Fire Insurance?

Wherein the word "fire" in the post title is actually the verb used to let someone know their services are no longer required.

The company that insured our Oklahoma Methodist churches dropped us awhile back, because we were making more claims than they were taking in premiums -- hail and ice storms will do that to you. It was tough to find someone who would insure our group, and they did with the caveat of a $25,000 deductible on hail and wind damage. We've had to replace both the parsonage and church sanctuary roofs since I've been here, and the total cost of both of those wouldn't hit $25,000, but I imagine some larger facilities might still find the coverage useful (and no, there isn't a separate package that leaves out hail and wind damage so you can pay a smaller premium. You some kind of radical, bub?).

At 1:02 PM, according to my e-mail inbox, I received a notice saying that the new quotes would come out and we had to decide by the end of business today if we wanted to stay with that plan or try to get one on our own. At 1:30, I received the actual quote. So in that three and a half hours, I carefully researched available coverages, rates and companies. I contacted all of our church trustees and had them meet to vote on calling an emergency meeting so they could vote to keep the conference package or choose one of the others.

Nah, I'm kidding. Because both of those e-mails came to my inbox while I was somewhere on I-35 in eastern Kansas, returning from the Leadership Institute referred to in previous posts. I didn't get to read them until 7:30 PM, well after I had any chance to e-mail or call to gather anyone and well before the contact person in the insurance company would be back in his office Monday morning. So we have higher premiums and less coverage without even lifting a finger. But it could be worse.

The government might try to fix it.