Raleigh woos Omega Psi Phi

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Nobody disputes that the city has rolled out the carpet for the 10,000 to 15,000 Omega Psi Phi fraternity members, their families and friends who’ll be convening here starting today.

The only dispute is the carpet’s color.

“The city has really rolled out the red carpet” for the black fraternity’s convention, said Terry Spicer, who’s handling public relations for the event. “The city and the Greater Raleigh Visitors & Convention Bureau have gone all out.”

Judge Mike Morgan, a fraternity member and grand marshal of the convention, or konklave, as it is known, said the reception by the city and visitors’ bureau has been second to none. “Their willingness to roll out the red – or in this case, purple and gold – carpet for us has been exceptional.”

It’s not surprising that Judge Morgan sees things through those colored lenses. “These konklaves have been my life for the past couple of years, getting ready for it, attending them. This is my 10th,” he said.

Morgan became a Que – a name the group now eschews in favor of “Omega Man” – because his grandfather was one. “He had a powerful influence on my life and took me to my first konklave,” said Morgan, who was a charter member of the fraternity at Duke University in 1974.

If your knowledge of frats derives from Hollywood – think drunken bacchanalias “School Daze” and “National Lampoon’s Animal House” – then you’re missing the point, insist Morgan and Loren Gold, executive vice president of the visitors bureau.

“I’m not running from our history,” Morgan said. “We still like to have fun. We’re Ques in a historic, fun sense, but when we’re about our business in a mature, formal sense, we’re Omega Men.”

Gold said the konklave is more than a big party. “They’re here to have fun, but they get the partying and socializing events out of the way that opening weekend.” Much of the coming week’s activity will center on mentoring, workshops, philanthropy and community outreach, Gold said.

Previous conventions have been in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington. Raleigh was ideal, Morgan said, “because it is a small venue as far as conventions are concerned, but it has a big heart, big talent and big motivation. [Raleigh] looked like the kind of city that was large enough to accommodate our needs but small enough to provide that Southern hospitality.”

I never joined a frat in college, not only because one frat’s members hazed my roommate so hard he had to drop out for a semester, but also because, like Groucho Marx, I wouldn’t belong to a club that would have someone like me for a member.

Thousands do join, though, and Gold, who estimates the Omegans will bring a $7 million boon to the city, would love it if they all had their conventions here. “This is the largest convention the city has ever had, but it’s a precursor,” he said. “If we do it well – and we know we’re going to do it well – many others are going to look at us.”

Then, no matter what color carpet the city rolls out, Raleigh will reap a lot of green.

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