October 2002
Dear Great Lakes & Ohio Valley Mensans:
While I write this column for your October
newsletters, I am actually writing this in late August, just prior to leaving
for Western Pennsylvania Mensa’s Rivers 3 Regional Gathering. At times, the lag
is frustrating, but it is unavoidable.
August was an exciting month in Region 3,
focusing on the State of Michigan. Southeast Michigan Mensa hosted American Mensa’s first Colloquium in many years, and it was great! The theme was
“Exploring Consciousness,” and we heard from five varied speakers in plenary
sessions, had three breakout sessions for small group discussion, and ended with
the five speakers taking attendee questions as a panel. About 1/3 of those
attending indicated that this was the first Mensa event they had ever attended!
It was both an intellectual event— on a serious topic—and a social event—
members interacting with other members.
Many people deserve credit for making the
Colloquium happen successfully, including Co-Chairs Deborah Gleason and Steve
Goodhall, Hospitality Chair Loretta Olson, Registrar and Past SEMM LocSec Betsy
Mark, SEMM LocSec Diane Hartt, and AML Chairman Jean Becker, not to mention the
cadre of volunteer facilitators, hospitality volunteers, PR volunteers and
speaker coordinators. Well done!
In many ways, the Colloquium was very
similar to a Regional Gathering (RG). Both the Colloquium and an RG have a lot
of members getting together, and doing what Mensans seem to do best—talk with
other Mensans; what made the Colloquium different from an RG in this respect was
that the talk was largely (although not completely) focused on the chosen topic.
Both the Colloquium and an RG have members listening to speakers; unlike the
variety of topics covered by mostly local speakers at most RGs, the speakers at
the Colloquium were nationally renowned and all focused on the topic at
hand—consciousness.
Both the Colloquium and an RG have
hospitality suites, serving food and beverage to fuel the discussions; while the
amount of food served in hospitality at the Colloquium was less than that
normally found hospitality at most current Region 3 RGs, it was ample and more
than I’ve seen at many RGs. (As an aside, I did hear one person at the
Colloquium say that RGs were for “the drinking crowd”; as one who seldom
partakes of the beer and wine provided at gatherings, I can say that there
seemed to be almost as much consumption of fermented beverages at the Colloquium
as I normally see at an RG. No-one got noticeably drunk at the Colloquium, and
I’ve only rarely seen someone get truly drunk at an RG.)
After the Colloquium ended, I headed up to
Northern Michigan, for a week of vacation. Two and one half days of vacation
were lost to a virus, but at least I didn’t need to reschedule anything.
Luckily, I felt better just in time to travel eighty miles south to Traverse
City, for the birth of American Mensa’s newest local group,
Northern Michigan Mensa. The group
starts with 72 members and lots of enthusiasm; indeed, the referendum to create
the group passed unanimously! We’re now a sixteen-group region. Welcome, NMM!
Maintaining a small group will be work, but it should also be quite rewarding
for the members of the new group.
There are no RGs in Region 3 in October
(although its never too early to start planning to attend Cincinnati Area
Mensa’s RG coming up December 6-8); indeed, even Chicago Area Mensa’s HalloweeM
RG, normally held in neighboring Region 4 in October, will be held November 1-3
this year (although they welcome guests to help with set up on October 31).
There is one national event in October, but
this event is for your friends, families and co-workers, rather than for current
Mensa members: Our National Testing Day is scheduled for October 19; last year,
over 2000 prospects tested at 187 sites around the country on NTD. While it’s
always a good time to suggest that your Mensa-eligible
friends/relatives/colleagues consider joining, NTD is an especially good time to
urge them to get connected with Mensa; we’d love to have them as members.
For
information on testing in your area, check this newsletter, or contact the
, or at 800-66-MENSA. Until next month, I’m…
—Rick Magnus, RVC 3
Page last updated:
05/11/2005
