These meeting minutes are taken in shorthand & directly copied onto our website. They are not meant to read as a typical review or article, but merely as a series of notes taken from our meetings. If you have questions, concerns, or are intrigued by anything you read, please contact us or come to our next open meeting. Open meetings are held the first Wednesday of the month at 49 E. Houston St. at 6:30pm.

January 6, 2006 | <November 2, 2005 | October 5, 2005 | September 7, 2005 | August 3, 2005

NYBMA meeting minutes: January 4th, 2006

Agenda
site
building campaign

site - Logistics - Ken will investigate some options on layout, software, servers, etc and report back next meeting. We currently reimburse Hermes & Pit and are hosted on pair.com. Ken will also give us a quote on possible financial compensation (so we can come down on him, as an employee, in a way that we can't as a volunteer). Content - the Kissena series stuff will come down (& be archived); the CMWC stuff will stay up for now. We decided to be more conservative about our editorial comment (read: no more calling cops "rats" being as we have to share this city with them, will probably want to work with them in the future and we can get along with them as an organization and leave the cop-baiting to times up and at individual discretion).

building campaign - Frank will send our letter to the NYSMCA (New York State Messenger & Courier Association). He will also draft a template for a letter directly to building owner companies from the NYBMA describing the kind of systemic problems we face. Contact info is available at propertyshark.com if anyone is interested! Ken will put something on the site along the lines of "building X sucks - tell us why!" Squid suggested meeting directly with Bright Star about some of the problems we have with them, figuring we can make more progress sitting down and discussing issues than we can as individual messengers making complaints - we decided to revisit the idea next month, possibly with results from our letters.

New business - mostly community building stuff - some clarification on financial issues between the BMA and the BMF ( the BMF owes the BMA a chunk of change for BMA inventory) - does Drew want to do prom at 49 East Houston as a fundraiser for the space? Judith will inquire & report - we should develop some new product for the store and come up with some new stuff - "I support the NYBMA" patches, etc. - we should do ID cards - we should do a "messenger of the week" feature on the site - we should have annual awards (dubbed by Squid in a fit of stark staring genius "the Messies") for "best reception", "worst mailroom", etc.....................respectfully submitted by MAX

NYBMA meeting minutes: November 2nd, 2005

Agenda:
Bright Star recruiter
Newsletter
DOL statutes
Building campaign
Company reps

Bright Star recruiter
Monica from Bright Star contacted Judith and Ted about coming to our next meeting. After discussion, it was decided that we should ask her for more info about what she wanted to talk to us about. After the meeting it turned out Monica is leaving Bright Star and her replacement will contact us. 10-4, Monica.

Newsletter
We have the new newsletter, any and all input is appreciated! The next one will be printed, mailed out and otherwise available on November 30, one week before the next general meeting. Contact Judith to contribute/ help, or come to the next outreach meeting.

DOL statutes
will be forwarded to the group and posted on the files section, also reported in the next newsletter. Basically, as far as the Department of Labor is concerned, bike messengers have an employee/ employer relationship, which is good because independent contractors have no legal right to organize.

Building campaign
come to the campaign planning meeting to help out. Brean is organizing this campaign, so everybody send him your 3 most hated buildings and why at breanshea@hotmail.com . Our first action will be to contact the owners' association (NYSMCA) and see if they'd be willing to help us do something about buildings that fuck with/slow down messengers.

Company reps
Thanks to everyone who volunteered to be the person who posts flyers and hands out newsletters at their company!

Bright Star - Dan G
Mother's - Jay
Quik Trak - Peter
Flash - Ted
Elite - Tone
Urban - Dave
Dynamex - Dan C
Breakaway - Robert
Streetwise - Austin

If you don't see your company represented here, contact Judith at judith@nybma.com and volunteer! ride safe!

NYBMA meeting minutes: October 5th, 2005

Reviewed plans for MAD, asked for help with promotion and day-of

Presentation by Matthew from Affinity - he will be at MAD (hopefully) during the day

Reviewed new newsletter further input will be discussed at next outreach meeting. At this point production and distribution consists of 1 sheet double side, handed out on the street.
Mission statement altered to say "workersâ alliance" rather than "trade guild" passed!
Format proposed change to include review/preview of activity
Review of calendar contents:
Agenda planning meeting where we decide what to talk about at the next general meeting
Monthly general meeting gathering of entire membership, ideally, to discuss Association activity MAD our special event this month
Campaign planning meeting where we decide which campaign to work on, i.e. radio charges, company review, bike safety, whatever.
Outreach meeting we will discuss the newsletter, monthly parties, company reps, a shop/center/company policy for promotion, etc.
Monthly party we should have some fun with this! Ideas: karaoke, Messenger Roast, art show, etc. Halloweekend this month's alleycat

Presented new NYBMF program sign up with NYBMA and get NYBMA rates if you get hurt! For now, membership is free. Program not implemented yet, but you can still sign up and get in early!
ID cards we should do it! Possibly at an outreach party?

New business:
Brean told the group about situation with Breakaway and IMG models at 304 Park South. The building started making messengers go through the freight. All the good messengers refused to go, so IMG got crappy service and lots of wait time. IMG complained to 304 PS, and the rule was changed! The lesson: if we all get together and do something, changes can be made! Idea: this could be a great campaign to work on, and a good story to put in the next newsletter. We could have a building review like our company review. We could have a letter-writing campaign to buildings with bad policies. We could use the "nuisance charge" as an example of a policy we'd like to see in NY

NYBMA meeting minutes: September 7th 2005

BMA meeting, Wednesday September 7th

Discussion of MAD (October 7th): questions about where to get beer sponsor.

Steve Stollman gives passionate speech on making messenger appreciation day part of something larger.

Group goes around and names at least one messenger center that would be willing to put up a poster.

Judith: going to start sending out a newsletter with a calendar.

Discussion: does the NYBMA need officers (whose responsibility would be bringing more people to the meetings) or should it continue in its current form?

Ted wonders if there should be dues; what benefits might be offered.

Squid: devil's advocate -what would you do if 50 people showed up?

Judith: need to be more representative.

Sq: can get more done with less people.

Austin: for people who can't be here, would be good to put minutes on the site.

Discussion of need for communication network to be able to outreach to, for instance, injured messengers not tied to the community. To at least be able to know if they need a benefit. As well as advocating around shitty working conditions. (note: since this meeting a decision has been made to contact Ken Stanek in the case of a messenger accident. He will be able to post information on the website & prepare flyers for immediate distribution. Additionally, the nearest forthcoming nybma outreach party will tentatively be designated as a fundraiser for the fallen messenger)

Dan: we need to look out for those who need help.

Mike D: Call for a new zine

Sq: with a more uplifting name this time.

NYBMA meeting minutes: August 3rd 2005

NYBMA Meeting Wednesday, August 3rd

Rob Kotch

(note: the following is from a discussion with Rob Kotch, owner of Breakaway couriers)

Congratulations on the successful CMWC. Thanks NYBMA for referrals to Breakaway.

Regarding his lawsuit: Doesn't want to say much about the suits but wonders whether it could have been avoided.

He notes that Breakaway not largest company - won't name names but there are 3 publicly traded companies that are larger. Frustrated with Independent Contractor companies because they can compete at lower costs.

It appears that light document delivery is on the decline; tightening budgets, managers asked to sharpen their pencils and figure out where to cut spending; pricing pressures.

I get calls all the time: my messenger service charges $8; can you do it for $5.50?

A local delivery used to be double minimum wage: that would make a current base rate of $12.

Why not have a service on your website that rates companies? Do an objective comparison among messenger services.

Question: Would you favor licensing?
Kotch: that would be a great barrier to entry, giving me higher quality messengers.

Management problems: -people not willing to work in the rain
- people urinate in elevators
- people who write on walls

Not many people do these things but that 1% takes a lot of time to deal with.

Question: What happens at the owners meetings? How much do you talk about rates?
Kotch: Substantively? It's not legal to talk about rates. It's a lot of glad handing. As soon as we walk out the door we're ready to cut each other's throats.

Questions: Ever talk about improving conditions for bikes?
Kotch: That's a good point; frustrations with waiting times; we might want to institute a security fee.

Question: Do you think messengers themselves should be rated by their companies?
Kotch: Yes but that sounds illegal. It would have to be a third party organization.
Question: Would you favor circumventing worker's compensation.
Kotch: That would be cost prohibitive. Would take at least $600,000. When companies face a premium problem they end up on the other side of town under a different name.

Revenue is shifting towards light walkers with hand trucks: a lot of people do not like to ride cargo bikes.

Question: What do you see for the messenger industry in the future?
Stagnant, slow growth, dominated by publicly traded companies; mundane: the commoditization of same-day delivery. It always seemed more fun to me to do the jobs that had to be there now, but that's not what the industry is becoming. Can't bring myself to discount any more.

Carmello: Class action filed on April 24th 2005

Was a dispatcher and a phone operator. In January 2005 Breakaway received a letter from the Attorney General's office. Breakaway employees were then sent a letter saying that the payroll company had told them those charges were not legal and that therefore Breakaway was phasing out the radios.

Boost mobile was so overwhelmed, it took days to get hooked up.

There is no law specifically against radio charges, but NY labor law contains a section on illegal wage deductions.

Breakaway: $17 per week radio deduction.

When my lawyer, Michael Shen, saw my paychecks, he saw a story there: denial of minimum wage; denial of overtime pay.

Questions about the extent to which companies keep track of overtime hours. Directly after 9/11 no one got minimum wage.

Question: possibility of out of court settlement? Carmello: 95% of cases settled out of court.

Question about whether illegal immigrants can participate in the lawsuit, and point that Africans are harassed more at Breakaway.

Discussion: concerns about tradeoffs: like not having to deal with expectations and formalities; ability to make own hours.

"Maybe that's the difference between IC and employee companies"