Where in the world am I today?: Skagway, AK, USA aboard the Golden Princess

Part of today’s post was suggested by fellow performer Bob Cates who thought the following information might be helpful to other performers. Today’s subject is all about having an inventory of your stuff when you travel or a Carnet.

The benefits of having a ‘CARNET’

A carnet is a list of your equipment, stamped by customs, before you leave your home country, so that when you return home with all your equipment, you can “prove” that you had it before you left. This can potentially save you the time and frustration of being subjected to a long search as you return home. About 5-7 years ago, I kind of made my own, and discovered it was very helpful and not too hard. Here is what I did:

I typed up a list of all the equipment I travelled with (yah, pretty hard to estimate, so I just made the list of like everything I possibly ever could or did travel with) and their serial numbers, if a available. Then I drove down to the local customs office with the list and the equipment. I told them that I was a performer, which got them laughing and joking, and showed them my list. Then, after they have inspected my stuff (which after the first time, they NEVER did again), they just stamped my paper with a customs stamp.

Then, at the airport coming home, when asked if I had a Carnet , I would say yep, and show them this stamped list of all my stuff. Poof – no problem!

Bob also provided a link to an article about carnets that he found on the internet here.

A more recent example of where having an inventory list like this would have been useful came during the PNE this year. Project Dynamite (Alex Clark and Dave Kaplan) had their van broken into and had several items stolen including their laptops and a bag that contained one of their passports. I was really impressed by how ‘in stride’ the boys took the loss, but was also amazed with the frustration that hit periodically as it dawned on them  the extent of their loss when they remembered yet another thing that had been taken and to top it all off they didn’t have any insurance to cover the loss.

So, along with the suggestion of getting insurance to cover theft of your props comes the added suggestion of creating an inventory of what you travel with so that if you ever do get hit by theft and need to show an insurance company or police what was lost, you have a list handy that included an item description (along with serial numbers if available), when it was purchased and what it cost. Having a copy of this list that you can access on-line (much like a copy of your passport that I discussed here) would allow you to access it at any internet café in the case of emergency.