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New York City is hosting the 28th edition of the cycle messenger world championship Ocutover 28-31, 2022
for information
website http://www.cmwc.nyc/
instagram @cmwc.nyc
facebook https://www.facebook.com/cmwcnyc2022

This is a revised, shortened version of the original proposal presented to the IFBMA by Victor and the team presenting the bid to host CMWC 2022 in NYC.

To the messenger community and IFBMA,

As of the beginning of March, there was no plan for a cycle messenger world championship. Bogotá dropped out in September 2021, and then so did Chicago. For whatever reason, no city came forward between September and March with a bid proposal. New York City is stepping up to make it happen.

Our aim is to:

1. Crown cycling messenger champions, in respective fields
2. Get opening proposals for CMWC 2024 so they can be voted on in Yokohama
3. Get bidding for the North American cycle courier championship in North America in 2023

Proposed Dates

what we have now is Labor Day weekend

? the first Saturday of September (Sept 2, 3, 4, 5) 5.5 months from now

If the dates are a big issue, we’ll move the event to last Saturday in October (28, 29, 30, 31), Halloween weekend which is 7 months from now

Course

We are in the process of getting paperwork for the course.

We have a few locations; our main hope is for a course in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn. We are in touch with the community board for that area (CB6). 

Red Hook Mutual Aid will be our liaison for this neighborhood 

Our backup plan is the course in Bushwick, Brooklyn, which is generally where the NACCC 2016 happened (IFBMA has further info).

Sponsors

As far as sponsors, we are mainly looking for financial sponsors. 

We have two tier-one sponsors already. We can’t discuss the specifics but the IFBMA council has that information and has verified it. We have a WTF sponsor, so all the women, trans and femme competitors will not have to pay for registration. This might be a first in a championship event, but it’s one way to try to include more diverse participation.

We are confident about getting product sponsors, so we’re leaving that as that.

Our resume

NYC organizes a few events annually: Monstertrack, July 4th alleycat, Halloween Alleycat, the various Track or Die Alleycats. We have in the past organized the Warriors Fun Ride, NACCC 2016, and worked with other events like Bike Film Festival to make shit happen. The organizing crew has decades of experience.

Entertainment and Venues

As far as entertainment and venues, we will hire 

NYC EVENT PRO – NYC EVENT PRODUCTION

Housing

We’re renting a whole building for that situation

(everything is tentative until it’s made official)

Our social media

Instagram @cyclemessengerchamponship

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Cmwcnyc-100965875904825/

Website http://www.cmwc.nyc

Concerns that have been brought up

To this end, there have been a lot of questions concerning the event:

• 6 months is not enough time

We think NY has the resources to pull this off. We have experience and expertise in organizing events. It’s not our first event. Also, no alternative time frame has been offered or suggested. We’re so early in the process the date can also be changed and moved further back if it makes anyone feel better. But we think an event in early September would be our number one preference.

• The bidding process question 

After doing research we have come back with what closely resembles our situation, and set a precedent 

In 2000, Boston was supposed to host the CMWC but after problems arose (concerning course permits) the race/event was transferred to Philadelphia.

It should be noted that precedent has been set that should only one city propose for a given CMWC, they will “win” by default (barring withdrawal of their proposal).

Although this statement is about proposals two years leading to a CMWC, it closely matches the situation we are in now. Nothing in the bidding process predicts multiple years of the CMWC being postponed and cancelled. Since there is no information anywhere about cancelled/postponed CMWC, we think it’s best to do the best we can with the information we have.

As far as voting, there is nothing to “officially“ vote about. There is only one city bidding. You can’t have a vote with only one city. and you can’t have a vote against a city. Never been done. It would also contradict the part where the IFBMA is supposed to “realize an annual CMWC.” I don’t think anyone is against having the CMWC – they are questioning the timing and bidding process. That alone is not a strong reason NOT to have a CMWC. Especially (like we said before) when there is a good chance of it happening. This you can refer to the statement about “only one city.”

Hopefully, this cleared up a lot of questions, we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Questions and comments can be directed ideally to the thread posted in the post on the IFBMA facebook page, on the IFBMA instagram page, or if social media isn’t an option, directly to Victor at cmwcnyc@gmail.com

Hey everyone, we (the IFBMA council members) are in contact with Victor, who has come forward on behalf of NYC and proposed a bid for CMWC 2022 to be held early September 22.

We are not here to decide whether this event should go ahead or not but we would like to spread this proposal further than a Facebook post on this page so the wider messenger community can be made aware of it and asks questions or voice their concern, like they would at an open forum.
It sounds like Victor has already put a great deal of thoughts and efforts in this proposal. It’s great that some of you have attended NYC events in the past and support fully his endeavour.
Others have never set foot in NYC and might be pissed that the whole allocation of a world championship is decided on the hoof in a Facebook post.
With less than 6 months to go to potentially organise and advertise this event, waiting for confirmation on the race course and allocation of funds is a minimum requirement.

For those who asked who is the IFBMA, why do NYC need the IFBMA consent etc..

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 council members usually organise the open forum at CMWC as well as the voting for the next CMWC 2 years ahead (if more than one city comes forward with a bid), give update on messenger events worldwide and assist as much as possible those who undertake the organisation and hosting of the CMWC.

The present council members at present are:
Leah / Toronto, Kelly / Montreal, Joaquin / Mexico City, Josef / Stockholm, Fred Marshall / Seattle, Stephanie / London, Maria / Madrid , Cecile / Paris/Lausanne and a couple of others.

So keep your cycling caps on and don’t shoot the messenger who’s trying to deliver the message.

Following the confusion from some members of the Chicago messenger community after the announcement of Chicago taking on the organisation of CMWC 2022 and the anger that some expressed at Collin being in a position of leadership, here’s a statement from the members of the IFBMA council.

We are deeply sorry for any confusion, frustration and anger that the last few days have caused anyone. It goes without saying that it wasn’t our intention. However we understand the need for further clarity.

The IFBMA reached out to the organizers of CMWC Bogotá through their official channels in order to get an update on the situation. This is an update that is generally provided at the championships that happen the year prior. We asked the people we got in touch with to provide an update, as outlined in the CMWC guidelines. The organizers told us they would produce all the necessary information, however a week later at our scheduled meeting, they opened by saying that Bogotá was not prepared to host a world championship in the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, Collin had reached out to members of the IFBMA with a proposal of hosting a stand-in championship. He assured us that he had a solid team of people and a race course which was virtually already locked in. We discussed the fact that there would be little time for cities to put together a bid on a whim, make their case, for us to host mass online voting internationally all while giving said city enough time to get through the lengthy logistical process of finding and booking a race-course, getting insurance, finding party locations, not to mention dealing with what are sure to be the continued particularities of throwing an international event during a prolonged pandemic.

One thing must be made clear – no one who was part of this process was aware of the standing allegations against Collin. The IFBMA was led to believe that there was a fair bit of community support for the plan.

Collin has now stepped down from the organizing committee of the CMWC. The IFBMA will be in communication with the remaining organizers of the event in order to try to help in any ways we can with the organization of a championship event. The unprecedented situation the world has found itself in left the great possibility that we would go 3 years without a championship, meaning many people in our international messenger community would likely never have the chance to attend such an event.

We acted with urgency which we felt was necessary. In retrospect, more time and more care should have been taken in order to ensure that the proper choices and steps were being made.

STATEMENT FROM THE IFBMA

After several conversations with the organizers of CMWC Bogotá, it has been decided that it will be impossible to hold the Cycle Messenger World Championships in Bogotá for the foreseeable future.

The messenger community in Chicago has volunteered to throw an event in 2022. The team had already been working towards a bid and feel prepared to host the world with only one year’s lead time. Given the logistical challenges of holding a bidding and voting process online, as well as the urgency of choosing a suitable host city, the IFBMA sees fit to grant Chicago the bid.

Yokohama has assured us that they will host the 2023 CMWC, which had previously been planned for 2021. Any prospective host cities will be able to present their bids in Chicago for 2024.

While any international event remains uncertain in these times, we hope we can look forward to coming together again at some point next summer.

With love, your IFBMA Council

STATEMENT FROM BOGOTÁ

We would like to inform the Bike Messenger Community that sadly CMWC 2022 won’t take place in Bogotá, Colombia.

Due to the Covid and social order issues the country is going through, we need to think about the wellbeing and security of the community and we don’t want to put you at risk. 2022 World Championships will happen in Chicago.

STATEMENT FROM CHICAGO

In collaboration with the IFBMA and CMWC Bogota we are proud to announce that the 2022 Cycle Messenger World Championships will be held in Chicago.

With the current state of political revolution in Columbia the organizers have decided to retract hosting in 2022 as it would be incredibly difficult to throw an event with such an uncertain trajectory that their country is facing at this time.

With that in mind Chicago finds itself in a unique position of being able to host an international event of this caliber. We understand this may constitute a change of expectations for many, and a change that may not have been expected. However it is our goal to ensure the international messenger community has a place to gather and call home for a week in 2022. We are humbled and excited to take on that responsibility for you all.

As the new decennia is upon us, the international messenger family will gather in Basel to celebrate the 25th European Cycle Messenger championships. Since the last time the circus visited our fair city, a lot of things have changed in the industry and the world at large. Reflecting these changes, we have decided to dedicate a whole day for cargo racing and cultural activities on Saturday. We will do our utmost to make the event an inclusive, ecstatic celebration of our brothers and sisters on wheels. For Sunday we have the extraordinary opportunity to have the city center accommodating the main race. In the never ending quest to produce the most realistic test of messenger skills possible, the qualifiers and finals will make up for over six hours of racing. The new system we will put into place will have a dynamic component, meaning you will have to reroute on the fly. All this with regular plunges to the fresh Rhein river, meeting your old and new friends will hopefully make for a week-end that will leave you feeling exhausted, loved and confused. Until soon!”