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Palm-Mensa
Palm Beach County Mensa Newsletter
May, 2004
Contents
Coming Attraction!!
May 28-31, MaRGargitaville, Tampa Bay Mensa's Beach Bash at the Days Inn Rocky Point; registration fee $60 til May 1, includes meals; Trash Bowl, Treasure Hunt, SteinhiceCapades, Tai Chi, Karaoke, Latin dance lessons. Registrar: Kathy Crum, katshe@aol.com.
Next Newsletter Information due: May 15
Send your newsletter items, e-mail address changes, updates and announcements to
elissa12@bellsouth.net
Notes from the Underground
By Barry Karas
EDITOR: We need a new editor for this newsletter. Thanks to Elissa Rudolph for editing this issue, and thank you to Kathy Hickok for editing prior issues. Besides having the opportunity of editing this fine publication, the editor has benefits like being one of the first members to know what's going on nationwide and locally, heading up the best newsletter competition if she/he chooses, and conferring with other editors about what is going on in their chapters. Please let me know if you choose to be our editor.
WIN A TRIP TO LAS VEGAS: On May 9th, the History Channel will show the movie, Bringing Down the House about some MIT students who won millions of dollars by beating the Las Vegas odds. Mensa has worked with the Channel to present the Ultimate Challenge, a sweepstakes challenge administered ONLINE at: http://www.historychannel.com/breakingvegas/
To win the grand prize of a trip for two persons to Las Vegas, answer the Ultimate Challenge questions after the May 9 premier.
ANNUAL GATHERING: If you haven't already guessed, this year's AG is in Las Vegas. While I'm not much of a gambler (note that I didn't write, "gambol") Las Vegas is a fun place to go to. You can visit Lake Mead, the largest man-made lake in the world, and you can visit Hoover Dam and see some of the largest turbines in the world that generate electricity for Los Angeles and other parts of southern California. And you can go to the place where Benjamin Segal (also known as, "Bugsy") started transforming a "Podunk" into a major city and tourist destination. If you are a gambler, this IS the place to go.
Plus if you really want to see the epitome of "glitziness," here it is. Here's the Web link: http://ag.us.mensa.org/ There will be speakers, astounding entertainment, M&M reaffirmation of wedding vows, hospitality, kids' trek, craft room, games, tournaments, and much, much more! Reg. $75 to 4/7; $80 to 6/25; $85 after. MP (3) $99. Paris! Las Vegas www.parislasvegas.com or 877/796-2096. Contact: AGChair@ag.us.mensa.org for more details.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: My mind is full of uh, useless information (otherwise known as trivia). If you're a like-minded person, please contact me. Some restaurants/bars around here host NTN trivia. While the National Trivia Network ("NTN") trivia can be played seven days per week, the "best" games are on Tuesdays at 8:30 PM
Barry Karas
bkaras@mindspring.com
1803 Meadows Circle West
Boynton Beach, FL 33462
561 964-4360
News
Special thanks to Robert and Karen Rieffel, Don and Laurelyn Delhorbe, Donna Michaels, Alan Posner, John Moritz, Deche Hamill, Lester Jones and Dick Starita who spent a Sunday afternoon scoring a record number of essays submitted for the Mensa Education Research Foundation Scholarship Program. The top essays have been sent on to the next round of judging and winners will be announced in June. If you are interested in participating next year, contact the Scholarship Chair.
And thank you, Janice, for pulling the reading team together and following through with all the details!
Mind Games 2004 was held last month in Chicago. CAM put on a great event with 187 people attending. Sixty games were entered into this year's competition. The winners are:
- 10 Days in Africa, Out of the Box Publishing
- Rumis, Educational Insights
- Basari, Out of the Box Publishing
- Yinsh, Rio Grande Games
- Bridges of Shangri-La, Uberplay
Look for these games soon in Toys r Us, Walmart, etc. Happy gaming!
Member Stats
Total members in Palm Beach County Mensa was 372 at the end of March, the end also of American Mensa's fiscal year. Next month's figure will reflect a drop; some Ms are slow to renew. Welcome or welcome back to these new, renewing or moving in members: Mrs. Inge Becker, Boynton Beach; Mrs. Kathleen Boyer, West Palm Beach; John Engel, Stuart; Richard Fopiano, Jupiter; Faustino Gonzalez, Wellington; Sandra Margolis, Delray Beach; Kevin Mitchell, Delray Beach; Lynn O'Dwyer, Palm Springs; and David Weis, Boca Raton.
For you statistics junkies....
At 2003-2004 Mensa Year End (March 31), membership stands at 52,398-a 2.3% increase over last year at the same time. Since 1998, AML's membership has increased 18.6%. New members for the year are at 5,035 (2.5% higher than last year)
Reinstatements after a year or more -- 2.1% more than last year and we actually expected this to drop because we are seeing saturation in reaching former members.
From the members, as of the end of March 2003, only 6569 did not renew or reinstate at all, meaning that we retained 87.2% of the previous years members....a phenomenal number for any organization. (Only trade and professional organizations that have mandatory licensure or certification programs have higher rates of retention year to year!)
The Tenth Story - May 2004
By Elissa Rudolph
Who said a group of Mensans could not agree on anything? More than 24,000 Ms agreed to give their proxies to our national secretary, Judy Vasiliauskas, to exercise at the Annual Meeting in Las Vegas. While it won't be a done deal until that actually happens, the good news is that it looks like a go, despite the fact that we experience a drop in membership at the end of March. With members renewing after March and new members coming on board (new members are sent a blank proxy to sign too), we may still achieve the 50% number easily. Fingers crossed. In July, the go ahead will be given to get Mensa's Certificate of Incorporation updated so the organization will be safe. Thank you all for understanding the situation and rising to the cause!
To Ponder...
It is only within our limits that we find our true freedom. Who said it? Contact Elissa with answers.
Elissa Rudolph
RVC10@us.mensa.org
5054 Lakefront Blvd., Apt. D
Delray Beach, FL 33484
561-496-0124
Note: The opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and DO NOT reflect opinions of Palm Beach County Mensa, its officers, or of American Mensa, Ltd., which holds NO opinions.
© 2000-2007 Palm Beach County Mensa. The Mensa logo is a registered trademark of Mensa International Limited and American Mensa Limited, all rights reserved. Mensa does not hold any opinion or have, or express, any political or religious views.