Snowball fight update #5
brooklynsn...@gmail.com
snowball fight update?
First of all, my apologies for the lack of updates in the last two
weeks. Unfortunately I have a full time job, and even more
unfortunately that job required me to work a few 20 hour days recently.
Consequently, planning efforts have not been in full effect, but I'm
back in the saddle.
I have been told that there are rumblings of snow this weekend
(although some reports predict very little), so for those that don't
have the time or inclination to read this whole message, there still
CAN NOT be a snowball fight yet (at least not a world record setting
one), regardless of snow. Details in the rest of this post.
Some things have come together nicely. Special thanks to the Prospect
Park Alliance and the NYPD for organizational support. A few places
willing to donate goods have cropped up as well, including an Icelandic
winter clothing company looking to break into the US market that is
willing to donate some of their wares (to be raffled off, or some other
such plan). Angling for Godiva to donate hot chocolate, as well as
some local places near Prospect Park. More people have stated
interest, although the inbox has been very quiet of late. I guess
everyone has been out sunbathing in the 60 degree weather we were
enjoying and not at their computers. However, there is still one huge
obstacle...
Insurance. Funny, no one seem to be willing to insure this event. The
City has been supportive, but doesn't want to touch liability. Large
local companies (like ConEd and Keyspan) evidently need to plan these
things before the end of the year so they can be budgeted for the
following year (still exploring this though). So that leaves private
insurance. Seems they are not too keen on covering an event with
"fight" in the title. (For insurance purposes any policy will refer to
the event as a snowball toss --- hey, if it helps...) One insurance
company in LA supposed laughed when the idea was pitched.
I have been talking with someone who is willing to work on our behalf
to find someone to insure the event. To complicate matters though,
there are multiple levels of insurance at work. Special event
insurance covers things like concerts, so that is for everyone just
standing around. Once one snowball is tossed we move to another realm,
similar to sports insurance. This is the problem area. On top of
that, I need a refundable policy in case of no event (due to no snow)
because no one is going to want to sponsor the policy if they might
lose their entire investment due to weather. Anyway, still hustling
here, but there are serious issues remaining. I need to draft up some
documents over the weekend for one avenue of hope (Matt, I'll be
getting in touch tomorrow to ask for some of your legal expertise.
I'll gladly buy you as much PBR as you want next pub quiz to repay...)
So, the bottom line is no insurance = no event. I still believe in
this idea, and even if it doesn't fly this winter (can't believe it is
mid-February already) I'll keep at it so everything is in place well
before the beginning of next winter.
As always, I'll keep everyone posted. At this pace it could very well
dump snow in April, which would be a fine month for a snowball fight.
We'll see how everything pans out. Any questions, feel free to write.
Hope folks are still interested in this idea. Still a few hundred
invites to the Google group that were never accepted. (It wasn't my
idea to do it by invite. When I created the group it was immediately
flagged because... wait for it... it was too large. Isn't that the
idea of a group? They had already booted me from e-mail... That is
why the post was actually distributed several days after being sent by
me... had to plead my case with the folks at Google).
Take care all.
Jon