As we kick off the new year, it’s the perfect time to ensure your chapter and house corporation are set up for success. This month’s newsletter is packed with essentials to help you start the year strong – read the whole thing or check out the following sections that are pertinent to your role:
- Skip to the housing section where this month we’re reminding you about insurance basics and values, and we’re sharing a recent webinar on real estate financing.
- Click straight through to the chapter services section for a new tool for pre-event planning.
- Or jump to our claims section this month covering some practical steps to protect your chapter and house corpoation’s funds.
As we wrap up another year, we’re filled with gratitude for the incredible sorority women, leaders, and volunteers who make your organizations so strong.
This month’s newsletter is full of important information. Read the whole thing or check out the following sections that are pertinent to your role:
- Skip to the housing section where this month we’re reminding you about preparing for winter break, and we’re sharing our Winter Weather Bulletin in case you missed it.
- Click straight through to the chapter services section for an explainer on additional insured.
- Or jump to our special section this month covering some winter reminders for drivers.
The November newsletter is full of important information. Read the whole thing or check out the following sections that are pertinent to your role:
- Skip to the housing section where this month we’re reminding you about preparing for Thanksgiving break, and we’re talking about flu season.
- Click straight through to the chapter services section for a new resource for event planning and an explainer on additional insured.
- Or jump to our special sections this month covering some risk management reminders for drivers and for cyber risks.
Check out the 2024 Winter Weather Bulletin for important winter weather risk management reminders.
Fall has officially arrived, and this issue of the newsletter is full of important resources. Read the whole thing or check out the following sections that are pertinent to your role:
- Skip to the housing section where this month we’re reminding you about how best to manage your chapter and house corporation funds, and we’re talking about wind and hail claims (again!).
- Click straight through to the chapter services section for our new Event Planning Toolkit.
- Or jump to our special sections this month covering some risk management reminders for drivers and for cyber risks.
Fall has officially arrived, and this issue of the newsletter is full of important resources. Read the whole thing or check out the following sections that are pertinent to your role:
- Skip to the housing section where this month we’re talking about how to tell the difference between employees and independent contracts (and why that is important), wind and hail claims (again!), sharing an important webinar about adapting our chapter houses, and discussing Campus Fire Safety Month.
- Click straight through to the chapter services section for a new event planning resource and to learn more about our redesigned Coverages section of our website.
- Or jump to our special section for this month on cyber where we share a webinar covering what is called Business Email Compromise (BEC)– a type of cyber attack that is among the most prevalent.
Learn more about designing chapter houses with adaptability in mind in this webinar with our partners at Luminaut.
ACH transactions are electronic money transfers made between banks and credit unions across the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network. While convenient and sometimes appropriate, you should NEVER fulfill a request to wire money from an email alone. Below are some examples of language vetted by a cyber law firm that can be helpful to include in your email signature as notice of your organization’s best cyber practices on this topic:
- [CLIENT] will never send an email requesting that wiring, ACH, or other payment instructions be changed or altered. if you receive a similar request from anyone, you should always confirm billing or payment instructions with a known contact in person or, if not possible, over the phone, so that you can confirm the identity of the sender. If you ever receive or have received a request from [client] regarding payment instructions via email only, please reach out to a known contact at [CLIENT] in person or by phone. Always contact our main number and do not utilize the phone number in the email you receive.
- Never wire transfer money based on an email request from our office without calling this office and speaking with someone personally to confirm wire information. When calling, do not use the phone number from the e-mail signature line. Even if an email looks like it has come from this office, or someone involved in your transaction, do not accept emailed wire instructions from anyone without voice verification. You will never be instructed to wire money related to a payment without verbal consent.
In this issue of News & Notes, our monthly newsletter, we cover the following topics: wind and hail claims, handling food allergies, sharing recent sprinkler system webinar, notice about new version of Insurance Summary, sharing new event planning self-guided presentation, and a cyber webinar.
Over the past several years, the United States has been plagued by property-related catastrophes, including, but not limited to, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, convective storms, frigid temperatures, excessive snowstorms, hailstorms and wildfires. The sorority houses insured under the MJ Sorority Insurance Program have not been immune to these unfortunate events with a tornado significantly damaging two sorority chapter houses in 2022 and forty-four freeze claims in December 24-25, 2022.
Due to billions of dollars in paid insurance claims, all insurance carriers are struggling with how to handle the situation. Regardless of your current deductible, MJ Sorority appreciates your claims submissions, even if they will not meet your deductible. This information helps us provide historical data to our carrier, ensuring that we can communicate accurately the impact that these changing weather patterns, especially in wind and hail, have had on the program’s insured properties.
If your property suffers wind and hail damage, please be sure to contact us.
Our team at MJ Sorority is always looking for ways to help clients manage risk. We continually identify and vet business partners that we believe will add value to your chapter house and simplify its operations.
Since the beginning of time, the biggest risk to your property is water related incidents. In the Sorority Program, water related claims make up 56% of the total property claims. These claims range from water seepage, internal pipes bursting, equipment breaking down (water heaters, ice machines), to sprinkler leakage incidents. We also see water claims ranked in the top five most frequent and most severe incidents.
The one phenomenon that has changed recently is the change in the weather pattern, specifically the increase in freezing claims of regular piping, as well as the automatic sprinkler system. In the last three years alone, we have seen a substantial increase in frozen pipes claims.
What we have learned from many of these claims is that in many situations freeze incidents are preventable. Unlike so many other changes in the weather pattern, the weather reports generally forecast an impending freeze, giving property owners advance notice to make the necessary arrangements to eliminate or minimize a claim.
One of the strengths of MJ Sorority in our risk analysis is the ability to uncover emerging vendor solutions to help our clients in their property risk management. In this pursuit, we uncovered a great tool to help property owners stay ahead of any of their sprinkler pipes freezing.
We are excited to partner with Salamander to share their freeze detection technology, which will help prevent future claims at your chapter house. Your participation in this webinar is crucial to ensure the safety and well-being of your chapter house.
In this issue of our monthly newsletter, we cover background checks, mitigating the risk of wind and hail storms, share a webinar on security technology, review claims examples, our upcoming health promotions course, and more.