We now have a new Club Abseil rope which replaces the old one retired recently due to wear and tear, making it very stiff and unusable.
A reminder please that when any members borrow this club rope, please treat it as if it was yours, try and use the rope bag and the rope protector as much as possible, so that it stays clean and dirt free when being set up and handled. That way it should last a few years without getting too dirty and contaminated. It falls to Tony, our Gear Officer to store it and occasionally wash it so think of him when using it! He will be applying a rope protection process to it, to try and keep it clean and flexible as much as possible.
A reminder to all existing members and to any new members. We as a BMC Affiliated club do not have any Public Liability Insurance. The BMC Public Liability insurance (15 million pounds) which each club member has with the BMC is only for that RoCs member due to being in RoCs, NOT for anyone outside the club using our equipment. Because of this we do not allow any person who is not a RoCs member or Prospective member to use the Abseil rope or anchor gear & slings as part of the Abseil set up, (unless there is an emergency situation where a climbers life is in danger, or someone needs to be rescued).
This is within the BMC Insurance guidelines and is written in our club rules (Section 8.12) which everyone has signed up to as shown below:
‘With the exception of club guests (see section 8.11), only club members may use club equipment on meets, except in cases of an accident or in an emergency. The club is not insured for non-members to use the club equipment, or to use members equipment while climbing on a club meet. This will also allow club equipment not to suffer damage or ‘wear and tear’ by non-members (especially the Abseil rope and equipment). If a request is made, a polite response “We are a climbing club, and we are not insured for non-members to use our equipment” should explain the situation.’
If someone outside of the club used the club Abseil rope and slings, and there was an accident, we could be liable as a club and the Committee officers be held liable in a court of law. As the BMC Public Liability Insurance is only for individual members, that insurance does not cover any claims made against the club as a whole when a non club member uses our equipment. Please make sure the sign attached to the rope protector is always displayed and politely refuse any requests to use our equipment, explaining we are not insured for public use. In the past this rule has been ignored by some members, which is not acceptable as it could cost us and the serving committee officers dearly if we lost a court case.
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