text: I'm pleased to announce RULFO (Rather Underrepresented Literature and Fine arts Open), a tossup-only open side-event to be completed by May of 2019. The questions are being written by Justin French, Anson Berns, Vishwa Shanmugam, Jakob Boeye, Keaton Martin, Darren Petrosino, Mazin Omer, Shubham Sengar, and me. Literature, visual arts, and world music are being edited by Justin French; jazz and nonacademic music are being edited by Mazin Omer; and classical music is being edited by me, although we are all writing across categories. The set will consist of at least eight packets of 20 powermarked tossups with the following distribution:
  Questions will be 8-10 lines of 10 pt Times New Roman before powermarking. They will be vanity-level difficulty, with roughly half of the answerlines extra-canonical and the other half easily convertible by most of the field. A conscious effort will be made to include more world content in the Visual Arts category (we decided to make a separate subcategory for world music but not for world art because world art is much more easily classified in the artistic genres we listed). In addition, music that falls under the western tradition but is from non-western countries will be classified as classical music. We will also try to ask about the "nonacademic" music in a way that rewards more serious analysis of the music, its performance, or its historical significance, rather than just easy listening.
  We are aiming to finish editing questions by early May, when we'll have an online playtest; afterwards, we hope to mirror the set in high school nationals and various summer opens. Everyone, including high schoolers, is encouraged to play this, as they'll likely find new and interesting topics, as well as cool questions about works that are important but not commonly asked about in quizbowl.
  I understand that there have been concerns regarding the difficulty of this set, so allow me to clarify a few things:
  The easier half of tossups is aiming to be deeper cuts of more canonical content. This is primarily to avoid having the set become oppressively difficult, but also is because I in particular believe that there are parts of subjects, especially music, that are especially important but usually deemed too difficult to be considered as a tossup, even if they are by, for example, a common composer. These questions should still be easily converted by the target audience while avoiding difficulty cliffs and "curved yellow fruit" giveaways.
  The more difficult half of the tossups, on the other hand, is aiming to be about subjects that we believe are significant but have almost never come up in past quizbowl tournaments at any level. This doesn't mean that the tossups will go dead in every room; rather, many could be, for example, common links on very difficult, extracanonical subjects that become more easily converted near the end. If anything, the number of tossups that fall under this category will most probably skew towards the low end. We decided to call the difficulty of this set "vanity" because of this, as the goal of the set is to toss up new things that many people might find novel and interesting.
  Finally, I would like to point out that this set is just a side-event; when beginning to form a team to write this, we were motivated by a desire to learn new things, have fun, and maybe show the community some cool subjects that they might enjoy themselves. That being said, we've already been working on this over the past summer, and will continue working hard to complete (hopefully) a well-edited set for people to enjoy. Thanks!
  The chapter has had a problem with one of the vendor’s checks from the October show, Phil will contact the vendor to resolve the problem.
  Tom Clark is in the process of creating a new chapter web site. This is still in the development stage and he will let us know when it is operational.
  There is also a GOOGLE E-mail site being worked on, still in the test phase. Until the GOOGLE E-mail function is operational we will continue to use YAHOO groups.
  The election of chapter officers was brought to the floor. Basically the current slate of officers was retained in office except for the position of Vice President/Vendor Liaison. Phil stated that he no longer wanted to be in this function. Scott had expressed interest in the position, but was not at this meeting. Dave then expressed an interest in the VP position, but that would leave a vacant treasurer’s position. The two positions were looked at from the standpoint of attendance at meetings and duties of the respective position. The duties of the VP in the chapter are such that attendance at the meetings becomes important, particularly around the time of the October show and contest. The duties of the treasurer are such that they can be accomplished without regular meeting attendance. Thus, Scott’s job is such that he travels, but Dave does not have such a situation. The decision was made that Phil would remain in the VP position into the first two months of 2015 and the resolving of this situation would take with Scott at a future meeting.
  The chapter dinner will be held at the Macaroni Grill on 9 January 2015. Let John know via the YAHOO Groups E-mail regarding your attendance.
  Andy – Lengthened frame rails for a 1/24th scale truck model, reinforced the frame joint splice on the inside. Battery box supports were fabricated from plastic angle stock. Additional cross members were required and he made these on a 3D printer, looked good. Also showed two paint masks fabricated from this sheet aluminum that he used in the re-paint of an older car model.
  John – Showed us a metal model of an F-105 jet fighter. This may have been the concept model for an early F-105. Two screw holes and cut out on the bottom of the fuselage indicate that it may have been mounted on some sort of stand. In excellent condition, scale not determined. Was given to John by a contractor that is working on his house and the contractor obtained it from a house that was being demolished.
  Ed – Brought in a sample of the new Bare Metal foil. The foil is a bit thicker than the regular Bare Metal foil and appears hard to conform around some shapes. Also talked about his work with a silver tip fine line Pilot pen, thin medium, flows too well, but usable. Other colors are available. Also had a Monogram 1/24th scale 1925 Ford 5 Window Tall T, may use the body from this kit on the frame of a die cast car model.
  Martin – Four small space ship models, among them a concept model for nuclear powered star ship. Also had a Classic Airframe 1/48th scale F-5B and two 1/72nd scale Bandai kits of space craft from the ‘Star War’ movies. They are Tie Advanced X1 and an X-Wing Starfighter.
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