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shows, pots, kids and insurance

updated sun 11 apr 04

 

Kim Peterson on fri 9 apr 04


Who would you get insurance from? My policy/provider would, under no
circumstances, cover liability during a show.. Would the cover my
work/booth...?? I haven't asked them. I've always considered that a
calculated risk..
The reason I'm asking this, is I received information for a street fair in
my "old home town" and they required a $1 mill liability insurance policy
(and proof of same) before I could be accepted into their arts and crafts
and food fair. I have never heard of this in the 9 years (plus or minus a
month) of doing shows.. Any idea as to the rationale?
Kim Peterson



>From: Sarah House
>Reply-To: Clayart
>To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
>Subject: shows, pots, kids and insurance
>Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 08:32:33 -0400
>
>Insurance for shows is pretty reasonable. I got it last year for average of
>$30 per show for nine shows. It covered my display and work while I was
>away
>from home, driving and during the show. I bought it after finding out that
>hurricane Hugo hit Charlotte the weekend of the Freedom Park Festival, made
>me think. I'm only doing 5 show this year, i'll let you guys know if the
>average cost goes way up or anything. and I'm sure someday they'll add an
>'act of God' clause.
>
>Sarah House
>
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>Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
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Lois Ruben Aronow on fri 9 apr 04


That seems excessive, considering the Cyclone Roller Coaster in Coney Island
carries 5M. Unless your pots are gonna jump up and smack people in the
head, it seems weird to me.


> Who would you get insurance from? My policy/provider would,
> under no circumstances, cover liability during a show.. Would
> the cover my work/booth...?? I haven't asked them. I've
> always considered that a calculated risk..
> The reason I'm asking this, is I received information for a
> street fair in my "old home town" and they required a $1 mill
> liability insurance policy (and proof of same) before I
> could be accepted into their arts and crafts and food fair. I
> have never heard of this in the 9 years (plus or minus a
> month) of doing shows.. Any idea as to the rationale?
> Kim Peterson

Janet Kaiser on sun 11 apr 04


The rationale? They insure in case you claim against them and you
are required to insure in the case of someone claiming against
you. Each has their own area of responsibility and therefore
liability. Add on local requirements, rules and by-laws which are
becoming tight in many countries and you have quite an expensive
undertaking because everyone has to cover their own back. Here in
the UK you have to get a license from the local authority for
absolutely every public event you can think of. They set the
rules which range from adequate public liability insurance
through to fire certification and provision of first aid. There
is not a snowball's chance in hell of anything happening
spontaneously in the 21st century... Onerous?? Hummm... No, I
still have a few chores to do, so better not got off on a
tangetal rant just now!!!

You live in what is probably the most litigacious society in the
world, Kim, and certainly the one that sees courts making the
largest compensation settlements. Add the knock-on effect of many
very large claims and you can now see the inevitable result
filtering down to the man on the street or as in your case, Kim,
the woman at the craft fair... The Big Boys (fat cat insurance
companies and more importantly their share holders) want to make
sure that they are not going to loose out in the event of a
disaster like the roof falling in or someone knocking over a
display of burning candles and setting fire to the whole
street... We will not mention terrorism or Acts of God, such as
storms and flooding resulting from global warming, but the
definite increase in the number of incidents where there are
large or even very large numbers of people involved and
ultimately payments to be made (some countries much more so than
others) the premiums have to be paid by someone, somewhere. Those
high costs are being spread around, but who is going to end up
paying? Naturally anyone who takes out a policy -- You can bet
your bottom dollar, it will NOT be the insurance companies or
their shareholders! "It is a business, not a charity" (as I was
once told).

A third party, public liability clause for just one million US$
is not in the least excessive IMO... The minimum **legal
requirement** is three million pounds for any trader or business
person over here in the UK. I have no idea what the is legal
requirement for a large venue with a capacity to hold hundreds or
thousands like stadia, theatres, shopping malls, etc., although
knowing our arse-about-face country, it could well be exactly the
same! And I think this is considered the minimum if ever a
*single person* is accidentally injured on or by our premises or
our property. What an insurance premium in the event of multiple
claims would be or cost..? Well, a lot more than we could afford
to pay in premiums and that is for certain! Really we just pay
the minimum in the hope that there would never be a "worst case
scenario".

I imagine that fair organisers are facing the same difficulty,
whether they are held indoors or out. They simply will not be
able to afford paying, even if the insurance industry will take
the risk of insuring them. I can imagine they are insured re: the
exhibitors should any of them claim against them. But they may
not be able or willing to insure against any claims made on the
individual exhibitors by other third party/parties... And the
more successful the event, the more "risk" everyone has to take.
In your case of a street fair, Kim, I presume that every vendor
would need to hold the minimum personal insurance cover required
in your country/state/city in any case, whether the fair is
otherwise insured or not. By requiring proof, the organisers are
showing their responsible attitude towards public liability,
local laws, health & safety requirements, etc. etc. and not being
naive about individual exhibitors claiming to have full insurance
cover, then if ever push came to shove suddenly finding they do
not. Yes, some people tell lies and cheat, so best make sure
everyone is checked and not just depend on their bright blue
eyes.

If the cost and ultimately the risk to insurers is spread between
all the exhibitors and therefore many different insurance
companies, then there is a chance of something approaching
adequate cover at an affordable rate. Well it is naturally easier
to make risk assessments when 100 exhibitors insure for 1mio $
each. That is $100 million in total. Presumably that would cover
the legal requirements for most events of this size?

Sincerely

Janet Kaiser -- Just finished all the baking and cake icing. Now
what is the odds we do not have a single visitor over Easter and
we end up eating it all ourselves?? This is after eight recent
visitors who were not even offered a biscuit with their tea!

*** IN REPLY TO THE FOLLOWING MAIL:
>The reason I'm asking this, is I received information for a
street fair in
>my "old home town" and they required a $1 mill liability
insurance policy
>(and proof of same) before I could be accepted into their arts
and crafts
>and food fair. I have never heard of this in the 9 years (plus
or minus a
>month) of doing shows.. Any idea as to the rationale?
*** THE MAIL FROM Kim Peterson ENDS HERE ***
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The Chapel of Art : Capel Celfyddyd
8 Marine Crescent : Criccieth : Wales : UK
Home of The International Potters' Path
Tel: ++44 (01766) 523570 http://www.the-coa.org.uk

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