International Federation of Bike Messenger Associations

PO Box 191443
San Francisco, CA 94119-1443 USA

IFBMA Mission Statement:

1. To ensure the successful realization of an annual Cycle Messenger World Championships.
2. To foster a spirit of cooperation and community amongst bicycle messengers worldwide.
3. To promote the use of pedal power for commercial purposes.

The IFBMA came into existence officially at the open forum following CMWC '98 in Washington, DC, after the idea initially was proposed and accepted at the first open forum at CMWC '96 in SF. A longtime dream of several past organizers and other messengers, it exists to help foster solidarity in the worldwide messenger community, and to provide a non-bureaucratic decision-making body by which CMWC host cities can be effectively and fairly selected.

All current and former bike messengers are considered part of the general membership of the IFBMA. However, if you would like to join the IFBMA as an active member, please take the time to come to a CMWC and attend the open forum. In return, you will have all the rights outlined in the by-laws.

We also spend some of our time attempting to track down bike messengers in countries we have no contacts in. Over the last several years, we've found couriers in most of Eastern Europe, parts of South and Central America, parts of Asia outside of Japan, and even in Italy, which had us stumped for nearly 10 years (and was the last major country in Western Europe without a courier contact). The drive now is to continue to make contacts with couriers deeper into Eastern Europe (especially the Balkans and former Soviet republics, and Russia proper), throughout more of South/Central America and Asia, and hopefully, Africa. We've had a few brushes with possible African courier contacts, but nothing has panned out yet. We know, though, that it's really only a matter of time until we can *truly* claim a global community.

IFBMA Information:

• The history/story of the IFBMA - a more extensive explanation of how the organization came to be.


• The by-laws of the IFBMA - who we are, what we do, how we do it.


• The CMWC host city selection process - the basic process by which the CMWC host city is selected by the IFBMA membership.


• The nature of the open forum - how the IFBMA makes its decisions.


• The Markus Cook Award - what it is, who's received it, and what it means.


• CMC Organizer's Guidebook - bidding to host a CMWC, ECMC, or NACCC? You need to read this - the link is a .pdf file of the last version I produced, circa 2002, about 1.4 MB, so be prepared for some heavy downloading. Note that the versions of the host city selection process and nature of the open forum contained are out of date at this point - check the links above for the correct information.


• Past Open Forums - an archive collecting the agendas, minutes and decisions of all past Open Forums, both at CMWC and online, in one place.

Looking for IFBMA logos for your BMA or event material (tshirts, posters, etc)? Please email us - we have a full set in a variety of color schemes.

Current IFBMA Council members (2008-09):

Stefan "Porno Stevie" Fröhlich (Zürich)
Justin Gullickson (Calgary)
Martin "Banana" Larsen (Copenhagen)
Graham White (Dublin)
Andy Duncan (Utrecht)
Jacobs (Boston)
Navid Taslimi (Toronto)
Michael Dodd (Sydney)

To email the Council as a whole click here

Past Council members:

Current active IFBMA "staff" and "duties"/projects (in alphabetical order):

Buffalo Bill London, UK

General advice and ideas
Markus Cook Award

Jean Andre Vallery Jacumba, California

Founder of the BMEF, Retired
Bicycle Messenger Emergency Fund

Joe Hendry Toronto, Ontario

Messenger Institute for Media Accuracy
Media and legal contact

Joel Metz Portland, Oregon

www.messengers.org

Shawn Bega Washington DC

Registration and results database
messengers and euromessengers e-mail lists

IFBMA Press Releases:

• INTERNATIONAL CYCLING ORGANIZATIONAL NAMES BOSTON "WORLD'S WORST CITY" (08 Feb 99)


• CYCLE MESSENGER COMMUNITY CRIES FOUL IN AFTERMATH OF BOSTON PEDESTRIAN INJURY CASE (17 Jul 98)

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