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 →

The Results are In – Welcome new BAA officers!

Posted on | by ben

Thanks to the 15 of you who took the time to express your opinion, the results are unanimous! Please help me to welcome the new BAA officers for the Raceday 2019 season –

  • Jeremy Tuttle – Vice President, re-elected for second term
  • Ethan Gladding – Graphics specialist *New*
  • Rachael Schmitt – Secretary *New*
  • Will Weiner – Broadcast Coordinator *New*

I couldn’t be happier to add these names to our outstanding roster of officers, and we’ve got a number of exciting meetings already in the works for the summer. Thank you for being involved Alumni volunteers and BAA members, we would not be able to do the things we do without your time and support!

BAA 2018 Elections!

Posted on | by ben

Thanks to everyone that submitted nominations for our open positions this year. We have a great list of nominees for each position. All nominees have been contacted, all are excited to join the team, and we are excited to work with them!

Only one step remains, it’s time for each of you to have your voice heard and vote in our new officers. Either follow the link here, or fill out the below ballot to submit your vote! https://goo.gl/forms/MLD5Y2g5LURpZ1IZ2

Thank you for being involved in this process and we can’t wait to get started planning for the 99th year of BUGGY!

Congrats Graduates and BAA Elections!

Posted on | by ben

Now that we’ve finally been able to recover from Raceday, we here at BAA HQ have had a chance to look back on the year and make some notes for next year, but we would also love to hear your thoughts on the year, and ways we can continue to improve this sport we all love and devote our time and energy to.

First of all, CONGRATS TO ALL GRADUATES, and welcome to the CMU and Buggy Alumni family! As a special offer, all 2018 graduates are offered their first year membership for free! All you have to do is tell us who you are via this link!

Second up, it’s time for the 2018 BAA Elections. We currently only have one position up for re-election, but we are also looking to fill in some additional positions to align with our bylaws as well as a couple new positions we think would help us further the mission of the BAA. Here are a few more details

  • Vice President – Jeremy Tuttle has reached the end of his first 2-year term and is up for re election. He is automatically nominated and is interested in running for a second term. The Vice President helps manage the internal projects of the BAA, as well as assist the President as needed in discussions with CMU Staff.
  • Secretary – Listed in the BAA By-laws as the person to coordinate distribution of meeting minutes to general membership as well as handle and maintain the membership list in partnership with the treasurer.
  • Graphics Specialist – Given the increased desire we have for making awesome newsletters, guides, and engaging info, we’re looking to bring on someone specifically for this role rather than frantically seek someone out last minute.
  • General Officer – A lighter-weight new role that we’re looking to test out. We have a number of small tasks ranging from general alumni outreach, to tracking down specific information, or assisting with our numerous events throughout the year. If you’ve wanted to help out, but never thought you fit into a specific position, or you only have time sporadically, this is the perfect role for you!

You can of course also nominate for any of the other, currently filled, positions if you would like. For reference, here are the current officers:

President – Ben Matzke (Middle of second term)
Vice President – Jeremy Tuttle (End of first term)
Communications – Aileen Dinin (Middle of second term)
Reporting – Natalie McGuier (Middle of second term)
Treasurer – Bryan Arsham (Middle of first term)
Webmaster – Krishan Taylor (Middle of first term)

Lastly, since the summer has officially kicked off, the conversation has been getting going on our Discord chat, the same one we use during raceday! Feel free to jump and share your thoughts. We’ve got some discussions going around cutting up and uploading all of the missing footage from past racedays, and also updating and fleshing out our history database with awards and winners from recent and past years.

Let’s Race! BAA Friday Carnival Events

Posted on | by ben

Preliminary Races

7:30am – 12:30pm on the buggy course | Stream live on cmuTV or listen on wrct.org

By the time you read this, the races have likely already begun SO GET TO THE COURSE ALREADY, or if you’re not in pittsburgh, check out the live stream put on by cmuTV! We have 10 women’s heats and 12 men’s for this year’s races with 25 and 27 entries respectively. It may be a bit chilly, but these races will be hot.

Buggy Books will be available at the BAA tent by the Finish Line for purchase or Pre-order pickup.

Lead Truck Auction winners MUST check in at the BAA tent with a signed waiver at least 1 full heat before your designated race.

History of Buggy with focus on ’68 and ’93 with Tom Wood

1:30pm in Danforth Conference Room in the CUC

Our regular can’t miss event is back as Tom Wood shares a history of buggy focused on the class of ‘93 and ’68. There will be plenty of show and tell with buggies, slides, wheels, and photos of the days of old with insight into the changing landscape of the competition.

Buggy Meetup and Finals Lead Truck Auction

7:30pm at Hough’s Taproom in Greenfield – 563 Greenfield Ave.

For the first time ever, bid live on the finals heats’ lead truck rides after the heats have been decided, and stick around to share your Raceday experiences at Hough’s taproom, the original bar with a buggy! Light hors d’oeuvres provided courtesy of the BAA.

It Begins! – BAA Thursday Carnival Events

Posted on | by ben | 1 Comment on It Begins! – BAA Thursday Carnival Events

Buggy Showcase and Alumni Panel

Showcase: 12-2pm in Wiegand Gym | Panel begins at 12:30

Come on over to the UC gymnasium and check out all the buggies that will be competing on raceday up close and personal as well as vote on your favorite for Peoples choice! While you’re there, stick around for what will be a fantastic alumni panel where our group of panelists will recount their favorite Buggy Myths and Legends moderated by our own VP, Jeremy Tuttle. On stage we will have:

  • Conrad Zapanta – CIA ’91
  • Adam McCue – KDR ’07 & Sweepstakes
  • Hayley Dalzell – Robobuggy ’15 & Sweepstakes
  • Aiton Goldman – CIA ’98
  • Connor Hayes – Apex ’19

Buggy books will be available at the sweepstakes Swag table for Purchase or pre-order Pickup.

Welcome Back Happy Hour

7:30pm at Fuel and Fuddle – 212 Oakland Ave

If you’ve made it back to Pittsburgh, join us at the second bar with a buggy to recount past years, share your predictions and just generally get ready for the Prelim races on Friday! We will be in the basement of the restaurant.