Risk Management and your conference

Regional Events & Risk Management

Every regional conference is an opportunity - an opportunity to share new and old ideas, see new places, and meet new people (officers, chairs, and "plain old brothers" of various chapters within your region). Unfortunately, with most, if not all, great experiences comes different and greater risks, and just as a successful event requires a fair amount of advance planning, so does successful risk management /prevention. With all the hustle and bustle of planning the actual event, risk management sometimes is forgotten, or not given the attention it needs. In fact, risk management should probably be priority #1 when it comes to planning your regional event. Too often, chapters think risk management basically means cutting down liability in regards to alcohol. While certainly risk management deals with alcohol, it also deals with so much more.

Risk Management Checklist

Transportation:

Most of the attendees at your event will be unfamiliar with the area, the school, or the parking situation. Anything you can do to make the travel/navigation/parking easier for your brothers and help them to find their way to the conference safely and without too much trouble will no doubt be well-appreciated by your brothers. This could mean reserving a parking area on campus like the Beta Rho Chapter of JMU was able to do for Capitol Region Conference (near the building(s) where most activities will be taking place), posting signs on campus so brothers can find their way, and providing good directions to the school as brothers will be coming from different directions.

Emergency Contact Information:

We’re never looking for an emergency to happen, but when one does, it can be extremely important/helpful to have certain information at hand, including an attendee’s name and chapter and the names and contact information (address, work and home phone numbers, e-mail – several different ways to make contact so that contact can be immediate or as soon as possible) of two people who could be contacted in case of emergency. Remember, you are not going to know most of your guests - nor such things like being allergic to bees, or intolerance to extreme heat, etc.

Liability/Assumption of Risk Waivers:

Protect your chapter from being held responsible for other’s actions/accidents by including a liability/assumption of risk waiver with registration materials, and do not approve registration of any attendees without it. These waivers should consider the chapter, inter-chapter brothers, and the campus/facilities where events will be held and where brothers will be housed.

Housing:

If your chapter is putting brothers up in a hotel, make sure they book them in advance, and see if the hotel will block all Phi Sigma Pi rooms together. Just make sure that the responsibility of taking care of hotel property is included in the liability waiver as belonging to the individual brothers and not the chapter, and that the hotel is aware of that idea. If you’re housing inter-chapter brothers with local brothers, make sure you give each the other’s contact information so they can get better directions to the host's address. Also, make sure that the host knows that he/she is expected to have someone at the address to let guests in!

Trouble shooter:

It’s a good idea to have at least one person with a cell phone that everyone has the number, so if anyone gets lost, can’t find their host, or so forth, they know at least one person that can help them.

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