Oh my goodness - so sad to see such a thing go up in flames.  I bet you have a lot of good memories of those camping days somegal. 

Somegalfromcan,

Very glad to hear that there were no injuries.

On the plus side, insurance should have you in a breand-spanking new Dining Hall by next season.  Not that this Dining Hall was particulalrly old.

Grace and peace to you.

John

Sorry to learn of this, somegalfromcan.  I hope there is money to rebuild.  It sounds like a wonderful place for a retreat.

If they were insured under the United Church Group Property Plan, then we will all pay. The last time this happened, premiums went up 20%.

I have no idea what plan they are insured under, but I hardly think that one camp dining hall is going to put up everyone's rates by that much. Instead of complaining about a potential issue, how about a message of support for those involved?

Hi somegalfromcan,

DKS's warning bears some paying attention to.  Waterford United Church (where I currently serve) was insured under the United Church Plan.  It was by no means smooth sailing for this congregation in getting a settlement.  And we have connections right to the General Secretaries office.

Blood is thicker than water.  Fine print and shenanigans by insurers are almost thicker.

I don't know how many are on the plan in total.  We are all better off with more on than off and yet there was no line to sign up in Hamilton Conference when folk found out how easy our insurers made it for us.

While support for the Fircom community is a good thing.  DKS's comments are not an attack on Fircom, if anything they are a critique of a coverage plan put together at General Council with some help from insurers.

I can imagine that the total costs associated with removing the debris and reconstructing a new hall could easily come close to what a small house would cost to build anywhere else in the country.  OUr Insurers aren't going to use their profits to match that cost, they will get it from premiums.  The fewer policy holders the larger the hike in premium rates will be.

Fircom could get a new dining hall from Insurance money and then find out that they are going to have to tighten the belt just to continue to keep their insurance paid.

If BC Conference had all kinds of money for stuff like that they wouldn't have had to drastically restructure their whole Camps system a short while ago.

Grace and peace to you.

John

Yes, the loss of one dining hall or church can have a huge effect on all of us in the plan. Two years ago, we received notice of premium incrase of 20% ($1,000) over the previous year. The reason was that within the group (which is over 1000 churches)  there had been something like ten losses to fire and a liability claim. The total cost (including the Waterford fire) was over $15,000,000. Who pays the loss? All of the participants over the next five years. Church property has a nasy habit of burning. The losses are usually complete and catastrophic. We all end up paying. BTW, if my church were to burn and it were to be a complete loss, it would be a multi-million dollar settlement. And everyone would pay, going forward. If there had been loss of life, I'd be sympathetic. Property, however can be replaced. But we could all end up paying. And cause found yet for the fire?   

DKS - The fire was caused by lightning. The way you worded your previous reply made it sound as if the loss of one building had resulted in the 20% increase - not 10 or 11 claimes combined. 

RevJohn - BC Conference did, as you stated, have to restructure its' camps system a couple of years ago however our financial situation is very different right now as we inherited a huge amount of money last year. While some of that money has been shared with the national church (and is the reason why Saskatchewan and Newfoundland still have conference offices), much of that money has remained with us.

I do hope that they are able to rebuild.  The UCC camp in this area has been sold - not enough people to serve on the board - not enough funds to maintain it - damage from flooding a few years ago - etc and so on.  My daughter and granddaughter attended that camp.  It won't be there for my grandson - and all the other people who benefited from it.  Sad loss.  I wish that there had been some way I could have offered practical support, and contributed in some way to keep it going.