It’s Raceday Preview Time!

Posted on | by Aileen Dinin | 3 Comments on It’s Raceday Preview Time!

The preview is getting its final polish and we’re about ready to send it out. Here’s a taste of the sweet goodness that will be arriving in inboxes soon:

 

However, if you want to get this tasty insider information, with spotter’s guide, rosters, predictions, etc, you must be a paying member of the Buggy Alumni Association!

CHECK YOUR STATUS HERE

If you’re not on the list and want think you should be, or want to fix your mistake of not donating, send your receipt email from CMU showing your donation and designation to join@cmubuggy.org and we’ll get you added. If your name has a double asterisk (**) after it, it means we got your donation, but we don’t have your email info! Please email us your preferred address at join@cmubuggy.org.

After you’ve got your membership sorted out and taken a look at the heat selections, head over to this year’s lead truck auction!

Introducing your 2019 Raceday Broadcasters *UPDATED*

Posted on | by ben | 7 Comments on Introducing your 2019 Raceday Broadcasters *UPDATED*

In lieu of a rolls report this week due to the wet weather, let’s continue the Raceday HYPE and introduce the people you’ll be primarily hearing from this Carnival. BUT! before we introduce all of our amazing broadcasters for this year, a quick plug that we are still in need of some volunteers to help us with a few of the necessary Raceday operations. In particular, we need people to help identify and transcribe finish line times. The only requirement is that you be at the finish-line tent during the finishes. If you can spare a few races during the mornings, we would be incredibly grateful and have some physical gifts in return for your service.

This year, if you’d like to try and see what being a commentator is like, you can have your chance during the Exhibition races! Swing by the BAA Tent at the top of the hill and we’ll get you a spot!

Continue reading →

Ending their Term #3 – Meet the BAA President

Posted on | by ben
You’ve now heard a bit from our Head Reporter and Head of Communications and what it takes to fill those roles. It’s now time to hear from our head honcho, and how much work really goes into leading this band of fools! The BAA operates solely on the generosity of the alumni and the few who donate their time for a couple years to keep things running. If you are interested in any of these roles, would like to challenge someone’s position, or know someone who would fit the role, nominate by clicking the button below!

Continue reading →

Carnival Events Schedule – A Guide for Buggy Fans

Posted on | by ben

We are rapidly approaching what’s bound to be another awesome Carnival weekend and if you haven’t already, take a moment to register and sign-up for all the great events that are being set up for you! Scrolling through the Spring Carnival schedule, you might notice that a few regular buggy events aren’t listed there… Well that’s what THIS POST is for! Below you’ll find a list of every important buggy event and BAA activity happening this weekend. We know Carnival is a busy weekend with a lot going on, so we hope to see you at what you can make, and if you’re looking to connect with your old team, email us (admin@cmubuggy.org) and we’ll do what we can to connect you!

A brief plug: These races happen because of the generosity of volunteers who are willing to donate an hour or two of their time. Please consider helping us this year and let us know via THIS FORM.

Continue reading →

Ending their Term #2 – Meet our Head of Communications

Posted on | by ben
Just a few days ago, you met our Head Reporter, but she’s not the only one completing her term and with nominations now open let’s take a moment to learn about another of our amazing officers! The BAA operates solely on the generosity of the alumni and the few who donate their time for a couple years to keep things running. If you are interested in any of these roles, would like to challenge someone’s position, or know someone who would fit the role, nominate by clicking the button below!

Continue reading →

Ending their Term #1 – Meet our Head Reporter

Posted on | by ben
Since the end of the year right around the corner, and all the excitement of Raceday building up, we’d like to take a moment to learn about some of the positions with officers who will be rolling off the board this year. To kick things off, in place of the rolls report while the kiddos are still on spring break, let’s learn a bit more about what it takes to be the Head Reporter.
With this post, nominations for next year’s officers are also now open. The BAA operates solely on the generosity of the alumni and the few who donate their time for a couple years to keep things running. If you are interested in any of these roles, would like to challenge someone’s position, or know someone who would fit the role, nominate them via the form below!

Continue reading →

Raceday is coming and the BAA wants you!

Posted on | by Natalie McGuier | 4 Comments on Raceday is coming and the BAA wants you!

Raceday is upon us and as the students scramble to get in those last precious rolls, perfect wheel treatments, and finish paint jobs, the BAA committee is working to organize services and events that you have come to love during Carnival. But, none of it is possible without the amazing volunteers like you!

We are looking for volunteers to participate in the WRCT pre-Carnival broadcast (Wednesday April 10 at 8pm), participate in the Design Showcase panel (Thursday April 11 at 12:30pm), and volunteers to help us around the course during preliminaries and finals (Friday April 12 and Saturday April 13).

If you can donate even an hour of your time, please sign up. Volunteers will be rewarded with our eternal gratitude, the satisfaction of making Raceday great, and a small but tangible token of the BAA’s appreciation.

 

Click the button and let us know what you can help us with!

 

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Author’s Note: If my Photoshop skills were better, there would be a great image of Ben Matzke wearing stars and stripes angrily pointing a finger at you.

 

99th Raceday is Around the corner + Sweeps & BAA Updates!

Posted on | by ben | 3 Comments on 99th Raceday is Around the corner + Sweeps & BAA Updates!

Hey there buggy fans! Spring semester has sprung and already first rolls have kicked off as you might’ve seen. There are a number of important things happening in the buggy and BAA world that we want to tell you about, so let’s dive right in!

Sweepstakes Leadership Update

We might’ve mentioned this at the start of the year, but the fall Chairman (Hunter) has now graduated and the then Assn’t Chair (Joyce) has taken over for the Spring. To fill her place, the first chairman’s meeting included a near unanimous approval of the new Assistant Chair, Willie from Pi Kappa Alpha. The interesting component here is that Willie requested to be allowed to push on Raceday. Under the expectation that additional past sweepstakes members will be on hand during the Races, Willie will remove himself from any judgments regarding the men’s races.

BAA Leadership Terms Ending

We’ve mentioned this before, but a reminder never hurts, this year we will have 3 officers ending their second 2 year term and a few others finishing up their first. After Raceday this year, we will be looking to elect new people to be our: Head Reporter, Communications Lead, and President. At this point, we have a solid team where each person only has a couple responsibilities throughout the year so if you have any interest in what we do behind the scenes, please feel free to reach out and we’d be happy to tell you more!

The BAA only exists thanks to our devoted membership and the few that are willing to put in a little extra for just a couple years, and thanks to these people, our impact has made huge differences in the sport that we all love!

Carnival Registration is now OPEN

That’s right, if you’re headed back for Carnival this year, you can now register HERE. We’ve got another slate of great events for you this year as well as a few surprises in the works for #99! Here are a few highlights for you to whet your appetite:

  • Showcase Panel is back! – Last year’s panel was a great success, and we can’t wait to hear more stories, keep an eye out for when we put out the call!
  • Finals Auction in Person – We tried this last year and, though low attended, was enough fun for those that made it that we’re giving it another go.
  • Tom’s History of Buggy – The perennial favorite, Tom Wood will be back with his fantastic talk with focuses on each of the reunion years.
  • Reunion Races – We are working to coordinate a new race this year between the major reunion years, so if you’re headed back for your 5, 10, or 25th reunion, we would like to hear from you!

 

That’s all for now, more great info to come soon!

Potential New CMU Shop Policy in the Works

Posted on | by ben

As many of you have likely seen, the Mechanical Engineering department has a new makerspace/machine shop “TechSpark” which has brought some conversations and scrutiny on existing student shops. There has been a letter circulating which includes some very frightening language claiming that they aim to shut down and remove all student equipment, stifling innovation, and potentially killing the sport as we know it. Until recently, this is all the information we’ve had to go on as CMU hasn’t put out a statement on the topic. To that end, I would like to take some time to talk about what is going on, what we know currently, and where this is headed. I had a chance to talk with Kaycee, who, on top of being the sweepstakes adviser, also helps run the student shop registration process which has been in affect for the past 3-4 years.

*Disclaimer, this is not an official statement by CMU, this is purely my take-aways from my conversation, which I would love to discuss in more depth with those that are interested.

*EDIT- I was informed of some misunderstandings and have made corrections below. Continue reading →

BAA Financial Report – Fiscal Year 2018

Posted on | by Bryan Arsham

Hey everyone, it’s your friendly neighborhood BAA Treasurer!  There were no rolls this weekend, so instead of your standard rolls report, we here at BAA HQ decided to give you a financial report!  We’re often asked a few questions related to finances, such as “where do my donations go?” and “how much money does the BAA have?”  So this year, we’ve decided to increase the BAA’s transparency and open the books! Continue reading →