NAVA O 1967

Organizational Meeting

NAVA O: Boston, Massachusetts
Boston University
June 3–4, 1967

Note: While this meeting has been referred to both as "NAVA O" (the letter "O" for "Organizational") and as "NAVA 0" (the number zero), at the time of the meeting it was referred to as simply the "organizational meeting" or "organizational conference".

According to Flag Research Quarterly 11: The Flags of NAVA (page 40), the use of NAVA 0 (number zero) "has sometimes been misinterpreted as a renumbering to correct a mistake".  Since the actual first annual meeting occurred when NAVA's initial bylaws were adopted on November 18, 1967 (NAVA 1), there was really no mistake in the numbering of the annual meetings, because the organizational meeting was not an annual meeting.  However, to eliminate confusion, NAVA refers to it as "NAVA O" (the letter O).

The NAVA O Banner:  This square banner of the Flag Research Center was never actually a special meeting flag for NAVA.  However, it was the banner of the FRC at the time of NAVA O, and since NAVA was organized by the Flag Research Center, some believe it may have been present at that first meeting.  According to past NAVA president Kin Spain, "It is not known if the FRC banner was used at the organizational meeting, but NAVA uses the banner for NAVA O as a tribute to Dr. Smith."  The original was square, with a silver fringe on the bottom, and was designed to be hung vertically rather than flown as a flag.

The Flag Research Center banner's emblem was designed by vexillologist-artist Louis Loynes of London.  It is a heraldic zephyr consisting of a ship in the form of a swan, a reminder that at a very early date flags flew from ships.  Significantly, the ship’s ensign blows forward, whereas the head of the swan looks backward to suggest that to progress in the study of flags, one must examine the past.

The original banner is now part of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History’s Whitney Smith Flag Research Center Collection at The University of Texas at Austin. In 2014 Dixie Flag Manufacturing Co. made two replicas of the banner for The Flag Research Center.  In 2016, The Flag Research Center donated one to NAVA; it is shown above.

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The NAVA O Flag (Swallow-tailed Variant):

According to past NAVA president David Martucci, Whitney Smith had two versions of the FRC flag, one as a flag and one as a banner.  Both had three points, the banner on the bottom and the flag on the fly end.  Both were 1:2.  The Zephyr emblem designed by Louis Loynes appears upright in each case.  (An example of the vertical design can be seen in The Origins of NAVA.)

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NAVA O Organizing Committee: Whitney Smith and Pierre C. Lux-Wurm

Significant Events:

• This was the organizational meeting of the North American Vexillological Association under the sponsorship of the Flag Research Center.
  • Whitney Smith acted as secretary for this planning conference and gave the following description of events in the Flag Bulletin volume 6, number 3.
  • Included in the excerpt is the questionnaire inserted into the Flag Bulletin—it is of special interest to flag scholars for the insights it gives into the thinking of NAVA's founders.
• NAVA would hold its first annual meeting later in the year at the Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart in Purchase, (White Plains), New York, November 18–19, 1967, calling it NAVA 1.

See The Origins of NAVA by Whitney Smith for further information.

• Whitney Smith is 6th from the right in this group photo.

NAVA O Attendees: (17)

Newton V. Blakeslee William C. Dwiggins Robert S. Gauron Gerhard P. Grahl Kenneth R. Huff Creighton S. Kern

Susana Lannik Pierre C. Lux-Wurm Harry F. Manogg John J. Murphy Ann M. Smith Whitney Smith

Claire W. Spangler William C. Spangler Linda Stock Ashley F. Talbot Lawrence Phelps Tower

Flag images drawn by Clay Moss; Flag photos from Flag Research Quarterly 11: The Flags of NAVA