100 Years of Buggy History – Recap and 2020

Table of Contents: Intro & 1920; 1921-1923; 1924-1927; 1928-1932; 1933-1935; 1936-1939; 1940-1945; 1946-1949; 1950-1953; 1954-1956; 1957-1959; 1960-1963; 1964-1966; 1967-1969; 1970-1973; 1974-1976; 1977-1979; 1980-1983; 1984-1986; 1987-1989; 1990-1993; 1994-1996; 1997-1999; 2000-2003; 2004-2006; 2007-2009; 2010; 2011; 2012; 2013; 2014; 2015; 2016; 2017; 2018; 2019; Recap & 2020; 2021

So here we are, at the end of the 100 Years of Buggy History.  The goal of this series was to help celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Buggy at Carnegie Mellon by diving into the history of the sport a little deeper than you might otherwise find in the “History” tab on this site.  It’s one thing to see that Beta won in 1935 with a course record, and it’s important for the legacy of the sport.  But this series wanted to go beyond that.  What buggy did they use?  Who were the teams that they were battling against?  How many heats were run?  How close was the finish?  And did you know that someone actually tried to sabotage them before the race?

Continue reading

BAA Election Results and New Officers for 2020-2022 Term

Hi all, here are your new officers for the 2020-2022 term!

Vice President
Willy Clark

Graphics
Katelyn Smith

The remaining officers were all re-elected to their positions and we’re overjoyed to have Treasurer Bryan Arsham, Secretary Rachel Schmitt, and Broadcast Officer Will Weiner returning for second terms.

Thanks everyone for voting and participating in the election process! I will be in contact to get our new officers on board as quickly as possible and look forward to building an amazing buggy experience next year.

100 Years of Buggy History – 2019

Table of Contents: Intro & 1920; 1921-1923; 1924-1927; 1928-1932; 1933-1935; 1936-1939; 1940-1945; 1946-1949; 1950-1953; 1954-1956; 1957-1959; 1960-1963; 1964-1966; 1967-1969; 1970-1973; 1974-1976; 1977-1979; 1980-1983; 1984-1986; 1987-1989; 1990-1993; 1994-1996; 1997-1999; 2000-2003; 2004-2006; 2007-2009; 2010; 2011; 2012; 2013; 2014; 2015; 2016; 2017; 2018; 2019; Recap & 2020; 2021

Reminder: Along with these 2010s posts, we’re also doing a Raceday Rewatch, so you can join us at this link on Friday at 5pm ET (or rewatch it on your own later): 2019 Rewatch

This week, the 100 Years of Buggy History series has finally reached the most recent real life Raceday, its original end point. After 99 years of racing and 8 months of articles, we’ve made it to 2019. And what a year it was. In one of the closest battles in history, SDC managed to break the record for longest winning streak, by taking their 8th straight Men’s title, but it wasn’t easy for them as they lost the all-time winningest buggy in the process. We’ve also got some faculty racing, some mascot racing, some wheel-to-wheel racing, some autonomous racing, some incredibly bad luck, and a faceplant for the ages.

Continue reading

BAA Elections for 2021 Term

Greetings BAA members,

The time has finally arrived to vote on our officers for the 2020-2021 term. Thank you for your patience during the nomination process. All officer 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. We have 1 contested race and 4 no-contest races on the ballot:

Contested Races:
Vice President (Willy Clark, Dave Singh)

Uncontested Races:
Treasurer (Bryan Arsham)
Secretary (Rachael Schmitt)
Broadcast (Will Weiner)
Graphics (Katelyn Smith)

To cast your vote, click below!

Voting is open until May 21st!

We also are excited to share that Jeremy Tuttle, outgoing Vice President, will be staying on as an officer in a new position entitled Quartermaster. More details on the responsibilities of the Quartermaster will come as we revisit our bylaws this summer, but suffice it to say Jeremy will be continuing in most of his previous responsibilities.

100 Years of Buggy History – 2018

Table of Contents: Intro & 1920; 1921-1923; 1924-1927; 1928-1932; 1933-1935; 1936-1939; 1940-1945; 1946-1949; 1950-1953; 1954-1956; 1957-1959; 1960-1963; 1964-1966; 1967-1969; 1970-1973; 1974-1976; 1977-1979; 1980-1983; 1984-1986; 1987-1989; 1990-1993; 1994-1996; 1997-1999; 2000-2003; 2004-2006; 2007-2009; 2010; 2011; 2012; 2013; 2014; 2015; 2016; 2017; 2018; 2019; Recap & 2020; 2021

Reminder: Along with these 2010s posts, we’re also doing a Raceday Rewatch, so you can join us at this link on Friday at 5pm ET (or rewatch it on your own later): 2018 Rewatch

This week, the 100 Years of Buggy History series reaches all the way back to…2018. The sun shown brightly, but the temperature didn’t follow, concluding a particularly cold and wet winter that limited the number of rolls. SDC romped again, with a record-tying 7th consecutive Men’s victory, and plenty of DQs and DNFs led to a sizable gap from first to second.

Continue reading

100 Years of Buggy History – 2017

Table of Contents: Intro & 1920; 1921-1923; 1924-1927; 1928-1932; 1933-1935; 1936-1939; 1940-1945; 1946-1949; 1950-1953; 1954-1956; 1957-1959; 1960-1963; 1964-1966; 1967-1969; 1970-1973; 1974-1976; 1977-1979; 1980-1983; 1984-1986; 1987-1989; 1990-1993; 1994-1996; 1997-1999; 2000-2003; 2004-2006; 2007-2009; 2010; 2011; 2012; 2013; 2014; 2015; 2016; 2017; 2018; 2019; Recap & 2020; 2021

Reminder: Along with these 2010s posts, we’re also doing a Raceday Rewatch, so you can join us at this link on Friday at 5pm ET (or rewatch it on your own later): 2017 Rewatch

This week, the 100 Years of Buggy History series dives into 2017. Rain fell early, but not enough to prevent 2 days of racing. And what a 2 days it was, as 2017 ended up as one of the two fastest Racedays of all time, ending with course records (all of which still stand today) in all 3 buggy divisions: Men’s, Women’s, and Autonomous Buggies.

Continue reading

100 Years of Buggy History – 2016

Table of Contents: Intro & 1920; 1921-1923; 1924-1927; 1928-1932; 1933-1935; 1936-1939; 1940-1945; 1946-1949; 1950-1953; 1954-1956; 1957-1959; 1960-1963; 1964-1966; 1967-1969; 1970-1973; 1974-1976; 1977-1979; 1980-1983; 1984-1986; 1987-1989; 1990-1993; 1994-1996; 1997-1999; 2000-2003; 2004-2006; 2007-2009; 2010; 2011; 2012; 2013; 2014; 2015; 2016; 2017; 2018; 2019; Recap & 2020; 2021

Reminder: Along with these 2010s posts, we’re also doing a Raceday Rewatch, so you can join us at this link on Friday at 5pm ET (or rewatch it on your own later): 2016 Rewatch

This week, the 100 Years of Buggy History series heads to 2016. Newly paved roads and good weather led to lots of practice rolls, which helped some teams on Raceday, but not others. Spring Carnival moved to the buggy course, a missed pushbar decided a winner, and can you guess how many buggies PiKA entered this year? Go Fish.

Continue reading

4/29 Town Hall Follow Up #2

Hi all,

This is the second follow-up update from the Town Hall. If you weren’t able to make it to the Town Hall, you can take a listen here. New updates are in Bold. The final follow-up post will come at the end of July where I’ll detail the budget situation in consultation with our Treasurer.

  1. Membership and benefits — Complete (3/31)
  2. Consolation print — In progress: The posters are printed and ready to be shipped! We just need your address. Silver and Gold members should check their email or can fill out the address form here. We’ll start shipping these very soon.
  3. Budget — In progress: As mentioned in the last update, no expected progress until fiscal EoY in July.
  4. Homecoming — Completed until Fall 2020 (3/31)
  5. New content including livestreamComplete! Thanks everyone who came out to Virtual Raceday 2020. We were able to still expand the broadcast with split screens, trivia, a live-chat alumni panel, and more. We’ll try to incorporate as many of these into Raceday 2021 as we can and hope you had as much fun as we did! If you missed it or want to watch again, you can watch any time on YouTube here! We’re still hosting Friday Night Rewatch to go along with the History of Buggy as we wrap up the first 100 years of Sweepstakes.
  6. Elections — In Progress: We have started receiving nominations for officers. You can nominate someone yourself here if you’d like. Nominations close on May 8th, and elections will follow.
  7. Gifts for students — In Progress: The students have come together and decided on a quarter-zip hoodie with the BAA Buggy100 logo. We’ll be finding cost estimates and finalizing the design and hope to be able to sponsor personalized embroidery for the nearly 50 graduating seniors that have agreed to a gift.



2020 Elections: Open Positions (VP and Graphics)

Hi all,

I’m writing today to post about our open officer positions in the BAA this election year, Vice President and Graphics. Our incumbent officers, Jeremy Tuttle and Ethan Gladding, have done a fine job but aren’t able to run for re-election so we need new folks! If you have someone you think might fit the bill, you can nominate them with this form. Here is some additional info about those positions:

Vice President:

The Vice President assists the other officers in their projects, and coordinates with Sweepstakes as necessary. While the President is often concerned with big picture planning and direction, and most other officers have fairly specific duties, the VP is a flexible role that can change to support the needs of the BAA and express the skillset of the person holding the office. During my time as VP, I took part in many different projects: I wrote copy for the Raceday preview; I researched historical data and did a bit of coding to improve our history database; I worked with Sweepstakes and other BAA members to help several new organizations set up buggy teams; I attended Raceday chairmen’s meetings to get fast, accurate information about schedules and DQs (for our community and for our historical records); and I threw countless ideas into officer discussions about what the BAA should be doing. None of these examples are specifically prescribed duties of the Vice President—they’re just some of the ways I chose to use the role. In truth, 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.

Jeremy Tuttle, BAA Vice President

I’d like to add to Jeremy’s description that we are interested in having the Vice President also participate directly in the transition of leadership between Presidents in the future. This will be clarified in a revision of the bylaws (a summer project, stay tuned) as the officers work out the best vision for the VP position going forward.

Graphics:

This position is to provide design support for the various activities of the BAA. In addition to assisting the Communications and Reporting officers with graphical assets for Rolls Reports and the Raceday Preview, the Graphics officer is on hand to help out with projects like merchandise, video editing, and other communications, like social media. Although currently our Treasurer Bryan Arsham is doing a bang-up job of spreading the word on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, we’re looking to transition these responsibilities to the Graphics officer in order for each role to have more cohesive duties. The Graphics officer would also have opportunities to collaborate with CMU staff in Marketing and Communications, Media Tech, and potentially other departments working towards unified messaging to our supporters. Recently the Graphics officer has provided above-and-beyond support by collaborating on an open source Build Book to help new teams get off the ground.

Mike Darcy, on behalf of Ethan Gladding

We’ll post later this week about the other officer positions, but these are the two we need nominations for! Feel free to ask questions in the comments, and thanks to everyone who has already nominated someone.

100 Years of Buggy History – 2015

Table of Contents: Intro & 1920; 1921-1923; 1924-1927; 1928-1932; 1933-1935; 1936-1939; 1940-1945; 1946-1949; 1950-1953; 1954-1956; 1957-1959; 1960-1963; 1964-1966; 1967-1969; 1970-1973; 1974-1976; 1977-1979; 1980-1983; 1984-1986; 1987-1989; 1990-1993; 1994-1996; 1997-1999; 2000-2003; 2004-2006; 2007-2009; 2010; 2011; 2012; 2013; 2014; 2015; 2016; 2017; 2018; 2019; Recap & 2020; 2021

Reminder: Along with these 2010s posts, we’re also doing a Raceday Rewatch, so you can join us at this link on Friday at 5pm ET (or rewatch it on your own later): 2015 Rewatch

This week, the 100 Years of Buggy History series takes a look at 2015. Paved roads helped a bit, but a lack of practice rolls plus a deteriorating Frew Street and a rebuilding year led to a shock on the Women’s side and the closest (and slowest) race on the Men’s side in roughly 40 years. Meanwhile, more bad accidents led to an increased focus on buggy safety, while wheel experimentation reached it proverbial peak.

Continue reading