(Link to PDF version for printing)

July 2007
Newsletter

Summer Sail Away

 

Contents

LocSec Column The Tenth Story Play Reading in August Proctors Needed! DAG (Dining Adventure Group) Review and next Adventure Take the Money EN - RON Happy Birthday to our members with birthdays in July

 

LocSec Column

       Every June I get a list of all group 334 members who have let their membership lapse. Most of the time it is just an oversight. I just sent out 55 first class letters to all 2007 lapsed members asking them to re-join. If you know someone who has let their membership lapse please encourage them to stay connected. Our Palm beach Area Membership is 303 members, but before May it was 358, The decline in membership when graphed looks like a saw tooth with a 15% drop off in May. Take a look at the events we are adding this month, thanks to the efforts of Laura Michaels and Elissa Rudolph in the South county area. I hope you will take these opportunities to meet your fellow Mensans and build connections  (LocSec col. cont from p2)  so we can offer more events in South County.

       On Friday June 15th three members of the Executive Committee (Ex-Com) were present for a Ex-Com meeting. I would like to see more people, especially leaders, come to Ex-com meetings. This is the place to voice your opinion on the Chapters activities or lack of, and to offer help to create the events that you would like to see happening whether by topic, or locale. The officers present were myself, your Loc-Sec , Tom Winchester, your Treasurer, and Elissa Rudolph, Mensa First V.P., and an Event Organizer, and lately our new Proctor Coordinator.

       We observed from the financial report that we are spending more than we receive from AML due to additional printing and mailing costs of the newsletter. We will be seeking alternative printers to reduce the printing costs, but it does not appear we can reduce the mailing costs because although we do sort by ZIP code and pay less than first class mail, we do not have enough in any one location to qualify for the next lower rate for bulk mail.

       We will be increasing the number of prospects we test, as this brings in $15 to our chapter per test. We are looking for and finding more prospective proctors, and Elissa will be proctor coordinator, ensuring that all prospective candidates are serviced promptly, before they join Intertel, Colloquy, Cerebrals, Gila Society, Promethius, Mega Society or some other brilliantly intelligent group. See: http://www.polymath-systems.com/intel/hiqsocs/hiqsocs1.html for the list.

       We also considered the possibility of having events which are already organized, by getting a group of Mensans to meet just prior to the event, such as cruising on a river boat, or  for generation X if there is someone who would like to lead the group to "Meetup" events (http://travel.meetup.com/) as Broward Mensan Jim Frazier does.

       We discussed the lack of a membership chairperson that is impacting the reception that new members get. Normally the M.C.P. would be contacting new members by phone and greeting them and telling them how pleased we are that they joined, soliciting their attendance at events, and also their support in the organizing of events.

       New members are a precious commodity, they keep our society alive, we need to be sensitive to their needs and make the effort to communicate and share with them when we meet them. If you enjoy being on the phone, and like to meet new people, you may be a good candidate for the Membership Chair. If this interests you, please contact me

Brian K Johnson / LocSec Palm Beach Mensa at locsec@palmbeach.us.mensa.org

 

The Tenth Story

We all know that taking the Mensa test can be a scary propositions for prospective members. Walking into a roomful of strangers, plus pre-test jitters sometimes leads to no-shows. Well, during the month of July American Mensa is going to try to ease the anxiety for the test takes by encouraging them to bring a friend with them when they test. And the friend tests for free! So be sure to tell your friends that this is a really good time for them to take the test, and they can bring another friend with them! This is for any test given between July 1 and July 31. The local group will still receive the regular funding for both tests.

There has been concern expressed by a couple of Region 10 groups about unwelcome attention members might receive based on newsletters being on the Region 10 website. We think we have found a solution for this problem. On the Region 10 website we will only list the name of the newsletter, the name of the group, and its group number. Then we will put a note that these newsletters will be available on the national website in the "members only" section, if the group has chosen to upload them to the server. Since they will be in the "members only" section, only Mensa members will be able to access the newsletters. This should solve the dilemma we were facing over the newsletters. We will make the change to the region 10 website, and someone from the local group (editor or designee) can upload them to the server. I just looked, and some of Region 10's groups have already started putting the newsletters up on the national server. Job well done!

At the time of this writing in early June, I am already looking ahead to the AG in Birmingham. If you are going to attend, see you there! You might want to take some time on Saturday to stop in and see your AMC in action. I think back to two years ago, at the New Orleans AG, when I first took office as your Regional Vice Chair - I was SO nervous! Now here it is, just two years later, and there has been so much turnover within the ranks of the RVCs, from resignations to running for other office to simply not running again, that I this quickly find myself as one of the two "senior" RVCs. Yes, John Recht and I are the only two RVCs starting this term with a full two years in office behind us.

We are still working on organizing an LDW for the fall, but we are running into a problem with finding a hotel with decent meeting space that will give us rooms at a modest enough price that you will be able to attend. I will keep you posted.

We started the summer (Memorial Day weekend) with a terrific ARRR-G, hosted by Tampa Bay Mensa, and now we will be ending the summer (Labor Day weekend) with another RG, Florange a Trois, hosted by the experts of Broward Mensa. Hope we will see many of you there.

Maggie Truelove, RVC 10

rvc10@cfl.rr.com

 

Play Reading in August

Brian Reeves of Palm Beach has written several very funny one-act plays. In August we hope to have some of Brian's friends and our local members perform one or two of the plays. "Mind Games" is about a psychologist-patient relationship with a twist; "Chez del Lago" reenacts a typical condo association board meeting (and we all know what they're like!); and "One Hundred Years Old" is sort of a recipe for reaching the centennial mark or maybe not. Are you an actor or a would-be actor? Would you like to participate? Contact Elissa if you do (elissa12@bellsouth.net).

 

Proctors Needed!

Our group needs a few more proctors to provide timely testing to potential members. Every month we receive names of those in our geographical area who have expressed an interest (to the National Office) in becoming Mensa members through the testing program. Unless these interested people receive timely attention they drift away. Having a proctor contact and then administer the Mensa standardized tests gives those people the opportunity to join Mensa.

To be a proctor a person should have a four-year degree and some knowledge of testing. A certification process helps get a new proctor acclimated and shows them how to administer the tests. Since a proctor is usually the very first face-to-face contact a person has with Mensa, this is a very important position, integral to our organization.

If you are interested in becoming a proctor, we will pay you -- oops! I mean we will praise you! Contact your LocSec Brian Johnson for more information.

 

DAG (Dining Adventure Group) Review and next Adventure

Big Tomato was a big disappointment. Days before our Adventure was scheduled to take place, they closed their doors and left no forwarding address. Someone said to me months ago, "It will never last -- their food is much too healthy and it's right next door to the Olde Pancake House. Most people would opt for maple syrup over pancakes rather than goat cheese over radicchio."

Nevertheless, our intrepid dining group, including Brian Reeves from Palm Beach, headed over to Frattelli's on the opposite corner. We had a great time discussing Brian's hilarious plays, Mensa in general, and what we can do to enlarge our dining group. Brian had some interesting ideas. . . .  I hope we can bring some to fruition.

 

Take the Money EN - RON

From Mensa Bulletin June 2007, p12.

The difference between lie and lay, has fallen into deep decay.

But now we know from Enron's shame, that Lay and lie are just the same.

 

Happy Birthday to our members with birthdays in July

Happy Birthday to our members with birthdays in July. If your name is not shown in your birth month it is because Mensa Ltd does not publish your birthday. (Approximately 30% of members request their birthday to be unlisted.)

Edmund Terry	Daniel R Tobias	Chari L Fry
Megan Lipsky	Kay Skoog	Stephen G Ring
Brian Reeves	G Clay Baynham	Susan Wendt
D William Hanway	Richard M Block	Linn Bedwell
Gino Giglio	Katherine Candace Smith	Norris J Domangue Jr
R M Livingston MD	Gary Tate