E-Letters +A collection of my columns in the Mensa Bulletin & other writings
| Mensa Bulletin E-Letters, etc. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
| Thanks | MakeADifference | LongTimers | SmallWorld |
| AG2009 | MensaComm | LEAP | |
| E-connections | 50th Anniversary | Downside | Advice |
| Goteborg | Eyjafjallajokull | Leadership | MyThreeHats |
| Motivation | NameDrop | Summerof2012 | |
| RoadTrip | Goals | HereandThere | |
| Ghosts | YborCity | ChaodicOrgs | |
| Retirement | Southeast | EndistheBeginning | |
| Ghosts2 | ASwedishExp | ||
| IJ Article0111 | IBD Rept. 2010 | UpsDowns | BaliTime |
| IJ Article12 | BeeandMe | ||
| WalktheTalk | |||
Thanks – before the column was named “E Letter” and before I knew was elected Chair (May 2009)
My first order of business is to thank all of you who voted for me. I will never forget your confidence in my ability to guide us to ever greater heights. It is a humbling experience to be elected to this position of chairman, but it is challenging and exciting too. The butterfly wings have just multiplied exponentially.
A little background – you may have heard this story at the annual gathering in Pittsburgh (this is being written mid-May); it bears repeating because I think many Mensans have had similar experiences. Mensa almost didn’t catch fire with me. At my second foray into Mensa activities, a games night at the home of my proctor, the intellectual game d’jour was Botticelli. I was wondering where or how to fit into this group, and really wanted to observe rather than participate. That was not to be. I was enticed into playing a role and proceeded to forget everything I ever knew about historical figures, dates, places – the cultural knowledge we all pick up sort by osmosis. It seemed that way, but really I was extremely uncomfortable about being the newbie. Everyone was looking at me!
That could have been the last anyone saw of me except for the intervention of another member. As I was leaving and thinking about never coming back, he struck up a conversation. Right away, he let me know that I was most welcome in the group, that the group did not have much experience with new members, and that they were as nervous as I was. Whether that last part was true or not, it didn’t matter. That member’s friendly, warm, and accepting intervention is why I am here today.
No matter how many years I rack up as a Mensan, I will never forget that crucial first experience. It reminds me of what most of us want from our organization – acceptance and opportunities. Mensa is a network of possibilities; it is up to each one of us to decide where Mensa will take us. Each of you can be as active as you wish … or not. You can explore the possibilities in special interest groups, and at local, regional, and national gatherings. You can volunteer for a committee, run for office, organize an event, or be a spectator. As your chairman, I want the network to be free of obstacles for you with many, many friendly, helpful hands along the way, no matter how active you wish to be.
As for the work to be done in the coming months, my team – your team – is still in the formative stages. For now, I thank you again for your votes. I take on this position seriously, with those edgy butterflies; and a feeling of being in the right place this time with some of the answers – the rest we’ll work on together.
AG2009 - e-letter for September 2009
The Annual Gathering glow followed me all the way home from Pittsburgh to south Florida and is fading slowly. The 2009 AG, hosted by Western Pennsylvania Mensa and organized by a committee of experts, was fabulous entertainment from Dr. Demento to culturally correct Pittsburgh noshes to the gorgeous historic venue. The Omni William Penn is one grand old dame, the oldest hotel in town; if only those walls could talk. After the 2009 Mensa gathering the walls will have even more to talk about!
Over 300 programs so varied that no overarching description comes close kept the more than 1,800 attendees on the move. I even had a chance to learn how to polish a nondescript lump of rock into a medallion of golden amber. I revisited Fallingwater, renovated to stand another 70 or so years, toured the museums in Oakland, and walked the downtown city streets to the Point and back. So, yes, I can go home again and reunite with family, friends, Mensans, and my native city.
My postal mailbox and my email InBoxes are getting a quite workout! Among the wonderful congratulatory cards and letters, Facebook nudges and tweets, were several notes following the “how to welcome new members” theme. Last month I wrote about my first Mensa experience, one that was not quite as comfortable as it might have been, yet I did go back and try other events. Several others have written in to tell of similar not so positive experiences, and they did not return. My advice to those members was to try again—give Mensa at least three chances before you give up. Go to three different events; one of which should be a large gathering. It is so easy to disappear within a crowd. If crowds give you the willies, there are ways to connect with other Ms that do not require a physical appearance—the forums, elists for various events, even Yahoo elists. You could join a committee, contribute to its effectiveness and never leave your house. If you truly want to be connected, we have myriad ways to make that happen for you.
Those first impressions are so crucial as evidenced by the letters and emails I received on this topic. Everyone’s group has had a stranger pop in now and then; it might have been a brand new member or someone who finally got up the courage to take the plunge. Now, what do YOU do? Remember your own first time or remember my first time and how Mensa and I almost did not connect. Then go over to that new person and say hello. You have just made a connection that that person will not forget. It’s a win-win situation.
My appeal to readers to help name my column generated quite a few submissions. There’s such a variety, yet I’m still looking .I thank all of you who wrote with suggestions, some are very good, some are, let’s say, unusual, but I want to see more. Since “E” is the most common letter in the English language, you creative people out there can produce even more titles for my column. Show me you can!
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E-Connections - e-letter for October 2009
The Annual Gathering glow followed me all the way home from Pittsburgh to south Florida and is fading slowly. The 2009 AG, hosted by Western Pennsylvania Mensa and organized by a committee of experts, was fabulous entertainment from Dr. Demento to culturally correct Pittsburgh noshes to the gorgeous historic venue. The Omni William Penn is one grand old dame, the oldest hotel in town; if only those walls could talk. After the 2009 Mensa gathering the walls will have even more to talk about!
Over 300 programs so varied that no overarching description comes close kept the more than 1,800 attendees on the move. I even had a chance to learn how to polish a nondescript lump of rock into a medallion of golden amber. I revisited Fallingwater, renovated to stand another 70 or so years, toured the museums in Oakland, and walked the downtown city streets to the Point and back. So, yes, I can go home again and reunite with family, friends, Mensans, and my native city.
My postal mailbox and my email InBoxes are getting a quite workout! Among the wonderful congratulatory cards and letters, Facebook nudges and tweets, were several notes following the “how to welcome new members” theme. Last month I wrote about my first Mensa experience, one that was not quite as comfortable as it might have been, yet I did go back and try other events. Several others have written in to tell of similar not so positive experiences, and they did not return. My advice to those members was to try again—give Mensa at least three chances before you give up. Go to three different events; one of which should be a large gathering. It is so easy to disappear within a crowd. If crowds give you the willies, there are ways to connect with other Ms that do not require a physical appearance—the forums, elists for various events, even Yahoo elists. You could join a committee, contribute to its effectiveness and never leave your house. If you truly want to be connected, we have myriad ways to make that happen for you.
Those first impressions are so crucial as evidenced by the letters and emails I received on this topic. Everyone’s group has had a stranger pop in now and then; it might have been a brand new member or someone who finally got up the courage to take the plunge. Now, what do YOU do? Remember your own first time or remember my first time and how Mensa and I almost did not connect. Then go over to that new person and say hello. You have just made a connection that that person will not forget. It’s a win-win situation.
My appeal to readers to help name my column generated quite a few submissions. There’s such a variety, yet I’m still looking .I thank all of you who wrote with suggestions, some are very good, some are, let’s say, unusual, but I want to see more. Since “E” is the most common letter in the English language, you creative people out there can produce even more titles for my column. Show me you can!
Goteborg - The Letter E for November 2009
“Business or pleasure?” the U.S. border agent in Detroit inquired as he riffled through my passport. “Mostly business; I attended a convention in Sweden,” I replied. “What sort of convention?” “It was the annual board meeting of Mensa International – have you heard of Mensa?” Usually I get a blank, but curious, glance. This time, though, the agent perked up and said, yes, he had friends who belonged. He said, “I didn’t realize Mensa was worldwide. So how many members are there in the world?” “About 110,000 in more than 40 countries.” I didn’t have time for more talk— we were holding up the line— so I quickly slipped him my card so he could investigate further on his own. He stamped my passport with a nicely legible stamp (some agents do not look where they’re aiming the stamp), and welcomed me back into the good old USA.
Counterpoint to this experience was the conversation with the driver of the transport bus from the airport into Göteborg about a week earlier. Again, the curiosity, but originating with us in seeing this Scandinavian country for the first time. We sat near the driver to ask questions about the Swedish government (constitutional monarchy; the king and queen are figureheads, not decision makers), healthcare (free), education (free), taxes (about 30%) when he redirected the conversation, asking why were we in Sweden – business or pleasure? My answer: A confablulation of high IQ people in concert with a 2.7 day business meeting. Turns out he did not know Mensa, even though he’d spent time in the States. I gave him a card, too, to encourage his curiosity about Mensa.
At both ends of my trip overseas, I was happy to share stories of my Mensa with a couple of disparate individuals. The ripples of those experiences could spread far and wide. And the pleasure was all mine.
By the time you read this, you will have read and heard more about the IBD meeting in Göteborg and more about the leadership exchange, a very exciting way to help Mensa grow. This is a pilot project where leaders from American Mensa and leaders from European Mensa groups travel to each other’s large events—AG2010 and EMAG (European Mensa Annual Gathering)—to teach and learn from each other and to share expertise and resources. While technology is permitting us to have access to more and more information daily, the face-to-face interaction is priceless. To underscore that last comment, this leadership exchange proposition took shape among three or four individuals in between dinner courses—a fine example of combining business and pleasure.
I hope your autumn is filled with pleasures—anticipation for the holidays, red-orange-gold landscapes, that sharp tang in the air, and many more smiles and warm hugs.
PS—thanks to Robert Ulrich and Michael Bruner for more suggestions for my column’s title; I knew there were dozens of creative people out there!
Make A Difference - Open Door Policy (Feb. 2010)
What’s it all for? “Here we are a collection of humanity’s brightest folks, yet we have not made a difference in the world in our three decades of existence.” This was the point of a recent email I received from a longtime member who wanted his organization recognized as one that gave back to humanity. After all, we mention in our mission statement that Mensa is charged with identifying and fostering human intelligence for the benefit of humanity …
So has Mensa made a difference up til now or will it yet make a difference in the future? The answers are yes and yes.
Mensa is a confabulation of individuals. Before the organization can “do” anything, its members have to feel that a few of their personal goals have been reached. Have any members benefited from their involvement in this high IQ association? Scholarship winners would answer in the affirmative. So would those who’ve lost their fear of speaking in front of audiences because they’ve honed their skills in Mensa where acceptance is the norm. Our M & Ms (Mensans married to Mensans) found life partners making really big differences in both lives. Gifted youth find acceptance and stimulation among other gifted youth in our Kids Trek, Teen, and Tween groups. There are probably many other examples to illustrate how Mensa made a difference to individual members.
What about society itself, beyond the internal good news stories? Libraries that have replaced their collections with book s donated by Mensans through Inkslinger would say that Mensa made a difference to them. Mensans have been involved in community and school initiatives such as Odyssey of the Mind, public television fundraisers, Habitat for Humanity projects, community blood banks, and dozens more outreach-type ventures. Special Interest Groups (SIGs) each have a focus that tends to satisfy individual or even societal aspirations. Hell’s Mensans, for instance, help everyone have a great experience at annual gatherings by volunteering to clear and stock the hospitality areas. What a difference clean, efficient snacking makes! Mensa members are making lots of differences when they work in groups (would the collective noun be ‘an Intelligence of Mensans’?).
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OK, beyond the individual and his or her community or even their country – what about globally? Can Mensa make a difference planet-wide? If individual Ms are reaching personal goals, if where they live is becoming a better place to live, if Mensa itself offers a framework on which to hang any good idea for all to contemplate, then why not?
Although the organization itself can hold no opinions or champion any causes, you and your friends can. The beauty of not aligning itself with any causes or movements or politics means that your Mensa is wide open for whatever your creative, innovative minds can conjure up. In that respect Mensa serves as a sounding board for anything anyone can envision. Mensa gives its members the tools they need to connect, interact, discuss, then go out and do something tangible. You are not limited by having to have a certain bowling score, attain a certain speechifying level, or march in a parade in an unusual costume. The world is your playground.
Thanks to my email correspondent who asked the question, “why doesn’t Mensa find something where it can make a difference?” that permitted me to point out ways that Mensa has made a difference in individuals’ lives and in their communities. And that is where it all must begin – with one person, one family, one town, one country, one organization. Then the world.
50th Anniversary- A Banner Idea (Apr/May 2010)
For half a century in America, Mensans have been interacting with each other. In the beginning, the gatherings were small intimate groups in a Brooklyn living room. Now we meet each other in places large enough to house a 747, those huge hospitality rooms at annual gatherings. Small intimate groups still get together, but today they may be meeting in cyberspace instead of a Danish modern living room (popular furniture style in the ‘60s). So many changes since 1960…
With American Mensa’s 50th anniversary occuring this year, it is a time to look back to see how far we’ve come. An illustration of that backward look will be the giant timeline banner—a Goldern Banner—at the AG in Dearborn, Michigan in July. On the banner—to be displayed where everyone can enjoy it—will be lots of photos showing Mensa milestones/events of all kinds from you and you and you and the national office archives along a timeline from 1960 to 2010. Where were you in 1967? What was the hairstyle in 1976? How about those ‘80s and ‘90s—many of you may have photos dating back to the early days or even five years ago. The more photos we have on the banner, the more we can see how far we’ve come. Send your photo scans to the national office (eddress or other contact info) or bring them to the AG with you. I’ve begun the process by including one of my early photos—now, let’s see yours!
In between posting to and viewing the Golden Banner and visiting M-friends, check out the Leadership Development Workshop (LDW) schedule at the AG. This year, for the first time, four workshop leaders will hail from a Mensa group other than the U.S. A pilot program of exchanging workshop leaders was approved by the International Board of Directors last fall. Three U.S. ambassadors (a term that more accurately describes their goals because this is more than training leaders) will travel to the European Mensa Annual Gathering (EMAG) in Prague, Czech Republic, this summer to present LDW topics to those audiences, while four ambassadors from beyond our shores will be visiting the U.S. AG to do the same. As of this writing, topics are not final, but look for these names in the LDW schedule: Tomáš Kubeš, Czech Republic; Jayaram Menon, Malaysia; Karin Kaill, Sweden; and Jeroen Bastiaan Komen, The Nethelands. Also, do stop by workshops being conducted by our U.S. leaders who will be taking their polished expertise abroad: Lori Norris, Rhode Island Mensa; Greg Kontz, North Dakota Mensa; and Beth Anne Demeter, Chicago Area Mensa.
This pilot program, the first of its kind, illustrates just how far American Mensa has come in 50 years—from the small group meeting in a Brooklyn living room to a Global Village, a planetary network of very smart friends and neighbors.
Elissa and the late Marvin Grosswirth, c. 1982. He was Chairman of American Mensa in 1973.
Eyjafjallajokull - IntERUPTED (June 2010)
Dateline Düsseldorf, April 18—There are NO airplanes in the air. Thousands of people are camping in airports. Queues for trains and ferries are hours long. Some lucky taxi drivers are carrying passengers hundreds of miles instead of the usual short jaunts. Frustration and stress mark the faces of all whose travel plans have been trashed, shoved aside like so much inconsequential clutter. Out of money, out of resources, out of patience, now what do they/we/I do?
This is the scenario mid-April as I write this column for the June Bulletin. My nonstop flight from Miami into Düsseldorf was uneventful, under a clear blue sky, with no indication of the chaos to come. The train ride to Dortmund, where the International Executive Committee was to meet, was also smooth, uncomplicated. Once settled in the hotel where the German AG was taking place, I began hearing about Eyjafjallajokull (ask me how to pronounce it correctly!) and a volcanic ash cloud. Was this a script for an end-of-the-word film? The German skies were blue and clear – what ash?
Turns out that two members who were to attend the meeting were stranded in the U.K. with airports closed. Two other British Mensa members whose flights were cancelled opted for a ferry across the English Channel and a 550-mile drive by car into Dortmund. The meeting of the ExComm took place as planned with two present by Skype, not the best arrangement, but a good plan B. In the back of everyone’s mind were the unraveling plans for going home.
By the end of the AG, a lively and creative event attended by about 1,000 Mensans, those who needed to make alternative travel plans were connecting with those who could translate, direct, or provide rides to railway stations or airports. One of Mensa’s little-discussed benefits is the networking that comes to the fore when necessity rears its head. Many new plans were made yesterday and today with local Mensans helping those who needed to get to other destinations. One generous German M, Christine Warlies (Director of Smaller National Mensas) drove me to the airport where I could wait in a Sheraton Hotel for a new flight booking. For right now, that’s all there is to report; there will be a *PS before this issue of the Bulletin goes to press – I hope I will be writing it from my home!
Enough about me – will you be attending the AG in Dearborn, Michigan? Early pre-registration figures show an increase over both Pittsburgh’s (2009) and Denver’s (2008) pre-event numbers. The programming and tours sound inviting, stimulating, and have that “must-not-miss” quality. If there was ever a time to be cloned, this is it!
Don’t miss the Golden Banner celebrating American Mensa’s and Mensa Canada’s 50 years. Look for it in the hotel lobby. This AG is almost a continental gathering with Canada to the north and Mexico to the south joining us.
Hope to see you in Dearborn if not before! Really hope to see you…
*PS – April 22—By a wonderful stroke of luck I was able to get home much earlier than I thought when I wrote the report above. All was smooth flying across the Atlantic after an extremely hurried stuffing of suitcases and running to the gate, 45 minutes after learning there were available seats aboard a Miami-bound jet. ET and ER now have something in common – we know that home is the sweetest word.
January 2011 issue of International Journal by Elissa Rudolph, Chair, American Mensa
New Zealanders are very proud of their country, promoting its unique symbols such as the Kiwi, a flightless bird found nowhere else in the world and the silver tree fern, a Maori art form that signifies new life, growth, strength, and peace. I was amazed that the silver tree fern enters everyday life even in long white coffee drinks (see photo – how do they do that?). Being “down under” for October’s IBD meeting was exciting and revealing; much work was accomplished while we all learned about the many aspects that set New Zealand apart from the rest of the world.
An ExComm meeting took place the Wednesday before the official beginning of the annual IBD conference. Appointments were made to various committees (see details elsewhere in this issue), and Mensa Romania was recognized as an Emerging National Mensa, having fulfilled the requirements for ENM status. On Thursday 39 representatives from 29 countries, including 22 non-English speakers, gathered to begin working on a long agenda. I will just list highlights from the three-and-a half-day agenda:
Presentations – Mensa Switzerland and Ute Blasche on their new website; Peter Ring of Denmark on the international website; Galia Bozhanova, Mensa Bulgaria, on the location of the 2011 IBD meeting; success stories from Matthias Moehl, Mensa Germany, Hisashi Niizuma, Mensa Japan; Tomas Blumenstein, Czech Republic Mensa; a presentation on the Mensa Foundation from Greg Timmers, American Mensa; HIQ at work by Grethe van Geffen, Mensa The Netherlands; a short film by Bjorn Liljeqvist, Mensa Sweden on proctors; and results of NTC program for the gifted from Ranko Rajovic, Mensa Serbia.
Strategic Plan – this was presented in two parts and represents the future vision of Mensa International.
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Leadership Exchange Program (LEP) – An evaluation of the 2010 part of this program was discussed. With another year to go in the pilot program, a committee including IBD NatReps and several of the 2010 participants was approved. This committee will handle the selection and management of the 2011 participants.
Brainstorming – focus group sessions on motivating volunteers, marketing the Mensa name and logo; encouraging more research in individual countries; making the best use of the internet; and more encouraged an exchange of experiences and innovative ideas among IBD representatives.
The most valuable takeaway from this IBD meeting was that whatever our language or culture, our Mensa connection permits communication on many levels. Nothing else in the world can top that.
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Sensing the Community (February 2011)
In October and November last year, I was on the move, tallying up nearly 20,000 air miles. By the beginning of December, I realized as was filling in dates on my calendar with local events, that for the next 31 days I would never be more than 20 miles from home. No bags to pack, no jet lag, no translations necessary, no Euros, pesos or other colorful forms of exchange. What a pleasure! And how comforting to be with friends and family during a holiday month.
That realization caused me to ponder the physical connections with have with our neighbors, family, and friends, those ties to community. Home is home because it is such familiar ground; we know the people in our family unit or next door or down the street or in the next town. We know birthdays, the sound of their voices on the phone. We share jokes, recipes, how to handle teen angst and the terrible twos. We plan events, reflect on the weather, local sports, and whether or not to run for the school board. The ramble above describes the first element in a scholarly definition of community: the feeling of belonging, of membership, personal relatedness. Another aspect of the definition is when the group or community sees itself as making a difference, influencing events (Mensa, perhaps?). Then when members’ needs are met by the resources provided by the community, there is more integration, and an even tighter bond to that group. The fourth element of this community definition is shared emotional connection where members believe they will continue to be committed to the group and share history and experiences.
Segue from a scholarly treatise to the more obvious community connection – our membership in the Mensa community. There too we know birthdays (thanks to Facebook), we feel immediate connection when someone tweets about getting on a plane to an exotic destination, and our forums bring geographically distant members closer to share discussions. Our technology provides tools so that an M in Iowa and an M in Hong Kong are as close as next-door neighbors. Through our technology—have you checked out the dashboard where all the stats are displayed in a variety of graphical designs?— we can solve current problems and visualize a future community with fewer challenges—well, I can! And most of us are committed to continuing our sense of and relationship to the Mensa community.
The best part of traveling? Coming home and reconnecting to my familiar Mensa community. I hope your connections bring you laughs, comfort, and back rubs!
The Downside/Upside of the Mensa Community (March 2011)
Last month I wrote about the comfort and easy camaraderie of the Mensa community, whether the experience is face2face or in espace. When it works, it’s wonderful, a reinforcement of why some of us joined Mensa. Sadly, the story I am going to relate here is not so wonderful, and it pains me that the story, with slight changes, happens much too often. I know this because my email messages say so.
A professional retired couple joined Mensa a few years ago and were both very happy with the members they met and the delightful conversations in which they took part. Then they moved within the state, but into another local group’s area. Expecting similar intelligent, friendly, and fulfilling experiences – this is still Mensa, after all – they went to their first event at a local member’s home. At the outset, no one greeted them as “new to the group” members. That could have been excused (maybe), but then they were accosted by a filthy, disgusting, mentally/physically disturbed – their words – person. No one made an attempt to rescue them – haven’t we all been here before? You know what the new people are going through, so you help out. At the snack table, the filthy person sneezed over the food. Now the situation has become intolerable. Still the host/hostess did not intervene; the local officers, if they were present, did not step in. It is one thing to be tolerant, maybe overly so, of Mensa’s diverse members, quite another to be faced with outright unacceptable social behavior. The professional couple left the gathering at that point and vowed to never return. The email to me says they are resigning.
Here’s your double-question of the day – how would you have handled the situation at the local member’s home? How would you respond to the resigned and resigning professional couple? One clear characteristic of Mensa members is that they can solve problems, so write to me at chair@us.mensa.org and present your solutions. It may be too late for this almost fictional couple, but perhaps your solutions will prevent future calamities.
Now a 180-degree turn to a more positive subject, an attempt to return to the “comfort and easy camaraderie” mentioned at the beginning of this column. There will be an AMC meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, later this month. Those of you within driving distance, why not join us? The main reason AMC meetings move around the country is because we enjoy meeting local members. Although with a full agenda for Saturday and committee meetings on Friday evening, our 21-member board does not have large chunks of free time, still most of us are available for and would welcome face2face conversations.
Don’t forget to renew your membership! We don’t want to lose you. Check into the 3- or 5-year plans or become a life member. Mensa evolves and grows mightier with you in the mix.
See y’all in the spring in Atlanta? Or maybe Portland, Oregon, in July?
Thank You for My Encore! (July 2011)
With your encouragement, I begin another term as your chair. My deepest thanks to all who voted me in. You know I will work to be worthy of your trust. As I have written elsewhere, these are my heartfelt goals for the next two years (just so you know what you’re getting!). I will
+Continue to lead our board of directors in making good financial decisions for the organization;
+Guide our innovative and creative committees to bring even more exciting programs to all members;
+Promote continuity from within so that each new board builds on the good works of the last board;
+Involve American Mensa on the global stage. Seek to have the pilot Leadership Exchange Program become a permanent part of Mensa International’s efforts to mentor and guide leaders in all countries;
+Enjoy Mensa and see to it that everyone experiences joy and value even while acknowledging the very real challenges. I hope you enjoy whatever part of Mensa appeals to you. It is a second family to me with all its…er, various relations.
Being chair of American Mensa is akin to a real job except for the pay (none—ours is a volunteer board). However, the many positions I’ve held for pay over the years taught me valuable lessons that seem to serve me well in Mensa. When I worked as a volunteer manager for a historical museum, I learned how to keep those dedicated people happy by scheduling them according to their likes and dislikes. Works in Mensa, too. In an advertising agency where I toiled creating artistic brochures, my boss was a Mel Brooks-Groucho Marx (complete with cigar)-Tasmanian Devil-type of taskmaster, but sweet. Hey, I recognize similar quirkinesses in Mensa and I can deal! One of my work experiences was as the only female in a drafting department (in the late 1970s before CAD) full of males. Now there are many stories to tell about the guys, their jokes, and their faux pas, but not in a family magazine! All in all, I learned a lot about male/female interaction in getting the work done. Along the lines of broadening one’s horizons, another position that helped expand my world was when I handled correspondence and travel schedules for three vice presidents of a global construction firm. The company had offices in South America, Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Asia. Each day the telex sputtered with messages from exotic-sounding Riyadh, Brasilia, Johannesburg, and Singapore. Today, of course, that’s a no-brainer with our satellite communication, but 30 years ago it was a challenge to keep the days straight for a trio of busy executives. Lessons learned there help me get through my daily global correspondence. The most incredibly freeing position I ever held was when I worked as a publications manager for a healthcare facility complete with nursing home and psychiatric hospital. Every day there were sad events and emergencies, yet hope was a tangible substance that held us all together like a family. The facility celebrates its centennial this year.
While my Mensa goals are really clear to me, personal goals two years hence are not. Will it be an adventure or a rabbit hole – wait, both of those are adventures…. Stay tuned!
Southeast to Northwest (September 2011)
Every annual gathering gives Mensans opportunities to visit a part of the country that they perhaps have not visited before. And so it was with AG2011, held in Portland, Oregon this summer. A first for the Northwest quadrant of the country, the location offered myriad options for enjoying scenic mountains like Mt. Hood and Mount St. Helens, the Columbia River Gorge Waterfalls, Portland’s cityscape by foot, the wine, beer, cheese, and chocolate tastings – and all that is in addition to what the AG itself had to offer. More than 300 programs teased the more than 2,000 attendees, a tremendous undertaking that was wildly successful. Add fantastic weather, great restaurants, warm friendships renewed or begun, and I am looking forward to next year’s AG!
I was one of those members who decided to build a family-and-friends visit around the dates of the AG. Traveling from flat southeast Florida brought us to the little city of Coeur d’Alene in Idaho, surrounded by forested mountains. I always thought the meaning of this French expression meant something like heart of Elaine or Alene. Not so. Actually 18th century French fur traders were so impressed with the fine negotiating skills of the indigenous people who trapped furry creatures along the rivers and streams that they tagged them “heart of the awl” or “sharp-hearted, shrewd.” What a fitting show of respect for that native tribe.
After Coeur d’Alene, we next visited Boise, capital of the Spud State. The local Mensa group, Southern Idaho Mensa, invited us to dinner at one of their favorite restaurants, Buffalo Wild Wings. Meeting the local members in such an impromptu way illustrates one of the little talked about benefits of being a member: If you are traveling anywhere in the world, there are Mensans to meet. Anywhere. Anytime.
Next stop, the World Center for Birds of Prey, home of The Peregrine Fund, near Boise. It is a world renowned center for the raising and release into the wild of endangered birds such as California condors, peregrine falcons, and harpy eagles. There is an incredible number of raptor projects going on around the world, managed mostly by volunteers. Just recently there was a peregrine nest atop a downtown Boise office building where viewers could watch the nesting, hatching, and raising of four chicks via a webcam. The webcam and attendant equipment were donated by the local electric company. It is true – teamwork and volunteers can change the world.
On the subject of changing the world, I was privileged to meet the seven International Leadership Exchange Program participants in Portland. Their workshops were thought-provoking and innovative and their enthusiasm contagious. I think their experiences as leadership ambassadors as well as the experiences of past and future LEP leaders will go a long way to increase Mensa’s growth worldwide.
Ups and Downs Redux (Nov/Dec 2011)
Last March, my E-Letter described an unfortunate situation that happened to a couple of Mensans attending a home event hosted by members of their new local group (they had transferred from another group in the same state). They were not welcomed as “new to the group” members, they had a rather off-putting experience with another member, and no one seemed to care. Although they had had delightful times in their old local group, this couple decided, maybe hastily, to first write me a letter detailing their disgruntlement, then resign from Mensa. I asked for your opinions and advice and you came through. Not only was I amazed at the number of responses, I was pleased to read that many of you seemed to be extremely able to manage this type of situation and offered relevant advice. I only wish the dissatisfied couple were still members so they could find comfort in their peers’ mostly empathetic counsel (and perhaps chance another foray into local activities).
So that we may all benefit from the sage advice offered and make sure this does not happen in our own local neighborhoods, here is a sampling of the messages offered. First, some stats—there were over 35 responses; shortest was 40 words, longest was over 1,700; male to female ratio was, would you believe, even; almost all writers desired anonymity, but did not mind having their words paraphrased; all geographic regions were represented (I even received a note from someone in my own local group, whom I have not met…yet); and the majority of those who mentioned their years of membership in Mensa were 20+ year members. Only one letter took me to task for mentioning a negative situation in a national magazine. This writer thought my subject would turn off potential members. While I acknowledge that that may be true, to ignore a scenario that continues to happen is not a very responsible position for the leader of the organization either. Better to ask advice of readers, form a consensus of opinion to help members who are confronted with said scenario in either of the positions, then share the results. Thank you all for contributing to this forum; I enjoyed reading all the messages. And I hope this long E Letter (continued) online will help us help each other have stimulating good times in Mensa.
The various practical suggestions and wise advice are paraphrased from all the responses, divided into sections, and shown in a different font—1. Comments about and for the unhappy couple; 2. Comments about and for the hosts and/or officers of the local group; 3. Why this scenario happens over and over; 4. Individual stories; 5. What Mensa/Mensans can do; and 6. Consensus and ways to go forward. See the online version of The E Letter to read more.
It’s the Holiday Season – open your hearts, give to others, and stay healthy and strong yourself. See you in the New Year, 2012, maybe the last if we believe the Mayans?
LEAP for Leap Year and Beyond (February 2012)
You may already know what the letters L E A P stand for in relation to Mensa (Leadership Exchange Ambassador Program), but you may not know how it works or what members have said about it or what it really does for Mensa. After two years as a pilot program and termed LEP without the “A”—more about why that letter was added later—Mensa’s International Board of Directors voted last October to make this initiative a permanent offering to assist in developing, mentoring, and guiding new and upcoming Mensan leaders all over the world.
Leaders must wake people out of their inertia. They must get people excited about something they’ve never seen before, something that does not yet exist.
~Rosabeth Moss Kanter
The original goals, as delineated in the 2009 motion that brought LEP to life, were to (a) assist in the development of national Mensas by exchanging the leadership experiences of its members with other national Mensas; (b) expose prospective Mensan leaders/group officers to the ideas that work (and do not work) for other national Mensas; (c) provide a network of potential leaders/officers who are able to learn from each other and pass that knowledge/experience/skill to their native group. Shared knowledge expands and fills some of the gaps for the smaller national Mensa groups. The conduit through which LEP would work is the workshop model – such as American Mensa’s Leadership Development Workshops (LDWs). Participants would be chosen to present topics related to Mensa leadership in two different geographic locations, one being our annual gathering (AG) and the other, the European Mensas Annual Gathering (EMAG). Networking before and after these events has led to strong links among participants within and outside of their national groups. The LEP aim was always to bring Ms all over the globe closer to each other and to Mensa’s mission.
Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance to forms of music
yet to be heard. ~Mahatma Gandhi
During 2010 and 2011, fourteen Mensans – six Americans, two Malaysians, two Dutch, one French, one Czech, one German, and one Swede – participated in the LEP. Their comments illustrate the positive outcomes of the LEP pilot: “The LEP is a brave, and I think, worthwhile program that enhances effective percolation and penetration of good practices into Mensa’s worldwide body,” “The experience of the LEP was very inspiring. I believe that Mensa will reap benefits from it for a long time,” “It is through efforts like LEP – friendly contact, strong rapport, learning & growing in an unintimidating environment –that will help Mensas around the world grow their own leaders,” “I commend Mensa for its forward-looking vision and focus on facilitating leadership and member engagement at all levels. Apart from the benefits of participating in the LEP, I was especially struck by how much in common we all had. For the first time, I felt like I was part of a larger movement, greater than the sum of its parts.” There were many more comments, but you get the drift. The ripples created by the LEP will continue to be felt years from now.
Each action we take in life is a ripple that expands worldwide.
~Lorrin L. Lee
For 2012, the new iteration of LEP is LEAP, with the “A” standing in for Ambassador. The participants are not only students learning, teachers teaching, Mensans meeting one another, they are representatives of their national group forging relationships that link us all together. Applications for LEAP are open to all Mensans; if you would like to apply or to find more information go to www.mensa.org or email lepcomm@mensa,org.
Explore the extraordinary power of tiny actions. ~http://theripplesproject.org
It’s not easy wearing three hats, but as long as I do not have to wear them simultaneously, I can maintain somewhat of a balance. Usually the switching of hats is invisible as I handle Mensa-related emails, some of which are urgent, some are “act soon,” some redundant, and then there are those that are either whimsical or weird depending on the phase of the moon. Responding (or not) to emails is not all I do though. There are meeting agendas to create, requests for advice to answer, problems to attempt to solve, planning for the future directions of the organization, the occasional kudo (keep up the good work!) that is much appreciated and feels good, and the opposite of that kudo that feels the other way. While wearing the three hats—local, national, and international—there is research to do (what was the ASIE that specified something or other; what does Robert’s Rules say about a tabled motion; how can we handle a huge national PR campaign if one comes our way; can you use “Mensa member” on my business card – yes, you can, what other benefits can we offer members, etc.), reading up on ways to help our current programs be more efficient, and deciding which programs can be sunsetted, aka, time to move on.
For those of you who wonder just what the chair does on each of those levels—local, national, and international—here is a little rundown, hat by hat. Wearing the plain white local hat, I offer advice, if asked, on various topics, but do not hold an office—been there, done that. I plan a few local events, attend many other gatherings, even in the neighboring Mensa groups, and in general act as a “plain vanilla” member with my white hat more in evidence than the other two. From this grassroots level, though, I can empathize with what the greatest percentage of our members experience, those who are not officers and view their local Mensa group as part of their social network. I can see the disconnects that can happen between national communication and the local contacts. If that link is broken, weak, or totally lacking, new members do not get the full all-encompassing Mensa encounter. Veteran members also suffer; open, two-way communication is the goal to reach for. I can also see what works well when a local group has a healthy positive quality that draws unlikely people together to make the group successful. And I have seen what happens when the black cloud of negativity and passivity descends sending the group spiraling downward. Don’t let this happen to you.
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Switching to the national hat—I think of it as my gold hat (still only a hat, not a crown)—as chair, the responsibilities are larger, have more consequences, pro and con, and are subject to a lot more scrutiny. There is no experience quite like leading a 21-member board of directors all of whom are quite possibly even smarter than the chair is. Their life experiences imbue each of them with a unique outlook and although they all want to make Mensa the best it can be, their ideas of how to get there may result in more friction than function. Here again as on the local level, communication is key—we listen more than we talk, we respect those different opinions, and in the end, we make the best decisions we can. I chair four meetings a year—create the agendas based on what the board members want to put forward along with the assistance of our executive director and her staff; facilitate the actual meetings; and evaluate how each meeting went so we know how to do it better next time. In between those meetings, the board and I correspond frequently, always trying to move forward instead of looking backward. Arms around the future, back up against the past.
Then there is the blue hat—blue because of our blue planet—my international hat. My position as part of Mensa International’s Executive Committee* means that I take my knowledge of what works (or not) in American Mensa and share it with others around the world. At this level, we all learn from each other whether it is how Mensa Germany is able to retain 99% of its members to what kind of roadblocks Mensa China must climb before their group can take off to the various types of IQ tests Mensa Brazil uses for testing potential members. MIL’s board of directors numbers 41 with more than half non-native English speakers. Makes my 21-member board meetings seem extremely easy by comparison. But on the international level, the diversity and opportunities for discovering how other Mensa groups face their challenges is well worth trying to understand the nuances of language even learning a few phrases in Bulgarian or Spanish or Norwegian.
Now you know about my three hats—white, gold, and blue—and what each means to me.
*MIL’s ExComm consists of the chairman, Willem Bouwens; director of administration, Sylvia Herbert; director of development, Bibiana Balanyi; director of smaller national Mensas, Björn Liljeqvist; Treasurer, Cyndi Kuyper; Chris Leek, proxy for British Mensa; Elissa Rudolph, chair of American Mensa, and Matthias Moehl, chair of Mensa Germany. The latter three are part of the ExComm because their Mensa groups have more than 10,000 members. Matthias is new to his role, Mensa Germany just recently having crossed the 10,000 mark.
Summer of 2012: At Home and Abroad (June 2012)
“I’m bored, there’s nothing to do.” For those of you who are parents of school-age children, you’ve no doubt heard this complaint after a week or less of summer vacation. As we head into this year’s summer interlude, perhaps these ideas I found in an obscure community newspaper* will help your child’s whiny mantra disappear, at least for a while. Wish I had seen these tips many years ago!
Do not rescue. Do not schedule a trip to the zoo right away and another to mini golf the next day. It’s not your job to fill the child’s schedule with one adventure after another.
Do not tell your child, “Don’t be silly. There are a million things to do. How could you possibly be bored”? You are telling the child her feelings are wrong, and that is so wrong. This comment discourages the sharing of feelings later on when it may be even more crucial.
Do say, “That’s an interesting choice you’ve made. Tell me more about it.” You are recognizing that boredom is a choice; it is a state of mind created by the person. As a parent, your job is to help your child see boredom as a choice without any judgment about whether the choice is right or wrong.
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Use empathy. You can say, “It must be frustrating to be bored on vacation. Do you have any plans to change that?” Your commiseration with your child levels the playing field. Now it could be time to brainstorm together. Or you can say, “How long do you think your boredom will last?” Again, it is “us against the world,” not the parent arranging the world for the child.
Use your own feelings and share with your child. You can state, “I’m feeling bored. I think I’ll go outside and look around for something to do. I need some excitement!” Saying this illustrates how you, the parent, handle boredom. And, as we know, children emulate their parents; this could be such a simple lesson.
Boredom conquered, now it’s time to think beyond the backyard.
A brilliant idea sure to send boredom on the run this summer is for you and your children to visit the AG in Reno, Nev., July 4 through 8. Along with all the activities (for adults and children), tours, reunions with longtime friends, and opportunities to make new connections, please take some time to attend the workshops led by participants in the 2012 Leadership Exchange Ambassadors Program (LEAP).** This is an international program for leaders in various parts of the world to get together and exchange creative ideas and techniques in managing their Mensa groups. Look for these names on the AG schedule: Eszter Chrobacsinszky from Hungary; Aleksandra Borovic, Serbia; Vicki Herd, Canada; Roeland van Zeijst, The Netherlands; and Louise Steenkamp, South Africa. See how other Mensans resolve conflicts, recruit new members, retain members, plan events, market, manage, and promote Mensa in their corners of the world.
See you there?
*Ideas borrowed from an e-zine for parents and educators, www.chickmoorman.com
**26 applicants from 17 countries applied to LEAP this year.
Road Trip (September 2010)
It's the dream of many people: hop in the car with a map or GPS, a general idea of direction, and an adventurous attitude. The goal eventually was the AG in Dearborn, Mich., but first the road trip followed a meandering northeasterly, then westerly line from south Florida to the land of Ford. First stop, Beaufort, SC and Parris Island for Sunday brunch among Marines, young and older, and their families. Next was the Ava Gardner Museum in NC; the actress is one of a few who have an entire museum devoted to their life and work. Onward to Chincoteague Island, home of the wil ponies, through Delaware, to Ephrata, PA, where our GPS nearly failed us. All those lovely back roads, some with detours and slow moving horse-drawn carriages (Amish country), challenged the triangulation algorithms. Mid-Keystone state, we happened upon Boalsburg, established in 1789 by David Boal Sr., Captain in the Cumberland County Militia. The current resident, owner, historian of the Boalo Mansion Museum is an eighth generation descendent. All of this is not outstandingly exciting until you see what's inside the heavily secured stone building on the property. It contains the contents of Christopher Columbus's chapel on his castle grounds in Spain, including the great man's Admiral's desk; the niece of Columbus's son Diego married the fifth generation Col. Theodore Davis Boal, and she inherited the chapel contents, brought to America in the early 1900s. There are dozens of other connections between the Boal family and historic/political personages: Napoleon, Howard Carter, Robert E. Lee, American presidents, and other politicians. There is even a connection to a 19th century monastery in the Swiss Alps where monks trained large dogs to rescue snowbound travelers. Yes, a Boal descendent married into the family that produced St. Bernard. We spend 5 hours listening to this fascinating generational epic and marveling at the serendipitous choice that brough us to this little town in central Pennsylvania with its many incredible links to world history. Awesome!
After Boalsburg, the road trip took us through Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge along Lake Erie. There we viewed an interesting juxtaposition: people fishing in sight of a nuclear reactor’s cooling tower—made for a great photo opportunity. After the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (groovy!) in Cleveland and the Ford Museum in Dearborn, we got organized for the 2010 AG.
And a double awesome goes for that event! From the timeline banner in the lobby tracing Mensa in North America’s history from 1960 onward to the Longtimers’ Reception up through the Gala Dinner retrospective video, attendees were reminded of how far we’ve come in five decades and how much we’ve accomplished. Kudos to all who helped with the many, many memorable moments.
Kudos also to the GenX group who organized, programmed, fed, herded, and comforted nearly 2,000 registrants. The event was a record setter in many ways. This column appears a couple months after this momentous event, but I’ll bet many of you readers still have warm memories of AG2010—I know I do!
Have a colorbright and beautiful Autumn!
On Ghosts and Other Elusive Concepts (October 2010)
So I got to thinking: It’s October, time for fat pumpkins, crisp apples, gruesome goblins, and flighty witches. And ghosts, of course. Did you know we have ghosts in Mensa? Invisible Mensa members are like ghosts—we know about them because they are counted in our numbers, but we haven’t experienced their actual substance or presence. Not yet anyway. Out of a typical Mensa chapter with, say, 500 members, 425 may be unknown to the active 75. Perhaps, ghostlike, those members appeared at an event, found nothing of substance personally or were ignored as if they weren’t really there, and disappeared into the night. Others may have never appeared at an activity due to the pressures of family, career, education. But there are always opportunities to reach out to your invisible members and make them more real: Create a phone tree with three or four friends and spend a Sunday afternoon making phone calls to your inactive members just to say “Hi.” Compare notes. Eat pizza. Enjoy. Even if life’s pressures do not permit Mensa activity currently for those on the other end of the line, life, as we all know changes, so that shadowy member may appear in the future, full bodied and ready to volunteer for something. Another way to grab them before they get away is to make sure any new member, that ghost on the sidelines, at an event is greeted and introduced immediately. If you’ve ever had the experience of feeling invisible (I’ll bet a lot of you have felt like a ghost!), do not let that happen to anyone else. Mensa has a lot to offer, but if our invisible members never experience the breadth of offerings then they miss out on a unique experience, and we miss out on their potential contributions and friendships. Find those ghosts and give them substance!
This month we make a concerted effort to reach out to another form of elusive member – those untapped, untested, potential Mensa members who may, we hope, respond to national publicity about Mensa Testing Day. The theme for 2010 is “Carpe Mensa”—we want prospective members to seize the many opportunities in Mensa. This is such fertile ground for us—sure, many people join with prior evidence, but testing sessions can be advertised publicly and the Mensa name/idea is then broadcast more widely. Help get the word out about MTD through Facebook. RSVP to the event and it then shows up in your friends’ news feeds. It takes so little time!
A day in the life…many friends have asked me, What is it like to be chairman of American Mensa? My answer: every day is different. A day without at least 200 emails means something’s not working correctly. There are reports to write (annual report for Mensa International), email questions to answer, November’s AMC agenda to work on, international issues to consider (how to give assistance to Mensa Pakistan suffering through terrible flooding?), preparation for the next weekly and/or monthly conference call, monitoring committee work, and gathering information for the International Board of Directors meeting. And that’s just for today….
Retirement – Not for the Faint of Heart! (November 2010)
There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.
~Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes
Retirement without the love of letters is a living burial. ~Seneca
Retirement: World’s longest coffee break. ~Author Unknown
By now, the day after Labor Day, I’ve heard a lot of clichés and pithy comments about retirement. Some are thought-provoking, some silly, and there’s a few I want to ponder with you. See above. Three months ago, I wondered how I would handle this phase of my life. Here’s what I found I cannot do: sleep late and putter the rest of the day; settle for TV and a formerly forbidden snack; stay in pajamas or the equivalent past breakfast. That’s not to say those are evil pursuits nor that you might not catch me in my jammies watching Law & Order reruns someday. Instead, like Calvin and Hobbes, I’m finding there really are not enough hours in the day to do my “nothing,” and my day begins really early before the sun rises. It is lovely to read for more than ten minutes at a time, or, with an especially intriguing book, to continue reading for hours (recommendation—Ice Trap by Kitty Sewell). Seneca was right on. To be unfettered, spontaneous, impulsive without fear of upsetting the boss or whoever—yes, that is the beauty of retirement at its best. Pour me another cup of coffee, please.
Now, instead of stacking all my Mensa work in a couple nighttime hours when only a few spark plugs are firing, there’s time to listen more closely, write longer messages, make more contacts, get deeper into whatever needs guidance at the moment. As I write this, the Governance Task Force is working on their initial report. By the time this column appears, you may have already seen this report. I am very impressed by the work of this group; they tackled an amorphous, slippery, yet extremely sensitive subject—the structure of our governing body—and have produced a draft report that shows objective, workable suggestions. Unlike facilitating events that have a beginning, middle, and end, conceptualizing and visualizing how Mensa might best progress into the second decade of the 21st century is much more intense and stressful. And has loose ends. And may never be done. GTF – an early thank you for your accomplishments so far!
Is it really November already? Now it’s a short slide into the holiday season and then there’s January 2011. Before old year ends, let me wish you and yours a wonderful season of warmth and friendship.
Beginnings and Oldings (January 2011)
How will the year 2011 treat you? How will you deal with a brand new year? Will you be proactive and happen to the world or will you let the world to happen to you? A lot is out of our control – like gravity, weather, the loss of skin’s elasticity (what a downer!), and tarot cards. A lot is within our control though. We decide each day how to approach life’s challenges. I hope you choose to stand up, sit up, dance, reach out, smile or otherwise give it your all in 2011!
Still in the old year as I write this, I’m pondering the mighty stretch I experienced last October: a local event that brought together veteran Mensans and a global event, actually two separate events, that drew Ms from all over the world. First, our backyard Longtimer’s Reception, organized in honor of Mensa of North America’s 50th birthday, collected nearly 20 veteran Ms from three southeast Florida local groups out of 70 invitees. Other members attended also in what proved to be a very congenial group, which demonstrates how appropriate local get-togethers are in forming lasting bonds. I will remember that reception for a long time, as I’m sure others will. We really should have counted everyone’s years of membership—well over 700 no doubt.
The second October event(s) sent me about as far away from home as I could get without leaving the planet. The organizers of the Australian Mensa Conference invited all National Representatives to their event in Sydney, which took place the weekend before the International Board Meeting (IBD) in New Zealand. The AMC (not to be confused with our AMC!) drew about 300 attendees; the lectures covered Aboriginal anthropology, mediation, Australia’s maritime history, and there were opportunities to compare notes with our “down under” Mensan friends. Best memory—helping the new chair of Mensa Brazil, Cris Cruz, get acquainted with Mensaspeak, and learning a few words of Portuguese!
On to Auckland and the IBD meeting, where 39 NatReps from 29 countries, including 22 non-English speakers, spent their annual 3-1/2-day assembly discussing Mensa International’s strategic plan, brainstorming in small focus groups topics such as marketing Mensa, motivating volunteers, navigating bureaucracy in different countries, and the changing role of our Foundation in a global setting. We viewed presentations about the international website, gifted children, HIQ at work, and heard success stories of emerging Mensa groups, like Mensa Turkey. A more extensive report on the IBD meeting was included for last November’s AMC meeting. Best takeaway from this meeting—the evaluations/reports completed by the 2010 participants in the Leadership Exchange Program were so well received that the pilot program will continue this year with just a little revamping. Well done!
Mensa local or Mensa global—close to home or far, far away—Mensa is fabulous everywhere!
Facebook or Now for Something Completely Mensan!
It was Tuesday afternoon, and Facebook posed the question, “What’s on your mind?” Feeling lyrical, it being Tuesday and all, I wrote, “Something calls to me, the trees are…?”
Someone would surely write back with the next line of the Moody Blues song, “Tuesday Afternoon.” It is an exercise performed quite often on FB.
What followed is a long, long string of replies that could only happen among Mensans. Here are selected examples for your reading pleasure”
“Elissa is hearing talking trees. This is not a good sign.”
“But they don’t listen to her.”
“They leaf her alone?”
“They wood, if she’d leaf them alone.”
“They shouldn’t worry, her bark is worse than her bite.”
I had to stop this directionless, cliché-ridden, tangential cross-talk. I wrote, “Hey, FBers, the subject is song lyrics. “The trees are drawing me near.” The replies?
“Trees can’t draw!”
“Let me conifer with my fellow Ms to come up with a 2% solution.”
“Sounds like they’re out on a limb…”
“We’re trying to help, but she takes us all for saps.”
“Are you pining for her, or just want to needle her?”
Finally, finally, an FBer wrote a related musical line, “Surely someone will explain it all with a sigh.” To which, I wrote, “I’m looking at myself, reflections of mind.” Did my FB peers get back on track? What do you think?
“Hey, don’t try to change the subject, just lumber along with the rest of us.”
“Fir Pete’s sake! Everybody kwitcherbirchin!”
“Moody Bluespruce?”
“Beech, beech, beech.”
“Pining for the days when people could make a simple observation…oak-kay, I’m done here.”
“Wooden you rather stick around?”
“I feel like I’m at an RG.”
“If this is what an RG is like, I need to get to one.”
“TREE-t yourself to one!”
“Then I’d be bark-ing up the right tree!”
Within 30 minutes, there were a couple dozen Mensans* contributing lyrics, puns, and even outrageous comments not suitable for a family magazine. The point of sharing this particular stream of consciousness with you is because of those last few comments. This kind of free-floating conversation is what makes any Mensa gathering fun, whether it occurs at an RG, an AG, a local games night, or right there on Facebook—proving once and for all, that Mensans can have fun, anywhere, anytime, in any medium.
Next month, back to basics…or not!
with thanks to my FaceBook friends – you know who you are!
The Case for Motivation (August 2010)
What motivates us to take on a job, or a chore, some type of work? Is it money? If it’s an unpaid position, such as volunteering, is the motivation prestige? Or maybe a reason to get out of the house? According to Dan Pink of the RSA (Royal Society of the Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce) in his video, “Drive,” our motivations for doing anything are “amazingly engaging, even surprising” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc). We are not endlessly manipulable – here’s the carrot, now go do the work – or predictable as we all might think. In this video, which is done not with the typical flipchart technique, but with line drawings, all CAP printing (normally ugh, but OK for this theme), and Mr. Pink’s winning voiceover, the process is fast, yet eminently captivating. When the work involves mechanical skills, and the motivation to do well is tied to ever greater monetary benefits, people are mostly predictable: many will strive for the top bonus and some will be satisfied with a mid-range bonus. But, Mr. Pink points out, when the work involves even rudimentary cognitive skills – thinking, planning, strategy, creativity – people are not as motivated to do well even if the monetary rewards are there. In fact, what comes into play, especially if people are paid enough, are three factors: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. These are the motivators that empower workers to give better and best performances and gain greater feelings of personal satisfaction.
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The reason I’m sharing this video-observation with you is that I see applications of its truths in Mensa. As volunteers, we are not motivated by monetary rewards, mainly because they do not exist. But as volunteers who are able to act autonomously, master delegation, managerial, other people skills, and work toward the betterment of our organization we stand to gain infinite personal rewards. Let me know what you think after you watch the video. Also check out RSA itself (www.theRSA.org).
Speaking of service to organizations, I was impressed by a recent article describing how high school students are changing their communities through their entrepreneurial ideas in five categories: economics, environment, education, community, and health. Sponsored by The LEAGUE, a national youth-service organization, these young people are working with pet shelters, homeless people, at-risk teens, cancer patients, community gardens, autistic kids, and in many more areas. The list of their diverse projects is inspiring and shows much promise. If you know a high school student looking for direction, point them to The LEAGUE (www.leagueworldwide.org).
You have until August 11 to submit photos with the theme of “water” for the International Project Convergence, a global competition now in its sixth year. No matter what your language or culture the art photography is universal and has no limits. See previous winners on the Mensa International website (www.mensa.org). Good luck!
Chair’s Report of IBD Meeting in Auckland, New Zealand and Australian Mensa Conference (AMC)
Australia Mensa moved their normal Conference date to the weekend before the Auckland IBD meeting to give NatReps who were traveling a long way an opportunity to meet with their members and enjoy their hospitality. The AMC meets for only two days, Saturday and Sunday with an opening night cocktail party on Friday evening, but the schedule is packed with lectures, kids’ activities, and informal sightseeing events for those not involved with their annual general meeting, which took place on Sunday. I was privileged to meet the new New South Wales State Secretary, Yveline Piller, who would be in a similar position to our RVCs. Robert Gregory, Australia Mensa chair was there also. Yveline and I had time to compare notes on how their Annual General Meeting is run – it is run like a regular board meeting with an agenda and motions; whatever business is approved is acted upon immediately. Australia has a little over a 1,000 members, so 300 at their AMC is a very good number. It is always educational to see how other Mensa groups deal with their own internal politics and how their boards are set up. There was an open forum on Sunday for spouses, relatives, etc., of Mensans and how they deal with their smarty companions. Interesting to hear a daughter speak about her mother and father, both Mensans; dinnertime was the time for intellectual discussions and pithy questions. Imagine a teen sitting through that!
On to Auckland, New Zealand a couple days later for the IBD meeting. On Wednesday, the MIL ExComm, of which I am a member, met to discuss international appointments for (committees) Gifted Children, Name and Logo Protection, and Internet Policy Advisory; (coordinators) SIGHT, Archivist, Mensa World Journal editor, ISIG, and Events. The chair of GC is Ranko Rajovic of Serbia and U.S. members are Jennifer Valentine and Najeen Riazi. Chair of Name & Logo is Barry Evans of Canada with U.S. members Dan Burg and Robin Crawford. International SIGHT Coordinator is incumbent Rich Kingston of Cyprus and U.S. Joe Johnson of the U.S. was appointed chair of Internet Policy with other U.S. members Robin Crawford and Mark Dallman. Events Coordinator is our own Claire Natola. Archivist is our own Stacey Kirsch. ISIG Coordinator is incumbent Markus Schauler of Germany. The appointment of the editor for the MWJ was put on hold until the new charge for this publication is clarified. The temporary committee, Governance Documents Review Committee, is now permanent with U.S. member, Dan Burg, as chair along with other U.S. members Russ Bakke and Heather Poirier. The ExComm meeting took all of Wednesday afternoon.
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Thursday was the first full day for the entire IBD – 39 representatives from 29 countries including 22 non-English speakers. There were new NatReps: Cris Cruz, chair Mensa Brazil; Ann Rootkin, new U.K. rep; Millie Norry, chair, Mensa Canada; John Doktor, chair, Mensa Denmark; Thomas Chan, chair, Mensa Hong Kong; Lee Myung Hoon, chair, Mensa Korea; Azrai Skymmar, chair, Malaysian Mensa; Jacek Cywinski, chair Mensa Poland; and Ute Blasche, Mensa Switzerland. These new reps were paired with veteran members; I was paired with Lee from Korea. We sat together and I answered as many questions as I could about how the meetings are conducted and who was who. Cris and Ute, I had already met in Australia. Ann has been around IBD meetings for a number of years. Azrai and I have had long email discussions about how the U.S. uses paid staff.
The physical setup was a good one where the chair could see everyone – it was a stretched circle and with microphones at every other seat. With morning breaks, lunch breaks, and breakout sessions, the three and a half days went quickly and mostly comfortably. Lots of peppermints were available – addictive! Tea and scones in the afternoon too.
Thursday’s agenda items:
1. Presentations from Switzerland on their new website and from Peter Ring (Denmark) on the new International website;
2. MIL’s Strategic Plan, Part 1 – Willem Bouwens and Pam Donahoo discussed the similarities and differences bet. the MIL and AML plans.
3. Brainstorming sessions on marketing the Mensa name globally, how to motivate volunteers, appropriate levels of bureaucracy in different countries, successful meeting concepts, the new Mensa World Journal, how to make use of the internet.
4. Presentation from Galia Bozhanova, Mensa Bulgaria, on their unique awards system; presentation by Grethe van Geffen on her workshop, HIQ at work; film on proctors from Mensa Sweden – that they produced themselves.
5. Usually a discussion about the following year’s IBD meeting location takes place on Sunday. But since Galia had an early plane to catch on Sunday, we also viewed her presentation on Mensa Bulgaria’s bid for the 2011 meeting. It was well done and gave enough details for the entire IBD to approve the bid (there were no other bids anyway). Also the part of the world where the meeting 2 years hence should be was decided. Europe again—a good portion of the NatReps live in the area so it makes financial sense to stay in that area for 2 years, then go farther afield every third year.
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Friday’s agenda items:
1. Success stories by Matthias Moehl, Mensa Germany (next in line for an ExComm seat with over 8,600 members. Once they reach 10,000 members, they have 4 votes and an Excomm seat); and Hisashi Niizuma, Mensa Japan, which is growing and soon will be a full national Mensa again.
2. Greg Timmers gave a talk on the Foundation and the idea to make it a global Foundation, not just a U.S. entity.
3. More “Meet your neighbour” type break-out sessions, where in groups of four we changed seats and were given topics to discuss, then changed seats again after 20 minutes. This was done on Thursday too. This way all 39 NatReps were encouraged to talk to each other. By the last Meet Your Neighbour, each person had talked to every other person at least once. Mensans being pretty much the same the world over, the chair had a difficult time getting the groups to break up. Only if he announced a coffee or tea break did the groups finally disburse.
4. Consent agenda
5. Discussion on relationship between ExComm and IBD.
6. Evaluation of Leadership Exchange Program, which led to a motion to create a small committee composed of IBD NatReps and 2 or 3 of the 2010 participants to manage, oversee, take charge of the selection and logistics of the 2011 candidates. Both the Director of Smaller National Mensas, Christine Warlies and Bibiana Balanyi, Director of Development, are happy to hand this project off to a committee, but they will be there to help should the need arise. The motion passed. I will be chairing this committee. (The motion actually was presented and approved on Sunday; it was thoroughly discussed on Friday.)
7. Future funding for MIL. As national Mensas grow, more administrative assistance is needed. There are plans to look for global licensing opportunities and other ways to boost income aside from increasing the component.
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Saturday’s agenda:
1. Tomas Blumenstein, chair of Czech Republic Mensa (where EMAG took place this summer), gave a presentation on success stories in his group.
2. Michael Feenan gave an update of the progress of Mensa Turkey, which has a backlog of over 1,000 people waiting to be tested.
3. The Annual General Meeting was conducted, a short meeting.
4. In camera (executive session) items, mostly the appointments detailed above, took up the rest of the day.
5. Part 2 of Meet Your Neighbour.
6. Presentation by Ranko Rajovic on the scientific results of NTC (National Talented and Gifted); this is an area in which Ranko is greatly interested. He has written books on young brains and how they develop. The book was in Serbian so I could only guess at the content. His slide presentation though discussed synapses in the brain and how they can be turned off through disuse.
7. Part 2 of the Strategic Plan discussion.
Sunday’s agenda:
1. IBD approval for the appointments discussed in the in camera session. The entire board changed one or two items but most of the ExComm’s recommendations stood.
2. MIL budget for year ending March 2010 discussed, budget for next year approved, no change in component which is set currently at 5%
3. Presentation of a couple of alternatives to Robert’s Rules of Order in outline form. I’m not sure either of the alternatives is helpful. More to come.
4. Motion brought before the board to have a voting representative for Direct International Members (DIMs). Decision to move the debate to the elist and to invite a representative DIM to the 2011 meeting.
The meeting location at the Rendevous hotel gave all of us plenty of room to meet and gather for breaks. Within walking distance, there were enough restaurants to please everyone. Costs were higher than in the U.S. Auckland is very diverse with most Asian countries represented in its citizens. We saw Maoris only during entertainment on Saturday evening. No chance to do any sightseeing of the areas where Lord of the Rings 1, 2, & 3 were filmed. We’ll go back someday and travel via hikes and drives.
Leaders – We’ve Got ‘em! (Apr/May 2011)
Twenty-two! Yes—22 applicants stepped forward to participate in American Mensa’s Leaders of Tomorrow program. After an extremely rigorous selection process that included written topics, YouTube presentations, and face2face meetings, our Leadership Development Committee recommended these four candidates: Vesper Burnett, Greater Los Angeles Mensa; Heather Booton, Chicago Area Mensa; Benjamin Nemenoff, Mid-America Mensa; and Michael Collins, Chicago Area Mensa. The first three will present their workshops at both our 2011AG in Portland, Oregon and at the European Mensas Annual Gathering (EMAG) in Paris, France, in August. The fourth candidate serves as an alternate should one of the others have to back out of the program. Four participants from Europe and the rest of the world round out the Super Seven who will each share their unique expertise with hundreds of Mensans.
As for the other 18 original applicants who expressed a desire to take their chosen topics beyond our borders—I appreciate your ingenuity and resourcefulness, and hope you will re-apply to the program next year. Or perhaps some of you will join our Leadership Development team and add your ideas to the mix now. Can you tell I was very impressed with all of you? Go team!
I am so pleased that we are participating in this global leadership/mentoring/guidance program now in its second year. From the reports I read that were submitted well after the 2010 AG and EMAG events, last year’s American Mensa participants are still contributing mightily to Mensa. For example, Beth Anne Demeter, Chicago Area Mensa, stated that organizing HalloweeM this past October was a smoother operation due to her involvement as a global leader. Lori Norris, Rhode Island Mensa, has written articles for InterLink and given talks on global leadership at several regional gatherings. Greg Kontz, North Dakota Mensa, has been busy too promoting the idea of a Mensa Student Group on the Dickinson University campus and giving presentations to international students. As you can tell, the international leadership experience energizes participants. Mensa reaps benefits well into the future.
Come July, a new AMC will take office. Not only will there be several new board members, but all committees and committee chairs will be re-appointed. Even those currently in office will be expected to re-commit, should they want to continue in that office. See committee descriptions and current members here _______. Committee chairs/members may not want to continue having given much in the past, so there could be many new names associated with committees too. Which committee would you like to join? If a certain committee’s description/charge resonates with you, contact _______. New viewpoints, energy, and enthusiasm are always welcome. Mensa benefits enormously from its members’ creativity and inspiration.
Last of all, please vote in our national election. It is easier than ever to cast your ballot and takes very little time. Go to (won’t we be doing this online?). Your election packet will be arriving in the mail shortly. Be sure to take the time to read about the candidates, go to their websites, and maybe even send them an email and ask a question about how they will make your Mensa even better. Go to my website, www.elissa.com, where you can peruse my columns from the last year and read my blog about how I see the future of Mensa. This is your organization, so please vote!
March began quietly, like a little lamb jouncing through the clover, then slowly built momentum. It wasn’t quite with a lion’s roar that the month ended, but darn near. It all started at a routine local group dinner as I was, as I always do, visiting all the diners at their seats and introducing myself to new members. This is no easy feat, squeezing between tables, dodging servers, interrupting conversations, schmoozing my way around the group, but I do it with finesse, I think. One of the new faces belonged to a lovely woman by the name of Lindsay Babich. As we conversed, I learned that she and her partner hosted a live program on the worldwide digital radio network, “The Art of Living Well” (http://www.theartoflivingwell.tv/). Lindsay was curious about Mensa and wondered if I would be willing to be one of their interviewees soon. I said yes never realizing she really meant it, and within the first few days of March I spent an hour answering questions and expounding on one of my favorite subjects. All interviews are archived so you can listen too (http://tinyurl.com/4yzljy2).
Mid-March, Yahoo Shine contacted me for any details I could supply about a young British girl with a very high IQ of 162. Obviously, because British Mensa administers different tests than we do, I could not equate 162 with a percentile rank. Frankly, the interviewer was much more interested in our gender mix than high IQs. Flipping to the Dashboard on our website, I could reel off numbers—gender mix, age mix, and other cool stats. Interviewer was intrigued; and even more so when I told her that as a member of the media, she could test for free. You can read the interview at http://tinyurl.com/3ldqmyc.
Towards the end of the month, I was privileged to accompany a writer friend of mine, Prudy Taylor Board, to the Southwest Florida Reading Festival in Ft. Myers, Florida. This one-day festival is an annual family event with educational kid-type displays, food, and fun, all centered on the joy of reading. For the adults, there were panel discussions throughout the day with well-known and little-known authors such Nelson DeMille (a Mensan also), J. A. Jance, Linda Fairstein, Mary Jane Clark, Ted Bell, Eric Litwin, and Prudy herself. The day before, Prudy and I discussed our relevant subjects—hers, writing and mine, Mensa—at a meeting of the Pine Island Library Association. We also spoke at Cypress Cove, a beautiful development in Ft. Myers, where the audience seemed to hang on our words. The Q &A went on and on.
There are so many ways to promote Mensa. Some are fortuitous, liked the digital radio experience. Others are out of left field or from across the pond as the Yahoo Shine event worked out to be. And then there are the really fun encounters where speaking about Mensa to those who are very interested is an extremely rewarding way to spend my time.
See you in Portland?
How to Make the Most of a Weekend (August 2011)
Take about a hundred Ms, place in a historic and cultural venue, sprinkle with metaphors, euphemisms, excellent local lore, breakfast conversations, and stir slowly with wit and spontaneity. Roast or bake or just consume. There you have it – a regional gathering of Mensans just like the one I attended over Memorial Day Weekend.
The event took place in Ybor City, a very old section of Tampa, Florida, established in 1886, where it became the Cigar Capital of the World producing millions of cigars a year. In the 1960s, that reputation waned, but the area is still a vibrant mixture of Latin influences in music, food, culture, and you can still watch the art of cigar rolling. During the weekend we spent there, we inhaled the atmosphere while we toured the marketplace and marveled at the architectural touches on 150-year old buildings.
Back at the hotel, the programs included Laughter Yoga, Crocheting Granny Squares, an Armchair Treasure Hunt, Orchid Cultivation, Introduction to Kuminimo (anybody guess what that is?), and an explanation of what high speed rail would do for south Florida. Eclectic programming kept the weekend really lively, especially that last subject where state politics took the stage. Breakfast conversations were consistently and pleasantly inconsistent – one day the topic was estate jewelry, another it was religion or lack thereof. Now there was an unconventional group of Mensans: a Unitarian, a spiritualist, a secular humanist, an agnostic, a recovering Catholic, and a Wiccan with a marked propensity for dragons (some facts have been twisted to protect everyone, but you get the picture). No one left the breakfast table in haste; in fact, the group attracted more people with a variety of comments that fueled more conversation. Those breakfast meetings, not scheduled, not structured, not facilitated, were eye-openers. What a diversity of opinions and beliefs – fascinating.
The food aspect of the RG, aside from the traditional hospitality, included a visit to the original Columbia, gem of Spanish restaurants, where the entrees are based on techniques handed down through generations. More than a century of tried and true methods result in Sangria in hand painted pitchers, artful tapas, great-grandfather Hernandez’s Snapper Alicante, great-grandmother Carmen’s Cuban Black Bean Soup, Spain’s national dish - paella, and Crema Catalona, popular import from Barcelona – maravillosa or perhaps meravellosa!
There is no organization I know of that combines the ingredients briefly touched on here and leaves one wanting more. Thank you, Tampa Bay Mensa! We look forward to the next gathering of Mensans, whether it’s 10, 100, or 1,000.
A Pinch of This, A Drop of That,
Leave out the Liverwort (October 2011)
Last October I wrote about one of this month’s most prevalent motifs – ghosts—and I likened them to Mensa members we rarely, if ever, see. Most of you, probably all, have wondered why your local group numbers are high, but the number of active members, those who gather for events, is perhaps eight or ten percent of that total. Many of you wrote to me with a variety of reasons why becoming active in local group happenings just isn’t…happening for you. At least not now. Here’s sampling of the notes I received:
My kids are young, I’ll get around to it when they’re older.
I have too many other professional obligations (from a medical doctor).
I joined just to see if I could, not to socialize.
I went to one event and everyone there was 20 years older than me.
I went to one event and everyone there was 20 years younger than me.
I’m shy.
If the group ever held an event I liked, I would go.
When I’ve graduated college and gotten a job, I’ll check out the events.
You know, if another member nudged me, I might go. It’s too scary otherwise.
If I could be invisible, I’d check out the event first, then decide.
I’m single. At the first and only event I attended, everyone seemed to be coupled up.
I’m married, but my spouse thinks Mensa is for eggheads. I’m not, she/he says, despite the fact that I scored high enough to join.
There’s lots more – thank you all for writing! But you get the idea. In no way was I relegating any segment of our membership, my so-called “ghosts,” to the background. You are just as important as members who are very active, those who take on volunteer jobs, and those who’ve found family in Mensa. And I am certainly happy that you are all out there—active, overwhelmed, inactive, shy, busy, waiting, nurturing children, keeping your career on track—even if I never get to meet you.
As I write this, I’m working on the agenda for the first really official meeting of the new Board (AMC – American Mensa Committee, your board of directors) during the early part of September. With several new faces and much enthusiasm this Board should accomplish quite a lot during this next term. In December the Board will get together for its winter meeting in Las Vegas. If you are anywhere in the vicinity, stop by, meet us, and let us meet you—details are in the Gatherings list.
Have fun this month whether or not you celebrate Samhain, Halloween, or October 31. Keep stirring the cauldron, add eye of newt, imagine what can coalesce when Mensans congregate!
Imagine my surprise! It was the night of the gala dinner in the formal reception building that the Bulgarian president uses to entertain foreign dignitaries. After a sumptuous dinner followed by traditional music—very compelling, sounding similar to Greek rhythms—dancing, and exciting entertainment, the lights dimmed and a slide show began. Appreciative oohs and ahs saluted the parade of gorgeous photos on the screen. These were 10 finalists in the 2011 International Photo Competition, one more “brilliant” than the next (brilliance was the theme to celebrate Mensa’s 65th birthday). Down to the last three and the anticipation was palpable. Now here comes my surprise: the second place winner, Michael Grossfeld, was from American Mensa! In the five or six years this contest has been in existence no American photographer had cracked the top three places. Overjoyed, I think I jumped up and down. Here I was nearly 6,000 miles from home, in an eastern European country whose colorful history is populated by Byzantines, Ottomans, Serbs, Romans, Thracians, Greeks, and more, yet brought home to the U.S. by this second place winner in an international contest. Small world indeed. And it got smaller yet. Once I looked up the winner in our member directory, I found out that Michael is a member of my own local group, Palm Beach County Mensa. The local members have since celebrated his win with him personally. Thank you, Michael, for participating and thanks also go to Matthew Filar and his committee for choosing the U.S. winners. See Parting Shots in the October Bulletin for those. Go to www.mensa.org for all of the finalists.
Back home after last October’s long trip to Sofia, we held our winter quarterly meeting of the Board of Directors (AMC) in Las Vegas. Realizing that face-2-face time is one of our greatest assets/resources, the Board has committed to four meetings a year instead of our previous four one year, then three the next. More meetings will be held in Arlington, TX, site of the National Office, to hold down costs and to benefit from face time with the staff, all of whom contribute greatly to the success of American Mensa. Email and phone calls are great communication tools as are the social media outlets—Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and Google+ and more—but those crazy emoticons and short status updates are no match for real social interactions, facial expressions, and body language. U bet!
So here we are in January, looking forward, packing the past away. It’s a fresh start. What do you think Mensa (not just American Mensa, but worldwide) will look like in eight years, say, 2020? Tell me your predictions, we will store them in a time capsule, and break it open at the 2020 AG. Think big. Mensa China predicts that they will have 20,000 members by 2016.
Good Advice for Local Officers (March 2012)
What makes a good LocSec? Are there role models, mottos, strategies for being LocSec? Recently these questions were posed on the LocSec elist and a lively discussion followed that brought forth excellent advice, encouraging comments, and a few “do-not-do’s” from current and former Local Secretaries. In reiterating the suggestions and caveats, I hope to reach an even wider audience that may also include potential officers out there. Such good advice and deep understanding from those who are currently doing the job and those who served in the past bears repetition.
Local Secretaries (we still retain this British phrase to describe the president, top person, head official, etc., in a local group) are primary contacts and as such receive probably more communicative items—phone calls, emails, letters, National Office materials—than any other group officer. It can be overwhelming. Yet this very same person—perhaps nudged into the position by anxious local members or an altruistic or duty-bound streak, in other words, sort of reluctantly—is supposed to be the top person, someone everyone else looks to for guidance, information, leadership. Hence, the questions leading off this column. Where does one go to find answers? See the last paragraph for a tangible answer for where to go.
At the top of the list, an effective LocSec:
Communicates with local members through whatever means is at hand: phone, email, postal mail, social media, especially these newer forms of interaction;
Appreciates local members: says thank you, then says it again when everyone is listening, writes a note, sends an ecard, organizes a member-appreciation event;
Returns funding to the local members. Spends it on them in reasonable ways. Too many groups have thousands in the bank. Why?
Makes everyone feel part of the local member family.
Here’s more ripped lovingly from the LocSec elist:
Personal contact is key. The national office sends a welcome package to each new member, but the local contact must pick up where national involvement winds down. That’s directly where the LocSec takes over or has a membership officer take over.
A Local Secretary is the official point of contact, is the spiritual cheerleader, and the go-to person when something is amiss. Therefore, he or she must be patient, kind, be able to listen, and then help solve the problem or at least commiserate sincerely.
An effective LocSec remembers all local members have paid their dues and deserve equal respect and consideration. Not so easy, but this could be a motto or mantra that with repetition becomes a natural part of the officer’s persona.
Be inclusive. Assume that there is a brand new member at every event who does not understand the acronyms or Mensa slang. Seek out and talk to the unfamiliar members; this may be a first for them after being a member for years. (If you are not likely to be able to do this comfortably, delegate the “welcomes” to the extroverts in your group. One of the hallmarks of intelligence is knowing your limits; and a characteristic of a good manager is knowing when to call in others with different skill sets.)
Final bits of wisdom:
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle (I really like this one!)
Leadership doesn’t mean “dictate”—encourage, nudge, but do not micromanage.
Keep a sense of humor.
Find your replacement early on—do not be one of those who complains that no one wants the job. Find someone who is amenable (read: suggestible!), mentor, guide, and set free when your term is up.
Create a receptive environment and let good things happen. They will, they really will.
For those of you looking for more guidance and/or answers, there will be a Leadership Development Workshop on being an effective group leader at the Annual Gathering in Reno, NV. You are sure to pick up even more pointers and more advice in a group situation. Check it out!
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The Reach of the Mensa Foundation (May 2012, Int. Journal)
Last year, the Mensa Education and Research Foundation, known simply as “the Foundation,” celebrated 40 years of commitment to the pursuit of excellence in the areas of intelligence. While the Foundation was originally founded as the philanthropic arm of American Mensa Ltd., it has been stretching its wings in the past few years to embrace the entire globe. Nowhere has the Foundation’s influence been felt more strongly than in the area of gifted youth. All of us were gifted kids at one time, so you may find as you read further that you would like to be a kid again! This article contains a list of the various activities, programs, and benefits offered by the Foundation to gifted young people and their parents everywhere. As Fran Cartier, one of the Foundation’s former trustees stated, “Gifted youth are a major national [and international] economic resource as well as potentially exceptional contributors to science and art. Working to support their education is richly satisfying.”
The MensaforKids website (www.mensaforkids.org) offers games, a monthly feature, a blog, and other resources geared to gifted children under 12, although many older children and adults may enjoy the content as well. Resources for parents and teachers are located on this site too.
Through its Excellence in Reading program (http://mensaforkids.com/readeraward/intro.pdf) the Foundation gives children around the world an opportunity to read a list of age-appropriate books identified by juvenile librarians as “excellent” and earn a certificate and a free t-shirt.
Under parent/teacher resources at the MensaforKids website, there are many educational lesson plans specifically for children, kindergarten to high school. There are grade levels attached to the plans, but they are not restrictive. Currently listed lesson plans include “The Moon” “Kingdom Animalia,” “Fibonacci Numbers,” “Ecosystems,” “Mendelian Genetics,” “Probably Probability,” and the “Magical Music Tour.”
Fun activities in the same area of the website challenge gifted youth and their families outside of the school setting. Even adults can get into act with such programs as Character Tea Party, Inside-Out Fun, Duct Tape Bonanza, Storming the Castle, and Pi Day Activities. These programs can be scaled up or down depending on the number of players and level of complexity desired.
Young Mensa members are eligible to participate in the Young Mensan Book Parade as reviewers of books sent to Mensa by publishers from Random House, Candlewick, National Geographic, Harvard University Press, and more. The young readers review the books, send the review to Mensa, then donate the book to the library of their choice.
Just to keep all the ideas, links, and threads together there is the Bright Kids listserv, an elist for parents and others interested in issues relating to raising and education gifted youth. Mensa membership is not required. It is a busy list with members from South Africa, Australia, England, and other countries all conversing about their intelligent young people (http://www.lists.us.mensa.org/mailman/listinfo/brightkids).
The tangible offerings listed above certainly make being gifted in Mensa more fun; but there are the intangibles too. Lisa Van Gemert, Gifted Youth Specialist for AML, says that, “Young Mensans enjoy the hard-to-quantify benefits such as prestige, legitimacy, and the feeling of belonging. Mensa is a place where highly gifted children can develop their identities within and without.”
Supporting gifted youth and their parents illustrates only one side of the Mensa Foundation—it also administers a scholarship program including international scholarships, produces the Mensa Research Journal, and presents national or international awards in recognition of research, education and practical achievement regarding intelligence and creativity.
Learn more at www.mensafoundation.org or YouTube for Foundation history (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz4QuIOYuxQ) or (http://portal.sliderocket.com/BAGSO/Mensa-Foundation) for the most recent Foundation excursion into cyberspace. Great message here: “Impact the world one mind at a time.”
Amsterdam
If it is in the evening here then it is midnight over there, right? That’s why I feel so sleepy!
As I assemble this column in May, one of the snags is jet lag. I have just returned to the U.S. from Amsterdam in The Netherlands where I attended a meeting of the Executive Committee of Mensa International. The members of this group (see photo) hail from many geographical regions so face-to-face meetings take place only twice a year—at the annual International Board of Directors (IBD) meeting in the fall and one other time six months or so ahead of that major confluence. The snag that prevents these meetings from occurring more frequently than “seldom” is, of course, airfare expense. As we have seen from our own American Mensa board meetings, the face-to-face occasions, even if seldom as on the international level, reap huge rewards. The opportunities for spontaneous interactions across languages and cultures happen in amazing quantities. Discussions of global SIG membership, for instance, or how to court one’s native media outlets or what skills are needed for a gifted youth coordinator, are so much easier when one can make eye contact, intuit facial expressions, and read body language instead of emails. If only Scotty could transport us around the globe to hold these remarkable, productive meetings we could be anywhere, anytime! And no jet lag if you’re beaming instead of flying!
This month we celebrate physical presence and face-to-face encounters en masse at the AG in Reno, Nev. With an “End of Time” theme that just might be a transition to an age even better than this one, what better way to go than with your new, old, and yet to be made Mensa friends? Hope to see you there!
Mensa International’s Executive Committee includes (from left, sitting) Willem Bouwens, Chair Mensa International; Cyndi Kuyper, International Treasurer; Bibiana Balanyi, Director of Development; Elissa Rudolph, Chair American Mensa; Sylvia Herbert, Director of Administration; (standing) Chris Leek, proxy for British Mensa, Matthias Moehl, Chair Mensa Germany; and Bjorn Liljeqvist, Director of Smaller National Mensas. On the right, sitting, is Michael Feenan, Executive Director of Mensa International. Nationalities represented: U.K., U.S., Sweden, Germany, Hungary. The art in the background is by the late Herman Brood, Dutch musician, singer, painter, poet, and actor also called “The Netherlands greatest and only rock ‘n’ roll star.”
Chaordic Organization - Mensa? (August 2012)
When you’ve been a Mensa member for more than half your life, like me, you tend to see other areas of your existence through the lens of the organization and vice versa. There are more degrees of connection than of separation that actually accumulate over time. Case in point, as a proofreader for a publisher that produces academic, architectural, civil engineering, and the odd social engineering book now and then, I recently found one of those connections in a current project that resonates and correlates with Mensa. In fact, after I proofread a page, which is not really reading, I go back and read for content because the authors, while writing a book about the challenges in leading 21st century organizations, have described to a scary degree, Mensa, its potential and its promise. “Organizations are collections of self-organizing people talking, interacting, and bumping into each other as they try to make a living and assist the organization in fulfilling the needs of its stakeholders.” The stakeholders, of course, are all of us members; we all have an equal share in Mensa’s success as we sit round the table. Now for the real flash of brilliance found in this book – between chaos and order, there’s a “sweet spot” that enables chaordic (chaos + order = chaordic) organizations – that’s us – to thrive in a complex environments by being flexible and adaptable while we continually self-organize. That’s if we recognize, as these authors assert, that Descartes may have been wrong: Humans are both rational AND emotional. Both states of mind in healthy individuals are necessary for good decision making and effective leadership. The authors suggest that the very best solutions to organizational problems come through leveraging a large group’s cognitive diversity and emotional intelligence (that’s us again!) than by a panel of experts, all of whose experiences and backgrounds are more similar than they are diverse.
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The concept of letting go the leash on people’s differing views of reality and wildly diverse opinions (chaos) while adding a little structure (order, because there are certain legal, regulatory issues that require that, or else) can make for such a stimulating, creative environment that solutions pop out easily. That’s the textbook view, of course. Yet, I think the authors are really on to something that the leadership of Mensa can embrace: Celebrate the cognitive diversity within our chaordic organization and find ways to use its power for long-term success.
I haven’t finished the proofread yet. There are chapters on strengthening trust within organizations that have a strong chaordic nature, why face-to-face is still the ideal way to interact with each other despite all our social media venues, and collective group dynamics among others. More ideas to come as we realize we are already functioning as a chaord, a system on the edge of chaos with enough order to provide a bit of a pattern.
Thoughts on chaordic organizations, ours especially? Email chair@us.mensa.org. Look up any of the books by Dee Hock, founder of VISA, and proponent of this modern organizational form he calls chaordic, linking chaos and order for the best results in organizational leadership.
The End is the Beginning (September 2012)
It wasn’t the “End of Time,” but it did seem like time was elastic at the fantastic Annual Gathering in Reno, Nev. – stretched to the limits here and there and snapping me back into place when I had to attend to Mensa business instead of watching the Mr. Mensa competition. This AG has perhaps set the bar a little higher for future AGs - a new iteration of American Mensa’s largest gathering of members? Maybe, although each AG has its own special character and ambiance, unique, not to be duplicated. At the three-hotel complex, there were several unusual twists and turns as most attendees will agree, yet, I saw nothing but happy Ms clutching their pull-out program schedules hurrying through the Silver Legacy or Circus Circus, bound and determined to find a front seat for the next interesting speaker. There were over 300 possible lectures/speakers/workshops after all, and one had to make sometimes difficult choices. When it came to food, however, the choices were easy: stand in the quickly moving lines and have conversations with those you haven’t met yet. Or continue the conversation that was interrupted earlier. All in all, the organizers who worked on this event for the past 3+ years, the last minute volunteers, the can-always-count-on National Office staff, and the hotel staff – every one of you contributed to our success in the Biggest Little City in the World. There’s no end to my praise.
During the AG, there were several special workshops led by the five participants (see photo) in 2012’s Leadership Exchange Ambassadors Program (LEAP), an international initiative to bring together leaders from several national Mensa groups to share their native experiences, learn from the others, and convey their knowledge to their audiences—those at the American AG and those who attend the Asian Mensas Annual Gathering (AMAG, which takes place later this month in Bali, Indonesia). This is the third year for the program; it is developing a history and reputation as one of the best ways for Mensans to connect globally, face-to-face, and through social media. Not only does each participant’s national Mensa benefit from the experience, the participants themselves develop a bond that continues beyond the requirements of the program. Eventually there will be area off the www.mensa.org site where the LEAP presentations will be stored for all to view. Interested in next year’s LEAP? Contact leapcomm@mensa.org.
Time being elastic, look to the future, and remember that an election is coming up next year. Next summer I will step down as your Chair so that a new Chair can lead us forward. All other elected positions will be filled by incumbents or new-to-the-AMC Mensans. Maybe you will be one of them?
A Swedish Experience (October 2012)
Last August EMAG* in Stockholm hosted by Mensa Sweden gave new meaning to the word, “smörgåsbord” (yes, to all of you word mavens out there, I am stretching the meaning). Not only was the cuisine and drink varied and stimulating, the menu of programs, tours, lectures, and casual meetings presented an awesome array of choices. I learned why Steak Tartare goes by that name and where Bleak Roe** originate. Here is a small smattering of events taken directly from the program booklet: Brain Challenge, City Hall Tour where the Nobel Gala Dinner is held each year, Crime Scene Reconstruction, Behind the Scene at IKEA, ABBA City Walk, Kayak Paddling, Jewish Stockholm Walk, Ice Bar visit (brrrr…enjoy your drink IN the rocks), Crayfish Party, Double Closets for the Intelligent Queer, and the Millennium Walk. This last walking tour took the group to the several of the locations mentioned in the Stieg Larsson books – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, et al. – and also where the four films – three Swedish, one American – were shot. There was even a Wasp at one site – those of you who read the books know that Lisbeth Salander’s hacker alias was “Wasp.” No one knows how that wasp came to be perched on a rock near the stand-in for Lisbeth’s posh apartment, not even the tour guide had a clue.
You may be wondering why I going on about EMAG. Like many of you, I enjoy meeting, talking and traveling with other Mensans; it is nearly guaranteed that I will come away smiling with more stories and information that I had at the outset. By describing my encounters I hope that you, too, will take advantage of these inspiring gatherings of Mensans. Our American AG is not to be missed – many Ms from beyond our borders agree – but Europe and Asia have wonderful gatherings, too. Your Mensa membership is a ticket to the world!
On a more at-home note, I would like to thank the readers who commented on my August column describing the chaordic organization, a phrase that I believe describes our Mensa organization, and a concept that once embraced and implemented is the path to success. Our wild diversities (opinions, backgrounds, styles) and the need for some scaffolding for those wild ideas to take form are what make Mensa a chaord. A book that was suggested is “The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software” by Steven Johnson, which I am reading currently. I’d love to hear from more of you on the “chaordic organization.” It’s a combination word melding “chaos” and “order.” And there I go again, playing with words!
News on the LEAP sessions at the AG in Reno: go to www.animusm.com to see/hear all five Leadership Exchange Ambassador Program sessions as well as several other video recordings from that AG. Apply for the 2013 LEAP if you enjoy helping other Mensans become better leaders and you love to travel! Contact leapcomm@mensa.org
*European Mensas Annual Gathering, a new idea in 2008 when it was held for the first time in Cologne, Germany, is also the largest gathering of Mensans outside the U.S. Each European national Mensa has its own Annual Gathering, but EMAG draws from the whole of Europe as well as attendees from all over the world. Attendance in Stockholm was around 500 with 26 countries represented. Plan to go next year when EMAG is held in Bratislava, Slovakia.
** Nothing “bleak” about this delicacy. It is the roe of the whitefish Coregonus albula or Siklöja, in Swedish. This fish is plentiful in a brackish archipelago of 750 islands just south of the Arctic Circle.
In Bali, Indonesia, last September my mission was three-fold: 1. Represent Mensa International at the second Asian Mensas Annual Gathering (AMAG) showing support for the developing Mensa groups around the Pacific Rim; 2. Be a spokesperson for the Mensa Foundation; and 3. Encourage/cheer on the five LEAP participants in their final presentations. Mensans from 20 different countries gathered that September weekend for serious contemplation, stimulating education, and a large measure of fun. The LEAP sessions took place on Friday along with various games throughout the day, Balinese dance lessons, Kecak dance, and Japanese cast puzzles. Eszter Chrobacsinszky, Mensa Hungary; Aleksandra Borovic, Mensa Serbia; Roeland van Zeijst, Mensa The Netherlands, Vicki Herd, Mensa Canada; and Louise Steenekamp, Mensa South Africa, all presented shortened versions of their presentations to appreciative audiences of between 30 and 50 attendees. It was difficult to adhere to a time schedule when all the comments and questions kept the presenters occupied beyond their allotted times. But we were on Bali time, what turned out to be quite an elastic dimension in that part of the world.
On Saturday the major topic was to design a roadmap to help Indonesia’s poorest people realize their brain potential and maximize that to improve their economic circumstances. For me, this was a different spin on a Mensa gathering—it was the first time I could remember where those in attendance were challenged with a specific national problem delineated by authorities/experts in the fields of biology, education, the medical community, government, and food/nutrition. Dr. Bayu Prawira Hie, organizer of this gathering, introduced the Republic of Indonesia’s Special Envoy for Poverty Alleviation, Mr. HS Dillon, who opened the morning session. Dr. Widjaja Lukito then spoke about ways to improve brain capacity/capability through healthy nutrition followed by Dr. Yohanes Surya’s ideas on educating and stimulating young people from remote villages to reach for the sky. Dr. Eduardo Araral from Singapore discussed how a country could effectively capitalize on its brain power and thus prevent brain drain. After lunch, the audience was split into three groups of about 25, each group to focus on a specific area of the roadmap: healthy food/nutrition, education, and brain drain. Animated conversations and a lot of creative ideas later, the notes and suggestions were collected so that Dr. Bayu could summarize the day’s results. These findings may help Indonesia solve its poverty problem and thereby serve as an example for other nations. After a press conference attended by several local television news commentators, half a dozen white doves were released signifying unity and hope for the future.
AMAG wrapped up on Sunday with a tour of several of Bali’s tourist spots: the rocky temple at Tanah Lot, Uluwatu, where the monkeys rule, Ubud, Kuta, and the Krishna shopping area. We ended the day at Kelapa Dreamland watching the sun sink below the horizon. Goodbyes were emotional, but we all hope to see each other in Singapore for next year’s AMAG!
Angst, weimaraner, edelweiss poltergeist, streusel, knapsack, verboten, einkorn, backstein, and pickelhaube—what do you think all of these words have in common? Besides, of course, their German derivation. They actually have two other commonalities: 1. The words are from a list of about 80 German-inspired words that was given to Spelling Bee contestants to study before the big event. The second quality this wildly esoteric list shares is that all of the above words were called out and spelled correctly by Bee contestants, except for one.
A bit of background: Last September the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County held the “Great Grown-Up Spelling Bee” to benefit programs such as after-school tutoring and adult literacy outreach. West Palm Beach’s TV meteorologist was emcee, and the judges were from local colleges and my alma mater, Florida Atlantic University. My Mensa group decided this would be a fun event that would be challenging yet get Mensa’s name out there. Like most local groups in the U.S. we are always looking for events that may not revolve around food (although there were snacks and drinks at the Bee). We signed up for a nominal fee and sent in a threesome team of smart spellers. Other teams were from medical facilities, restaurants, construction companies, the local newspaper, and attorneys’ offices. Beforehand, we received study lists—words derived from the following languages (an example is in parentheses) Slavic (trepak), Dutch (hartebeest), Old English (dross), New World (succotash), Japanese (koan), Greek (diphthong), Italian (pizzicato), Spanish (novillero), Arabic (mihrab), Asian (juggernaut), French (maladroit), Latin (ambiguity), and German mentioned above. They may not look like words that would stump you, readers, but imagine the nerve-jangling, jokey comments made as the Mensa team stepped up to plate. Alas, our team did not win, but we were given a lovely photo of our team, we did have a good time, and we have promised each other to really, really study those lists next year. Oh, the word that stumped us, the one we did not spell correctly? Backstein, a type of German cheese. It was pronounced to us as “bach-stein,” heavy on “bach.” So that’s how we spelled it. Did we not study enough? Or did the professor want to see the Mensa team stumble and fail?
In November our “not connected with food” event was the annual Seafood Festival in northern Palm Beach County. It is still ahead of me as I write this column in early November, so I will report on it next month. Yes, I know, it is still a food event!
And now the more global view. The International Board of Directors (IBD) meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia, was a stupendous gathering! Mensa Croatia deserves loud kudos (plural) for their excellent organization of such a large meeting. At the meeting itself, some 40 representatives from national Mensas around the world came together to discuss strategic plans, ways to make Mensa better for all, and to share success stories and gain insight from each other. Even though my time was spent mostly in those meetings (4 days’ worth), still I managed opportunities to wander the cobbled streets of this ancient coastal city, an Adriatic rough diamond, marveling at the walled fortifications and the narrow byways lined with small shops and restaurants. The history of the Old City goes back to 200 BCE; a couple days is not enough to learn everything, but it was enough for me to place Dubrovnik near the top of my “Must See Again” list.
If you are reading this, it means we’re still here, humankind forged ahead into 2013. Were the Maya wrong? Or was the interpretation wrong? Or were our ancient elders just having fun with words?
As mentioned last month, here is a short report about a local Mensa event that did not involve food directly. You’ve heard the grumble too many times: all Mensans ever do is plan activities where eating is the main course. With a bit of ingenuity, a lot of chutzpah, and the calming influence of a beautiful Florida Saturday, several members in my neighborhood decided to host a Mensa information table at the annual Seafood Festival. We borrowed a tent, obtained publicity materials and banners from the National Office, encouraged volunteers to come and help, and hoped it would not rain. The day of the affair, with our table at one end of the four-block promenade, we waited eagerly for the hundreds of passers-by who would be thirsting for the low down on Mensa—what it is, how to join, what types of IQ tests are accepted, where are the events. We were ready to field the questions too: “Just how smart do I have to be?” “I have an IQ of 180, can I join?” “Isn’t that some kind of discrimination?” “What are you giving away?” “Isn’t Steve Martin a member?” We were more than prepared as we arranged our brochures, pens, pencils, in a feng shui style designed to attract all ages. A short quiz with answers on the reverse side separated the potentials from the … others.
What really worked though, what really got people talking to us, was the very bold approach of walking out into the midway, handing out flyers, asking what they knew or if they knew anything about Mensa. Those who stopped were reeled in to the table where we could spend a few minutes hearing their stories and promoting Mensa for them, their children, and grandchildren. There was an incredible amount of interest in gifted children and www.mensaforkids.com. I have no doubt the website received more than the usual number of hits that weekend.
At the end of the day, tired, talked out, we packed up the banners, the leftover flyers and brochures, and prepared to dismantle the tent. Now if someone had been filming that particular comedy … well, let’s just say the YouTube video would have been hilarious, though not exactly the best demonstration of high achievers! Thank goodness for veteran festival exhibitors who befriended a group of first-timers and packed that tent away in no time.
All this to say, your local events do not have to revolve around food—although those coconut shrimp on a stick were luscious, and it was a Seafood Festival. We had fun, we learned to be bold, we felt part of the community, and being proud of being Mensa members, we were the best walking advertisements for the organization. And they want us back next year!
span class= style22 style22> (July 2012)