Minutes/Notes from the 1st CWMC Forum, held 3 September 1996 3:00 PM @ The Bandshell, Circular Dr., Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

(compiled by Megan Redington, typed and edited by Joel Metz)

It was a beautiful day in the park, the CMWC was over (thank god). But we could not live without another time consuming organizational nightmare - so those of us dedicated to headaches met to discuss the future of the CMWC and the worldwide community it has created/brought together.

The method of the meeting was concensus - that means no votes, no majority rules, lots of talk, lots of listening, and slow, but meaningful, progress. In a concensus, all people participating must agree before anything can be placed into action.

First, the whole group set an agenda through brainstorming. After sifting through all the ideas and grouping and prioritizing the agenda looked like this:

I. How to choose the CMWC host city.
II. The CMWC

A. What is a Cycle Messenger World Championships?

1. Race?
2. Cultural festival?
3. All of the above?


a. What are the organizers of the CMWC responsible for? (At a basic level - the minimum to make a CMWC.)


1. Housing?
2. Race?
3. Festival?
4. Transportation?
5. Financial aid?
6. Anything else?

B. Sponsorship (How much, what kind, how far can sponsors go in shaping the event?)

- Sponsors carry over from one year to the next?

C. Media

1. How should the CMWC be represented?
2. Is it up to the host city or should some kind of standard be set by defining the event in a specific way?
3. Defining the rights of the CMWC in terms of selling them? (yuck!)

D. Women

- How to deal with the fact that each year women got the short shaft in competition.

E. Verification of messenger, old git, veteran status before entering or registering
F. Sportsmanlike conduct

- How to deal with people who don't have the spirit

A. IFCMC (International Federation of Cycle Messengers and Companies)

1. What is it/was it?
2. What to do with it?

B. What to do with the CMWC '96 SF nonprofit corporation
C. A creation of a clear and definitive delineation of the rights of the CMWC in terms of media and sponsorship
D. Does the CMWC want to be utilized as a vehicle for raising standards for the treatment of messengers or as a political voice etc?
E. How to expand the participant base of the CMWC to include developing nations
F. Administrative bullshit

- How to keep us talking to each other throughout the year so the CMWC gets better and easier and the world community gets stronger

A. Standardization vs. non-standardization

1. What is neccessary?
2. What does the race test?

The large group broke into smaller groups to tackle the agenda. Given about an hour to do so, each group awas to return and a spokesperson would give a report on the fruits of their discussion. [Each groups notes are available from my archive - Joel.]

Once the big group heard all the small groups the big group went over the agenda to solidify all the points and make decisions.

The decisions reached by concensus at the forum are:

• We no longer consider the IFCMC as "founded" in London by Achim et al to be any kind of overseeing, mandating kind of mother/father body.



• We consider the group of people at the forum to comprise the decision making body of the CMWC at this time. We assumed this position because we all chose to come to the meeting and make decisions. This is not a set body, but will vary from year to year depending on who shows up at similar forums.



• We dont have a name for this body.



• CMWC '97 will be held in Barcelona, Spain.



• From the people present a group of contact people was made who will disseminate information to the couriers in the respective cities, states and countries.



• A hub - located in SF for now - will act as the gathering and distribution point for data and information. Joel Metz, with the help of CMWC '96, will operate that hub. Joel will also work as the keeper of the mailing lists.



• The Danes and Chris Grealish of Denver/Boulder Couriers need some talking to before CMWC '97 to discuss their un-CMWC spirit/attitudes.