The following are brief summaries of each of the ten titles in the Centre for Sport and Law handbook series. These handbooks are written by experts in Canadian sport and recreation law, and have been created with the needs of volunteer sport leaders and sport association and club directors in mind. They include invaluable information in a succinct, easy to understand format and each book is designed to be read in 45 minutes or less. Each handbook in the series provides vital information which can save volunteer-led sport organizations hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars - the few dollars each book costs represents a prudent investment for any organization.

Managing Risks: A Handbook for the Recreation and Sport Professional (1993, 31 pp.) $6.00

This handbook covers three main topic areas: Understanding Negligence, The Risk Management Process, and Tools and Techniques in Risk Management. The first section, Understanding Negligence, provides definitions for Risk Management, Negligence, Duty and the Standard of Care, and Proximate Cause, and explains how these elements may combine to result in negligence, as well as how negligence and liability are related. Section Two, The Risk Management Process, describes the basic steps in risk management: Identifying Risks, Measuring Risks, and Controlling Risks. Section Three, Tools and Techniques in Risk Management, provides an in-depth look at waivers as well as briefly addressing the topics of volunteer training and the use of rules, warnings and signs at venues. Managing Risks: A Handbook for the Recreation and Sport Professional provides an excellent overview of a topic every sport and recreation leader must understand. While several more comprehensive manuals exist, Managing Risks provides the right level of detail, illustrated by scenarios and examples from Canadian case law, to be distributed to every member of a Board of Directors and staff.

Insurance in Sport and Recreation: A Risk Management Approach picks up where Managing Risks leaves off, and explores the role of insurance in a risk management program. The handbook briefly reviews the topic of risk management, then discusses the nature of the insurance contract, how to read and understand an insurance policy, the different types of insurance available, the role of the insurance broker, and how to report claims and record losses. The section on Directors and Officers Liability Insurance alone is worth the price of the book. Considering the difficulty most people experience interpreting insurance policies, this is an invaluable guide, clear and understandable (unlike your policy!) yet full of real-world sport and recreation examples, such as case law regarding a dispute over an insured hole-in-one contest.

This handbook provides an in-depth look at appeal policies and how to organize an appeal hearing. Where a related book in the series, Rights and Obligations: A Handbook for Athletes and Sport Organizations, gives a must-read overview for all volunteer Board members, Administrative Appeals offers the in-depth information needed to craft a solid appeal policy and a step-by-step guide to the appeal process. One chapter, A Model Appeal Policy, is devoted to a template appeal policy which any organization could adopt and introduce. Like all books in the Centre for Sport and Law series, a wealth of examples, checklists and definitions is provided, resulting in a clear and easy to understand guide to a difficult topic. The time spent in reading this book will undoubtedly save countless hours by minimizing appeals and ensuring that if appeals occur, your organization will handle them professionally and well.

Waivers and Other Agreements: A Handbook for Recreation and Sport Organizations covers one of the most commonly misunderstood, yet frequently used risk management tools- the waiver. Commonly dismissed as “not worth the paper it’s written on”, yet a fixture of registration in every sport organization and event across the country, a waiver is in fact a valuable part of your risk management program. The publication covers four main topic areas: What Is a Waiver? How to Improve a Waiver, Advantages and Disadvantages of Waivers, and Alternatives to Waivers. The value of a waiver and how it will be interpreted, definitions, common terms and wording, and how a waiver is executed are all covered, along with practical suggestions on how to be sure your waiver fits your need. Perhaps most important, the handbook debunks the idea that a single waiver “template” will be useful in every situation- a waiver is a contract which must be specific to the event and the situation. Considering how frequently untrained volunteers and staff simply copy “someone else’s waiver” for their own event, this piece of knowledge is vital.

“Risk management is not a checklist, an insurance policy, an emergency response plan, a waiver form, a volunteer screening system, or a warning sign, although any one of these might be a component of your risk management plan.” In Your Risk Management Program: A Handbook for Sport Organizations, the authors steer a middle course between two other volumes in the Centre for Sport and Law handbook series. In Managing Risks (1993) they provided a simple, clear overview of the topic of risk management. In Negligence and Liability (1995), they give an in-depth look at liability- what it is and practical steps to avoid it. In this guide, Your Risk Management Program, they again outline the basic steps in risk management, they examine negligence and liability (but in less depth), and then they continue to deliver a solid “how to do it” guide to actually creating a working risk management plan. Your Risk Management Program: A Handbook for Sport Organizations differs from the previous handbooks in the breadth of the treatment of topic areas. Overviews of negligence, liability, management of disputes, and protecting the organization’s assets are all given in a succinct form, where they are covered in more depth in other handbooks in the series. The guide ends with Putting It All Together in a Risk Management Program, which outlines steps to follow and provides a sample risk management plan developed by a real sport organization. Your Risk Management Program: A Handbook for Sport Organizations is a practical, useable guide to developing a risk management program.

This handbook is devoted to the ever-increasing group of sport and recreation associations and clubs which are seeking to diversify their revenue streams through partnership with or sponsorship from private sector businesses. Part One, Identifying Your Assets, explains concepts such as copyright, trademarks, official marks, patents, trade secrets and goodwill, helping assign value to common sport “properties” such as manuals or events. Part Two, Getting Ready to Do Business With the Private Sector, outlines how an organization can self-audit its readiness to enter into a major commercial transaction. Part Three, Types of Transactions, discusses the nature of sales, licenses, joint ventures, and official supplier relationships. Part Four, Practical Tips for the Sponsorship Contract, provides detailed information on common parts, and pitfalls, in a sponsorship agreement. As always in Centre for Sport and Law publications, the author has provided plenty of illustrative scenarios and tips, as well as a detailed appendix, Examples of Weaknesses in Contracts, which analyses typical contract language and suggests improvements. This is the perfect introduction for anyone considering drawing up a sponsorship or other contract.

Negligence and Liability: A Guide for Recreation and Sport Organizations covers a similar topic area to the earlier Centre for Sport and Law handbook, Managing Risks: A Handbook for the Recreation and Sport Professional. Negligence and Liability, however, provides more “how to” advice in the area of liability, explaining common defenses against liability as well as the basics of statutory liability. In general it is a more detailed, practical guide to understanding and avoiding liability, and makes a good companion volume to the earlier book. Where Managing Risks should be required reading for every Board member, Negligence and Liability could be an additional resource for volunteers and staff charged with developing and delivering programs and events. With its numerous examples drawn from current case law and its detailed, practical approach, Negligence and Liability: A Guide for Recreation and Sport Organizations is a wise investment for any organization.

“Over the years, we have found that disputes occur because organizations do not set out policies for dealing with something, set out policies which are incomplete, vague or contradictory, set out policies but then choose not to follow them, or have policies that do not fit with their culture, realities or resources.”  That’s the opening to Good Policies, Good Governance: A Guide for Sport Organizations, a practical guide from Centre for Sport and Law to policy development. Topics covered include constitutions and by-laws, membership requirements, conflict of interest, committees and committee structure, and suggestions for policy writing and conflict resolution. Simple checklists and templates allow the reader to ensure nothing is missing when framing their own policies, and avoid the all-too-common pitfalls of failing to understand the implications of their existing constitution and by-laws. Any organization or Board member looking for guidance on setting up, evaluating or revising by-laws, or developing good policies, should start with Good Policies, Good Governance: A Guide for Sport Organizations. The publication likely costs less than five minutes of your lawyer’s time!

The latest addition to the Centre for Sport and Law series is So You’ve Got a Complaint: The Hearing Process from Start to Finish. This time the theme is formal complaints- how to receive and respond to them, how to investigate them, how to conduct a hearing to deal with them, and how to make and write up the final decision. All this is covered in typical clear, easy-to-understand fashion with plenty of definitions, checklists and examples along the way. Any one of the tips and suggestions provided here can save a hearing or prevent a decision from later being appealed or overturned. There is extensive information on areas “sport and recreation people” often have limited experience in, such as the nature of evidence and investigations. Considering increasing number of formal complaints faced by sport organizations and the time and expense involved in managing complaints and setting up hearings, the value of this guide is obvious. The authors discuss alternate dispute resolution techniques, such as mediation and arbitration. As they say, “The challenge for the sport system is to find the dispute resolution procedures which are most appropriate for the parties and dispute at hand: in other words, ‘to make the forum fit the fuss.’ ”

Rights and Obligations: A Handbook for Athletes and Sport Organizations provides an overview of athletes’ rights and how they must be respected in athlete selection, discipline and appeal procedures. Chapters include What the Law Says and Applying the Legal Principles, so clearly the emphasis is on ensuring that sport organizations understand and apply the law to create fair procedures and dealings with athletes. This brief handbook is ideal for distribution to every member of a volunteer Board of Directors to ensure they have grounding in athletes’ rights issues. Like all books in the Centre for Sport and Law series, there is a wealth of practical examples and precedents from Canadian case law. The few minutes required to read this book now could save hours in appeals later.

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