Pre-Raceday WRCT Broadcast

Posted on | by ben

Wednesday night, just before the end of the Lead Truck Auction, a group of current buggiers and alums will gather and discuss the past year and the upcoming races.

Mark your calendars and listen in from anywhere in the world on wrct.org. This time around, we will also be answering questions live from social media, as well as questions posted to this site!

Be sure to join the fun and listen in Wednesday April 19th at 8pm EST on 88.3FM Pittsburgh or stream it online at wrct.org

Unfortunately the 2016 broadcast was lost to the black hole, but feel free to relive past years with these previous discussions.

2015
2014
2013 – pt. 1
2013 – pt. 2
2006 – Raceday

2017 Lead Truck Auction Details & Alumni Challenge update

Posted on | by ben

Alumni Challenge Update

No movement… if you or people you know haven’t yet become a member (or donated any amount), what are you waiting for?! We do not have a monetary goal, only a number of new people. If we reach our goal, we will be rewarded with funds from the university that will go straight to the support and advancement of Sweepstakes!

2017 BAA Lead Truck Auction

The BAA is once again holding our lead truck auction this year. It’s the one chance you (or a buggy fanatic in your life) have of being right in the middle of the action on Raceday. You’ll sit in the back of the lead truck for whatever race(s) you can win!

Proceeds help with all the costs of putting on such a spectacular event. Due to limited sponsorship this year, the BAA will be directly sponsoring the races with funding to cover the Jumbotrons this year.

Here’s how it works:

  • The auction will open at 9 AM EDT on Tuesday April 18th. A link will be posted on our website here.
  • Just like last year, we will run the auction on a third-party website. You will need to create an account with the auction site, and you can set up email alerts if you are outbid. Each heat will have a $10 minimum bid. The minimum bidding increment is $1. You may specify a maximum amount you wish to bid for any heat. Then, the site will automatically increase your bid in $1 increments as needed until your maximum is exceeded by someone else.
  • There will be separate auctions for each heat of Day 1, and picks for finals heats will be split up into multiple items meaning that you will be able to bid for multiple finals picks. For example, you could bid separately for 1st pick of the men’s finals and 2nd pick of the women’s. This will also allow you to potentially win multiple finals heat picks, though for the sake of inclusiveness we encourage you to only bid for one of each men’s and women’s picks.
  • Bid as much as you want, as often as you want until the auction closes at 11:00pm EDT on Wednesday April 18th
  • We will send out an email to the winners, along with instructions on how to collect your winnings.
  • On Raceday, check in WELL BEFORE your heat at the BAA tent between the finishline and broadcast booth and sign the waiver. Then you must be in the lead truck on Hill 1 before the start of your heat. If you’re late, then you miss your chance. The BAA cannot be the cause of delays.
  • Lead truck rides are transferable. If you can’t be in town or don’t like trucks, feel free to bid on an auction and then tell us who gets to take the ride. You can also just will it to your organization of choice and we’ll let the lucky team pick who gets to ride. All riders must be at least 18 years old.

If you have any questions, be sure to email Dan at danbecerra@cmubuggy.org or comment below, we want to address as much as we can before the auction.

We are, of course extremely thankful to sweepstakes for allowing us to use a spot in the lead truck to create this opportunity and raise some money so that the Buggy Alumni Association can pursue its mission to support buggy.

Fine Print Details

  • All heats will be auctioned simultaneously
  • The bidding will start at 9:00am EDT Tuesday April 18th
  • Bidding will end at 11:00pm EDT Wednesday April 19th
  • Payment must be received before winners take their rides. Credit card payment will be available and is strongly preferred. Cash and Check will also be accepted at the races.
  • All winning bids will be considered a gift to the Buggy Alumni Association. We have worked closely with the university to make sure that your gift to the BAA is also credited as a gift to Carnegie Mellon. Be assured that 100% of your gift will go to the Buggy Alumni Association. Also, if you’re an alum celebrating a reunion, your gift to the BAA will be counted towards your class totals.
  • For tax recognition purposes the donor can only claim their gift amount above the Fair Market Value of the Ride Auction. The fair market value of the Buggy Alumni Association Ride Auction is $10.00. Only the amount of your donation above the fair market value of the EVENT is tax deductible. Please consult your tax advisor for more information.
  • If two people specify the same maximum bid, and the auction ends without any higher bids, the person that entered their maximum bid first will be the winner.
  • The end time (11:59pm EDT Wednesday April 19th) is fixed. There will be no extensions to allow for last minute bids. Get your bids in early and make use of the max bid feature!
  • Any heats that get rained out or otherwise cancelled will just void the auction for those heats. Of course, if winners of cancelled heats want to make their donations anyway, we won’t complain.
  • Winners should be present at the BAA tent at the top of hill 2 at the end of the preceding heat. Failure to show up in a timely manner will result in forfeiting the ride. We can’t be the cause of any delays, so the Buggy Alumni Association will have to be conservative in our estimation of “timely manner.” Be there!
  • The Buggy Alumni Association and Sweepstakes reserve the right to refund donations from and refuse a ride to anyone that is intoxicated or otherwise unable to safely ride in the back of a truck.
  • No rides may violate Pennsylvania’s laws concerning riding in a pickup truck. Basically this means the passenger must be over 18.
  • Sweepstakes also reserves the right to cancel rides and have us refund donations if they need to for any reason.

2017 BAA Elections Information

Posted on | by ben

It’s that time of year, the time when the BAA seeks out new blood and energy to fill upcoming Vacancies. This cycle we will be seeing many open spots on our board and that is where we need your help. Starting Sunday April 15th, we will open the floor for nominations of several key positions. You’ll have two weeks to get in your nominations during which you can nominate anyone to the below listed positions and they will be asked to either accept or deny said nomination. Following the nomination period, we will hold online elections for all dues paying members to vote in!

Here are some more details about what positions will be open and how you can be a part of the process:

Elections Timeline:

All times in EST

  1. April 16th @ noon – Nominations Open
    • We will put out a news post and social media blast with a link to a nominations form (we like our google forms this year).
  2. April 28th @ 7 pm – Nominations Close
    • Last call will be made and anyone nominated will be contacted to accept or decline.
  3. May 1st @ noon  – Elections Begin
    • News post will go live with a link to cast your ballot.
    • Only dues paying members will get their votes counted.
    • Anyone nominated will be encouraged, though not required, to add in a short statement on their goals for their term.
  4. May 5th @ 7 pm – Elections End
    • last call will be made for any stragglers to get their votes in.
  5. May 6th – Election results posted!
    • Congratulate our new BAA Exec Board!

Eligible Persons:

  1. Any CMU alumni who has graduated or will graduate by June 2017 is eligible to be nominated (Graduating Seniors, that means you too!)
  2. Any person who has been elected to two previous terms on the BAA Executive Board is not eligible to accept a nomination.

Open Seats:

This year we have several open seats that need to be filled and a few positions up for re-election. Each elected position constitutes a 2 year term on the board which can be held for 2 consecutive terms (total 4 consecutive years) pending successful re-election.

  •  Treasurer – This position is currently held by Daniel Becerra who will be stepping down. For the BAA, this person receives our monthly financial information and reports our standing to the membership. This role also has taken on organizing fundraising activities such as our annual Lead Truck Auction and keeps records of currently active members.
  • Team Outreach – This position is currently held by Connor Hayes who will be stepping down. This person is for someone who will be connected to the current sweepstakes leadership and is willing to reach out to current organizations or potential new ones to provide guidance and connections to other alumni. This person has also played a great role in providing content for our regular publications.
  • Webmaster – This position is held in a very limited capacity by Sam Swift. The BAA site is in need of some tender loving care and some repairs which I’m sure you’re all aware of. Please check out our website page for more info on how this site is organized and structured.
  • Communications – This position is currently held by Aileen Dinin who is completing her first term. This position organizes our larger newsletters and publications which go out to all dues paying members (i.e. Raceday Preview, Season Kickoff, ect.).
  • Reporting Lead – This position is currently held by Natalie McGuier who is completing her first term. This position organizes and compiles our weekly rolls reports and wrangles local Pittsburgh people every weekend of rolls.
  • President – This position is currently held by Ben Matzke. This person coordinates and directs all BAA Activities and communicates on behalf of the BAA to Alumni Relations and the larger CMU community and networks.

Completing the first year of his term, our Vice President Jeremy Tuttle’s seat is currently not open for election.

Given the unique nature of our organization, there will be an open field that can be entered with a new chair position for something that you believe is lacking or deserves it’s own role.

We’ve already heard from some people who are interested in joining the board and we are excited to give them the opportunity.

Happy voting!

2017 Membership Info and Undergraduate Alumni Networks Challenge

Posted on | by Dan Becerra | 2 Comments on 2017 Membership Info and Undergraduate Alumni Networks Challenge

If you’re reading this, you must be very interested in Buggy. And if you are, you definitely want to be a BAA member this year.
Members get exclusive perks, most importantly access to the highly anticipated Raceday Preview, which has everything you need to know about the teams and races. And you get to know you are supporting all the events we hold and the other things the BAA does to help make Sweepstakes run smoothly.

CMU is trying something new this year where they are running a challenge for every network and providing a potential cash reward! The challenge revolves around graduates from any Undergrad program at CMU who have never donated before. The best part is, ANY amount counts (e.g. the low low price of a BAA membership) and while we hope you send it our way, it can go towards any organization or program you want! Here are some more details:

  • Challenge will run between April 2 and Aprill 22
  • We will be posting weekly updates throughout
  • With 50 new people, we receive $500
  • With 100 new people, we receive $1000

If you’ve never before been a member, this is the perfect time to become one! To become a member, all you have to do is donate $10 or more to the BAA.

Should we make either of our goals, the money from this challenge will go towards the improvement of the cmuTV Raceday broadcast and help cover the costs of the production when sponsorship coverage is insufficient.

See our current membership list below which will be periodically updated. To help speed up the process of getting you on our list, or if you don’t see yourself on there and you think you should be, send me an email at danbecerra[at]cmubuggy.org with the receipt.

Click here to view the list!

Cheers,
Dan

No Rolls, Carnival Report Instead!

Posted on | by ben | 5 Comments on No Rolls, Carnival Report Instead!

With a cold last few weekends, Sweepstakes hasn’t been able to hold rolls since the earliest Spring Rolls start in years. With Spring break looming over the next two weekends, and an inclination for low turnout, they’ve also decided to cancel those weekends. This puts the next possible rolls for March 25 & 26. We’re hoping for a greater showing then along with potentially 6 new buggies that are in the works!

Given the lack of reporting material, we’ll take this opportunity to share some Carnival info with you, including:

  • Buggy Events
  • Volunteering
  • Preview Info
  • Auction
  • Elections!
  • New Race Format?

Continue reading →

Fall Rolls Wrap-up

Posted on | by ben

As we head into an exciting season of spring rolls, here’s a recap of what happened this fall, team by team. Detailed MiniRaceday stats can be found in our report here.

Autonomous Division

Robobuggy

The honor of the first roll of the 2016-2017 season went to Transistor, a product of the Robobuggy program in Robotics club. They’re not quite at autonomous rolls yet, but they made a few assisted rolls during the fall and look encouraging.

Atlas

Atlas has been experimenting with the former CIA buggy Quasar. They debuted a controllable version at design competition 2016, but it has yet to be seen on the course.

Classic Division

Apex

Apex debuted two new drivers on the first day of fall rolls, and therefore slowly progressed to bag-free rolling over the course of the season. They also generously shared their follow car with CIA, in the spirit of buggy camaraderie. The only incident was a loss of the rear hatch on the first day of rolls, but otherwise they rolled cleanly throughout the fall. Surprisingly, despite their surfeit of drivers, they only rolled Phoenix during the fall season, and Ember remained unseen.

CIA

CIA continues to demonstrate their significant manpower, rolling five buggies on the first day of fall rolls, with three new drivers. This is an encouraging sign from an organization that a decade ago barely had enough people to keep the buggies on the course. They were efficient and showed off their competitive mentality by heating Equinox’s wheels on the second weekend of fall rolls. Their only weakness so far appears to be a lack of a follow car, which they remedied by rolling with Apex and thus requiring only one car for the two teams. They were routinely competing with SDC for fastest team on the course.

Fringe

Fringe got off to a rocky start on the first day of rolls, when Bissa grazed the curb near the Panther Hollow Bridge transition at low speed. Reportedly, the incident may have been caused by a steering issue. Otherwise, they rolled quickly and efficiently, with multi-window rollouts by the end of the first day. The rolls reports for the fall season in general describe them as “smooth, quiet, and quick around the course.” They slightly trailed CIA and SDC in observed speed, but otherwise look like a threat come Raceday.

PhiDelt

PhiDelt was unseen on the course this fall, but instead have been focusing on a new build for spring.

PiKA

After a year competing as the independent Fishing Club, PiKA returned to the course as a Greek team this fall. By their second roll around the course, they removed the bags and piled on the speed, losing Raptor’s hatch in the process. By the second weekend of rolls, there was some fishtailing seen in the Chute, as well as creative flagging positions. Their drivers continued to take some “experimental” Chute turns through the fall, which seemed to reduce PiKA’s overall pace.

SAE

SAE was a minimal presence at fall rolls (only one weekend out with Lucy), with their most noteworthy event pairing with SigEp in order to produce sufficient manpower at rolls.

SDC

SDC started off in expected style, smooth, quick, quiet and efficient, removing all of their bags by the first day of rolls, and already starting on some impressive rollouts. They returned several veteran drivers, making the first day of rolls relatively easy. The second weekend produced a bit more excitement, as a new driver in Vice missed the transition flag and headed up the path to Phipps. She eventually stopped on the grass, and was (interestingly) allowed back on the road to continue her roll. Otherwise, SDC was one of the fastest teams on the course throughout the fall.

SigEp

SigEp had a fairly uneventful fall, with their only reported incident the loss of a GoPro on one roll (subsequent rolls with the GoPro had a lot more gaffer tape). Due to reduced manpower, SigEp and SAE rolled together one weekend, and were thus dubbed the “Sigma Squad”.

SigNu

It was MiniRaceday by the time SigNu (rolling only Krait) made an appearance, and it was a dramatic one. An accidental stop flag caused Krait to come to a full, spinning stop, but all was ok and the driver finished her lap without other incident.

Spirit

Spirit gave themselves a gradual but smooth start into the year. All three buggies were heavily bagged for the first two days of rolls, and there was initially some trouble clearing the chute. However, they soon sped up and were passing each other on the backhills. They have not yet achieved the amazing speed we expect from them come spring, though.

 

We’re looking forward to seeing everyone on the course this spring!

— Summary by Aileen Dinin

Warm start to Spring 2017

Posted on | by ben | 2 Comments on Warm start to Spring 2017

Classes have been on for a couple weeks now and the students have been treated to an incredibly warm January and February isn’t looking much worse. Given the extremely tame winter with little to no snowfall, this could be the first time in several years that rolls could get going properly before spring break. With all this practice, we could be looking at another competitive Raceday. Making predictions now might be a bit early, so we’ll hold off until the Raceday Preview. Remember you have to be a dues paying member to receive the annual publication and the earlier you do it, the more likely you are to get it in the first round.

Speaking of donations, we’re still running our donation challenge for a little Raceday bonus to the winning alumni team. Currently CIA is in the lead, but not by much, so there is still plenty of chances to get ahead before the challenge ends on the first day of spring rolls. So remember if you make a donation before the first weekend of rolls, let us know.

Last bit of news for today, we are looking to revamp our normal luncheon into more of an evening event and are currently looking at a couple options. BAA HQ has narrowed it down to a couple options and we would like feedback from the larger buggy community. Which would you prefer:

  • Alumni wrap-up party after Saturday awards ceremony for all alumni to get together and share their favorite raceday moments.
  • Friday alumni or senior Banquet with the sweepstakes staff and our Alumni Relations reps.

At either of these events, we plan to restart our biannual elections. More information on those later this season.

We would love to hear your feedback and we are looking forward to a long spring season!

UPDATE: Rules Amendment – Greek Restrictions

Posted on | by ben

The discussion that happened a week ago was an interesting one, though with low attendance, it’s hard to tell how informative or how much it will affect the future conversations on this topic.

In attendance: SigEp, PhiDelt, SAE, SDC, Sweepstakes, BAA

Quick Summary:

  1. The greek teams seem to have a different philosophy when it comes to buggy in that it is more of a group activity rather than a sole focus as is the case for some independents.
  2. Because of #1, current greek teams don’t seem to have an interest in taking advantage of the situation if this rule were lifted.
  3. Teams didn’t see a huge advantage of the “ringer” pusher. While independents have used this “advantage”, competitive teams, use it only to fill out their few positions on lower teams.

Next Steps:

  1. One point that came up is that this type of rule change may be more desirable by new teams, so Sweepstakes will be reaching out to them to get there opinion.
  2. Due to low attendance, there should be interest in having a larger discussion with more teams.

This discussion is far from over, but this is the current information we have from teams.

Saturday Rules Amendment Discussion – Greek Restrictions

Posted on | by ben | 13 Comments on Saturday Rules Amendment Discussion – Greek Restrictions

Greek Pusher Restrictions have been a hot topic of late and Sweepstakes will be having a formal discussion this Saturday at 1:00pm. We will have some alumni in attendance and we would like to have your input if you are not able to join us in person this weekend.

Please comment below with your opinions about these issues.

Questions that will be covered during this meeting:

  • What are the pros and cons?
  • How many non-Greek pushers would it take to no longer be seen as the Greek organization’s team?
  • What are the differences between Greek and Independent Teams?
  • What is the effect on both Greek and Independent teams?
  • How does it help/harm the organizations/Buggy as a whole?

Given some recent trends, sweepstakes has a renewed vigor in their focus on increased participation and we would like to assist them in any and every way we can.