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In 1992 Achim Beier, boss of messenger Berlin, and Stefan Klessman, Achim's assistant, decided to organise a World Championships of Cycle Messengers. Achim had been inspired by conversations with an ex-DC messenger who worked for him called Michael 'Ozone' Odom, and a trip to New York during which he had hung out in Washington Square Park with James 'the General' Moore and other New York messengers. Their vision was of a gathering of the messenger tribes from all over Europe and North America.
Stefan collected as many addresses and contacts for messengers as he could and sent out invitations to all of them. Achim persuaded the municipal authorities to close down a section of 17 Juni Strasse, Berlin's main East-West artery for the weekend, and even to shut the Brandenburg Gate for an hour so that the final could travel under it. And 500 messengers showed up, raced, drank beer, smoked and hung out. The Cycle Messenger World Championships had been born.
At the end of the event, a lot of people were asking where the next CMWC would be (actually at this point, the event was called Cycle Messenger Championships). No one seemed to know. The Toronto guys and girls, who had been the stars of the weekend in many different ways, even if they hadn't won anything, were keen to host the event in 1995 but not in 94. So we all went home and wondered whether we could organise something as big as a world championships in our town. Certainly Andy Capp and BB thought about it but decided that it was beyond them, and everyone else must have thought the same, because when Achim and Stefan faxed BB and said that it was going to be in London, not a thing had been heard from any other city regarding 94.
How did Achim and Stefan come to initiate CMWC (the name was changed at this point) 94 in London? Without going into all the Byzantine details, after the CMC, which had incurred a substantial loss, a sports marketing company who had taken note of the CMC through the considerable media coverage that had been generated, contacted Achim and Stefan and offered to buy the rights to organise and promote the event. The sports marketing company was based in Germany but had a partner in London. After some meetings with the two companies they decided to accept the offer. As part of the contract, they insisted that Andy Capp and BB were employed as consultants to the event. They hoped that this would ensure that the event was organised in a messenger-like way. Then nothing happened for a couple of months. As time passed, Achim, Stefan and the London messengers (Capp and BB had acted to bring in as many messengers as possible to assist in drawing up a new improved race format on the disused dock which had been selected as the site for the CMWC) grew more and more anxious that CMWC 94 would not happen. Finally, they decided to cancel the deal, get rid of the two marketing companies and let the London messengers organise the event themselves, with the advice and support of Berlin.
Despite the lack of time, CMWC 94 took place. 500 messengers came to the Docks, raced, drank beer (not enough, but that's another story), smoked and hung out. In the meantime, the International Federation of Cycle Messengers and Companies, formed under the impetus of Stefan Klessman, held it's first meeting. There were 7 people at the meeting: Boris (94 Race Captain), BB, AB, SK, Erik Zo (representing SF), Eric the Commander (representing DC) and Red Nic Thomson (representing TO). The statement of intent was:
The IFCMC will ensure the successful realisation of the CMWC.
The IFCMC will promote cooperation in the international messenger community.
The IFCMC will promote the use of pedal power for commercial purposes.
The difficulty was that whilst the intention was good, there was no clarity of purpose, no money and most importantly no mandate. It had no mandate in the sense that the IFCMC Board was self-selected and appointed. Both BB and Boris felt uncomfortable with this. Within months, the IFCMC Board was riven with internal divisions and mutual recrimination (internecine strife was to be a strong feature of all discussions regarding the CMWC for the next 3 years) and BB and Boris resigned from the Board, and SK, who was perhaps the most selfless, idealistic and conciliatory of the board members left Berlin and the messenger scene (though he had still an important role to play) effectively ending the IFCMC as a credible organisation.
In the meantime, in the months before TO 95 (which had been 'awarded' the CMWC by SK and AB before the formation of the IFCMC, in fact almost before they had decided to sell the rights) Trevol announced their desire to host the 97 CMWC. They contacted BB and asked him who would decide where CMWC 97 would be. He replied that there wasn't any coherent decision-making process, but they should bring some kind of formal statement of intent, backed by letters of support from the municipality and the local bicycle advocacy groups to CMWC 95.
At the same time, the SF messengers had begun to prepare to bring the CMWC 96 to SF, unaware that it had long been the dream of Achim Beier to hold CMWC 96 in New York City.
So the CMWC came to North America for the first time. Despite many major obstacles, including street closure problems which were only resolved a couple of days before the event, a thousand messengers, including several hundred from Europe, came to TO, raced, drank beer, smoked and hung out. The vast majority of the messengers who came from out of town were accommodated at messengers houses. The Boston crew introduced the naked mass ride to the CMWC.
At the awards ceremony, the SF crew, still unaware of the intentions of AB regarding CMWC 96, announced their desire to host CMWC 96, the general approval of the assembled masses. The next day, disconcerted by this un-looked for development, AB convened a meeting of sorts with SF representatives and others. At this sometimes stormy meeting, the NYC bid was discussed and in lieu of any other way of resolving the situation, it was agreed that one representative from Berlin, London, Barcelona and SF would meet again in January 96 to decide which city would host CMWC 96. Everyone went back to their cities and there then followed a period of discussion on the validity of what had happened at the Monday meeting in TO. This discussion, conducted mainly on the [then]
The length of time it had taken to reach this consensus had left SF with around 8 months to organise the CMWC, the SF crew had been so demoralised by the feuding that they had managed to make little concrete progress in the interim period. However, the SF organisers made good the lost time, and organised the most successful CMWC yet, both in terms of attendance, and in terms of extending the event as cultural happening and spectacle. Over 1000 messengers raced etc.
On the Tuesday after the CMWC, an Open Forum was held in Golden Gate Park. Flyers had been distributed during the CMWC inviting all with an interest in the future of CMWC to attend. The concept was to form a body representative of all those who had attended CMWC, which would have a mandate to take decisions relating to the CMWC. The meeting started with a blank agenda, which is to say that because there had never been a meeting such as this, open to all and any who wished to attend, there was no possibility of generating a credible agenda, so the agenda would be generated at the meeting by a general brainstorm and organised. The meeting would also use the consensus method of decision-making (see separate note on consensus). The minutes of the meeting are available on this web-site. Over 40 people attended.
It is fair to say that the meeting was a resounding success. It established the participants control over the CMWC, and gave the CMWC a mandate and a legitimacy that it has previously lacked. The IFCMC was formally disbanded. A basic formal process for deciding the consideration and approval of the location of future CMWCs was agreed. The IFBMA was born!