'd appreciate any help on this I can get!