Coming in Hand-y. You can still participate in American Mensa's history-making ProxyQuest, and be part of the excitement that is bound to ensue when the final announcement is made. According to Dan Burg, Second Vice Chairman, the affirmative proxy count stood at 26,528 late in May (more than enough to be the simple majority of the membership needed), but proxies are still being accepted and will be, up to the time of the Annual Business Meeting on Thursday, July 1st. Bring your proxy, hand-carry it to the AG, and it will be counted. If you are not going to attend the AG, you may cast a proxy by other means (website, fax, etc.) up to June 28th, and the staff members will bring them to the AG.
Some people think they have a cast a proxy, but if they allowed any lapse in their membership, it invalidated that proxy. From Dan Burg comes a simple explanation, written at the end of the membership year (March 31), but still valid: "If member A submits a proxy today, then doesn't renew his membership until April 2, his membership will have lapsed and his proxy will have lapsed along with it. If member A doesn't submit a new proxy upon or following renewing, the practical effect will be as if he had never submitted one at all."
Let's roll those numbers up! After all, we're meeting in Las Vegas, and high numbers are a part of the venue. Make Mensa not just a winner, but also a big winner. GF thanks Dan Burg for the information and the knowledge that all of us can still play a part. Here's a chance for your vote to literally come in hand-y.
Measles and Mumpsimus. We all know that the first is a disease, usually of childhood, but the second is not a swelling of the glands, nor even an infection — although it is a malady that seems to affect leadership from time to time. "Mumpsimus" is the act of doing something incorrectly, while knowing it is incorrect, but continuing to do it because the person has always done it that way. Mumps can make one impotent; mumpsimus can make the membership … Nah, we won't go there.
The Rite Thing. Member Hugh Brown wrote in the June Mensa Bulletin that hospitality at Mensa gatherings is a form of tribal connection. Hospitality, says Hugh, is an especially important part of the ritual since its main components are "having conversations and eating together, especially from an abundant, shared supply, not `restaurant service.' The tribal unity will be greater if the food is supplied by Mensa and served by Mensans, so the experience is just that of Mensa without the involvement of outsiders such as hotel employees." Has the Annual Gathering (AG) become independent of the things symbolized by Hospitality? Or, are the days of the dime in the jukebox so far in the past that Hospitality cannot fulfill the tribal function in that manner? Or, is it possible that Mensa and the AG themselves have changed so much that the existence of Hospitality, as we know it, is obsolete — so much that the sense of fraternity is secondary (or even non-existent) to the party and the place?
A Case of Mistaken Identity. Word has somehow circulated that the draft bylaws written by Allen Neuner, which appeared in the September 2003 issue of Going Forward, are a product of AMC's Bylaws Committee. The real story is that those draft bylaws were not created by the Bylaws Committee — and they haven't been submitted to anyone on AMC yet. If you want to see the final draft of Neuner's draft bylaws (now modified from their original appearance in GF), you can get a copy directly from Allen at the Annual Gathering (AG) or send an SASE to Allen (whose address appears on the inside back cover). Look for petitions to place the draft bylaws up for referendum to start appearing soon after the AG.
SIGnificant Change. The motion to make Special Interest Groups (SIGs) a membership benefit of American Mensa passed at the March AMC meeting. What that passage means wasn't defined — either to the SIGs themselves or to the membership. The Minutes of the March AMC meeting show that John DiLiberto (head of the Risk Management Committee) promoted ratification of the motion, saying, "… it will cause the National Office and the AMC to have more influence over the activities in which SIGs engage and the manner in which they engage in them." Cookie Bakke, a Risk Management Committee member, spoke strongly in favor of the motion, adding that the committee had worked diligently on the concept and AMC should accept the advice of committees it appoints to study issues. While Bakke maintained that postponing a vote would be risky, David Cahn, a Mensa member from Metropolitan Washington Mensa, urged the AMC to allow member input first. That way, he said, everyone could know what the risks are, what it might cost not to accept the recommendation, and whether the cost was worth changing the nature of the organization. The Minutes show no discussion of how all members' dues money would be used to support SIGs, which is a natural outcome of staff time, etc., needed to manage SIG membership lists, finances and, maybe, even newsletters. Will those who support the Pagan or Wiccan SIG be paying their dues money to also finance the operations of the LDSIG (Mormons)? There are no answers, but there is definitely a new rule: SIGs are a "membership benefit." And the AMC will figure out what they've passed — later.
— compiled by Staff