KKPsiAA: The Tempo
A Journey Through the Road to Wisdom: Part 3
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Tempo, the official podcast of the Kappa Kappa Psi Alumni Association. We are your host, Saf... Mark... Antori! [Music] On today's episode, we're excited to bring a special focus to our alumni with a deep dive into the road to wisdom. This is episode 4.3, so if you haven't heard episode 4.1 or 4.2 yet, go ahead and pause and catch up on our last episode for the full context. This episode is part of our mini series with four episodes in total. So today we'll be discussing lesson 5, our musicianship matters, and lesson 6, our brotherhood matters. So these lessons are taught to the membership candidates when they first seek membership in the Kappa Kappa Psi. We'll modify some of our questions asked in the road to wisdom to provide perspectives from us, the alumni of Kappa Kappa Psi. We hope you're enjoying this mini series, and if you'd like to send us your feedback, please email aacommunications@kksi.org and we'll reply as soon as possible. And let's get to it. To kick off lesson 5, our musicianship matters, the membership candidates will analyze and evaluate both influence on Kappa Kappa Psi and establish connections between the second and fourth purposes of the fraternity. They will also describe the variety of fraternity programming focused on and supporting musicianship within the college band movement. Additionally, the candidate will perform the Kappa Kappa Psi Hymn song and university alma modern. It's interesting that they have the alma modern listed here because we learned that in band camp for the marching band, but I guess if you weren't in a marching band or university marching band, like a school music or something, that would be more applicable, huh? Well, I mean in my school, I never made an effort to learn the words to the school song. I had to memorize the music, so I never made an effort to learn the words. And anytime we had to say the words, they put the words up on a screen, so it didn't matter. Maybe they, of course, I mean, we've been I've been saying it all afternoon as we're prepping for this, but having not gone for the road to wisdom, they probably added it in. But my chapter has a chapter song. So they probably add the chapter him in to here as well, unless is there another part of the road to wisdom? That does that. Or maybe it was in my mind. Maybe in our chapter matters, maybe like specifically talking about your chapter. Maybe they included there. I haven't I hadn't considered people that weren't in the marching band, not potentially knowing the alma mater. So I guess that makes sense. It's just a. B-O thing, maybe just a B-O thing, beta omicron, uh huh, sure. So why music, um, music can't just start off, you got to totally didn't do it, huh? Musician ship is a core value and part of the national brand of keft kevassai. We bring to kev kevassai our individual talent and technical achievement as musicians and band members, often musician, I can't say it's a hard one. It's a hard one. By accident, gets in front of my tongue and it just, uh, just add the accent. The accent? Yeah. Um, often musician ship, I give up, only focuses on our participation in a band ensemble or the level of performance at a concert event. You should appreciate music and musical expression in all forms and we should be dedicated to excellence and performance. Musician ship is also about the relationships you build with your fellow band members, directors and community. Musician ship is a lifestyle and a called a charity, kindness and compassion. It is an expression of the best of who we are as brothers. For you all, what has been the most significant musical moment in your life? I feel like there's a lot. Um, significance and memory. Um, I'm wanting to like classify separately. You know what I mean? Like, I can think of like some of my best moments musically, but like significant, I don't know if that matters. Maybe it's just significant to the individual. Personal. Yeah. I think there's also different contexts to it as well. Because like things that may not necessarily be super significant to me personally, like I don't hold them super close, like they're close to my family. Um, like I grew up Catholic. So there's a lot of music in the Catholic church, um, and I like, there's, like I have memories from when I was a kid of like, um, like singing hymns in church. And um, I don't really remember the hymns themselves, but I do remember how they sounded in the cathedrals that we went to and how pretty the buildings sounded. But like personally significant, like, um, one of my favorite moments, every single marching performance was that part at the very end when you were, like you hit that last chord and everything's done and like you can feel your chest like heaving because you're out of breath, but like you just feel really, really good because you just performed. Like I love that feeling. That's one of the one that I, I have bad ankles. So marching was not a super fun activity for me, but that really, uh, I guess triumphant moment at the end of a performance was always like cathartic to me. Like it's one of my favorite feelings. Yeah. Yeah. No, I totally get that. It's like the adrenaline really. Like for me, I guess I have a couple, like I would say, or significant. One is always like before we would run on for pregame and you're just like fully running on adrenaline. And even though you've already been up for like hours and you're exhausted and you know pregame is about to hurt in every way possible, but like you're just running out onto the field and like the stands are full of people who are cheering and like excited to see the show and it's just like at, in that moment, you're just like, this is like, this is euphoric. This is, this is it right here. Um, but one like more specific time was, uh, I think it was 2021, uh, the Virginia International Tattoo was held at my university. Usually it's held in the Norfolk scope, but because of COVID, they wanted to do it in like an outdoor venue. So they did it at SB Ballet Stadium and we got to play in the tattoo festival alongside all of the military bands and international like drum corps. And it was so, so cool just to play around professional musicians that I mean, they were just amazing. Like I was standing next to their clarinets and I was just like, oh my god, like how do you, how do you play like that? And, um, and also, you know, it's, it's the, um, tattoo festival, which is a celebration of military. And so that's kind of near and dear to my heart being a military child and a military wife. Like I always love to do something that honors the military. And so that was a pretty significant, really cool moment for me musically. Yeah, building on that too, the word significant might, or it's definitely applicable to just like my memory of it, but whenever I think of like the coolest moment I've had or one of the best moments or those memories that you'll never forget, I always imagine my first time playing a half time show with the Sandoval Marching Band when I was a freshman, like coming from high school, who at the time, I think we were like 80 kids in our high school band. I mean, we were a great band, but then moving into college, I mean, we performed pregame, of course, but hitting the first note of the halftime show and there's like 400 kids and like hearing that, that first note, like just gives me chills and like remembering, wow, this is, we're actually making like a really big musical performance and, and you said something to have to that matters, hearing like the crowd or hearing the people that are excited to be there for the show, like in high school, at least again, in my high school, like you did the show and like we did it for us, like, and I know that like some of the kids in the school love the show or love what we did as a band, but like it did. We didn't really have that audience unless we went to a competition or something, right? But in college, like there's a stadium full of people that are listening to you perform the show and they applaud and cheer after it. And it's, it, it really makes a big difference like in like that feeling and that memory and making it almost seem like, Hey, what I do does, it does matter. In some sense, you know, yeah, it's a good feeling. Yeah. So definitely the first time playing a halftime show when I was a freshman in college was one of the coolest moments. Now that you mentioned that, it does remind me in high school, my football team when I was in high school was something. They were not necessarily known for bringing home the wins. So there was same, they, I was like this year that they started like actually like pulling off wins and it's, I've, I've been out of high school for a hot minute. What I unfair anyways, my junior or senior year in high school, the football team had just not been doing great that season. And during halftime, we had a moment where you normally during halftime, especially in high school, a lot of the people that are in the stands do not care about marching band. Yeah. They're like, Oh, the, the kids in the funny outfits are doing that thing again. And they just kind of ignore us and they keep talking or they go up to the concession stand, et cetera. But no, there was one performance that I had in high school where the stands were silent. There was no talking, no cell phones. There were people, no one was even standing in the staircase and they were watching us like actually paying attention to what we were doing because the football team wasn't doing anything. So they're like, the band is doing something and the band does bring home wins. So they're like, it was like a moment of we actually have an audience that is not our normal audience and they are paying attention. And that wasn't insane feeling because it hadn't happened before. So like for that game until the end of the season, which I think might have been like two or three more shows, every halftime, the stands were silent. There was not, it was an insane feeling to have, it was great. One of my favorite memories. So you mentioned Mark in lesson five, we talk about the second and fourth purpose of fraternity. The second is to honor outstanding band members through privilege of membership, extended as a reward for technical achievement and appreciation for the best in music. So do you believe that Kappa Kappa Psi has enhanced your musicianship or deepened your appreciation for the best in music? I think it would, I would definitely say that it's deepened my appreciation for the best in music in regards to the question. I think the musicianship aspect of it kind of just comes from individual to individual and depending on like how much you practice or train to be more fluent, so to speak, with your instrument or musicality. I've always felt pretty confident in those things and so although there are aspects that have helped enhance my ability, I would say that I would say that I'm more thankful and appreciative for all the things that it's done for me in the broader scope of, what do I always say, in the grand scheme of things, deepened my appreciation to see how many people out there are doing the same stuff, how many people out there are caring about the same things, the whole thing that we're all brought here for music and we'll go into brotherhood stuff in the next lesson, but we came for the music and we stayed for the brotherhood kind of thing, right? Just learning about what more is out there just because we're all band nerds is the very layman's term, layman's way to say that. So I really think that Kappa Kappa Psi has done a lot, a lot in that kind of sense. I feel like being a brother has helped me stay connected to music as an alumni because we've talked about it before how you graduate and some people may never pick up their instrument again once you get out of that band setting, you may not have a reason to, but I think Kappa Kappa Psi has given me that reason too. I find myself wanting to play my instrument just for the appreciation of being able to play music and also branching out like I really want to learn how to play piano and just that want and desire to continue being a musician and continue having those skills because it's kind of like what connects me to brothers in the fraternity is that love for music. So I think it's definitely deepened my appreciation for knowing how to play music and keeping that skill like going even as an adult. Yeah, like the way you said that. No worries, got nothing. I had thoughts and then thoughts escaped brain. I think because I did not become a brother my freshman year in college, I decided my junior year to become a brother and prior to becoming a brother, the degree that I have is a music degree and I honestly for a long time thought I am only playing my instrument as a proxy and because I have to in order to get the degree that I want, not because I want to play my instrument. In order to continue to be a student in the School of Music, I had to be a trombone player and I had to take trombone lessons and I had to meet that minimum requirement but once I was done taking lessons I'm done, I'm not picking it back up and that's kind of what my idea was like I'm only playing because I have to but after becoming a brother I had this sense of community that made me want to play with them and I felt like practicing for me was a chore. I hated doing it, I didn't want to do it more than I had to and it was like after becoming a brother, I felt like I wanted to practice because I wanted to be able to keep up with my brothers and it was like prior to becoming a brother, I was only doing it because I had to and because the degree I wanted required me to, not because I wanted to be there and becoming a brother really helped solidify like you do enjoy playing like they're one of the service things that we do every year is there's a middle school here that their orchestra puts on a Christmas concert but they don't have wind players for it so we as wind players will volunteer ourselves and we will go play with this middle school for their Christmas concert and that's one of my favorite things to do every year because it's I get to play with my brothers and also like I get to play again and it's not like incredibly taxing or like for the most part it's their orchestra keys so it's not you know super easy but for the most part it's stuff that you can sight read and it's fun to play with their brothers or fun to play in general again whereas like in other contexts like I like playing for fun and I like stuff that is fun to play but I know was never super into playing stuff that was difficult just because it was difficult if that makes sense yeah like that specific like playing for that concert was always something I look forward to yeah the more the more you talked about like the feeling you got playing with your brothers the more I started remember more of that too we used to do a sight reading competition people would submit commissions not commissions compositions and we would have to sight read it to declare a winner and we would it would just be all the brothers like it was a mandatory event at least for my first year or second year and so everyone was always there I was like this is awesome like yeah we play in band together but like it's us plus 350 more but this is just us like there's something thrilling about that something just cool to sit next to everybody and play music it's more it's more personal yeah yeah I always hold so with our oh I was gonna say I was like singing especially the the song or the hymn like those are always felt like those always felt like special moments to me because like performing even though like even in most context singing was just for us performing in that aspect was I it's a feeling that I really like and I always really have liked singing in groups like that is something I look forward to and something I always really enjoyed and you should enjoy and you definitely should look forward to it you know yeah you know you're doing something that's good for you actually look forward to it so fourth purpose of our fraternity is to foster a close relationship between college bands and promote a high average of attainment by the performance of good music and selection of worthwhile projects so when considering the fourth purpose what do you think this looks like when the purpose is actually lived out perhaps it has something to do with or it can apply to what I was mentioning from promoting like a close a fostering a close relationship between the bands in this case like a composition competition where you're encouraging people to submit musical achievement like their own personal talent for it to be performed by people who like doing it and you get to hear it as a composer like what more than a group of like 50 kids that are good at or not good at but love playing their instrument and are here because of their instrument and their music to play it for you like just to hear a recording of your own created piece I think that the project that we used to do was fits well into this purpose when I was inactive I think fostering close relationships between bands kind of has like a double meeting I think like you some are it definitely applies to like your individual band like bonds within your band itself but I think it's also you know between bands like two different bands from different schools and I think that can be super beneficial because you know there's usually chapters fairly close to you you sometimes get to meet people at games which is always fun because even though you guys are like rooting against each other you know you still have that like love and I always loved like meeting other chapters getting to take pictures with them or like gifting them like that was always a favorite thing we used to love getting to sing with other chapters and I think that's such a fun part is that you know you're in your band however big your band is but you kind of when you meet other people you kind of realize that you're a part of something like way bigger it's not just your band it's bands everywhere and I think that's super fun did you guys have an equivalent of like a state days in your districts this was um this was a thing in the western district and I think it stopped a couple years a year ago or two years ago or something but what happened is every year between the three schools in Arizona well actually what each state had their own but for Arizona the three main schools northern Arizona Arizona State and then University of Arizona we would all collect all the brothers and sisters would join in one of those three locations in one of those campuses for like a weekend of brother and sister activity we would do a service project together we'd do some sort of music thing and a lot of brotherhood stuff and then the next year would rotate to the next school and everyone would travel over there and then the next year traveled to the next school and it was it was a district event and each of the states had them but when you mention all these things about coming together and that's my first thought now that I think more on it too it's you got to really meet everybody in the state and realize oh it's more than just my chapter that would be so cool that would be so fun but Texas is large exactly oh my god don't even get me started on it if anyone listening knows what I'm talking about the whole debate of trying to split California state days to split California into two states I don't know it was a big thing back when I was going through um it's um so fun but no it was it was great because then you go to a district event and you're like oh my god it's not even just my state like overwhelmed and then obviously I mean I haven't been to a national convention since like um when I was active I went first one was when I was already graduated but it's just a district event again you know blown up so anyway it was like the the the testing the waters on meeting other chapters before going to like a district event I think that helps with like because you know sometimes you get those like you know you're a little nervous you're going to a district convention and maybe only like a few brothers from your chapter are going so you're like I don't I'm kind of scared to meet people and so like already having met people at this like you know state retreat like it kind of helps you can like see people again it makes you kind of a little bit more comfortable not as nervous to like go to a new place with all these brothers just yeah kind of kind of was like a like a state retreat um yeah that's less and less informal but still informal enough yeah that's cool so we are in October now but next month is the national month of musicianship November the next part of this lesson goes through uh some of uh some of those bullet points I say that as I'm reading bullet points so the mission and purpose of Kappa Kappa Psi directs directly reflects our goal of celebrating music in college bands and so the national month of musicianship is celebrated um every November which is the same month as the fraternity's founding um what are some activities that alumni can engage in so continue promoting and celebrating the month of musicianship as a play music there you go just keep playing music are there any specific like activities or awards especially that your chapter does or that nationally anyone can contribute in take that balls in here well I was going to say also um you know for those who are part of like laas they can do an event with your la um you know either play some music maybe um try to just even just host an event where you're all just like hanging out with each other you know like get some brotherhood going so along with the national month of musicianship is another program called the national intercollegia band otherwise known as the NIB for short one of the most exciting contributions made to the work of collegiate music during the last half century has been the national intercollegia band program of Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma the NIB was founded in 1947 by Dr. F Lee Bulling it's important to note that alumni brothers can audition if they are current collegiate students pursuing either a master's or a doctoral degree so you can still contribute and be a part of that even if you are not currently active you're still a way to participate and how does the Kappa Kappa Psi alumni association contribute to this program uh well named after the 11th national president of Kappa Kappa Psi who played a key role in establishing and maintaining the the NIB the max Mitchell grant program is designed to support its members since the 2019 NIB the Kappa Kappa Psi alumni association has offered applicants the opportunity to apply for the max Mitchell grant program as part of their audition process um you were reimbursed with uh two hundred and fifty dollars and awarded uh to selected participants i'm sorry uh selected applicants by the KK Psi AA awards committee um so how does the NIB embody the fraternities national brand of musicianship leadership and service and that's a question to you guys well musicianship it is a band it's a band um and leadership that one's a little i think a little trickier but i think in some ways um you know you you have to apply uh or um not apply what is the word um audition you have to audition for the NIB and so i think in some ways you know if you are selected to participate in the NIB you have a pretty high level of musicianship and i think that in in some ways you are a leader of your instrument a leader in your section um you know you've obviously been putting in a lot of effort yeah you're a representative of like the best that there is to have in the band um and service because you're taking time out of your day to participate in an extracurricular band um that also does great performances for other brothers so it's it's definitely an honor i think for for those who have been an NIB i think anybody would probably say that it's been a great experience for them yeah i definitely would consider a high honor to be to be uh involved in it too did y'all while y'all were active did you or ever audition nah i did not i will say though i don't think i i graduated um undergrad a year after i became active and that was like i graduated in 2021 which fell on a nap con so i didn't have the chance to apply then and then like at that point i became an alumni and so i just like never really got the opportunity to but i uh i think there have been some brothers for my chapter who have auditioned i know in the past um because whenever the nat um english when convention happens i know there's also like an award given out to the chapter um that brings to most people or i guess the school that brings to most people i can't remember if it's chapter or school and my my school has gotten that before um like most people actively participating um but i myself have not participated auditions are not something i can do of hair so nerve-wracking i just i shut down and forget how to hold my instrument um it's bad um kind of sort of off topic i know sav you've talked about going back to school do you think you'd audition if you went back oh maybe i don't know we'll see if i go back to school eventually but maybe i don't know we'll see stay tuned well if you don't want to audition you could also try to commission a piece because sadly uh the nib also has also has a commissioning program and uh for the upcoming 2025 national convention the composer for the nib is kevin day um who's an internationally acclaimed composer conductor and jazz pianist and a brother of kappa kappa which is pretty cool i'm excited to see brothers in nib for lexington i think it's going to be great the next section in the road to wisdom gives a brief history of our guiding spirit dr bermion mikovsky and his history where he came from and what kind of an educator he was when he arrived to the states and there's also a really cool excerpt from the baton circa 1923 on the importance of music in our universities by john philip susa and you can read the whole excerpt online but there was one little part that stood out i thought was pretty cool and it says one of the greatest factors in the emancipation of the musical profession has been the interest manifested by the great universities in musical culture and in making it a part of the curriculum of their institutions and so with that as an alumnus of the organization and of our universities how can you contribute to the musical success of college and university bands i find it so astonishing that a hundred years ago they could put so many words into one sentence and it still makes sense because that was a hundred and one i had to say that one yeah a hundred and one years ago they they find they find joy in in making us say that yeah in one breath periods are simply a suggestion when it comes to ending the sentence i don't think the semicolon was happening uh as uh i think uh i'm just spitting just because i was going to go on to the next part contributing to the musical success of your college and university bands um i mean we all have a i mean the only way i can think of directly being involved is um if you're not a part of like a local alumni association for your chapter or for your school or for your area what have you know um then you can definitely try to participate or put together groups when you have homecomings or alumni bands or you get togethers when you know that there's going to be a large group of you in one area that's typically one of the first things that come to mind when i think of how do i continue to contribute to the success is showing that this organization in other words the marching band um from ASU has meant a lot to me when i was uh in school and so i continue to come back because not only do i enjoy playing management but i enjoy supporting this program and i enjoy seeing you know people who you don't really get to see every single year um and i think that shows its success um in its own way because you know you have a hundred hundred plus people coming back to play their instruments means they must have liked something while they were here so reliving good enough reason reliving the good all days um i think that's a good very generic answer to that question i think that's a good answer though you know continuing to go back continuing to you know support and follow your bands um and i know some people you can also support like monetarily to your bands too um i know some bands have that set up yeah not all bands do for me kind of on like a i guess like a step down from like the you know actually like my specific band uh a lot of brothers for my chapter teach at high schools in the area and one of them teaches at the high school i went to and so i've tried to um to help his band on the high school level by sharing you know their events and supporting i've donated to them to get new uniforms instruments you know we all know how high school bands funding goes um but in some way i think that does contribute to the college bands because the reality is a lot of those high schoolers will filter into the college that i went to or a college nearby so by supporting even on the lower level it's kind of like the you know grassroots like you support kind of on that basic level and it eventually builds and filters into you know if not your college local colleges local chapters so you're really just supporting music in general yeah for college bands um speaking of music um the whole podcast the whole podcast is speaking of music good yep there we go um anyways speaking of music uh to wrap up lesson five um we are going to include clips of Texas Christian university they gave us sigma chapter singing the hymn and the song for the fraternity [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] yay lesson five next up we have lesson six our brotherhood matters in this lesson the membership candidates will be able to explore the history of the fraternity and national headquarters identify the founding fathers of Kappa Kappa Psi discuss observations of brotherhood within the chapter and make connections to the fifth purpose and articulate a personal understanding of the role of brotherhood within Kappa Kappa Psi and with that the fifth purpose of Kappa Kappa Psi which is to provide a pleasant and helpful social experience for all engaged in college bandwork and to cooperate with other musical organizations in any manner consistent with the purposes of the institution at which chapters are located so how does the fifth purpose connect to the core value of brotherhood i feel like i kind of touched on this when i was talking about earlier like meeting other bands and like we kind of had a discussion about your little state retreat that's what i'm calling it state days honestly yeah no looking at the question the entirety of state days and i guess like any district event but i'm mentioning like a retreat or state days specifically because it involves working with others outside of your your home um being able to connect and just do this do similar works but on a grander scale and provide like a more uh provide a uh a bigger response uh from the community um yeah at being doing i'm yeah sure you should talk more i was going to say that the first thing that comes to mind is um the while we may not be in the same brotherhoods um how often and how common it is for um like a case i chapter to help out like femuelpha or muphi or right right tbs like how often it's like hey we're doing this thing and we don't have enough people can you help and immediately there's never a yeah give me a sec or hey let me ask it's like when and where do you need us like it's never like we're always there to help each other and like there have been instances where we've asked for help or if they've asked for help and it's always a when and where not a we'll get back to you it's a always a wordy-dee-ness kind of thing like always willing to help it's the thing that stands out to me mostly like in this is how it's pleasant and helpful experience for all engaged in college band work and when i hear that i think how it's not just marching band i think sometimes we get into that mindset of like kappa kappa sai is like just people in marching band it's like but in reality it's people involved in music you know like i know my chapter has done different events just for the school of music you know whether it's like set up or break down for concerts or we organized music library which was so much music but just like anything that you can do to support music at your university or your institution it's not just marching band but it's like bigger than that so part two is a little bit of the fraternity history and founding fathers so kappa kappa sai was founded on november 27th 1919 at oklahoma agricultural and mechanical college which is currently oklahoma state university and still water oklahoma and we're going to talk about the founding fathers but i was going to ask but it looks like uh we we unhighlighted that so if you're looking at our notes don't look at our notes can anyone name at least uh five of the founding fathers or name any of the founding fathers i will go straight out there and say i'll remember two of the names before we talked earlier i have a say i remember scroggs and um a frank martin but most of those other names no joke just out out the brain exited out back because we talked so much about bow we talked so much about um like certain of the name you know some of the specific names sometimes a lot of those other names don't really stick in my memory as well as um like hearing some certain words over and over again what about you guys i forget i forget how many there are there's so many more than you like you really think of because like you said you hear those same names all the time and i forget that there's quite a few of them i'm looking at another one how can i forget him okay no do you remember you remembered an additional one salve yes i remembered uh decursed okay tori did you remember any other ones you witnessed me misspell my own name earlier i can barely do that yeah yep no i i totally also remember iron hawthorn nelson because that was one of the coolest names we were all like losing our minds of her how cool of a name is it anyway it sounds like one of the like a like a really cool name out of a sci-fi book right or also something by lemony smicket in like the best way so other uh founding fathers obviously include the names that we mentioned but there's also ramen d shannon uh william h is it copage uh clayton esol carl a stevens klide hasden um and george asher hendrykson i like how we have like almost all these include a middle initial like i remember william a scrubs like you just remember like the sick the sequence of it right and then um although bow has talked about a lot um he is uh the guiding spirit of kappa kappa sci and the director of bands or was the director of bands at oklahoma a and m college it's like like we were talking about like remembering these names it's like when you talk about like previous presidents can anyone name all of the presidents like easily no but you remember the names that everyone always talks about washington linkin um you know like uh thomas jefferson like all of the names that are always talked about you'll remember the easiest everybody in between sorry weren't that important not to say that all of these founding fathers weren't important but it's like you we talked a lot about a frank martin scroggs you know i mean like bow like those names just always uh stick the easiest so i just thought about that now it's like we all were kind on the similar page yeah for sure i can say the alphabet backwards okay part three tori i'm glad you brought that up it's a national headquarters um part three is about the national headquarters and the national shrine um for many years the national headquarters of kappa kappa sci and tobetta sigma was located in the uh searteenth center for the performing arts on the campus of oklahoma state university in stawater, oklahoma the services of the national headquarters fall into four categories all of which overlap administrative services fiscal management record keeping and publicity and promotion the staff of the national headquarters is accountable to the national councils and boards of trustees of each organization and through them to the national chapter have you ever been to national headquarters what do you remember i have not gotten the opportunity yet but i would love to go to national headquarters it's cool i went there for the hundredth year um and it's small i have not personally been but my chapter definitely has in the past right it was cool they set up with this big tour stuff uh tour thing i had to go visit um a graveyard or some people are buried then you got to go to the national headquarters uh like the the caboose and since the convention took place on the campus obviously the shrine was just there so aside from aside from licking it which was a common thing at the convention don't do that uh the shrine was there so it was cool to take a picture around it um because it's like a part of the campus you know what i mean um and then the caboose uh was cool to go to as well it was overall just a really cool spot and i know that you know oklahoma's estate is like humid and like different than arizona where i'm from it was still cool to like go and just walk around and be outside and see where a lot of these things um started or um originally i know i got to go touch grass yeah what's that like mood as i as all of your blinds are shut and it's pitch black in the room um if i turn off the living in washington if i turn off the leds this is literally a cave it's great um so you mentioned the shrine um and also oh there's a note sorry yeah there is a note in our in our script um so about the shrine um it is shaped as an irregular shaft a little over four feet in height the shrine is made of native oklahoma pink granite and a note from dino in our note in our script please do not lick the shrine if you know you know i so my chapter i think a couple of them went for the centennial and i there are pictures of licking that it was so bad that they had to say it at convention well because covid happened right after so maybe that's where it originated hello okay so i have to put this out there because y'all know i'm a geologist why are people licking granite granite doesn't have a taste to it like if the thing in like geology is if you're licking a rock it's trying like you're licking it to see if it's halite aka like salt because it tastes salty granite doesn't taste like anything why are people looking at it college kids will be college kids if i had a better answer for you i would tell y'all are killing me don't lick granite if you want to lick granite go lick your countertops that's coded that's not fair uh and mark you also mentioned the caboose um the caboose is not like horn noises that's not what i was doing that was me filling in a blank spot in my speech oh okay instead of stuttering honk honk okay the caboose operates as a living museum which provides a home for historical archives and artifacts the purchase of the caboose was made possible in large part by a donation from al and gladus right and the award of a matching grant from the kur foundation definitely recommend going to visit it um although you'll definitely have no other reason to visit oklahoma if you find yourself out there or even if it's like an hour out of your way if you're driving halfway through like i think it's really cool i think to say you went to go visit as a bucket list item i think you should go see the the the you should go see the things and then get out of oklahoma because it's stinky said by a texan oh my god oklahoma is stinky so this lesson uh obviously it's titled our brotherhood matters and so a big question is what is brotherhood um what do you think the definition of brotherhood is to you is it simple or is it difficult to develop a concrete definition one of the things that comes to mind for this question is um so at nap con 23 um there was a presentation given by i cannot remember who was given by but basically the presentation was um breaking down the charge um line by line and one of the things that happened in that discussion was um you don't always have to like your brothers but there's still your brothers so you have act like you like like you you don't always have to get along you don't always have to love them but there's still your brothers so you do and we i commandeered that perm presentation just a little bit and i gave it uh at my chapter for one of our meetings and we had like a 15 minute discussion about we all love each other and that's great but i do not like y'all all the time and it happens but i will not let it show i will treat you with human decency and treat you like a brother but i will not be untoward regardless of what i feel about you right now what you talked about reminds me of some of the um activities we would do during like a retreat um i think we would do it at any retreat other a fall or a spring retreat um but there we would definitely make time to like have reflection moments or things where we can say nice things to each other or like react in some way uh anonymously to make other people feel heard uh it's kind of hard to explain without just telling you what the activity is but i always love doing those things because you got to see an unbiased opinion on just the nicety the nice things about other people so in your context of you know there's still your brothers and you don't have to always like them but you can you can still respect them um appreciating each other um even the people you might not get along with uh for the things that they do best and the things that you appreciate about them um i don't know i i i can't define brotherhood in a good enough sentence but i can define it through thinking of my memories and the times that i've spent seeing it in action and what it means to everybody um because i know we're all just human beings and we don't have to get along but the fact that we choose to um proves that we are willing to put aside you know things put aside little things and just make the moment right for the situation and for the for the organization yeah i love that you said actions because when i was trying to think about this i was like i don't know if i could really put words on what brotherhood is like i my definition would be action based it would be like what you say to each other um showing up for each other you know in times of need and just in good times like good times bad times just being there supporting one another being respectful um there's not i couldn't put like an actual word definition like brotherhood is i think it's a feeling brotherhood is a feeling to me it's something that you experience and you know that you're experiencing it in that moment but you may not be able to define it later on yeah we'll use looking at some of the notes that we might not get to because of time um it mentions that obviously brotherhood is a difficult concept to define but it really is rooted in very simple dictionary definitions like the word friendship and i would go on further to say that it's kind of like a combination of friendship and finding what friendship means to you and love because love isn't exactly something that you can define either it's there's something that you experience like you said so ever something that you you feel yeah yeah part of our notes says that it represents a deeper connection forged through shared oaths and lifelong commitments yeah and i love that i love that the the most too yeah um so in some closing statements uh from from all of these points in lesson lessons five and six or i'm sorry just lesson six um as brothers of kappa kappa sai we should collectively embody qualities such as outstanding musician musicianship leadership positive attitude integrity dedication and a strong work ethic a failure to do this is a part of the learning process so it's not something to be feared my favorite thing to say is we're all human we make mistakes mistakes help prepare us for the future prepare prepare us for future success and love is central to leadership and brotherhood guiding our actions toward each other and our bands so we should lead with the best interests of others in mind be passionate about music and overall just strive to make a positive impact those are just words to live by i think listening listening to understanding and appreciating one another um and celebrating success are all crucial for creating harmony and achieving greatness together that was very poetic yeah i'm great at reading and that's it for lesson six and a wrap for this episode thank you for sticking with us and we hope you found it informative if you'd like to share your thoughts or answers connect with us on facebook and instagram at kk sai a tempo join us next week for lesson seven our fraternity manners and the final lesson a lifelong commitment as always a big thank you to the national alumni association and kappa kappa sai national honorary band fraternity for making this podcast possible have a wonderful day and as always a a so so so