2021 Call for Lifetime Membership

Posted on | by Michael Darcy

Hi all,

CMU has spearheaded the design and development of a Buggy Centennial Celebration art installation in the Cohon University Center, next to the auditorium entrance. Included in this 6’x20′ permanent installation is a list of BAA Lifetime Members in recognition of their gifts to Buggy. All current and future Lifetime Members will be listed with their indicia (if they wish) on an acrylic plate with black vinyl lettering. Although we are committed to updating this list with future Lifetime Members, we wanted to give people a chance to be a part of the inaugural group, to be unveiled at Carnival later this year.

We’re currently in the process of writing letters to thank those who have already donated, and recognize that we have unfulfilled promises still; 2 t-shirts and lifetime membership badge to be delivered at the next in-person Raceday we’re able to host. At the same time, we wanted to let folks know about this unique opportunity to be recognized and added to the installation in time for the formal unveiling.

Early Concept of CUC Display

If you are interested in becoming a Lifetime Member, please make a gift of $1,000 or more to the Buggy Endowed Fund by following the link below. Starting next semester, yields from the Buggy Endowed Fund will be distributed to student projects which “support the continued success and growth of Sweepstakes”. Yields from the Endowed Fund (as of this writing, approximately $2,500 yearly) will be designated to projects by a committee of students, alumni, and staff which will meet regularly to consider formal proposals. We’ll publish the bylaws for this committee shortly for those interested in reading more on how it works.

Give a gift for Lifetime Membership

If you’d like to receive confirmation that your name will be added to the display in time for this year, please email your gift receipt to admin@cmubuggy.org and we’ll make sure that everything is squared away.

Lastly, we want to thank those who have given gifts this year at any level. The students are working hard to make rolls happen this semester and your contribution will support Sweepstakes this year and for years to come. We’re excited to share our plans for Carnival soon and promise to be in touch!

Winter 2020-2021 Newsletter

Posted on | by Michael Darcy

Greetings Buggy community!

I hope this message finds you happy and safe. In light of communication from the university regarding Carnival plans, we wanted to update you all with what’s been happening this year. We had hoped to write about the resumption of rolls since the fall semester has started but unfortunately I can’t say that is true yet.

As the university email states, alumni events for Carnival are currently being planned all virtually. At this time, students are still patiently waiting for the verdict on their proposed activities. We have several exciting events in the works and hope to share more soon, but for now, here’s our updates:

  • CUC Buggy Centennial Display: The artwork and design for the Centennial memorial display is being finalized and installation is planned in time for Carnival this year. We’re hoping to offer some kind of virtual unveiling event, so stay tuned!
  • Season 2 of Chute the Sh!t Podcast with Will Weiner: Will and Rachael have been hard at work coordinating the plan for another podcast season to follow up on last year. They’re still accepting suggestions for people to host, so feel free to drop a comment or reply if you have any ideas!
  • Buggy All-Stars returns: The Advanced Game Design class has agreed to continue development on the Buggy All-Stars game released last year. We can’t wait to see what new features they come up with next!
  • Alternate Design Competition: We’re working hard with the students to plan an alternate version of Design Competition for Carnival this year that can integrate remote students as well as virtual judges and potentially spectators. No new buggies have been permitted to be built this year so it is not likely to resemble our traditional Design Competition, but there is pretty good agreement that we want some flavor of replacement.
  • Among Us alumni social events: We’ve had a blast coordinating and playing Among Us with you all and definitely plan to continue that! Feel free to suggest other kinds of open social events we can host throughout the year.
  • Buggy 101 themed content: If the students are approved for in-person activities, we have a plan and some content ready to go to try and help drive student engagement. Unfortunately, we won’t have approval at least until 2/15, as the COVID rules committee won’t consider the students’ revisions until in-person activities are allowed to resume.
  • Endowed Fund progress: The Endowed Fund committee bylaws have been finalized and await administrative approval. Our first round of proposals and funding is very likely to go out in 2021, we just aren’t sure whether it will be in time for the spring at this point. Of course, the fund has been accruing yields for nearly a year at this point, which all are ready for disbursal — more on that when we give our financial update later on.
  • Buggy Build Book: Notable recent alumni Connor Hayes and Diya Nuxoll have been hard at work on an open-source build book. Although it’s not quite ready to go public yet, we are hoping revisions will be complete before Carnival and are very excited at what will likely be the definitive public resource for building a buggy.

We’ll send out some updates once we hear more in the form of an email newsletter to our distribution list. If you’d like to be added or have any questions, we can be reached by email (admin@cmubuggy.org) as well as through Facebook/Twitter/Instagram or join us on our Discord chat server!