Thursday Poll: How cold is too cold?

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 8 Comments on Thursday Poll: How cold is too cold?

We’ve had suggestions a couple of times to add a polling feature to the website to see what the buggy fans of the world think about different issues.   Thursdays are pretty slow in the buggy news cycle since any drama from the weekend’s rolls has played out, but the next weekend of rolls is still days away.  So, from now until raceday, we’ll post a poll each Thursday.  Feel free to discuss the poll and suggest interesting future questions in the comments.

Today’s poll:  Temperature.  It’s not the juiciest topic ever, but it is pressing.  Pittsburgh’s January-best is currently threatening to cancel the second weekend of scheduled rolls this year just by being cold.  A few years ago, sweepstakes seemed to be cancelling for anything below freezing and there were cries of “wimps!” from the alumni who remembered toughing it out in all conditions.  We had some of the debate here last year.  So, what do you think, how cold is too cold for rolls?

Click through to vote in the poll or see the results Continue reading →

Members-Only Fall Wrapup & Spring Preview is out

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 4 Comments on Members-Only Fall Wrapup & Spring Preview is out

We sent out the first of our three annual members-only publications this morning, the Fall Wrapup & Spring Preview.  The issue includes:

  • Our expert summary & analysis of the state of each organization as they ramp up towards raceday
  • Interviews with representatives of each organization
  • Previously unpublished pictures of each organization in action this fall
  • Quantitative freeroll and mini-raceday stats to give the buggy bookies out there some numbers to work with.

If you thought you were already a “dues-paying-member” for 2010 and didn’t receive and e-mail this morning, let us know and we’ll sort out the paperwork.  If you haven’t become a “dues-paying-member” yet this year, do it now and reap the benefits.  We’ll send you today’s FW&SP right away, and you won’t have to worry about a thing when carnival approaches.

Remember, there are currently two ways to become a member, by donating $10 or by sending in 5 pictures from your time in buggy.  That special deal won’t be offered much longer, so send in those pictures or you’ll have to pony up the Hamilton come April.  Details and a full list of the member-benefits are always available at

http://cmubuggy.org/Join

Correction : Sigma Nu’s representative in the Q&A section was not Carl Nott.  I’m not sure how he managed to get in there without being present while we wrote it.  The Sigma Nu representative was their buggy chairman, Brett.

Note : The freeroll benchmarks only include times through mini-raceday.  If a team’s best time of the semester was on the last weekend, they might be getting short changed in the rankings.

100 Days until Raceday

Posted on | by Sam Swift

That’s right, classes haven’t even started but there are only 100 short days to get ready for raceday.  For all the current students out there, that means it’s time to hit the gym and work all night in the garage.  For us alumni, well …  start getting the vocal chords and the liver in shape and make cmubuggy.org your homepage!

To mark the beginning of our march towards raceday, we’ve launched a coordinated attack of promotions.  You’ve probably already received at least one of them, but we wouldn’t want anyone to miss out on anything, so here’s the rundown:

  • With the help of the alumni house we sent an actual physical newsletter in the mail.  You can download a PDF of the newsletter here.
  • The alumni house also helped us send an e-mail to buggy-relevant alumni just to reach out and spread awareness about the BAA’s activities and purpose.
  • This afternoon, we sent out an e-mail to the 345 folks who have registered here on cmubuggy.org.  If you are registered on this site and didn’t get the e-mail, leave a comment or send us an e-mail.  You can also take a look at the email here if you want.

One of the exciting new ideas that we’re rolling out today is a limited-time-only special on becoming a dues paying member for 2010.  We do still need contributions from people that want to support the BAA through their $10 annual dues, but we don’t want to exclude anyone from our slew of awesome members-only benefits, and hey, there’s more to life than money right?  Get on over to the membership section of the site for more details.

So for the next month or so, you can become a card carrying member of the BAA simply by sending in 5 pictures from your heyday in the buggy world to us at admin@cmubuggy.org.  We’ll post them in the gallery and everyone will benefit from a richer, more illustrated history of the coolest sport around.

Rolls Statistics Fall ’09

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 5 Comments on Rolls Statistics Fall ’09

With another semester in the history books, it’s time for the BAA to play historian/statistician and make note of a few numbers that sum up the semester.   As with the last edition of rolls statistics, the idea is just to document things and to give the orgs and sweepstakes some feedback on how things are going.

Fall 2009 (with the previous 2 semesters for comparison) looked like this Continue reading →

Belated Rolls Report 11/21 & 22

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 18 Comments on Belated Rolls Report 11/21 & 22

An out of town conference and the holidays got in the way of our timely publication of the last rolls report of the fall, but better late than never right?  For posterity, here’s a quick summary of what happened November 21st and 22nd …

In attendance

Org Saturday Sunday
AEPi Camo, Kamikaze, Zephyrus Kamikaze, Zephyrus
CIA Firebird, Renaissance, Quasar Renaissance, Quasar
DTD Bethany Bethany
Fringe Bedlam, Blizzard, Bantam
KKG / ZBT Enigma
PhiKap Svengali
Pioneers Chaos
PiKA Chimera, Knightfall, Nemesis, Zeus Chimera, Knightfall, Nemesis, Zeus
SDC Malice, Envy, Rage Malice, Envy, Rage
SigEp Pandora
SigNu Skua

Observations Continue reading →

Rolls Report – Mini Raceday

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 2 Comments on Rolls Report – Mini Raceday

It’s hard to say whether buggy has been lucky or unlucky with regard to weather this year.  They’ve gotten rained out 5 times but to be rolling in mid-november with temperatures in the high 40’s / low 50’s is pretty darn nice.

In attendance

Org Saturday Sunday
AEPi Camo, Kamikaze
CIA Conquest, Firebird, Renaissance, Quasar Conquest, Firebird
DTD Bethany
Fringe Banyan, Bedlam, Blizzard, Bantam Banyan, Bedlam, Blizzard, Bantam
PhiKap Shaddy, Svengali, Celerity Shaddy, Svengali, Celerity
Pioneers Chaos
PiKA Chimera, Nemesis, Zeus
SAE Rubicon
SDC Malice, Psychosis, Envy, Rage Malice, Psychosis, Envy, Rage
SigEp Barracuda, Pandora
SigNu Skua, Krait
Spirit Haraka, Seraph, Fuko Seraph, Fuko

Mini-Raceday Results
(best finish per org, times are from the end of hill2 to the finish) Continue reading →

Alumni in Central Ohio?

Posted on | by Sam Swift

We received this request from a science teacher in the Columbus, OH area:

Greetings,
I am a science teacher in Central Ohio.  As part of our second semester STEM program, we would like to have students design and build “carts” for a competition similar to the Buggy Races at CMU.  I found your website and wondered if there was anyone in Central Ohio I could speak with to get information on design, construction, and safety.  Our carts will be much simpler than the CMU buggies, but the project fits well with our program and curriculum.

Anyone out there live nearby and want to help out?  If so, send an e-mail to admin@cmubuggy.org and I’ll put you in touch.

Rolls Report 11/7 & 11/8

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 9 Comments on Rolls Report 11/7 & 11/8

Pittsburgh finally let buggy have a nice dry course for the weekend, so CMU stepped up and provided the torrents of water on Sunday.  Thanks CMU!  Saturday was sunny, 40-45 degrees, and over 2 hours long thanks to the end of day light savings.  Sweepstakes got through the roll order 3 full times despite a fair number of stoppages.  The first 40 minutes of Sunday went smoothly, but then Porter Hall decided to burst and spew disturbingly brown water out onto hill 3.  In just minutes the sidewalk, hill 3, and the outside of the chute were thoroughly flooded.

Mini-raceday is next weekend! Continue reading →

Rolls Report 10/25

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 6 Comments on Rolls Report 10/25

Sorry for the later than usual report this week.  Post-game Steelers celebrations unexpectedly went all night.
—————–

Saturday was rained out again this week bringing the tally to 4 rain-outs in the last 5 scheduled days of rolls, but Sunday was a perfect fall day for rolls.  Nice leaves, not too hot, not too cold.

In attendance:  AEPi, SigEp, DTD, Spirit, SigNu, PhiKap, SDC, PiKA, Fringe, CIA Continue reading →

cmubuggy.org turns 1!

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 3 Comments on cmubuggy.org turns 1!

That’s right, it seems like an institution already, but it was only a year ago that cmubuggy.org got started and gave the buggy lovers of the world a place to congregate.  The year-round trash talk, the authoritative source to resolve buggy trivia disputes, and the weekly updates of pictures and news all seemed to have been well received, so they are here to stay.  We want to thank all the alumni and current students that have visited and contributed to the site in the first year. It wouldn’t be any fun without you guys!

For everyone out there that gets a kick out of  quantifying their fun, here are some stats from cmubuggy.org’s first year:

  • 43,000+ visits by 11,900+ “unique” visitors
  • 553,000+ page-views
  • 300+ registered users
  • 1,400+ posts in 72 threads in the forum
  • 1,300+ pictures in the gallery
  • 100+ contributions to the history database (most of which were really many contributions)

Most popular pictures (according to google analytics, not the craptastic view counter in the gallery): Continue reading →