Here is the paper from the presentation!
Boost Your Associations Immunity to Legal Liability
Sandra Englund, Esq. and Drew Englund, Esq.
Nonprofit associations face many legal risks. Some of these risks are unique to tax-exempt organizations. Other risks also are faced by for-profit businesses. Most risks, however, can be reduced significantly by taking steps before any pain sets in. Similar to a vaccine, these steps may not provide a 100% cure, but they will put your association on a healthier path.
This paper looks at nine areas in which associations have the opportunity to reduce their risks: contracting, employment, conflicts of interest, restricted funds, lobbying & political activity, intellectual property, fundraising, social media, and sexual harassment.
Contracting mistakes
Contracting brings significant liability for many associations. Hotel and convention contracts often are valued in the six figures. When COVID hit and associations needed to cancel meeting contracts, the importance of a well-drafted “out” or termination clause became clear. For many associations, the COVID contract crisis may have been the first time they took a hard look at their contracts, looking for the “get-out-of-the-contract-free” card.
Nine common mistakes we see made by associations with respect to contracts are:
1. Signing without reading the contract terms;
2. Failing to negotiate the contract terms;
3. Important provisions missing from the contract;
4. One-sided provisions;
5. Agreeing to “ever-green” or auto-renewal of the contract;
6. Over-broad terms;
7. No consequences are included for vendors failing to perform;
8. Lack of performance deadlines; and,
9. Incorporating terms of use.
Discussion
It may seem obvious that you need to read the terms of each contract that you sign. However, for many people, their eyes glaze over when trying to read all the legalize in a contract. If you don’t understand what you are reading, it’s easy to just gloss over the contract and sign it. Check out our common contract terms “cheat sheet” for help understanding contract terms.
A second mistake we often see if that associations do not attempt to negotiate contract terms. Many staff believe that they are presented standard contracts that are not negotiable. This is usually not true. Everything is negotiable. Your negotiating power is impacted by the size of the contract. An organization booking 500 room nights at a hotel has more negotiating power than an organization booking 10 room nights. However, if you don’t ask for changes, you will not get changes.
One strategy our firm uses is to draft a set of standard contract terms for each client. Using standard contract terms helps ensure that important provisions are included in your contracts. In addition, it helps ensure that common contract terms are written equally for both parties. You don’t want the terms of the contract to unnecessarily favor the vendor rather than the association. By telling vendors when providing the term sheet that these are the terms that the association always requires, it helps with the negotiation.
When negotiating contracts look out for the “evergreen” or auto renewal provisions. These provisions state that the contract will automatically renew for an additional period of time at the end of the contract term. This may sound very convenient, and it is for vendors who have a better guarantee that their contracts will be renewed. However, these provisions usually state that if the organization doesn’t provide notice 30, 60, 90 or even more days prior to the end of the contract period, the contract will be renewed. It’s difficult to calendar and remember these prior notice periods. In addition, the circumstances of the association may change, staff may turnover, and for other reasons it is often beneficial to the association to review and negotiate contracts each time they are up for renewal.
Also look for contract terms that are overbroad. For example, clauses that limit the vendor’s liability are often written so that the vendor is not liable for whatever happens, including breach of contract. Use common sense and reasonableness to help determine if a contract term is overbroad. Is it reasonable, for example, for a vendor creating software for your organization not to be liable if the software doesn’t work for the intended purpose?
A very common mistake we see in contracts is that the contract includes performance deadlines, but it does not include any penalty for failing to meet the deadlines. A contract term without “teeth” does not bite. There is no incentive to meet a deadline if nothing happens for failing to meet the deadline.
Similarly, we see contracts that include required work product but do not include any deadlines for providing the work product. Again, a promise to create something without a due date is a very weak promise.
Contracts often include standard, and often online, “terms of use.” This is done by a simple statement or reference to the terms. Using incorporated terms of use has advantages. It helps to ensure that all users, vendors, and others sign the same agreement and terms. The downside is that for terms of use to be enforceable, you must show that the person/company actually read and agreed to the terms. Since we know that people often don’t read, particularly when it comes to reading legalize, this can be a stumbling block to using contract terms included by a reference.
Employment mistakes
The economic importance of work and careers to individuals and society as a whole often means that employment laws favor the individual. In addition, mistakes often are costly to the employer. Some of the most common employment mistakes we see are:
1. Misclassifying workers;
2. Mistakes in paying workers, including not paying interns, failing to pay minimum wage, misclassifying workers as exempt versus non exempt, and the like;
3. Failing to conduct performance reviews and keep records on employee problems.
Discussion
It is popular among nonprofits and associations to classify workers as independent contractors. The notion is that by using independent contractors’ money is saved on taxes, benefits, and other expenses. The problem is federal and state governments can better ensure that employment taxes are paid when workers are classified as employees. The result is that the federal and state governments are biased toward classifying workers as employees, and frequently audit and review worker classification. And, if your organization is found to have misclassified workers the liability is steep. Typically, you must pay back taxes and penalties. Ouch.
Let’s look at a typical case. One of our clients had, in our opinion, properly classified a worker as an independent contractor. The individual was the only staff member of a small nonprofit. She set her own work hours, developed her own work plan, used her own computer and equipment from her own home. She signed a well-crafted agreement that clearly set-forth she was independent contractor required to report and pay her own taxes. A few years went by, and the nonprofit decided not to renew the contractor’s agreement. They provided notice according to the terms of the agreement and thought all was well. However, the worker was unhappy that her contract was not renewed. As a result, she filed for unemployment from the state government. When the nonprofit received the notice, I felt that they had a good chance at winning the case, proving to the state government that the worker was, legally, a contractor to whom no unemployment was due. However, with the state bias toward employees rather than contractors, the nonprofit lost and was liable for substantial back taxes and penalties.
Another nonprofit client, however, was successful in proving its case that it properly classified workers as independent contractors. The organization hires hundreds of contractors to review educational courses for accreditation purposes. The organization also employs a few dozen employees. In this case, the contractors generally all work for colleges and universities as employees. The contractors receive most of their income from their regular, full-time employment. The nonprofit pays this contractors a few hundred dollars for each review completed. As a result, the state government found that these contractors were correctly classified.
Another common mistake employers make (both nonprofit and for-profit companies) is failing to pay workers properly. What the minimum wage is, and should be, are hot topics these days. As a result, it is critical that organizations know, and pay, the proper minimum wage. Organizations also must ensure that they are classifying workers properly as either exempt or nonexempt employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and paying overtime as required to nonexempt employees. And don’t try to get free labor in the form of interns. It is typically against the law to fail to pay interns. There are a few exceptions, but it is critical to know and follow the rules.
Finally, make sure that your organization is reviewing staff performance on a regular basis. How to make the performance review process valuable rather than dreaded is a topic in itself. However, failure to keep records of staff performance, both successes and problems, leads to increased liability when a staff member is terminated. A case comes to mind of a long-time executive director of a nonprofit client. The individual did a good job for the first 5-10 years of employment. However, in the last 5+ years, performance was sliding terribly. The organization needed to find new revenue sources, and engage in new programs, if it were to survive. The board of directors decided the organization needed to make a leadership change.
When I asked the client to provide performance records, they sheepishly told me there were no records. All they had was a board vote of no confidence. The situation was more problematic because of the long period of time the person served as executive director, and he was over 40, therefore protected by the Age Protection in Employment Act.
Without performance records the organization could wait, complete a few performance reviews, and then proceed with termination. Alternatively, the organization could negotiate a severance agreement that limited the employees right to sue.
Conflicts of Interest
Tax-exempt organizations are subject to strict rules relating to conflicts of interest. Conflicts of interests are normal. We all have them. For example, if I own a house in a particular neighborhood, I am more likely concerned about what is or is not developed on the empty lot next door. That’s a bias or conflict. The critical issue is not to try to prevent conflicts. Rather, what is important is how conflicts are handled.
The five mistakes we often see when it comes to managing conflicts of interest are:
1. Not adopting a conflict-of-interest policy;
2. Not reviewing the policy with the officers, board members, and key staff each year;
3. Not recognizing conflicts when they occur;
4. Not handling the conflicts properly when they occur; and
5. Requiring volunteers and staff to sign the policy;
Discussion
The IRS expects all nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations to adopt a conflict-of-interest policy. The IRS is concerned because nonprofit organizations get the benefit of not paying taxes. Therefore, these groups are operating on tax-free dollars. The federal government does not want any of the tax-free income to benefit key staff and volunteers operating the organizations.
Sample policies are included in IRS instructions for completing tax-exemption application forms (Forms 1023 and 1024). The IRS sample policies, and many other sample policies we see online, are sometimes overly complicated. We recommend adopting a simple policy that sets broadly defines what a conflict is, and how to handle a conflict when it arises. It is common even with complicated definitions of what a conflict is, the people reading the policy end up scratching their heads and unsure. We find it better to have a broad policy. When an issue arises the board then takes a vote, hopefully using their common sense, to determine if that matter is or is not a conflict of interest. And when in doubt, having the interested party not vote on the matter is the safest and most conservative approach.
Another mistake is adopting a policy, and then never reviewing the policy with key volunteers and staff. We recommend that the policy be reviewed at least annually, perhaps at an annual board training session. Another good practice, particularly when associations have meetings involving competitors, is to include reminder about the conflict policy and an antitrust policy, at the beginning of each meeting. I playfully referred to this as the “invocation”!
You might think that a conflict would be obvious when it arises but that’s not always the case. In our experience, outsiders can see a conflict miles away. However, the closer you are to the situation and the people involved the harder it is to see. This may be because people often feel conflicts are inherently “bad” and therefore don’t want to admit to a conflict existing.
For example, the executive director of one of our client nonprofit organizations invested in commercial property where he lived. The nonprofit also was located at the same time. The executive director offered (suggested) that the nonprofit lease space in his commercial building. When I indicated that this was a conflict of interest that needed to be handled according to the organization’s policy, I was surprised when the executive director and members of his board disagreed. To me the conflict was obvious, and easily solved. The board, without the executive director present, needed to review the terms of the proposed lease, ensure that the terms at least as favorable or better than similar properties, and vote on the proposal. The board did not understand that the existence of a conflict is o.k. provide the conflict is handled properly.
Finally, we recommend that conflict policies not be signed. While people may disagree on this point, here’s our thinking. Often nonprofit organizations will ask board members to fill out an annual conflicts statement on which they list their conflicts and sign the form. This may seem reasonable but here’s the thing. It is difficult if not impossible to know all situations, vendors and so forth that the association will consider in the future. Therefore, it is difficult if not impossible to really know if a board member will have a conflict in the future. We recommend training volunteers and staff to raise conflicts, or potential conflicts, when they arise and record the proper handling of the conflict in the board minutes. Another reason we are reluctant to recommend that this and other policies be signed, it that frequently people are missed, or documents are lost. If your policy is that the document must be signed, and you fail to get a signature or lose a document, this may bring greater liability than to have a policy that covers all regardless if the document is signed.
Restricted Funds
The handling and use of restricted funds is an area that trips up many association staff. Frankly, many of us do not like to deal with finance and numbers! The following four issues relating to restricted funds seem to trip up many of our clients:
1. Ambiguous terms in the fund agreement;
2. Lack of clarity or understanding about whether the fund is permanently or temporarily restricted, and how to remove the restriction;
3. The types of expenditures that may be made from an endowment fund; and,
4. When you may borrow from an endowment fund.
One of the most critical things to know about your restricted funds is what the restrictions on those funds are. Despite this we find that many associations get themselves into ambiguous agreements about the use of the restricted funds (or worse, no agreement at all), instead they tend to operate on a nebulous handshake deal where there is a general idea of how the money should be spent but the moment they get into specifics issues begin to arise.
The key here is to have clearly defined terms for how the restricted funds are spent. This doesn’t have to be a full formal contract (though it certainly can be, and it will get the job done) many organizations fundraise for specific projects and simply have donors donate to their preferred project, or have a letter from a major donor spelling out how to use the funds. These less formal understandings can be fine, but the key is to ensure that the limits on how the money is to be spent are clear to everyone involved, and are kept in writing.
A related issue is making sure that the classification of funds are clear. Sometimes you bring in too much money, a good problem to have for sure, but if those funds are tied up as restricted to a specific, already completed, project you end up with a messy situation. Similarly it might be that a donor just wanted to give you money but gave you some reason to believe they wanted the donation to be restricted and so you spend time and energy trying to ensure the funds are accounted for and used for the intended purpose when in reality the donor never intended to put any restrictions in place at all.
One big recommendation we have is to include in your solicitations that you are specifically requesting unrestricted funds. In our experience this rarely has an effect on donations and helps clarify things a great deal. On your donation receipts specify how you will be categorizing the funds, and if the donor wants to object give them a way to do so. It is much easier to clarify these issues with a little careful wording up front than cleaning things up years down the line.
Endowments similarly come in a variety of flavors of restrictions and often aren’t truly endowment funds in the traditional sense of the word at all. Often what an organization calls an “endowment fund” is in truth simply a pot of money that it put aside for a rainy day that is being held in some form of investment account. These can be “unrestricted” endowments where no real restriction has been placed on their use or “quasi-endowments” where the board has put restrictions on the use of the endowment, but the board could remove those restrictions at any time. These not-really-endowments have very few rules that restrict their use and can be managed freely.
There are also “purpose restricted” endowments where a donor has specified a use for donated funds that came in the form of a trust. These are closer to true endowments but are fairly straight forward to use as you can treat them as more elaborate restricted funds, simply ensuring that they are used for the specified purpose often being enough.
True endowments are funds set up as a separate entity from the organization, often a trust or private foundation, which has specific investment rules and must comply with the UPMIFA, and critically an organization cannot unilaterally modify the endowment’s restrictions once in place. True endowments are created to invest for the long term to provide funding for some specific purpose over decades and are very difficult to touch.
As a result, the most critical thing when it comes to endowments is knowing what you are working with and how flexible the rules are.
Lobbying and Political Activity
The restrictions on the activities tax-exempt organizations may, and may not, engage in with respect to lobbying and political activity vary depending on the organization’s exemption type. Organization’s tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code are most limited in what they may do. These charitable, educational, and scientific organizations may engage in a limited amount of lobbying but no political activity. Organizations tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(6) of the Code, however, may engage in more lobbying and political activity provided they follow the IRS rules.
The brief overview of the rules is as follows:
1. Lobbying refers to advocating for a specific political position
2. Political activity refers to advocating or working to support a specific political candidate for office.
3. 501(c)(4)(5) and (6) organization may engage in as much lobbying as they want, and can generally engage in political activity so long as it isn’t their primary purpose.
4. Only a 501(c)(4) may engage in political activity as its primary purpose.
5. In any event an organization engaged in lobbying and especially political activity will need to registered with the state/and or federal government to report on their activities
6. Funds spent on lobbying or political activity also need to be tracked and reported separately and are not considered an expenditure related to your exempt purpose.
The two mistakes we see most often with respect to lobbying and political activity conducted by associations are:
1. Misunderstanding the rules and therefore violating the restrictions; and,
2. Failing to properly track lobbying and political activity expenditures.
The big misunderstandings that we see is the difference between “lobbying” and “political activity” and what it means for an activity to not be related to your exempt purpose. It is in our experience common that medical associations occasionally engage in an amount of lobbying. Medicine and medical procedures get politicized frequently and medical associations often have an opinion on them even if it is just from a scientific perspective. The line between having an opinion about something in public and advocating for it is very blurry and often very thin.
The good news is that if you are a 501(c)(6) crossing the line from opinion to lobbying inadvertently is unlikely to harm you. 501(c)(6) organizations are allowed to lobby at the end of the day.
Where we see organizations cross the line is when they go from having an opinion on/advocating for a specific medical topic, to supporting a specific political candidate. Keep in mind that a political candidate is more than just the president or a member of congress, it could be a local medical examiner appointed by a politician.
What we’ve found is that the key is not to worry about avoiding lobbying but to be aware of when you are doing it so you can make sure the activity is reported (and registered where necessary) appropriately. It’s rarely the activity that will get you in trouble, it’s the failure to report.
Intellectual Property
Managing intellectual property, copyright, and trademarks, can be tricky. The first step is understanding what is what. A copyright is the legal protection given for originally created “works” – books, articles, the content of your website, movie scripts, and so forth. The first step in protecting your organization’s “works” is to place the copyright notice on the work. [Copyright © 2022 by ABC Association. All rights reserved.]. This really is as simple, and as important, as putting the little “c” symbol on your website pages and materials, brochures, and other written materials. Placing the notice on your works provides notice to the world that your organization created this material and that your association owns it. No copying please! The additional step of filing the paperwork to register your “work” with the U.S. Copyright Office brings additional legal protections. Filing with the U.S. Copyright Office is not essential for all works, but makes sense for many works.
Trademarks are provided for words and designs that identify a product or service. For example, the acronym for your association may be registered as a trademark. Additionally, your association may have a tag line or other words and designs that identify it. If your association runs a training program and “certifies” individuals or organizations as meeting specific standards, you may want to register a certification mark. Deciding whether to register a trademark or certification mark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office can be a difficult decision. First the mark must be distinctive. You cannot register common words like “The Association”. Common words are not registerable because they are considered available in the public domain for everyone to use. Next you must decide what category(ies) in which to register the mark. There are dozens of categories, each for different types of products and services. The trademark application itself is online and straightforward. However, deciding the categories, the sample documents to submit, and the like is the tricky part.
The mistakes we see when it comes to associations and their intellectual property are:
1. Failing to register and protect distinctive names, logos, and marks as trademarks;
2. Failing to update and renew the registrations as needed;
3. Failing to notify third parties that are using your association’s marks and materials without your permission; and,
4. Using third-party marks, such as pictures, in your association’s materials without the permission of the owner of the work or mark.
Discussion
Placing the appropriate notice, the copyright © and the trademark ™ prior to registration and the trademark ® after registration is an important step to take. For trademarks, it’s also necessary to file renewal registrations. The declaration of use must be filed between the 5th and 6th year after registration and an application for renewal every 10 years following that. You also should “police” your works. You need to make sure no one is using your content, name, slogans, and the like without your permission. If you don’t police your works, your works and marks may be considered in the “public domain” meaning the content is useable without your permission by everyone.
It’s a good idea to routinely run your own internet search to see if anyone is using your content without permission. There also are services that will run searches for your organization. If an unauthorized use is found, the next step is to send a “cease and desist” letter. This letter notifies the unauthorized user that your organization owns the content, has registered the content (if applicable), and that the unauthorized user must stop using the content immediately, including removing it from its website or other locations. Make sure to ask for a written response indicating that the unauthorized user has taken the required action.
You also need to make sure association staff understand copyright and trademark rules and do not use third party content without permission. There is much misunderstanding about “fair use” resulting in much misuse of third-party intellectual property. The best course of action is to always get written permission before including third party content in your organization’s materials or on its website.
Fundraising Mistakes
There are a variety of mistakes nonprofit groups make when raising money. Here are the mistakes that we see often:
1. Failing to file state required charity registration documents;
2. Violating state fundraising rules when raising money online;
3. Notifying sponsors regarding the taxable nature or deductibility status of donations.
4. Working with unreputable third party fundraising partners; and,
5. Misuse of funds raised.
Discussion
Currently, thirty-nine states (plus the District of Columbia) require organizations to complete the state’s charity registration. Most states require registration prior to raising funds. There are exceptions. For example, some states allow you to ask for contributions from members without registering. The exceptions, and definitions (for example for when a member is a member) vary widely among the states. The key is to check and understand the rules before you start a fundraising campaign.
Online fundraising is more complicated. State fundraising rules are written broadly which makes most online fundraising campaigns subjected to multiple state registration requirements. There are ways to reduce the risk, but the best approach is to seek professional advice before starting an online fundraising campaign.
IRS rules require that nonprofit organizations tell their donors the portion of their donations that are tax deductible. These rules get a little tricky when it comes to sponsorships and the amount of recognition given to the sponsor for its contribution. See our description of IRS Qualified Sponsorship Rules. https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/advertising-or-qualified-sponsorship-paymentsWhen for-profit businesses make contributions consider whether the business may take a charitable contribution deduction, or whether the contribution should be deducted as marketing expense deduction.
One problem some of our clients have encountered is finding out a third-party fundraising partner is not as reputable as they thought. Issues arise when a partner uses all or most of funds raised for overhead/administrative expenses, or when funds are not timely provided to the nonprofit, or funds disappear. It’s important to conduct due diligence on partners, including contacting references. Contracts with partners should clearly set out responsibilities, work product, and deadlines.
It may seem logical that donations should be used for the intended purpose. The reality is, however, that sometimes the needs of an organization change. How to manage donor intent and expectations, and changing organizational needs can be tricky. The legal and ethical rules sometimes are contradictory.
Legally, when a donation is made and the donor receives the tax benefit of deducting the contribution from their taxes, the donor no longer has an “interest” in the donation. The donation is now the asset of the nonprofit to be used as needed by the nonprofit. Ethically, however, if a nonprofit says donations from a campaign will be used for a specific purpose, such as disaster relief for a specific disaster, the donors expect their donations to be used for that purpose. So, what happens when a nonprofit receives more donations for an intended purpose than needed, and begins using the donations for another cause? In one case it was a public relations disaster. A very large national nonprofit encountered this scenario and donors were outraged when disaster relief donations were used for a different purpose. As a result, it is essential to keep donors informed.
Social Media Mistakes
How association staff use social media, as part of their work and personally, can lead to a variety of issues. Common issues we see are:
1. Posting presentations without the author/presenter’s permission;
2. Privacy violations; and,
3. Employees posting opinions on third party websites.
Social media is tricky beast at the best of times and trying to manage it requires that you grapple with issues related to the separation of your staff’s personal life from their work life constantly. One common recommendation we make is that you should have a clear policy about whether or not your staff can identify themselves by their job title on social media, and more critically what standards are in place when an employee does identify themselves as working for your organization. This should apply both to when they are creating a profile and when they are posting about their expertise in an online discussion.
Be mindful of what gets posted on official social media accounts, permission to record a presentation is not necessarily permission to post it online, and there is no end to the trouble that posting media you don’t own on twitter or Facebook might cause.
The key recommendation here is that it is critical that your staff has an easy-to-follow set of rules telling them what your expectations are for social media. But your rules can’t be draconian, if you push too far with these things you are going to be ignored and the nature of social media is if you find out you have a problem it is too late to stop it.
Sexual harassment
Dealing with the existence, perception, and risk, of sexual harassment remains to trick up many organizations. There appears to be a better understanding of what sexual harassment is now than in prior years. However, the idea that it won’t happen to our association is still common.
Problems we see include:
1. Organization sexual harassment policies are too limited; they don’t include volunteers and vendors;
2. Inadequate guidance is provided to staff on how to manage a sexual harassment claim when it arises;
3. Insufficient staff training about sexual harassment, handling claims, privacy, and the like; and,
4. Failure to avoid risky or compromising situations.
Discussion
It is essential that nonprofit organizations have a sexual harassment policy. Today these policies often are broadly written to include any type of harassment, and bullying. The policy should define what sexual harassment is, how to report concerns, and how the association will handle complaints. One problem we see with sexual harassment policies is that they are drafted as part of a staff manual, and the policy applies only to staff. Often staff interact regularly with officers, board members and other volunteers. Staff, volunteers, and the public also may interact with vendors and exhibitors. As a result, it is important that sexual harassment policies be written broadly so the policy is applicable to staff, volunteers, vendors, and exhibitors.
Another problem we see is that staff do not receive enough training on what to do if a claim is made. For example, one of our clients received a complaint that student interviewing for a medical internship received explicit text messages and an invitation to go to the hotel room of one of the interviewers. When staff of the association received the complaint, they quickly escalated it all the way to the executive director. Trying to be proactive and transparent, information about the alleged victim and perpetrator was shared with the association’s board of directors, and the deans of the involved medical schools. Many of the association’s staff also became aware of the situation. Only after the board and others were informed was legal counsel notified. During the investigation, the victim denied that anything occurred, and no evidence of sexual harassment was found. The association, however, in their efforts to swift action and be transparent violated the privacy of the alleged victim and perpetrator, increasing the association’s liability.
In today’s climate, it also is important to evaluate and avoid unnecessarily risky situations. One of our medical association clients administers student internships, clerkships, and residency programs. The programs include hosting interview programs. The programs have long been held at suite hotels, with interviews taking place in the living area of an interviewer’s room. This arrangement has worked well for many years. We advised our client, however, that the arrangement may be risky, particularly if a single interviewee is alone in the suite with a single interviewer. It is a good idea to avoid, or modify these types of arrangements. For example, if using hotel suites is the most economically approach, consider requiring that two interviewers always be present in the room. Alternatively, you may be able to video record the interviews provide some, while limited, protection.
THE BIG SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Clearly then there are a lot of common mistakes and seeing them all laid out like this can seem overwhelming. The good news is that most of these issues can be solved by early planning. Having policies and procedures in place a head of time, as well as a properly trained staff goes a long way to reducing pain when an issue does arise.
Like a vaccine you might not be able to stop problems from arising 100% of the time, but some care can make issues far less severe than they would be without preparation.