It’s time to call for nominations for this year’s Markus
Cook Award for services to the international messenger community.
This will be
the 13th year that the award is presented. It was started by Buffalo
Bill in
1998, to remember Markus and to draw attention to messengers whose work
benefits all of us.
From the
IFBMA’s Markus Cook Award page:
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“The MCA for
services to the International Messenger Community is not a prize for
winning a
race. At the time the Award was conceived, CMWC was beginning to be
more about
the racing than the happening. I [Buffalo
Bill] wanted to re-establish the spirit of the championships, to
restate the
reason that we all come to this event every year. The MCA is a
reflection of
the axiom that everyone who comes to a CMWC is a winner, whether they
race or
not.
Markus
himself
was very much in love with the CMWC, and in many ways he was the
unlikeliest
bike racer imaginable. He was several other things, of course. Editor
of
Mercury Rising messenger zine, unofficial spokesperson of the SFBMA,
leader of
L Sid, and a friend to all. The enthusiasm of Markus brought CMWC and
the
international messenger community to San Francisco, and it saddens many
people to this day that
he did not live to see it.
This award is
for people that inspire and empower the wider messenger community, that
put all
of us before themselves.”
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Last year's
recipient was Luk
Keller. Here is the 2009
announcement
2008's
current
recipient was, Martin
Larsen. Here
is the 2008
announcement
Information
on previous recipients can be found here
There is no
limit to the number of nominees and anyone can nominate someone. The
messenger
community is fortunate to have many people who are willing to devote
time and
effort to improve the lot of others. The difficult part is narrowing
the list
down to just one recipient every year.
We’re
starting
a bit late this year so I’m suggesting we close nominations in one week
– at
the end of the day, next Monday October
5.
So send your
nominations to the messenger list and/or copy me.
The basic but
not so strict criteria are:
-
it must be mainly for activities that have taken place in the last 12
months;
although you can also draw attention to his or her prior work.
- they
don’t have to be a working messenger; they can be a former messenger
The
decision will be taken by a committee of former recipients and will be
awarded
as close to Messenger Appreciation Day (October
9) as
possible.
For more on
Markus:
Messenger Memorial page
SF
Weekly
feature
article (somewhat
flawed article)
Letters re SF Weekly
article
Video
clip of Markus:
(Apologies
for
the video quality)
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