LOOK BACK KAPPA HISTORY
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Reflections of Early Conclaves
My very first Conclave was in Miami, "The Great 58th Grand Chapter Conclave," held August 1973. I was initiated into the fraternity on May 11, 1973, at Florida A&M University, the Alpha Xi of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. Miami is my hometown, so going back home in anticipation of the Conclave was exciting. I did not know what to expect. The Miami (FL) Alumni covered my registration and gave me the necessary funds to attend my selected events. The Miami (FL) Alumni were busy planning for the brothers and the world to converge on Miami. The Conclave was held in early August, and the host hotel was the Playboy Plaza on Miami Beach. Kappa occupied several hotels on the Beach. I was a young neophyte, just excited to be at the hotel to see all of the Kappa giants we studied in our history lessons as a Scroller and during the pledge study sessions. Florida Memorial College, Epsilon Mu Chapter, hosted the undergraduates who attended the Conclave. Alpha Xi helped Epsilon Mu organize social activities for the undergraduate delegates. I shall never forget the official souvenir. Since the Playboy Plaza was the host hotel, the brothers received a large black and red Kappa mug, with a handle shaped like a female's body. The Brothers loved it. The Public Meeting was the first of its kind in the fraternity's history, as family and friends were allowed to attend and celebrate achievements as brothers received their awards. This set the tone for all other Divine Nine organizations to follow. W. Thomas Carter was the sitting Grand Polemarch. Founders Byron K. Armstrong and Edward G. Irvin were in attendance. Past Grand Polemarchs W. Henry “Stud” Greene, Tom Bradley, C. Rodger Wilson, and Richard Millspaugh were
We held our last winter [Conclave] in Los Angeles in 1989. [Most] don’t know that an ‘insignificant variable’ of only a few seconds in time triggered that change. And I’m the member who was personally responsible for initiating that change. It happened during the 1983 [GCM] held in Louisville when the city was experiencing a bitter cold spell. The meeting took place in a convention center surrounded by hotels situated several blocks away. Shuttle buses [had] 30-minute intervals to transport us to and from our hotel and the convention site. As I stepped out of the hotel into the biting wind, I saw the back of the shuttle bus after it had just left. I don’t miss [GCM] business sessions, so I started walking toward the convention center. My feet began to get [progressively] colder as I wondered why I was subjecting myself to these extremes. As I walked, I recalled that I had attended a [GCM] in New Orleans during the summer of 1976 where the heat and humidity was unbearable, followed by the [GCM] held in Denver in the winter of 1977 where I was caught in a snowy traffic jam on a side trip to Vail. I wondered why those two meetings hadn’t been reversed so that the weather might have been more bearable at each. Before I reached the convention center at the end of that walk, [I] determined that the best solution was to get rid of winter Conclaves. I wrote a proposed amendment to our National Constitution & Statutes, and the delegates ratified it. So, Kappa Alpha Psi no longer has winter [GCMs] because my feet got cold in Louisville in 1983.
in attendance. I was fortunate to meet them during the Conclave.
THOMAS L. BATTLES, JR. (Alpha Xi 1973), 33rd Grand Polemarch
CHARLES W. “CEEDY” MORGAN, III (Alpha Delta 1969), 95th Elder Watson Diggs Awardee
The 58th GCM Conclave gift.
SPRING 2025 ♦ THE JOURNAL 63
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