Grand Conclave in San Antonio

Kappa Sigma's 67th Grand Conclave took place in San Antonio, Texas this year on July 22nd-26th. The Alpha-Kappa chapter had a great turnout, with 9 brothers attending. We were able to meet with chapters from all over the country and had a great time. While at Conclave, the Alpha-Kappa Chapter received a Champion Quest (Recruitment) Pendant for having more than 50 brothers and a Campus Involvement Excellence Award "for outstanding involvement in activities and leadership positions on campus." Nationally, the fraternity brothers raised $2,532,401 in the past two years and put in 660,957 total man hours of community service. In addition, $117,340 was raised as part of the Kappa Sigma Military Heroes Campaign for the Fisher House Foundation which provides comfortable temporary lodging for families of military members injured in combat while they are being treated and rehabilitated. The money will provide for a Fisher House in Washington D.C. to be built and named after Kappa Sigma.














A few of the Alpha-Kappa brothers in attendance (Left to Right):
Jack Yi '12, Andrew Brady '10, Abhijit Sadananda '10, Paul Delgado '09, Paul Szypryt '11















San Antonio is home of "The Alamo!" Our hotel was actually directly across the street from the Alamo and were able to walk through the museum there in some of our free time. It was actually surprising to see how small the Alamo was. It made you appreciate the story even more.















A few of the Houston Texans cheerleaders came to Conclave to "cheer" Kappa Sigma's record breaking recruitment numbers over the past biennium. Kyle Washington '09, Andrew Brady '10 and a brother from another chapter pose with the girls at an autograph session.















A graph that shows Kappa Sigma outpacing the rest of the fraternal world in terms of number of pledges in the past years. For a sixth straight year, Kappa Sigma broke a recruitment record with 7,036 men pledged.















Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger (whose story is depicted in the movie "Rudy") was initiated into the Kappa Sigma Fraternity at Conclave. His enthusiasm was infectious during his keynote speech.















On the riverwalk in San Antonio at a restaurant called "Dick's Last Resort." If you have never heard of it, it is a restaurant where the waiters and waitresses are essentially supposed to be rude to you. They crack jokes, throw napkins at you and even make you hats with insulting statements on them. Doesn't sound like fun? Try going to one of the "Dick's" restaurants. We agreed that it was the most fun we've ever had at dinner.
Back Row (Left to Right): Abhijit Sadananda '10, Jack Yi '12, Cody Guthrie (Carleton College Chapter), Tim Carroll (SUNY Cortland Colony), Paul Delgado '09, Paul Szypryt '11
Front Row (Left to Right): Andrew Brady '10, Our Waiter!, A random person that jumped in the picture, Eric Svensson (SUNY Cortland Colony)















After the final banquet, Cody Guthrie (Cartleton College Chapter) and Andrew Brady '10 were able to get pictures with outgoing Worthy Grand Scribe Jody L. Bailey (who kept everyone at conclave laughing every time he gave a speech) and incoming Worthy Grand Master E.L. "Bill" Betz, Jr.

Welcome!

Hello all! I want to welcome you to the Alpha-Kappa Chapter's new blog. This is by no means an effort to replace "The Chain" but instead another way for us to update our alumni, parents and friends on a more current basis. In the top right corner of the blog, you can enter your email address and receive an email each time the blog is updated with a new post. If you subscribe, we will not be flooding your inboxes with daily messages, but are instead aiming for 2-3 posts per month.

I hope that you will all comment on our blog postings as often as possible because we want to hear from you! The Alpha-Kappa chapter is planning to have an alumni weekend in Spring 2010 and hope we can use the blog as a way to elicit feedback from you while we plan the weekend. We realize that there is a Cornell sponsored alumni weekend in the summer, but it is poorly attended and there are few undergraduate brothers present to meet with alumni.

So, lets see where this blog takes us!

Yours,

Andrew Brady
Grand Master