UMD Soap Box Race Proposal

Jake Solberg








22399 Livery Court
Lakeville, MN 55044
July 23, 2014

Dr. Daniel Pope
University of Minnesota Duluth
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
105 Voss-Kovach Hall
1305 Ordean Court
Duluth, MN 55812

Dear Dr. Pope,

As we have discussed before I would like to propose creating a new event for the ASME
(American Society for Mechanical Engineers) club. The event in question is a soap box race
based upon the soap box race the company Red Bull does yearly. This new event is in response
to a lack of funds needed to run the ASME club.

I believe this is a new challenge worth taking for all of the ASME officers and members in the
club. The event will also help spread the name of ASME in UMD. The event itself is so unique
that any future or current bulldogs will be driven towards becoming an engineer in the future.

Thank you for considering this option as way to increase are clubs funds and also creating
something new for the club itself. If you have any questions feel free to email me at
Solb0183@d.umn.edu or 952-356-5257

Sincerely,

Jake Solberg
President ASME










Figure 1: University of Minnesota Duluth Campus Map


Current Situation

According to the Red Bull website the soap box race was started in Belgium, in 2000 [1]. Since
its start more than 40 races have been hosted throughout the world and the amount of spectators
drawn to these event have gone over hundred thousand [1].

Last year the ASME club was provided with yearly funds from the ASME Organization located
in New York. Due to new tax restriction the ASME Organization can no longer fully support the
university clubs located around the world. This has created a budget deficit for the ASME club at
the University of Minnesota Duluth.

With a new challenge in mind the ASME officers were tasked with coming up with a solution to
this money shortage. Ideas ranged from running food fundraisers to car wash lanes. The idea that
struck a chord with everybody in the room and related to the engineer in all of us was to host a
soap box race.

The event itself would be similar to the other event the ASME club host the card board boat race
in the sense that its not expensive for students to participate in. Another thing is that we could
provide free food and drinks from a sponsor. Also with a keen group of mechanical engineering
officers a set of instructions needed to create a safe cart for the race will be an easy task.

If this proposal is sufficient for you Dr. Pope, I will begin contacting the representatives who are
in charge of events at UMD. I will send them an outline of are event and the benefits of said
event.

Project Plan

The race will hopefully be held on Wednesday, October 15 around 5:00 to 6:00PM. Though this
date and time might change due to external circumstances the location however will not change.
The starting point of the race will be on top of the hill on Junction Ave between apartment
complex Goldfine Hall C and Lot U. The map shown in (Figure 1) pin points the exact spot of
the start of the race.
The race will start
at the top of the hill
and continue down
until it reaches lot s.
This does lead to
the first problem
how to keep the
roads closed.
According to the
UMD website the
chancellor has the
Figure 2: Schedule for Soap Box Race
power to close the roads in an emergency [2]. This entails that I must inquire about meeting with
him to close a road in a non-related emergency. I will email the chancellor a least a month before
the event is to start to gather his permission for such a task.

Now the second problem deal with what I consider to be the most important issue of this
proposal safety. Without a doubt if safety precautions are not meant this race will never take
place. Therefore a list of safety measure and rules are needed.
1. The rider or riders must wear a helmet deemed worth as a safeguard.
2. The outside of the road must be lined with hay bales to protect onlookers from runaway
carts. The cost of these hay bales will be address in the cost/benefits section.
3. All riders must have a functional break and steering wheel which will be examined
before the race by one of the ASME officers.

The cart itself must be based upon the design standards shown on the Red Bull website. This
mean the cart must be human powered, be less than six-feet wide and seven feet tall [3]. Also the
cart must be less than twenty feet and weigh less than 176lbs [3]. There are no restrictions on
material usage, but the brakes must be located on at least two wheels [3]. Participates in the race
must build their cart on their own time and money as well. The cart must also be ready a day
before the race to test all necessary components of the cart.

The race will be limited to one cart at a time and the championship will based on a time trail to
the finish line. There will also be a special prize/gage gift for the cart and riders who express the
most creative cart and costumes.

After emailing Red Bull itself I was able to determine that they can provide free Red Bull
refreshments. In previous year we were able to have Jimmy Johns provided food catering at no
charge at all to our other events due to Jimmy Johns trying to spread the taste of their company.

Finally the real reason the ASME club should host this event is due to sales in tee shirts created
by the officers in ASME. Combining the imagination of the members ASME Club we will
design a shirt that represents the soap box race event. Using the website custom ink I was able to
determine a quote of about $6.75 per shirt [4]. This number could vary, but selling by selling the
shirts at a high price say $10 we could reach an extraordinary profit for are hard work.

With so many objectives and tasks a schedule was needed to provide each ASME officer with a
set of
instructions so
this event will
run smoothly
which is shown
in (Figure 2).





-300
-200
-100
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# of shirts sold
Profit
Figure 3: Potential Profit by Selling Shirts Before and at Event


Qualifications

As the former treasur for the ASME club I understand how the funds of the event must be handle
so that no waste shall occur. Almost all of the ASME Officers are returning members and have
experience running the card board boat race event. The officers in question are some of the
brightest engineers in the mechanical field and with there help no challenge is to daunting.

Cost vs. Benefits

The majority of cost associated with this event lies with the hay bales. Potentially I could ask a
farmer to sponsor the event, but in all likelihood there will be a charge for the large amount of
hay bales required. According to website Hay Exchange the average price for small square bays
of hale is about $5.35 [5]. To cover all sides of the road down the hill I estimated that
approximately fifty
bales of hay will be
needed. This adds up
to a total of $267.50. If
we make a profit of
four dollars on every
shirt we would need to
sell about sixty seven
shirts which is very
feasible with a total
around twelve
thousand students at
UMD. Shown in
(Figure 3) is the profit
we could make
depending on how
many shirts would be sold. While the risk of
loss is great if too many shirts are order and
too few are sold the poteinal profit is to great to ignore.

In the end this would be a great experience to try something no one has done before and
succseed. This proposal is a guide to show the commitment this club is willing to put towards
creating a once in a life time event. Thank you for looking over this proposal and deciding
wheather or not this task is a feasible one.






-- References --

[1] "Red Bull Soapbox USA West 2014." Red Bull Soapbox USA West 2014. Web. 23 July
2014. http://soapbox.redbull.com/_2014_soapbox_usa_west/#about
[2] "Department of Human Resources & Equal Opportunity." Department of Human Resources
& Equal Opportunity. Web. 23 July 2014.
http://www.d.umn.edu/umdhr/Policies/emergency.htm
[3] "Red Bull India." Red Bull. Web. 23 July 2014.
http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_IN/Red-Bull-Soapbox-India---
FAQ/001243244382960#q7
[4] "Instant Price Quote." Get an. Web. 23 July 2014. http://www.customink.com/quotes
[5] "Internet Hay Exchange." Bale Price Calculator. Web. 23 July 2014.
http://www.hayexchange.com/tools/ave_price_calc.php