LXA hosts Conclave for 100th Anniversary

This past weekend the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity hosted a 100th year anniversary celebration of the fraternity on the Simpson College campus.

Conclave is a regional celebration held in multiple chapters of the fraternity all over the United States. Participants get the chance to come together to learn, share and celebrate the existence of the LXA fraternity and brainstorm how to better the fraternity for the future.

“I thought it went very well,” sophomore Brandon Hommer, President of LXA, said. “We had the pleasure of having the Chief Executive Officer and President of LXA, Bill Farkus, with us this year at the event. It was very well supported by our chapter as well as others, and even alumni of the frat.”

The Conclave brought a series of events here to Simpson. On Friday night, the members went to Ft. Des Moines Museum and had a leadership of the round table discussion. Saturday, the members were here on campus in McNeill Hall reviewing programming, risk-management, leadership and inner-fraternity relations. That evening, the members took part in a ritual exemplification. Sunday night, although it wasn’t a part of the Conclave celebration, the members of the fraternity on campus took some time to have a founder’s day celebration.

“It was a great experience hanging out with guys from other chapters,” junior Tyler Stampe said. “We learned a lot about how to make ourselves a better frat. We used the time in Conclave to reflect where it’s (LXA) been, where it comes from and how we can movie it forward for the next couple of years. You know, we support each other in all ways, and supporting one another in the entire chapter is just as important, so we always try to come together to help and see what we can do to be a better college graduate, much like our mottos say.”

At this year’s Conclave, a variety of Simpson professors and alumni joined the fraternity members in their celebration. Some of the professors who attended this year also received awards.

“This year, (Music Professor) Dr. Robert Larsen was awarded the life-time achievement award, which is really awesome. Dr. Michael Patterson (associate professor of music), an honorary LXA member, and Dr. Tim McMillin (instructor of music and director of choral studies), a former LXA member were there, and it was cool to be among some older brothers,” Hommer said.

One of the reasons the Conclave is held is to bring the chapter of fraternity members together to meet with other brothers, and share things they do differently or didn’t know about other chapters.

“We really want brothers to bond with other brothers, to get to know their other brothers, and most of all, have a good time and learning experience with their other brothers,” Tim Reuter Simpson alumnus and director of education for the LXA fraternity, said.

“The Simpson College chapter is just like the other chapters in the sense that all chapters learn from one another,” Reuter said. “There’s nothing one chapter does necessarily that another chapter couldn’t learn a little bit from. We have 14 Conclave celebrations this spring, and the regional undergraduate brothers are getting their exposure to other international brothers as well.”

A keynote speaker this year for the Simpson Conclave was LXA board member Lynn Chipperfield. Chipperfield paid a visit to Simpson and organized a workshop for the brothers to participate in, and served as a speaker during the final banquet.