Thanks to rain and Halloween shenanigans, teams only rolled for one hour this weekend. Saturday was designated the official evening to celebrate All Hallows’ Eve, so Sweepstakes polled the chairmen and canceled Sunday rolls due to a projected low turn out (and high hangover rate). Unfortunately around 8:30am, Pittsburgh decided it was truly fall and it started to rain. Rolls were immediately called and the course was cleaned up for the weekend.
Rolls Report: Oct. 14 & 15 – Parents weekend and other fun things
The parents were out in force this weekend! Thanks for everyone who came out to support the insane sport of buggy bright and early this past Saturday and Sunday. It was awesome to have an enthusiastic audience that was either knowledgeable about buggy, asking great questions or even participating; and did we see some folks pushing the back hills?
Shenanigans started before the first buggy was one its way. At 7:15 am on Saturday, bales were still being set up along the Chute. Sweepstakes put out a call for anyone with a broom to clean off the copious amounts of loose hay, after last weekend seems like our fearless leaders are doing everything in their power to reduce the number of incidents.
That said we did start rolling Robobuggy on Saturday while a buggy related vehicle was still parked down in the Chute. The buggy and follow car passed through without incident. Immediately following the first robobuggy roll, the Sweepstakes chair drove down the course and parked between the groups of flaggers to inspect and then correct the placement of the hay bale on the staircase. Unfortunately, Robo still got the all clear even with a car parked in the middle of the road. To their credit they were able to complete the roll without any incident by dodging between the monument and the Sweepstakes vehicle. Atlas was not out this weekend.
With autonomous rolls wrapped up we got started with human filled buggies.
Rolls Report: Oct 7 – Rolls are on a 10 minute delay…
This past weekend of rolls was a doozy, and we don’t mean that in a “everyone got 6 rolls” sort of way. Between several crashes, a twisted ankle, and a rather angry motorist, we only got through the roll order 2.5 times. In addition, wet weather on Sunday meant that this was not a very productive weekend for the teams.
In Attendance
| Org | Saturday |
|---|---|
| Apex | Firefly, Phoenix |
| CIA | Orca, Emperor, Impulse, Equinox, Tempest |
| Fringe | Boson, Blueshift, Bissa, Bolt |
| PiKA | Cliodhna |
| SDC | Inferno, Malice, Vice, Avarice |
| Spirit | Inviscid, Zuke, King Pin, Seraph |
Observations (Saturday Gallery) Continue reading
Rolls Report: Sept 30 & Oct 1- First Weekend of Rolls!!
Welcome back Buggy fans! It’s that time of the year again! The leaves are falling, temperatures are dropping, and students are suffering through the first round of exams. We all know what that means: time for Buggy! This past weekend our beloved tradition got started on the right wheel with clear skies and tolerable temperatures. 8 teams were out rolling their buggies tallying up 49 rolls between Saturday and Sunday, although SigNu and AEPi are expected to be joining the roll order soon.
In Attendance
| Org | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|
| Apex | Firefly, Phoenix | Phoenix |
| CIA | Orca, Icarus, Impulse, Equinox, Tempest | Orca, Emperor, Equinox, Tempest |
| Fringe | Boson, Blueshift, Bissa, Bolt | Boson, Blueshift, Bissa, Bolt |
| PhiDelt | Argo | |
| PiKA | Cliodhna | Cliodhna |
| SDC | Inferno, Malice | Inferno, Malice, Avarice |
| SigEp | Kraken, Barracuda | |
| Spirit | Inviscid, Zuke, King Pin, Seraph | Inviscid, Zuke, King Pin, Seraph |
Observations (Saturday Gallery | Sunday Gallery) Continue reading
2017-2018 Buggy Kickoff Newsletter
Welcome to a new season of rolls! We’re excited to see buggies on the course again, and to that end, we’ve got the 2017-2018 Buggy Kickoff Newsletter (including 2017 Raceday Recap) to share with you here.
See you on the course!
Fall Kickoff and BAA Officer’s meeting notes
Treasurer
We are still looking for one after the last election cycle. We will be reaching out to those who were nominated last year, but if you or someone you know has an interest in being an active BAA officer to help support everything that we do, please let us know. More info on this will be posted in the coming weeks.
Updates from campus
Sweepstakes has landed on a start date for fall rolls finding a balance between the various marathons/charity runs/other road closures. Weather permitting, first rolls will be September 30th, a bit later than usual, but will avoid some challenges and costs that past Sweepstakes have dealt with.
Many teams still need to complete capes, but they’ve still got two weeks to fit them all in. During capes, we saw the reveal of a new buggy from SDC named Inferno sporting a slightly darker red than their standby workhorse Rage. From first look, Inferno follows the form factor trends of their last few builds, so we can’t wait to see how it performs on the course, and with senior and veteran A-team driver Annie Black potentially behind the helm, we have some great expectations.
At the end of last year, the incoming Sweepstakes committee expressed an interest in a full rules committee to clear up some rules that have been modified over the years and also update procedural matters to align with the modern format/changes that haven’t been formally written down.
During Orientation, Sweepstakes held another iteration of “What is Buggy” to introduce the freshmen to our beloved sport. Several teams participated and brought out a buggy to show off on the cut drawing eyes and interest from passersby.
Notes from the last committee meeting
Some time ago, BAA HQ had our Fall meeting and caught up with each other and our projects so here’s a quick update on our progress and plans going forward.
Progress
- Krishan has been making some great progress and should have fixed the account sign-up issue that we were having. If you’ve been waiting to sign up give it a try now and let us know if you run into any issues.
- As we did last year, we are planning to release a kickoff/wrap-up newsletter before the start of fall rolls (which now has a date) to all members.
- Fall rolls reports will continue this semester and we are looking to add some new reporters to further expand on the weekend events. If you are in the area and come out to rolls, let us know and we would be more than happy to include any notes you might have!
- Because of the vital role that cmuTV plays in Raceday, we’ve been talking with a few of their alums and are starting to organize a alumni support group specifically for them. Given how busy the group gets in the spring with their numerous shows, any support we can send their way will come back as support for us.
Next Steps
- We are continuing to make a push to reach out to possible new teams and following up with the outreach that was started by last year’s sweepstakes. Along those lines, we are working to compile a list of available buggies that new teams could rent, please shoot us a message if you know of some in the area.
- Priority for the website is cleaning up some security issues and cleaning up some of the underlying architecture. If you spot any issues please shoot us a message or post a comment. Thanks to those of you who continue to send us these notes!
- There has been talk of doing a short mid-season newsletter this year as a recap of the fall and make some predictions for the spring, so keep an eye right here for more info on that. If you would be interested in helping, or have a topic that you want covered, don’t hesitate to let us know.
Events
- Homecoming – CMU is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the merger between Carnegie Tech and Mellon College of Science this year.
- Tom is preparing a special version of his History of Buggy Presentation for homecoming this year.
- We are also planning to have our doughnut and coffee tent out for rolls that weekend, so come by and say hi if you’re in town!
- Carnival – We are starting to make plans for Carnival this year and will again be looking for volunteers to help keep things running and up-to-date through the races. The officers will be busy managing other BAA tasks, so we are looking to find some leads to help us just during that weekend.
- Local Meetups – We’ve attempted these to some success over the years, but we would love to have more Buggy Alumni meetups in other areas. The BAA has large concentrations in New York and Silicon Valley and will be making some outreach to those chapters, but if you are interested and would go to a local meetup, we’d love to hear from you and provide whatever support your area might need.
BAA Summer Meeting Notes
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.
2017 Election Results and Treasurer Run-off
The votes are in! Thanks to those of you who took the few minutes to participate. Here are the results:
- Communications – Aileen Dinin
- Head Reporter – Natalie McGuier
- Webmaster – Krishan Taylor
- Team Outreach – Edward Cao
- President – Ben Matzke
During the election process, we had a few write-ins for Treasurer. None got enough votes for an outright election so once we get acceptances back, we will hold a run-off election for this position. Keep an eye out for more info, here are the current nominees:
- Bryan Arsham
- Ethan Gladding
- Meghan Kaffine
Please join me in welcoming our new and returning exec board members!
Last Chance to Vote!
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!
Elections all around & Wigle Barrel Roll THIS FRIDAY
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 5pmStarting from Wigle’s Distillery – 2401 Smallman St, Pittsburgh, PA 15222~ 1 mile walk to the Barrel House – 1055 Spring Garden Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15212The Walk is Free, the Barrel House event is $20
And remember, our elections are still going on, so if you haven’t yet –