February 2003
Dear Great Lakes & Ohio Valley Mensans,
Since the next AMC meeting will be here in Region 3—March
29 in Green Tree (suburban Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania, to be exact—I’ll use this
column to describe what an AMC meeting weekend is like. And the best way to do
that is to describe what happened at the December meeting in Salt Lake City.
I flew into Salt Lake City Thursday night—almost a full day
earlier than needed—so that I could spend some time playing tourist in Salt Lake
City (I’m paying for the extra night in the hotel, not American Mensa). I
wandered around downtown Salt Lake City, and spent some time in the Genealogy
Library run by the Mormon Church—something I’d recommend to anyone. I returned
to the hotel about 4 PM, by which time a good many other AMC members had
arrived.
Committee meetings began at 6:30, and while I’m not on most
of the committees, attending those meetings is a great way to learn what will
happen at upcoming AMC meetings, and to have early input in the crafting of AML
policies and actions, so I attempt to attend most of them. There were more
committee meetings than usual this time, so some were scheduled for Saturday
night, after the AMC meeting would be over. Nearly all these meetings are open
to the entire membership (the Executive Director Advisory & Review Committee is
often an exception), and most have non-AMC members on the committees. Most of
the committees have done much of their work previously by email, but occasional
face-to-face meetings have proven necessary to actually get the work done, and
this is often where consensus is reached and proposals gel. The committee
meetings are usually over by 11 or 12 local time—but that can be exhausting when
the local time is two or three hours earlier than body time.
The AMC meeting itself starts at 9:00 Saturday morning—and
for this it’s the AMC members who’ve flown east from the west coast who suffer
most when the meeting can start as early as 6 AM according to their body
clocks. While the meetings are usually over by dinnertime, we met until about
10 PM at the September meeting in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The agenda at the meeting in Salt Lake City was pretty
typical of an AMC agenda. First we reviewed the reports submitted by various
officers. Then we proceeded into more affirmative business items. This time we
discussed our hearings procedures, then took straw votes on the major pieces;
when we take the issue up again in March, one major change that appears likely
is that we’ll probably appoint someone to present to the Hearings Committee the
evidence of the charged acts inimical to the society, rather than relying on the
member who originally filed the charge. At my request, we appointed Betsy Mark
of Southeast Michigan Mensa as Assistant RVC for this region—I look forward to
Betsy’s able assistance. We held a closed session to discuss the people who
want to hold office in Mensa International, and emerged to announce that we had
nominated three of them—Annette Kunz of Germany, Jim Werdell of the US, and
Tugrul Kircali of Switzerland, for International Chairman, International
Director of Administration and International Director of Development,
respectively (We had nominated Stacey Kirsch of the US for International
Treasurer at our September meeting.). We passed a policy making Local Gifted
Children’s Coordinators a joint local-national appointment; the National Gifted
Children’s Coordinator won’t often say no to a local nominee, but he will make
sure that local groups ask the right questions before appointing someone to such
an important and sensitive position. We revised the form (not the substance) of
the Minimum Standard Bylaws for local groups. We revised the scheme for the
awards honoring proctors, separating the Salny Award from the Abbie. We
affirmed the right of the National Office to refuse Mensa Bulletin subscription
requests from non-members. There was some brainstorming (I suggested to another
RVC that a local group might appoint someone to their 1982 RG committee, so as
to avoid violating their by-laws!). And we adjourned (1st Vice Chairman Russ
Bakke won the pool as to the adjournment time).
Sunday morning in Salt Lake City, over one third of AMC
(plus some spouses) took advantage of the time and location to walk the two
blocks to hear a free miniaturized version of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s
Christmas Concert, featuring narration by Walter Cronkite. (If this isn’t the
best amateur choir and orchestra on earth, I’d be surprised—and I would love to
hear whoever’s better.) Then we returned to the hotel for the RG-ending
brunch.
Should you attend the meeting in Green Tree? That’s up to
you. Prior to joining AMC, I attended parts of probably a dozen AMC meetings,
and while I’m big into the business side of Mensa, even I’ve found sitting
through meetings I couldn’t participate in to be boring. Unlike most AMC
meetings, the meeting in March will not be held in conjunction with a gathering,
so you won’t have a lot of other activities going on nearby if you find the AMC
meeting tedious. Selfishly, I’d love to see you there—more friendly faces from
this region always make attendance at a meeting more enjoyable for me—but unless
you’re a Mensa-governance junkie, you probably won’t want to sit through the
entire meeting. The Friday night meetings go quicker, and are probably more
interesting to most members (and since AMC members come and go, you’d probably
get more chance to whisper your comments/suggestions in someone’s ear), and if
you have limited time, I’d suggest coming Friday night rather than Saturday.
Your call; there probably won’t be another AMC meeting in this region for a
while. For more information on when and where the meeting will be held, contact
Linda Hathaway of
Western Pennsylvania Mensa.
Until next month, I’m--
—Rick Magnus, RVC 3
Page last updated:
05/11/2005
