The HEMA Alliance has a martial arts insurance policy with Francis L. Dean & Associates.
The policy may be read and downloaded here:
HEMA Alliance Insurance Policy
Members and participants of official HEMA Alliance activities are covered by the policy. In order for an activity to be official, and therefore covered, the following criteria must be met:
1. The activity must be a function of an Affiliate of the HEMA Alliance (such as a regularly scheduled class or practice session) -OR- special permission must be received from the Governing Council for a Member or Members not associated with an Affiliate to hold an official activity.
2. The activity must be posted, before it takes place, on our Official Activities Board.* Recurring regularly scheduled practices only need to be posted once until the schedule changes.
3. In order for a particular individual within an official activity to be covered by insurance, there must be two waivers on file, a General Waiver provided to us by Francis L. Dean & Associates, and the HEMA Alliance Supplementary Waiver. Both waivers must be maintained by the affiliate. In the case of special permission for non-Affiliates to hold an official activity, the waivers must be sent to the HEMA Alliance.
Waivers are available here:
General Waiver
Supplementary Waiver
4. All official activities must be in compliance with HEMA Alliance Safety Policy.
5. At least one HEMA Alliance individual member must be present.
In addition to the above requirements, Affiliates must ensure that their attendance does not exceed the size of the membership they purchased (see the group affiliation page for details on how to calculate number of participants).
Freedom of Practice Notice
The requirements above for official activities are just that. The HEMA Alliance has no interest in restricting the unofficial HEMA pursuits of Members. Our rules for official activity are informed by a combination of our own views on best practices and requirements of insurance. We recommend to our Members and to the general HEMA community a conservative approach to safety, but all Members are free to use their own judgment outside of the official activities of the organization.
* If the activities board is down and you need to make updates to an existing activity or post a new one, send the required information to either hemaalliance.meeting.registry@gmail.com or hemaalliance@gmx.com. Please do not use these emails unless the forum is unavailable and the update cannot wait. Note that you are still required to post your activity on the forum once it comes back online, but sending the information to one of these emails will be sufficient to obtain insurance coverage for the activity (provided that the activity meets all other requirements).
