The colony at Western Michigan University was established in the spring of 2007 under the guidance of Dr. Robert Spradling, Director of Bands, and Professor David Montgomery, Assistant Director of Bands and Sponsor.  The following is a first hand account of the colony’s establishment and progress by its founding members. 

 

In February of 2007 Adam McFarlin, who had also been a member of Kappa Kappa Psi at his undergraduate university, approached Dr. Robert Spradling about the possible need for a Kappa Kappa Psi chapter at Western Michigan University.  With Dr. Spradling’s approval Adam began his search for potential members. 

 

Greg Johnson and Dan Kramer were the two people Adam originally approached. His familiarity with these two and their work ethics was a result of their collective involvement in Western’s Tuba and Euphonium Studio. Adam approached them individually to discuss aspects of the fraternity, to which both Greg and Dan responded enthusiastically. The Trio’s first order of business was with the three band directors in the school of music. It was important to establish a good rapport with Dr. Spradling, Dr. Lychner, and Professor Montgomery.  The next meeting was to discuss a list of people that they thought might be appropriate for this organization. This meeting was held at a Chili’s Restaurant, and a small list of people was determined to be invited for an “unofficial” informational meeting.

 

This informational meeting was held on February 18th, 2007, in room 1209 of the Dorothy U. Dalton Center.  Here the ideals of the fraternity were discussed, and questions from the invited persons were addressed.  All attendees agreed to join the efforts of starting this organization at Western Michigan University.  Again, names were discussed and added to the list of possible people to approach about becoming members. 

 

At this point, the fledgling group began completing requirements to become an official colony of the fraternity. Becoming a Registered Student Organization (RSO) became a priority for the colony to move forward.  To do this, a constitution for the organization, along with an official roster had to be submitted.  Rather than submitting a skeletal version to the university and fix it later, a full version was created from front to back. To that end, Adam, Dan, and Greg met for a total of thirteen consecutive hours on February 24, 2007.  Ideas for the constitution were gained from the then current McKendree College Colony, Northwestern Oklahoma State University Colony, and the Theta Phi Chapter.

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The first official business meeting of the organization (before granted colony status) was on February 28, 2007 from 6:00 – 7:00 P.M. in Hoekje Hall.  At this meeting the unofficial constitution was discussed and everyone was asked to review the document for the next meeting. Emphasis was placed on laying a foundation of brotherhood for the group, and the Colony’s executive officers were voted upon. The Colony’s first executive board consisted of: Greg Johnson, President; Dan Kramer, Vice President; Adam Noaeill, Treasurer; Athen Decker, Recording Secretary; Ben Tomlinson, Corresponding/Alumni Secretary; Mallory Bourdo, Historian; and Matt Jensen, Parliamentarian. During this stage, it was also critical for people within the organization to think of other quality individuals to approach for the next informational meeting.

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The first week of March was spring break, so any new business was postponed until everyone could once again meet. Since colony status had not yet become official, meetings continued to be held in Hoejke Hall.

 

April 4, 2007 marked the Colony’s second business meeting and the first instance of implementing a structured procedure to be used for all future meetings. With the collective blessings of Dr. Spradling and Dr. Lychner, as well as Professor Montgomery; the colony was ready to go public within the university. Money was being collected, more people were invited into the colony, and communication lines were established between all the colony members and the other organizations within the school of music

 

The colony made a conscious effort to establish strong, positive ties with Phi Mu Alpha, Sigma Alpha Iota and Collegiate Music Educators National Conference. To prove the good intentions of the colony, Adam, Dan, and Greg met with important members of both Phi Mu Alpha and Sigma Aloha Iota in separate meetings to clear up any confusion, or answer any questions regarding Kappa Kappa Psi. Additionally, a major emphasis was placed on demonstrating KPsi’s willingness to work as a team with the groups, not as a form of competition.

 

The Colony’s first official brotherhood meeting took place at Michigan State University on April 14th, 2007 from Noon to 3:30pm. Here the WMU Colony met with many chapters from around Michigan for an informal lunch engagement, with a fun game of touch football. Many of the people that the colony met on this trip were present on the WMU Colony’s first degree ceremony.

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The Colony continued to meet weekly until April 19th, 2007, with a social gathering capping the academic year on April 26. During this timeframe, the ratification process of the constitution was set in motion. Furthermore, Committee chairs were decided upon for the following semester, and there was continued discussion concerning additional members. Committee chairs were designated as follows: Spencer White, Band Service; Ben Tomlinson, Band Fun; Megan Savage, Brotherhood; Adam Noaeill, Fundraising; Dan Kramer, Membership Education. By the end of the 2006-2007 academic year, the colony had grown to 19 members.

 

Official Colony status was granted on April 24th, 2007. The Nu Chapter from the University of Michigan was assigned as our advising chapter.

 

The summer months were an idle time for the colony, as communication between all members was difficult. Things began to pick up again on August 25th, 2007 when Adam McFarlin, Greg Johnson, and Spencer White painted “BMB tick marks” on the Lawson practice field for the 2007 BMB Band Camp. This marked the first service project undertaken and completed by the colony.

 

An unofficial meeting held in the Dalton Lecture Hall was conducted on Monday, August 27th at 1pm. Fundraising and service project ideas were discussed, as well as how a Kappa Kappa Psi Member should act on and off the field. Lastly, there was an update on materials received from National Headquarters including membership pins, cards, and our colonization handbook. To further solidify brotherhood a gathering was held at Cici’s Pizza the following Monday, September 3, 2007.

 

The first official business meeting (fifth colony meeting) of the Fall 2007 semester was on September 11, 2007.  An additional service project, providing Sqwincher Energy Drink to the Bronco Marching Band, was also completed.  It was decided that the large scale goal of the semester would focus on the construction of a new Color Guard shed by the end of the year. Major fundraising ideas also were decided upon, including several T-shirt designs. One more person joined the group, bringing the number of members up to twenty-one. The official meeting time was also set for the semester at 9:15pm on Tuesday evenings. Lastly, the colony divided up responsibilities between the members concerning the petition document to make sure everyone was involved in the colonization process; it was also expected that this work would take a large amount of time to complete.

 

On September 18th, 2007 Vice President Dan Kramer’s facts about the Fraternity began; this marked the beginning of a Membership Education program for the Founding Fathers. Greg Johnson appointed David Schultz and Jaime Adams as the Music Directors. It was also discovered for this meeting that there would be problems formulating a budget. The student associations in charge of funding other organizations ended up utilizing an unbelievable number of rules and restrictions regarding funding policies, and any money received by said organizations would probably have to have been laundered. Since it would look bad for the Founding Fathers to be embroiled in bitter court battles concerning large amounts of University monies, there was an agreement that these organizations ought to generally be avoided.

 

September 23rd marked the first executive board meeting. It was determined that all executive board meetings would take place on Sunday evenings at 7:30pm; the default meeting place being Burdick’s Restaurant in downtown Kalamazoo. The structure of the meeting, as well as explanation of what was to take place during these meetings, was also established. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the September 25th meeting, a bank account with Huntington Bank had been established by President Greg Johnson and Treasurer Adam Noaeill. Things were still going very well for the colony, and the great reputation within the School of Music was growing at a solid pace, including consistently strong positive feedback from the sponsor, Professor Montgomery. The colony also attended their first “Fall for All” on September 29th, a gathering of all the SoM Greek Organizations. Dr. Spradling was also in attendance.

 

On September 30th, the colony underwent the 1st Degree. The colony also met with their advising chapter; the National President, Melinda Matney; and Chris Haughee, advising officer to the Colony. After the first degree, the Brothers went to the Bilbo’s on Stadium Drive for dinner and good times. Chapters from Central Michigan University, Albion College, the University of Michigan, and Michigan State University were all represented during this special meeting.

 

The meeting of October 2nd saw the completion of the ratification of the colony’s constitution, as well as a large portion of the petitioning document prepared for editing and formatting.

 

The evening of October 5th, the appointed petition editors Adam McFarlin, Dan Kramer, Greg Johnson, Jaime Adams, and Spencer White got together and began editing the petitioning document.  They formatting the petitioning document; the colony had enlisted Adam Noaeill’s father as a publisher in order to make a very special finished project.

 

On the meeting of October 9th, committees were established in order to begin work on the colony’s Membership Education Program, the final large project standing in the colony’s way to becoming a chapter. A rough paper copy of the petitioning document had been compiled, and all files were saved electronically in order to better transfer the document as needed. A T-shirt fundraiser was set into motion to mark the first real fundraiser the colony attempted, as well as an internet fundraiser involving magazines and DVDs. Individual pictures were also taken of each member for the composite of the colony’s Founding Fathers.

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October 11th and 12th marked the final days of the 40 hour editing process for the petitioning document. At this point the colony’s advising chapter had expressed interest in going through the 2nd Degree during October (this was important because it marked rapid growth and achievement by the Western Michigan Colony). Although the final product had yet to be created, the colony felt they had fashioned an authoritative and special document to be treasured for many years to come.

 

It is here that this particular account of the history of the Western Michigan University Kappa Kappa Psi Colony must end, as it has served its original purpose of supplementing the Petitioning Document. May future generations look upon this narrative as the beginning sketches of a rich, honorable, and storied history of Kappa Kappa Psi serving the Western Michigan University bands.