Charlie Bartoldus, the new Customs Port Director, introduced himself  and gave a brief synopsis of his background.  A Customs meeting will be held in late January or early February.  He also informed us that since 1989 the Perforation machine used by many at Customs is not a valid time/date machine for duty payment.  This machine will be removed from Customs in the near future.  Additional time stamp machines will be installed.

FAQWG- Penny Ricas requested that we all respond to the survey from Mike Galiazzo via e-mail. 

San Williams is the new Port Director of USDA. 

FDA has won the Al Gore "Hammer Award"  for the "spice reconditioning" efforts.  Testing will now be uniform in all ports.   A joint FDA & Customs form for refusal and rejection is being discussed.

New X-ray equipment has been installed at the International Air Passenger Terminal.

Customs is considering increasing continuous bond minimums to $100,000.  Entry revision is still in progress.

A Website has been created for our association - www.bcbfa.org.

Treasurers report - current balance $5155.12

MPA - Mary Jane Norris advised that over 550,000 tons of paper has been lured to S.S. Locust Point from Philadelphia.  Balterm will share the Terminal with P&O Ports. 

 Wallenius Wilhelmsen Lines has signed a 20 year contract to make Baltimore its hub, bringing more that 3000 ships to our port.  We will see DMT become more of a RO/RO terminal and more containers move to Seagirt.

  The new Port of Baltimore Directory is now available at the Eastern Area Chamber of Commerce.

There is a new item added to the BMTA tariff  re: Demurrage during Emergency Situations.

www.shipbaltimore.com is a new free website for rate quotations for  Service Providers and Service Users.

Haz-mat class will be offered on April 2, 2001.  This is for re-certification and new certification.  Contact Geoff Powell for more info.

New officers were elected for the year 2001.  They are as follows: