Within These Walls

By Richard Jungman – Vice President – Client Services & Operations, HRH/Kirklin & Co., LLC

Lessons learned after a loss happens are stressful and can create financial havoc for your chapter. A lesson many have learned after a loss has occurred is the stress of documenting a business personal property claim and the financial impact of being underinsured. The commitment of a little time and attention to detail in the development of a Business Personal Property Inventory can help avoid this from happening to you and your chapter.

An inventory of the House Corporation’s Business Personal Property assists in two primary ways:

1. It is a tool to properly assess the House Corporation’s needs regarding insurance for its Business Personal Property. After you have completed an inventory, compare it to the current limit purchased under the House Corporation’s Commercial Property Insurance Policy. Read more…

Protecting your fine arts includes making sure that they are adequately covered by insurance. Fine Arts include paintings, sculptures, folk art, multimedia art, antiques, oriental rugs, and small collectibles such as figurines etc. Because the value of fine arts is based both on authenticity and condition, good documentation is essential. A problem common to fine arts is valuation.

In most insurance policies a separate policy or a separate limit for fine arts must be declared in order to provide more than minimal coverage under a commercial property policy.

The Fraternal Property Management Association Replacement Cost policy, under Business Personal Property, includes personal property in the facility owned or leased by the House Corporation or Chapter. This includes fine arts and composites on display or stored in the facility. It does not include personal property owned by your tenants. This coverage is written on an Agreed Amount basis, unless we receive a Replacement Cost Inventory from you.

If we receive an itemized inventory of your business personal property listing each item and a reasonable estimate of replacement cost, and you are notified it is approved, RSUI Indemnity Company will provide Guaranteed Replacement Cost on these items. Contact your Client Manager at Willis to discuss your specific needs.

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Adapted form the United States Environmental Protection Agency

Mold and moisture can be a real problem for property owners and managers. Not only can mold spread and cause a great deal of damage to the physical structure over time, the presence of mold can result in health problems for residents of an affected structure. There are steps you can take to protect both your residents and your property.

Moisture and Mold Prevention and Control Tips

• When water leaks or spills occur indoors – ACT QUICKLY. If wet or damp materials or areas are dried 24-48 hours after a leak or spill happens, in most cases mold will not grow.
• Clean and repair roof gutters regularly.
• Make sure the ground slopes away from the building foundation, so that water does not enter or collect around the foundation.
• Keep air conditioning drip pans clean and the drain lines unobstructed and flowing properly.
• Keep indoor humidity low. If possible, keep indoor humidity below 60 percent (ideally between 30 and 50 percent) relative humidity. Relative humidity can be measured with a moisture or humidity meter, a small, inexpensive ($10-$50) instrument available at many hardware stores.
• If you see condensation or moisture collecting on windows, walls or pipes ACT QUICKLY to dry the wet surface and reduce the moisture/water source. Condensation can be a sign of high humidity. Read more…

This convenient Air Conditioning Checklist has been designed by Hartford Steam Boiler to help maximize reliability, economy, and fuel conservation in the operation of this kind of equipment.

A great many failures of air conditioning systems take place at start-up or early in the cooling season because of inoperative controls or safety devices. Most of these accidents could have been prevented if a little more attention had been paid to readying the equipment for service. We therefore recommend that the following measures be taken to ensure a trouble-free cooling season and reduce the likelihood of equipment malfunction.

The tips offered here are intended to complement and not replace the recommendation of the equipment manufacturer.

COMPRESSORS

• Energize the crankcase heaters for at least eight hours before start-up and before taking insulation resistance readings of hermetic motor windings. Crankcase heaters should be left energized for the rest of the season so that whenever the compressor is idle, the heater will prevent refrigerant “migration” to the crankcase.
• Test the lubricating oil for color and acidity, and check crankcase oil level. Read more…

Provided by Willis North America

Protect your facility over Thanksgiving and Winter Break

What is the damage?

• Freeze, water damage and vandalism claims are the most frequent occuring claims from November through January.

Why did this happen?

• Chapter members turned off the heat thinking they would save some money.
• The pilot light on the furnance blew out.
• No one was in charge of checking on the house over the holiday breaks.
• The chapter house was not securely locked making it an attractive target to vandals and thieves.

Read more…

Irene, the 9th named storm of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season strengthened over Puerto Rico becoming the first hurricane. In addition, based on the current forecast, Irene is poised to come very close to the southeast United States later this week. NOW is the time to start preparing since all hurricanes and tropical storms pose serious threats to property and business revenue stream. The following is a synopsis of loss prevention measures from Willis that you can take to reduce property damage and business downtime from wind and flood.

BEFORE THE STORM

• Review/update business continuity/disaster recovery plan.
• Review procedures with your internal emergency response team to ensure all positions are filled and all members are properly trained.
• Make sure that all of the brothers in the chapter share contact information with each other.
• Make sure the house corporation and chapter advisers have contact information for brothers living in and out of the house.
• Check the general condition of the building – specifically the roof covering, roof flashing and roof drains. Make all necessary repairs.
• Order emergency supplies such as plywood for windows, mops, brooms, tarpaulins for key equipment, sandbags, etc.
• Identify key equipment, stock and supplies, and vital records that will need to be relocated or moved.
• Assemble materials needed to secure outside and/or roof mounted equipment such as cranes, signs, trailers and HVAC equipment.
• Monitor commercial TV, radio and/or internet web sites to keep abreast of weather conditions and issuance of watches and/or warnings.
• Test all generators, emergency lighting, UPS equipment and sump pumps to ensure proper operation.

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Preparing a chapter house for extremely cold temperatures

With temperatures expected to be at or below freezing for much of the country this week, it is imperative you take the time to properly prepare your chapter house for the cold weather.

During periods of extreme colder temperatures

• Service your furnace or boiler system—boiler pipes pose a particular risk in this weather.
• Open the indoor faucets slightly to allow water to trickle as moving water does not freeze as easily.
•  Leave the doors to cabinets that contain water lines open, this will allow heat to enter the area and help prevent freeze.
• Make sure that attic areas are well insulated to prevent the formation of ice dams.
• Respond to any leaks promptly to mitigate damage and prevent further harm.
•  Make sure that appropriate chapter members know where the main water shut off is as well as any other water shut offs (e.g. around commodes), and that they are in good working condition.

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Severe Winter Weather Property Risk Control

WEATHER HAZARDS & PRECAUTIONS

Winter weather not only brings freezing temperatures with it, but all the frozen goodies that cause havoc for properties and businesses, such as wind, hail, ice, freezing rain and of course snow! Severe winter weather threatens most of the country at some point, and can result in property damage and business interruption.

What to do? Plan! Businesses can take steps to ensure that severe winter weather does not result in an incident that damages property and leads to a lengthy Business Interruption loss.

This bulletin discusses basic risk control measures to reduce the risk potential for facilities exposed to severe winter weather.

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Sprinkler systems can be a way to protect the health and safety of your members living in fraternity/sorority housing, but they can be complicated to install. Joe Renie of SimplexGrinnell has offered to shed some light on the topic of sprinkler installation for local fraternity/sorority volunteers.

Joe is the Business Development Manager for SimplexGrinnell responsible for the Greek housing market. He has 30 years of experience in the construction business with the last 20 years with SimplexGrinnell and has participated in all aspects of the fire protection industry.

He will be hosting a webinar, Sprinkler 101, on November 9, November 18 and again on November 22 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time/8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

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At the 154^th Anniversary Convention held June 30^th thru July 3^rd in Orlando Florida it was announced that Theta Chi would be making changes to its current general liability insurance program in relation to coverage for undergraduate chapters and house corporations effective October 1^st.  This change is being made due to the rising cost of insurance and litigation incurred by Theta Chi chapters and house corporations.  To date all house corporations have been provided “general liability” coverage at no additional charge when their associated undergraduate chapter paid their risk management assessment. Theta Chi has elected to accept a reduction in the coverage made available to undergraduate chapters and house corporations under the national fraternity sponsored program to a limit of $250,000 per occurrence (chapter/house corporation) and $500,000 in the aggregate per location in an effort to control future cost of insurance. 

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