The Final weekend got rained/snowed out so there will be no more rolls until spring. Check out the last rolls report for current standings and speed data that we were able to collect.

We hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving with friends and family! With the various holidays coming up, we would like to remind you all about this coming GivingTuesday on Nov. 28th.

If you are looking for a way to give your group an extra boost, check out the student organization challenge that will be running throughout the Tuesday activities.

Happy Holidays and see you all in the spring!

After almost half a year without a Treasurer, it’s about time we vote one in and complete our team as we start looking ahead to the spring semester.

Thanks to the nominations from our last vote, Bryan Arsham, AEPi Alum from 2010 2008 and new Broadcaster as of last year, has offered tohelp us out. So now it’s our responsibility to show our confidence in his abilities and confirm his nomination.

Please comment below with you vote for or against his confirmation, and feel free to include any questions for him if you have any. Voting period through Monday Nov. 20th.

Mini-Raceday Results will be coming out with the rolls report later this week!

Homecoming Buggy Events

As Natalie mentioned in the last Rolls Report, Spirit Buggy Founder Matt Wagner will be returning to give his “Everything I learned, I learned from Buggy” Talk and we will also be bringing out the doughnuts and coffee for Saturday morning if it’s not too cold. So come by and say Hi!

Coffee & Doughnuts Tent

7:00 am @ Corner of Tech and Frew

Alternate (in case of cancellation): 9:00am @ Danforth Conference Room, CUC

Everything I learned, I learned from Buggy

9:30am @ Danforth Conference Room, CUC

By-Laws Amendments & Other updates

With the Rules Committee meetings well underway, teams are starting to get a chance to vote on some of the various changes with planned implementation slated for next semester for various procedural adjustments. So far, the Rules Committee has been starting off light making minor corrections to outdated rules and formalizing some of the existing practices. Here is a list of many of the new rules or adjustments that have been discussed and/or voted on:

• Autonomous Buggy – Robobuggy has officially been added to the regular roll order by a unanimous vote of the chairmen and will be working on new sections and definitions to help define their place in the sport for the years to come.
• Drop Test – The chairmen have voted to include a minor revision requiring each buggy/driver combination to be tested each morning that combination intends to roll.
• Speed Restrictions for New Drivers – Something that has already been in practice for the last several years, Sweepstakes will be formalizing their first roll speed limits.
  • Veteran Drivers would be required to be speed limited for their first (1) roll of each semester.
  • New Drivers would be required to be speed limited for their first 3 or 4 rolls (TBD).
  • Once New Drivers reach their carry-over limit (8 for fall) they would be considered “experienced” and would only require a single speed limited roll for the following term.
• Optional Follow Car – During Freeroll practices, teams would have the option to forgo their follow car and instead have a member of their team with an extraction kit remain with sweepstakes at the top of the hill and ride with the safety chair in the event of an incident. The chairmen voted to approve this amendment and will begin implementation starting this spring.

Mini Raceday

Teams will be competing in mini-raceday this Saturday for one of 4 top spots. Awards will be given to the top times for Men’s and Women’s, Freeroll and Backhill times. In the event that rolls are cancelled Saturday, Sunday is the fall-back plan.

Hello all you Buggy Fans! It’s about time we shared with yinz what we’ve been up to and what we’re planning for next year. Since our last post like this was quite a while ago, this’ll be a bit of a recap of last year and then also our plans going into the 2017-2018 season.

Summary of 2016-2017 Season:

Continuing of primary goals and expansion new projects during Rolls.

• Rolls Reports went well this year while increasing the average number of contributors. Thanks to these additional hands, we were frequently able to add more detail and information to these reports.
• Timing Systems exploded this year as we are now up to at least 4 or 5 different ones. Ben Brown has continued his initial speed trap system and added a version 2.o into the mix. Mark Estes worked on applying his soap box networked timing system to the odd shape of the course to some success. Shafeeq and Tom Wood also continue their camera and stopwatch traps that have helped confirm some of the success from the automated systems.

On Raceday we experimented with some new strategies to varying success.

• We brought on and mixed in some new broadcasters with our regulars and heard many positive remarks on our picks.
• Team interviews were attempted, but due to the reduced heat schedule, we were unable to fit them in.
• The BAA had our own team of volunteers for the races this year which generally went well, despite a bit of disorganization.
• The Table and Tent for the BAA at the top of the hill was useful if also a bit disorganized.
• Sweepstakes came up significantly short on their fundraising this year and we were able to step in and cover the costs of one of the Jumbotrons as well as the additional camera that was used on the course this year.

Plans for 2017-2018 Season:

We have some ambitious goals for the upcoming season. Some more administrative, others that we hope will improve the buggy experience for everyone.

• Our membership period will be adjusted to line up with CMU’s fiscal calendar. For the transition, anyone that donated after This year’s raceday will still be considered a member through this season. All memberships going forward will end at the end of June.
• Work is already begun on revamping this site and updating some of its tools to the more recent versions. Our current focuses will be:
  • Security Updates
  • Making the site more mobile friendly
  • Better usability for Raceday
  • Fixing and consolidating logins
  • Finding a better long-term solution for our gallery hosting
• We have a somewhat disorganized google drive folder that we will be cleaning up so we can more easily find & search all of its great information.
• Last year’s Sweepstakes committee did a great job reaching out to potential groups that would be willing to support a buggy team and we plan to follow up on the list that they generated to get an idea of what challenges they run into the most.
• Externally, we have some goals for the larger CMU and Pittsburgh Communities.
  • Most of what we are looking to do is increase awareness of buggy and potentially interest.
  • We will be working with students and the administration on the best methods for this outreach.
  • In the larger Pittsburgh community, we will be reaching out to local news and radio programs, which we used to be covered by in years past.
• Raceday itself is its own beast where we have some specific goals for 2018.
  • We will be talking with cmuTV and work with them closely to find ways of displaying our speed trap data as live as possible on the feed.
  • Reading off the pusher names has been a great addition to the broadcast, but we are working to find a way of introducing them more directly prior to the race starting that will not adversely affect the timing.
  • As the primary people affected by any changes, everything will be run past the current students with a focus on taking their input and interests above our own.

Current Projects

Over the summer we don’t usually have much going on. Aside from the previously mentioned website upgrades that are being looked into, we do have a Raceday Recap newsletter in the works that we plan to release before the start of Rolls this year. If you have any desire to contribute, please email aileen@cmubuggy.org for more information.

We will be meeting again in August just before Volunteer forum and will post an update on our progress so far. Summers are often slow, but we are optimistic with our new team.

BAA elections are ending this evening! Make sure your voice gets heard and VOTE! We’ve had a great showing so far and a few new nominations for Treasurer. Once these polls close, we’ll be reaching out to the new potential candidates and hold another round of voting in a couple weeks.

Today’s Wigle Barrel Roll event has been cancelled due to weather, so we will NOT be meeting at the distillery to walk over, however the event at the Barrelhouse is still on as planned around 6pm.

Thanks for everyone’s support this year, we can’t wait to see you all again next year, and remember –

VOTE NOW!

Election season is upon us and Sweepstakes is no exception. This Monday they held elections for the new team of Chairman, Assistant Chairman, and Safety Chairman. It was a relatively quick affair with some good discussion, and here are the results:

• Assistant Chairwoman: Elyce Miligan – CIA/Atlas – Co-Founder of the Atlas project that’s been running as a sub group of CIA
• Safety Chairman: Jasio Santillan – Apex – Chairman and builder over the last couple years
• Chairwoman: Camilla Xu – SDC – Head Mechanic for last Raceday

All in all, a very promising group with a lot of expertise. We can’t wait to see what these guys are able to do next year!

UPDATE: BARREL ROLL WALK HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER. The event at the barrel house is still scheduled, but we will not be walking with a buggy.

Just like last year, the BAA will be participating in the Wigle Whiskey Barrel Roll. Those who joined us had a blast and we encourage any students and local alums to join us as we strap a whiskey Barrel to a buggy and walk it through the strip. The event at the Barrel House is $20 if you are over 21, and they will have drinks available to anyone underage. There will be live music, and some awesome contraptions that move the barrels – last year, Penn Brewery was also pushing a keg and pouring cups en-route.

Here are the specifics:

• May 5th (This Friday) at 5pm
• Starting from Wigle’s Distillery – 2401 Smallman St, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
• ~ 1 mile walk to the Barrel House – 1055 Spring Garden Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15212
• The Walk is Free, the Barrel House event is $20

And remember, our elections are still going on, so if you haven’t yet –

VOTE NOW!

Nominations for the BAA end TODAY! Here’s a quick update of the slate that members will be voting on next week:

• Reporting Lead: Natalie McGuier (2nd Term)
• Communications: Aileen Dinin (2nd Term)
• Webmaster: Madison Scott
• President: Ben Matzke
• Team Outreach: Ethan Gladding
• Team Outreach: Edward Cao

We are still lacking a nomination for a Treasurer/Membership Lead for next year. If you might be interested but are unsure of the commitment, feel free to reach out and our current treasurer Dan Becerra would be happy to tell you about what he does behind the scene.

Being the unique organization that we are, we are always open to suggestions for new seats or roles that may not currently exist. For example, Regional Outreach, Raceday Coordinator, Social/Party organizer, or whatever you think the BAA might be missing!

YOUR LAST CHANCE FOR NOMINATIONS IS TODAY!