I belong to a small (about 20 active members) woodworking group in my area. We recently started discussing how it might be possible to do something for our community at Christmas. One of our initial ideas is to try and make some toys and donate them to a local orphanage or perhaps a women's shelter. As we talked about this more, the topic of liability came up and what could we do to protect ourselves legally. None of us are lawyers, so we're a bit in the dark on this.
I've seen the web sites for some other woodworking clubs out there, and it seems that there are a variety of groups out there that are making toys for Christmas and able to give them away. So what's the secret? Did your group just get lucky and wind up with a member that's also a lawyer that has taken care of this for your group? Or is there some other trick, like selling/auctioning off the stuff your group makes through some sort of middle-man that would then shield your group from any litigious idiots, then you just donate the money to whatever charity.
In short, how do we do we put our craft and skills to use as woodworkers to do something nice, without getting sued?
Thanks.