COVER STORY
“BROTHERS TO ENJOY THEMSELVES IN A ROOM THAT WILL BE REFLECTIVE OF THE WAY I LIKE TO ENJOY MYSELF WHILE AT THE HOUSE.”
playing Santa Claus. So the Historic Kappa House is a part of their childhood memories too. Williams: Let’s get back to the Robert L Jenkins, Jr. Room, what type of activi- ties are you looking forward to and anticipating to be held in that room? Jenkins: One of the things that I love about the name it was given and calling it a cigar lounge or Rob’s Room, is that I would hope that in the coming years and even when I’m no longer here; for Brothers to be able to enjoy it. Brothers to enjoy themselves in a room that will be reflective of the way I like to enjoy myself while at the house. Smoking cigars is just a small part of it, the main thing is the fellowship. That’s one of my favorite things about being at the Kappa House. It is something I’ve always thought separated Wash- ington Alumni from all the other metro chapters. Keep in mind, when I joined, Washington Alumni was the only chapter in the DMV (DC-Maryland-Virginia) that had a house. So every local chapter; Alexandria/ Fairfax, Silver Spring, and everybody else had to meet at a hotel, a school, a church, and those places
came with limitations. The DC Alumni house, man, I mean this is where you could just let it rip. You could enjoy libations all night, you could fellowship with the Brothers all night. When we started picking up the cigar-smoking habit, we could do that until our heart’s content. I want to go back to your earlier question, you asked me about my early memories. I still remember before I was married, when chapter meetings were at seven o’clock and we had repass beforehand at five, six o’clock and the bar was open at three o’clock. As a young law student, I was down there at 2:59 p.m. waiting for the door to open up. There were good times with Brothers like Mike Butler (Beta Pi 1977), Randy ‘Bo’ Friday (Alpha Beta 1971), and Edward Love (Wash- ington (DC) Alumni 1993). Seriously, we did not leave until the sun came up. Even when other Brothers were gone, we were still down
there and I didn’t have a car. I’d get dropped off at my then girlfriend’s (now wife of 26 years) apartment. So when Brothers go into the Robert L. Jenkins, Jr. Room, I really want the space to be used for fellowship and enjoyment. I would always say, when I was Polemarch, ‘it’s my belief that no brother comes down to the house every third Saturday to hear the exchequer report,’ right? As much as we want to pat ourselves on the back about community service and Guide Right, the truth of the matter is the majority of the Brothers are not there for that either. They’re there for the fellowship. So when I was Polemarch, I was mindful of that and we had truncated meetings. The goal was to get the meetings over between 60-minutes and 90-minutes so that Brothers could get to what they really came for. They did not come there to hear me preside over a meeting, that’s just a necessary evil.
I tell every Brother, that when you read The Story of Kappa Alpha Psi , I challenge anybody to point out in the early chapters where it talks about Hunter Street, or the Founders being together where they talked about being in meetings. They talked about fellowshipping. They talked about singing songs at the piano. They talked about the first Kappa party. That should remind us as to what originally brought the Founders together with what the first objective of the fraternity truly was. I understand that we’ve grown from what some would say our original design, however, we should never lose sight of what that first, original purpose was really about. It wasn’t about Robert Rules of Order. The more we can get to the fellowship and enjoy one another’s company, the better. So, that’s how I’d like to see that room used. A bar, a place where brothers can hang out and have a good time, and put what some
32 THE JOURNAL ♦ SUMMER 2024
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