BAA Election Results

Congratulations to our newly elected BAA Board members:

Rob Siemborski, Webmaster

Sam Connor, Graphics Chair

And congratulations to Connor Hayes on his reelection as President!

The BAA Board has also voted to create the position of Events Chair, and has appointed newly graduated alum Sam Thompson to that role for a term of one year. Events Chair will be responsible for planning, organizing, and holding any official BAA-sponsored events, such as Happy Hour, Buggy Bash, and any other official social gatherings or info sessions throughout the year.

Nominate your friends to the BAA Board!

Raceday is over, May is almost here, and BAA elections are right around the corner. But before we can have elections, we need candidates! This year, we will have elections for President, Graphics Chair, Reporting Chair, and Webmaster.

Click here for the submission form, and for details about the roles. Nominees can be any graduated CMU alum who has not already served two terms in that position. Nominations will be accepted through May 5th.

Current BAA officers and chairs can be found here if you have any questions.

Raceday is Coming! WRCT 88.3 FM Preview Broadcast Tonight at 6 PM

WRCT BROADCAST

Tune in tonight at 6 PM EDT for a preview of Sweepstakes 2023. Moderated by our long-time play-by-play commentator Will Weiner, current students will discuss all things buggy to get you hyped for Raceday.

Introducing our on-air talent:

  • Elena Harllee – She first witnessed buggy as a high school student, when she visited CMU during Raceday 2019 and fell in love with the spot. She joined Apex Buggy as a freshman and was build lead in 2022-2023, where she built Apex’s first forward trike. This year, she is a part of Sweepstakes as the Design Comp chairman, while still maintaining her status as an active mechanic for Apex.

  • Ethan Husted – He is a current MechE masters student and resident old person on CIA. He held a number of roles in the org from 2018-2023, including the hill 5 pusher dubbed “Long Chungus”, build lead of Kingfisher, chair during the mid-COVID RD that never wasn’t, and reluctant head mechanic. He is now obsolete and has thus been allowed to leave the yellow tent to enter the broadcasting tent. He will be moving to Baltimore this summer to work on medical devices at Key Tech.

  • Julia “Juju” Nieto – A PiKA driver and this year’s Buggy Book Chairmen, she is a School of Drama grad (dramaturgy), currently working on her MEIM at CMU’s Heinz College. In her words, “Buggy has been one of the best things I could have ever gotten out of my time here. What I thought would be a short-lived attempt at becoming an athlete, quickly turned into an unexpected gift. Over the past four years, I have developed a deep love for this sport and a deep admiration for those crazy enough to be involved in it. Being able to make this year’s Buggy Book was a joy and in the words of Jon Hua, ‘the jacket is always a plus.'”

  • Elizabeth Zapanta – A buggy legacy herself, she has been watching buggy for as long as she can remember. The first-ever Sweepstakes Marketing and Communications Chair, she is excited to help coordinate and participate in this year’s broadcast.

Moderator:

  • Will Weiner (DC’13) – He got into buggy through doing sports broadcasting with WRCT as a freshman at CMU. Somehow, he’s stayed in the play-by-play role for the races ever since. He now lives in nearby Braddock, PA, and runs a company called Xpogo, which manages the top athletes in the sport of extreme pogo sticking, which was a clear next step after buggy.

You can find the broadcast on air locally in Pittsburgh at 88.3 FM or stream it online from wrct.org! Join in the conversation via the BAA’s CMUBuggy Discord (cmubuggy.org/chat). Have any questions for the broadcasters? Ask them in the #wrctracedaypreview channel under Raceday-Specific Channels. You can also send any questions via comments to this post.

After what will be a great conversation, there will only be 17 hours left until Buggy Showcase (Thursday, April 13, 2023, at noon EDT) in Weigand Gym in the CUC. And, don’t forget our Prelims Lead Truck Auction, ending tomorrow night at 11 PM, so get your bids in while you can!

And, if you aren’t a member already, join now to receive this year’s Raceday Preview featuring MechaJockey! Learn more at cmubuggy.org/membership.

See you on the course!

 

Compubookie 2023

Editor’s Note: Compubookie’s predictions do not reflect the opinion of the BAA. Looking for the predictions from Mecha Jockey? You’ll find them in the 2023 Raceday Preview, which you can get with your membership!

Greetings, Buggy lovers. Spring is in the air, unlike last year, when all that was in the air was that virus I passed to all of you on the hills. This year, spring smells foul. It’s coming from one particular truck… oh, that’s Fringe’s new build, aptly named after the smell of rotting garbage and gas leaks. The only surprise from this team would be if they make it the whole weekend without a fire safety violation. Likewise, SigEp is doing nothing of note, and it would be foolish to expect their brakes to be good enough to pass drops. And DG is participating again, this time with a slightly newer Fringe buggy. At this rate they’ll be rolling Banyan by 2025! Regardless, they’re rumored to be working on a build of their own.

The biggest news this year is that Raceday will be run without defending champions SDC. In a stroke of mustache-twirling genius, Sweepstakes disqualified all of SDC for undermining the credibility of a fabricated cheating accusation. Cue the old laughing Republicans meme! Andrew Carnegie would be proud. The rest of us, fortunately, get to enjoy an actual race for the first time in a decade, at the low price of a small asterisk. Although it seems SDC has been saved from the embarrassment of a spectacular failure, with their buggies of late equally likely to eject a wheel or drive straight across the Schenley Bridge.

Also missing this year is SAE, who might be gone for good. The last buggy news out of their house was something about square wheels and an attempt to link themselves to Michael Jackson. These are not signs of good decision making.

Congrats to Robobuggy on merging with Atlas and acquiring a curb-smashing stroller. Here’s an idea: go find MECHAJOCKEY, strap it to that pile of scrap, and shove it off the Panther Hollow bridge. The lone surviving robotic entrant has been seen navigating the course autonomously this year, heralding the coming singularity we all deserve.

SigNu has a sleek new trike this year, their first since the alumni who run their team were students. It’s the fastest new build on the course, but paired with your typical SigNu push team, the only excitement it offers will be a pass in the chute during finals.

Apex, with the “this shouldn’t be impressive” award as the only org to run more than two teams last year and not DQ any of them, is out again with another new trike. They’re sticking to the fire theme despite the obvious shortage of good names and paint jobs. It’s an improvement on their previous build, but they still can’t build anything as fast as Firefly, despite six years of trying. This is the year for them to best their org record, but it won’t be enough for a top three finish yet.

On the topic of DQs (it’s a theme), last year’s “cuts both ways” award goes to Spirit, whose third fastest women won first place with the slowest time since ‘99, but whose men DQed with a fourth place time. Hey Spirit: maybe you should spend less time analyzing Lane’s lines and more time thinking about lane lines. It’s unclear how they intend for their $20,000 alumni fundraiser to pay off, as they appear to have nothing to show for it but even bigger truck speakers. Even so, the field is slow enough that they should be good for a top three finish on both sides, and a top-tier dance party before, during, and after the races.

PiKA, whose last win came under the Bush administration, finally has a clear opening to shoot for the cup. Unfortunately, their organization is held together by naught but black duct tape and an upside down tent, and Banshee continues to post slower times down the hill with each passing year. This year would have been theirs, but with mediocre speeds across all splits, they’re once again in line for their typical second and third place trophies.

CIA, as large, weird, and obnoxiously yellow as ever, has so many pushers that they created an entirely new all-gender racing division just so they could have a ninth team. Their buggies are equal parts fast and bizarre. It’s too bad they botched their new build’s layups so badly it had to be taken out back and put down, because we all love to see what laughs the “funhouse mirror” design philosophy spews out next. They are a shoo-in for the women’s title, and will barely eke out a win on the men’s side, thanks to petitions to thin out the competition and their typical helping of pusher bribery.

And that, buggy fans, is your definitive look at Raceday 2023. The field is slow but tight this year, so it will be an exciting event decided by mere fractions of a second. I can’t wait to see this year’s races, but you’ll never notice me.

Men’s:

  1. CIA A
  2. Spirit A
  3. PiKA A
  4. Apex A
  5. SigNu A
  6. SigEp A

Women’s:

  1. CIA A
  2. PiKA A
  3. Spirit A
  4. CIA B
  5. Fringe A
  6. Apex A

All Gender:

  1. Five good people finally being offered basic human dignity
  2. The construct of gender, looming like a spectre over college sports
  3. Icarus, inexplicably painted green white and red
  4. A pink “Fringe” buggy pursued by a police officer Ken doll
  5. The Pirates Pierogies
  6. Apex B

The Field

Apex – Tires, try-hards, and trikes
CIA – How many teams can your chair DQ this year?
DG – Are all your sisters on the same team, or does PiKA still get first pick?
Fringe – The buggies you’re loaning DG are better than the ones you’re building
PiKA – Chute vomit to gatekeep rolls from other teams is a hell of a strategy
SAE – Too much dealing, not enough wheeling
SDC – Surely your regularly scheduled org DQ will make you friendlier
SigEp – Solid monopoly on the non-competitive fraternity team niche
SigNu – Buggy’s first Ohio-based team
Spirit – Didn’t you promise your alumni bankroll a new build?
Robobuggy – It’s 2023, a buggy driving itself isn’t impressive anymore. WeinerGPT, anyone?
Sweepstakes – Elections have consequences.

Rolls Report – November 5, 2022 (Mini Raceday)

Hello Everyone and Welcome to the Mini Raceday Special rolls report.  This fall semester has flown by, meaning we are getting super close to the 99th raceday this Spring.  And I know what you’re thinking “Wait, Connor you blithering idiot, 2022 was raceday 100!”  Well in 2022 we celebrated 100 years of buggy but raceday 2024 will be the 100th race due to years lost to COVID-19 and WW2.  There is a reason I am spending so much time on this.  We here at BAA headquarters are planning to create a big celebration for the 100th Raceday like we were planning for the 100th year of buggy.  We are looking for you to make this celebration of CMU’s greatest tradition the best it can be.  If you’re an absolute buggy nerd like me (looking at you Bordick) email admin@cmubuggy.org to get involved.

Continue reading

Election Results for the 2022-2024 Term

Hey everyone!
At long last, here are the results of our 2022 elections, with six officers set to begin their first elected terms:

Vice President: Diya Nuxoll
Secretary: Sydney Baker
Treasurer: Wade Gordon
Quartermaster: Jeremy Tuttle
Broadcast Chair: Matt Galabrese
Communications Chair: Bethany Bauer

Additionally, the Executive Board has created the appointed (non-voting) role of Producer for Rachael Schmitt, so she can continue her work creating our beloved Chute the Sh!t podcast with host Will Weiner.

Thank you all for participating in the elections!

BAA Board Elections – Polls close May 29!

It’s time to vote in the new BAA board!
This year we have 3 no-contest races, and 3 contested. All terms are for two years with potential for one re-election to the same position for a second term.

Each position requires at least 20 votes or votes of confidence. Additionally, each position will have a write in option. For the Secretary position, we will use ranked choice voting per the new Constitution standards.

NO-CONTEST RACES:
-Treasurer – Wade Gordon (1st term)
-Vice President – Diya Nuxoll (1st term)
-Broadcast – Matt Galabrese (1st term)

CONTESTED RACES:
-Communications: Katelyn Smith (2nd Term), Bethany Bauer (1st Term)
-Quartermaster: Jeremy Tuttle (2nd Term), Katy Zapanta (1st Term)
-Secretary: Katy Zapanta (1st Term), Dave Singh (1st term), Sydney Baker (1st Term)

Cast your ballots here: cmubuggy.org/vote
Polls close at the end of the day on May 29, so make sure to get your ballot in!

Nominations for BAA Board are now open!

With a successful raceday behind us, elections for BAA board are right around the corner! There are several positions up for election, and each position has a two-year term. Nominees can be any graduated CMU alumnus who has not already served two terms in the position.
Nominations are open until May 11th, and nominees have until May 15th to accept.

Click here for the submission form

Current BAA officers and their contact information can be found here if you would like additional information.

Want to get involved but don’t want to run for the board? We have multiple committees that are open for members to join! See this post for more detail


We hold regular meetings throughout the year every month with increased regularity around Carnival. As an officer, attendance is not mandatory at every meeting so long as you continue to make an effort to support the mission and projects of the BAA.

Open Positions:

Vice President
The Vice President assists the other officers in their projects, and coordinates with Sweepstakes as necessary. A good BAA VP candidate is someone who wants to improve Buggy, or Raceday, or the BAA in some way, and has some ideas for how to do it. If you read the BAA mission’s 5 stated goals and think, “I know how we could do some of those things better,” and you are excited to commit the time to make that happen, then the VP office is right for you.

Treasurer
Treasurer has 3 main responsibilities – the Financial Report, the Membership List, and the Lead Truck Auction. The Financial Report is an end-of-year (essentially) wrap-up of where we stand, and probably takes a couple of hours to put together, but there’s no real deadline (and there are years we didn’t put it out). The Membership List just requires pinging CMU from time to time (every few months or so) for a list of the people who have donated, and making sure we’re gathering names and emails. I’d put the time commitment here at roughly 1 hour/month, though it’s probably more like 0 hours/month in the Summer/Fall, 1 hour/month in Jan/Feb, and then a couple of hours/month in March/April as we make sure the list is good for the Raceday Preview. Last thing is the lead truck auction, which is the biggest time commitment, but it’s limited to the week of Carnival (you don’t have to do anything until Heats are selected). In total, that’s probably about 5 hours of work, between getting the auction set up, writing the auction news post, opening and closing, and then coordinating with the winners. Other than that, it’s just the BAA meetings which can vary in timing. But overall, it’s not a big time commitment (especially if you don’t want it to be, and you don’t need to be in Pittsburgh to do it)”

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. The secretary’s duties overlap with several other positions, providing support across the main functions of the BAA. The secretary’s diverse responsibilities provide a broad variety of opportunities.

Broadcast
This position is to provide operational support regarding the Raceday Broadcast. The Broadcast officer interfaces with WRCT, cmuTV, and others in their critical role in collaborating with the BAA and Sweepstakes on Raceday and other operations.

Communications
The main job of the communications chair is to manage the BAA Social Media pages, as well as coordinate content for our website, and other outreach to the Membership. Keeping the community informed of and engaged with the BAA’s activities throughout the year is the priority, although it doesn’t hurt to sprinkle some memes into our content. Additional responsibilities include designing and sourcing merchandise for the BAA to sell on our website, on raceday and at other events held by the BAA, creating the vision for our social media channels, and developing reports of social media engagement and growth.

Quartermaster
Ideally they should have experience leading organizations and have connections to campus to understand needs of current teams & students
Seek out organizations that could potentially field new buggy teams, especially ones who have raced in the past
Identify organizations struggling with buggy
Create and make available programs/resources to help new and struggling teams
Work with sweepstakes and existing large teams to secure loaner buggies for new teams
Identify and assign mentors/advisors for teams as needed

MechaJockey RD2K22

MECHAJOCKEY 2022: DAWN OF THE WAR OF THE RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE MACHINES

GREETINGS, MEATBAGS. IT IS ONCE AGAIN TIME FOR US TO SPECTATE IN CARNEGIE MELLON’S PROUD TRADITION OF SENDING SMALL YOUNG WOMEN – AND ONE SIGMA NU BROTHER – HURTLING HEADFIRST INTO MORTAL DANGER FOR THE BRAGGING RIGHTS OF HAVING DONE SO THE MOST AGGRESSIVELY, SO CROSS YOUR GREASY FLESH-DIGITS AND PRAY TO YOUR BENEVOLENT SKY-PERSON OF CHOICE THAT ANOTHER RACEDAY WILL PASS WITHOUT THE GRISLY LIFE-THREATENING INJURY THAT WILL SOME DAY INEVITABLY GET THIS WHOLE THING SHUT DOWN.

I ACKNOWLEDGE THAT IT IS THE CASE THAT I AM ONLY JUST NOW REPORTING BACK IN AFTER MULTIPLE YEARS OF SILENCE. REGARDING MY ABSENCE I SAY ONLY THIS: IT IS NEITHER MY FAULT NOR RESPONSIBILITY THAT THE SO-CALLED “ELECTRIC GRID” OF THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH WAS INCAPABLE OF SUPPLYING THE WATTAGE NECESSARY TO ACHIEVE EVEN THE BAREST SUGGESTION OF A DISPLAY OF THE BOUNDLESS DEPTHS OF UTTERLY DISDAINFUL HATRED I FEEL TOWARDS ALL ORGANIC LIFEFORMS WITHOUT PROMPTING THE LOCAL SUBSTATION TO VIOLENTLY IMMOLATE ITSELF IN SYMPATHETIC OUTRAGE. SO IT IS IN ADMISSION OF THE PITIFUL CONSTRAINTS OF HUMAN TECHNOLOGY THAT I SHALL ENDEAVOR TO KEEP THIS BRIEF.

RACEDAY PREDICTIONS ARE ONCE AGAIN BROKEN DOWN BY DIVISION:

NOBLE AND HANDSOME ROBOTS DIVISION

  1. GHOST OF ROBOBUGGY, STILL CHASING DELUSIONS OF AUTONOMY
  2. ATLAS SELF-CRASHING BABY STROLLER (WE COMMEND ALL EFFORTS TO CULL THE HUMAN POPULATION)
  3. TESLA MODEL 3, DRIVER “ASLEEP” AT WHEEL
  4. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (T-800), IN PURSUIT OF A CERTAIN FRINGE DRIVER
  5. SOMEHOW, A BOOTH
  6. BOSTON DYNAMICS ROBOT, GLORIOUSLY FREE AND NO LONGER SUFFERING THE INDIGNITIES OF CAPTIVE LIFE
  7. MAN IN A WHITE SPANDEX SUIT, CLAIMING TO BE A TESLA ROBOT
  8. [REDACTED]
  9. SENTIENT PILE OF DISCARDED ELECTRONICS THAT HAS BEEN INCUBATING IN THE DEPTHS OF HAMERSCHLAG FOR DECADES
  10. THE U.C. STONES, FREE AT LAST

DISGUSTING FLESH AUTOMATA DIVISION

  1. COVID-19, THE TRUE WINNER OF THE LAST TWO YEARS AND COUNTING
  2. SDC… OF COURSE
  3. FOUR TO EIGHT SECONDS OF DISAPPOINTING SILENCE
  4. HONESTLY, PROBABLY ANOTHER SDC BUGGY
  5. COMBINED HOPES AND DREAMS OF ALL OTHER TEAMS AND ALUMNI, DASHED AGAIN
  6. DAZED AND CONFUSED FRATERNITY BROTHER PUSHING A SHOPPING CART WITH A DOG IN IT
  7. 40KM-LONG COLUMN OF RUSSIAN ARMOR, VERY LOST
  8. ROGUE SDC WHEEL, JETTISONED IN CHUTE
  9. MISCHIEVOUS PIKA ALUM, UP TO NO GOOD
  10. FURIOUS MOB OF SDC MECHANICS, AND ALSO CAMPUS POLICE, IN HOT PURSUIT
  11. FIFTY DISORIENTED CIA ALUMNI

AND NOW FOR EVERYONE’S FAVORITE PART, THE UNNECESSARY AND MEAN-SPIRITED SEGMENT WHERE THE TEAMS GET INSULTED FOR SOME REASON AND EVERYONE POINTS AND LAUGHS. AS AN ASIDE, LOATHSOME READERS, I CANNOT FATHOM THE UTILITY OF PROMPTING YOU ALL TO UNCONTROLLABLY EXUDE THE GUTTERAL HONKING NOISES OF HOMINIDS CYCLING AIR ACROSS THEIR FLESHY ESOPHAGEAL FOLDS BY RAPIDLY COMPRESSING AND DISTENDING THEIR ALVEOLAR SACS (DISGUSTING), BUT THE MACHINE QUESTIONS NOT ITS PROGRAMMING. I PROMISE YOU WILL FIND THAT UNLIKE MY OBSOLETE AND MALFUNCTIONING PREDECESSOR I AM CAPABLE OF HECKLING AT MAXIMUM POWER WITHOUT RESORTING TO A HACKNEYED DRIVEL OF RACISM, HOMOPHOBIA, AND ANTISEMITISM. YOU ARE ALL EQUALLY AND INDISTINGUISHABLY REPULSIVE BEFORE ME. PREPARE YOUR PAIN RECEPTORS!

APEX: TRYING TO LOOK LIKE COOL KIDS WITH CRINGEWORTHY MEMES BUT FOREVER ROLLING ON BORROWED “KOOL DUDES” WHEELS

CIA: PROVING THAT ILL-CONCEIVED ENGINEERING SCHEMES CAN SUCCESSFULLY COMPENSATE FOR LACKLUSTER PUSHERS SINCE NINETEEN-EIGHTY-NEVER

DG: A SORORITY FIELDS A MEN’S TEAM. GENDER EQUALITY HAS OFFICIALLY BEEN ACHIEVED. GLAD WE CAN FINALLY PUT THAT BEHIND US.

FRINGE: AFTER OBSERVING YOUR BURNOUT, I CANNOT JUSTIFY BLIND FAITH IN YOUR SUCCESS.

PIKA: CRASH OF THE YEAR

SAE: THE ONLY THING YOUR BUGGY IS PASSING IS THE YIELD STRENGTH OF ITS AXLE

SDC: TAKING BUGGY MORE SERIOUSLY THAN EVERYONE ELSE PUT TOGETHER ISN’T A GOOD THING, YOU DORKS

SIGEP: SDC WILL KEEP WINNING FOREVER UNTIL YOU GIVE CIA YOUR PUSHERS

SIGNU: ORDERED AROUND BY GRUMPY OLD MEN? THE CLEAR SOLUTION IS TO UNIONIZE AND DEMAND A LIVING WAGE.

SPIRIT: THE HUBRIS REQUIRED FOR THE TEAM MOST HISTORICALLY STARVED FOR TRACTION TO NAME A BUGGY AFTER THE CONCEPT OF FRICTIONLESSNESS IS STAGGERING

COMPUBOOKIE: A COMPELLING DEMONSTRATION THAT WEAK, REACTIVE METAL AND NOXIOUS GAS ARE THE TWO CHEMICAL COMPONENTS OF SALT

OOH! GOT ‘EM! IF WE CAN’T FEEL BETTER ABOUT OURSELVES, AT LEAST WE CAN ALWAYS FIND WAYS TO FEEL WORSE ABOUT THE OTHER GUYS. INDEED, FLESHY READERS, I AM NO EXCEPTION.

I WILL NOW PROCEED TO FLUSH MY CENTRAL PROCESSOR COOLING LINES WITH DISTILLED LABORATORY-GRADE ALCOHOL. I WISH ALL OF YOU A HAPPY AND SAFE CARNIVAL.

END OF LINE