Forum: Race Officers
caution about new SafeSport requirements (USA)
Philip Hubbell
Nationality: United States
Certifications:
- Club Race Officer
- Judge In Training
4
I just tried to switch over to the new SafeSport carrier and found that we are now obligated to indemnify safesport for undefined mis-use.
Each of us needs to understand the difference between release/waiver (good) and indemnify/hold-harmless (bad), and determine whether we want to endanger our nest eggs and heirs.
The difference, in a nutshell, is that if safesport is judged to be at fault, you nevertheless have to pay their defense and penalty.
The difference, in a nutshell, is that if safesport is judged to be at fault, you nevertheless have to pay their defense and penalty.
Bear in mind that U.S.Sailing forbids hold-harmless agreements in its prescriptions. RRS 81
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https://www.ussailing.org/competition/rules-officiating/resources/safesport-race-officals/
SafeSport training is a free online course that provides education on:
It is now required by US federal law due to misconduct in swimming and (especially) gymnastics. The very short story is that SafeSport training is required to become or maintain a race official certification in the US.
If this was a one-on-one contract, I would redline and negotiate. As it is, we’d have to rely upon US Sailing to negotiate for us.
I agree with Philip, a mutual release is much more appropriate language when you are talking about people who are volunteers for the sport.
Luckily, I renewed my SafeSport cert before this change, so maybe they can adjust this within the year.
If you scroll down in the email, the US Sailing liaison for SafeSport is listed along with contact info. I will not post that info here (and please DO NOT post it here), but any concerns regarding this agreement’s terms should be directed there.
The US Center for SafeSport (the “Center”) has authority under federal law to require US Sailing’s certified race officials to complete the SafeSport training curriculum. As the Congressionally recognized national governing body for the sport of sailing in the United States, US Sailing is obligated to support the Center’s training requirements.
A blanket capture of volunteers in an undefined legal trap holding SafeSport financially solvent unnecessarily endangers the volunteers.
Just once (always) I would like to see volunteers equally protected from agencies’ bank of lawyers.
As I first stated, each of us must study the potential impact to our nest eggs and to our heirs.
First, as US Sailing indicates in their response,
Therefore, to a certain extent, USS’s hands are tied to SafeSport under federal law. USS does not have the ability to choose a different provider of training curriculum.
To one of Phillip’s points, if the main concern is protecting SafeSport’s copyrighted materials, SafeSport could have done that in a MUCH clearer, understandable, reasonable and appropriate way. Every time we rent a movie online, we see the copy protection language ...
Every NFL football game takes the time to say ...
... also consider each time you install a new software update on your computer and your click “agree” to the license agreement.
This is all to say that we as average consumers are accustomed to seeing copyright-protection language and agreeing to it.
In the end, as volunteers for US Sailing, we will have to rely upon US Sailing to relay these concerns and suggestions to SafeSport, negotiate on our behalf and hope that this dialog can have some influence on producing clearer, more appropriately targeted and limited wording in the future.
A very valid concern is expressed and it's summarily dismissed by the National Organization. No suggestion of addressing the concern, just a case of take it, or leave it. The interests of a commercial (for profit) concern are put above the concerns of the volunteers at the grass roots of the sport.
Do we still wonder why it's so hard to find volunteers and why the pipeline of sailors is drying up?
We must "team up."
So many US officials are just opting out of the program... as we all know, there is no rule which requires certification, the insurance "carrot" is really smoke and mirrors.
Instead of guessing, why not give Justin a call and give him a chance to address concerns?
The short version of the story is that the SafeSport Agreement is universal for all US national sports organization that feed to Olympic level and is not going to change.
We can each assess our risks and decide accordingly.
Reading the User Agreement document in the print-page format clearly shows by punctuation and by indents that the User Agreement refers solely to access and use of the training materials, not to actions or outcomes. That was not clear to me in scrolling down the SafeSport online document sign-in page.