Warm start to Spring 2017

Posted on | by ben | 2 Comments on Warm start to Spring 2017

Classes have been on for a couple weeks now and the students have been treated to an incredibly warm January and February isn’t looking much worse. Given the extremely tame winter with little to no snowfall, this could be the first time in several years that rolls could get going properly before spring break. With all this practice, we could be looking at another competitive Raceday. Making predictions now might be a bit early, so we’ll hold off until the Raceday Preview. Remember you have to be a dues paying member to receive the annual publication and the earlier you do it, the more likely you are to get it in the first round.

Speaking of donations, we’re still running our donation challenge for a little Raceday bonus to the winning alumni team. Currently CIA is in the lead, but not by much, so there is still plenty of chances to get ahead before the challenge ends on the first day of spring rolls. So remember if you make a donation before the first weekend of rolls, let us know.

Last bit of news for today, we are looking to revamp our normal luncheon into more of an evening event and are currently looking at a couple options. BAA HQ has narrowed it down to a couple options and we would like feedback from the larger buggy community. Which would you prefer:

  • Alumni wrap-up party after Saturday awards ceremony for all alumni to get together and share their favorite raceday moments.
  • Friday alumni or senior Banquet with the sweepstakes staff and our Alumni Relations reps.

At either of these events, we plan to restart our biannual elections. More information on those later this season.

We would love to hear your feedback and we are looking forward to a long spring season!

UPDATE: Rules Amendment – Greek Restrictions

Posted on | by ben

The discussion that happened a week ago was an interesting one, though with low attendance, it’s hard to tell how informative or how much it will affect the future conversations on this topic.

In attendance: SigEp, PhiDelt, SAE, SDC, Sweepstakes, BAA

Quick Summary:

  1. The greek teams seem to have a different philosophy when it comes to buggy in that it is more of a group activity rather than a sole focus as is the case for some independents.
  2. Because of #1, current greek teams don’t seem to have an interest in taking advantage of the situation if this rule were lifted.
  3. Teams didn’t see a huge advantage of the “ringer” pusher. While independents have used this “advantage”, competitive teams, use it only to fill out their few positions on lower teams.

Next Steps:

  1. One point that came up is that this type of rule change may be more desirable by new teams, so Sweepstakes will be reaching out to them to get there opinion.
  2. Due to low attendance, there should be interest in having a larger discussion with more teams.

This discussion is far from over, but this is the current information we have from teams.

Saturday Rules Amendment Discussion – Greek Restrictions

Posted on | by ben | 13 Comments on Saturday Rules Amendment Discussion – Greek Restrictions

Greek Pusher Restrictions have been a hot topic of late and Sweepstakes will be having a formal discussion this Saturday at 1:00pm. We will have some alumni in attendance and we would like to have your input if you are not able to join us in person this weekend.

Please comment below with your opinions about these issues.

Questions that will be covered during this meeting:

  • What are the pros and cons?
  • How many non-Greek pushers would it take to no longer be seen as the Greek organization’s team?
  • What are the differences between Greek and Independent Teams?
  • What is the effect on both Greek and Independent teams?
  • How does it help/harm the organizations/Buggy as a whole?

Given some recent trends, sweepstakes has a renewed vigor in their focus on increased participation and we would like to assist them in any and every way we can.

2017 Buggy Season Kickoff Newsletter for all!

Posted on | by ben

Hello Buggy people! Despite another wet Saturday, Buggies finally got rolling this Sunday with teams getting their first taste of the Raceday 2017 season. Our reporters are getting back in gear and working on compiling their photos and notes for the first rolls report of the season. While they work on getting that put together, we have a special surprise for all buggy fans this year.

We are happy to announce and release our first major publication to kickoff this season of Buggy! Our writers and committee members have been hard at work putting together a recap of last year’s races as well as some predictions about the coming year. Unlike the Raceday Preview, this newsletter is free to all, so please feel free to share it with your friends, your enemies, or even random strangers on the street! If you want to ensure that you will receive the Preview, it’s never to early to put in your donation to the BAA.

We hope you enjoy this year’s Kickoff!

Raceday 2017 Season Kickoff

Posted on | by ben

Another fantastic year of buggy is getting underway! Teams are already well into their recruitment and Sweepstakes is spinning up with their weekly chairmen’s meetings. We’re not even a month into classes and there’s already some significant happenings going on in the buggy world.

We here at the BAA are working on a Kickoff Newsletter for everyone and already have some great articles put together. Here’s a brief summary of what you can expect to see when it gets released next week! (hopefully)

  • Letters from the officers
  • Raceday 2016 Recap analysis
  • Improved rolls timing system
  • Team Predictions for 2017
  • Upcoming events for the 2016-2017 season
  • And more!

Here are a few quick updates from the course, look for more detail in the newsletter:

  • Rolls – Delayed until Oct. 1st due to the great race the 25th. This is parents weekend and we will have a tent out at rolls with Coffee and Donuts.
  • AEPi Hiatus – AEPi is taking a year off of buggy to reorganize their team and do some soul searching. We hope that one year is all they will miss.

This weekend is also the Highland games and Buggy will again have a presence at the Pittsburgh Chapter Pavilion and this time we’re bringing the LEGO Buggy races too. If you’re stopping by the annual Scottish Festival, come say Hi and spend some time with your fellow CMU alums.

That’s all for now, see you on the course!

Vote on the new VP of the BAA!

Posted on | by ben | 14 Comments on Vote on the new VP of the BAA!

Summers for the BAA are a bit slow (as we all know), but that doesn’t mean things don’t happen!

We hope many of you have kept your eye on the forums over the past few weeks and for those of you that have, you might have noticed that we have a new person interested in being an officer!

Jeremy Tuttle (SDC ’10) has thrown his hat into the ring for VP, and with no objections or opposition in the forums, it’s time to officially vote him in! Continue reading →

2016 Sweepstakes and BAA Elections

Posted on | by ben | 1 Comment on 2016 Sweepstakes and BAA Elections

Last week, Sweepstakes elected it’s new committee for the 2016-2017 school year and for the first time in a few years, they managed to elect a full team all in one meeting.

Your Raceday 2017 Sweepstakes Committee members are:

  • 12973113_1764993440403578_3920283398479968549_oChairman: Enosh Shachar

AEPi

Junior

  • 12096239_954229424637137_2067007922454904633_nAssistant Chairman: Ryan Barrett

PiKA

Sophomore

  • 1798363_10153824644704207_6828363851446051833_nSafety Chairman: Linna Griffin

Fringe

Senior

 

 

 

As you all may know, we here at the BAA have our own Committee. This year, we added some new roles to better fit our unique situation. I owe these officers a huge debt a gratitude for the work that they put in this year and I can not thank them enough.

BAA Officers for Raceday 2016

Role Person
Rolls Report Coordinator Natalie McGuier
Treasurer/Fundraising Dan Becerra
Raceday Preview/Wrapup Aileen Dinin
New Team Outreach Connor Hayes
Regional Coordinator Jillian Brinberg

As you may notice, we are still missing some key roles that could help the BAA better keep up some functionality we already have in place. Over the next week, I encourage everyone to join in on the 2016 elections thread where we will try and layout some possible new roles and nominate people for the roles we are currently missing.

There has been a lot of great discussion happening in the forums recently, and I look forward to what we can come up with to help grow the sport and our community!

Buggy at Wigle’s Barrel Roll

Posted on | by ben

Wigle_Whiskey_logoThis Friday at 4:30pm some local buggy people will be meeting up at Wigle Whiskey and take part in Wigle’s Barrel Roll event kicking off their summer season.

Any local Buggy fans and/or students are invited to join us for the walk starting at their Distillery and ending at their barrel house in the north shore near Penn Brewery. There is no age restriction, however you must be over 21 to try the Whiskey (or other alcohol). Our max team size is 16 people, so sign up now if you’re interested! The walk will begin at 5pm.

For more info about the event, check out this post.

 

Those of you that join us will receive:

  • a shot of whiskey at the distillery before we embark (for those over 21)
  • snacks and drinks along the barrel-rolling route
  • 2 drink tickets for the opening party
  • free entry to the opening party
  • sample from the tapped cask
  • change to bask in the glory of a win!
Barrel Roll
Shortest Route from the Distillery to the Barrel House

Compubookie 2016, later than ever…

Posted on | by ben | 7 Comments on Compubookie 2016, later than ever…

Sorry this is so late, PiKA took me fishing and left me at the lake:

Carnival weekend. What a great time for students to relax from school work, sleep more than 4 hours a night, and celebrate Beta finally being gone from campus. This year’s buggy competition could be the most exciting yet, having the chute finally paved for the first time since the school took the word Tech out of its name. Many teams look to break SDC’s record time. Will anyone finish in under 2 minutes? Will the buggy be just beyond reach at the end of hill 5? Will SDC win again? Let’s look into it.

Starting off with the shake up everyone 100% saw coming. Looks like CMU finally caught on to the problem they have with substance consumption, and due to disciplinary action, PiKA will not be racing this year (kind of). But no! Without PiKA who will be there to vomit in Maggie Mo? Introducing the Fishing Team. They have acquired PiKA’s buggies and drivers, however, their push team can not consist of 5 brothers of Pi Kappa Alpha, so expect them to be recruiting around campus, which may actually make them faster–which they desperately need if they want to win.

WHAT HAS SPIRIT BEEN DOING IN THE OFFSEASON?? Spirit came from being only slightly a contender last year to the org many think could be a frontrunner in 2016. Revamped with a pretty new push team, a new buggy, and all around new culture, their roll ups are better than ever, expect them to leave their mark on raceday. Rumor is they stole the key to SDC’s buggy room.

Looks like racing has become uncool if your name starts with Sigma. SAE, Sig Ep, and Sig Nu have had poor attendance this year at rolls. I don’t think we’ll actually know if they’re any good until raceday. After Sig Ep’s strong performance last year, it’s a shame that the brothers care more about underwhelming Greek Sing shows than buggy.

Sorry, I know why you’re all here, let’s get to the predictions:

Men: Expect a bit of a shake up from Spirit, and more of the same elsewhere. PiKA The Fishing Team, will now have last pick of lane, and this could hurt their overall performance. SDC and CIA remain staunch contenders, with Fringe as a second tier team hoping their raceday performance can shock some people.

  1. Spirit A

  2. SDC A

  3. Fishing A

  4. CIA A

  5. SDC B

  6. Fringe A

  7. Spirt B

  8. Sig Ep A

  9. CIA B

  10. Apex A

Women: Expect more of the same as previous years here, SDC will remain dominant, Spirit with increased buggy speed could create a scare. CIA and Fringe have solid push teams.

  1. SDC A

  2. CIA A

  3. Spirit A

  4. Fish  A

  5. Fringe A

The Field

AEPi: THEY ARE THE BEST. At getting last place.

Apex: Football players for pushers? Won’t make your buggy any faster

CIA: SDC’s little sister, maybe you can hold their trophy?

Fishing Team: Maybe under a different name they’ll catch the push bar

Fringe: What else can we steal from PiKA without being too obvious?

Phi Delt: You should race against the robo buggy, it’d be close

PiKA: They’ll be in same same place they were on day 2 last year, exhibitions

SAE: Who are you? You’ve never been to rolls before

SDC: Your push team is as bad as the campus events you hold

Sig Ep: I heard you couldn’t find a driver, the fraternity was too focused on guys

Sig Nu: Is the one new pledge you got going to help on raceday?

Spirit: It took a girl to get you boys in line? s/o Hope