AMC Minutes 
EDITOR'S NOTE: Inconsistencies in the Minutes in grammar and style are verbatim from the Minutes of the July 2004 AMC Meeting.
This edition of the "AMC Minutes Capsule" opens with the items your elected officers didn't bother to discuss. Agenda items 8 through 10, included in the "Consent Agenda," rather cryptically rescinded ASIEs; let's look at the meaning of rescinding #s 1989-063, 1980-019, and 1983-072.
1989-063 26-Aug-1989
To affirm that a Regional Vice-Chairman has the right to poll Local Group members.
This speaks for itself. Apparently we can't have RVCs getting too much information about what the members they represent are thinking!
1980-019 19-Jan-1980
(Last amended 15-Nov-1986 by 1986-076)
To authorize the Executive Director, upon request of a Regional Vice Chairman, to grant a loan of up to $250 to a Local Group planning its first Regional Gathering or Regional Colloquium; repayment of such loan shall be made within 30 days of the conclusion of the RG or RC, and repayment shall be guaranteed by both the Local Group's dues allotment for the quarter in which repayment is due and by the RVC's discretionary fund.
In and of itself, this seems to be of little import, but it fits a recent pattern of clipping the wings of RVCs (the AMC members closest to the "average" member).
1983-072 13-Aug-1983
That any member of a committee, or of the AMC, who objects to a committee's action on a matter may, by written notice to the committee's chairman with copies to the AMC Chairman and the Executive Director, require that the matter be brought before the full AMC for its consideration. The filing of such notice shall automatically suspend the action pending AMC consideration, unless otherwise agreed by the member filing the notice.
This one is pernicious! It reduces AMC oversight of its committees by stifling meaningful dissent. Remember that the members of those committees are appointed by their chairmen with, at minimum, consultation with the AMC Chairman. RVCs, who often serve on such committees, are the AMC arms with whom a local member is most likely to talk and share views. An RVC or any other committee member may know that his or her constituency would violently object to some official decision, and this ASIE was written to ensure that such a committee member could say just that. Connect the dots, and this recission is part of the remaking of the AMC chairmanship into an autocratic position.
The next item of interest changes an ASIE in such a way as to violate the original intent. The motion could be an attempt to make the Bulletin more attractive to advertisers; but for whom is that magazine supposed to be produced — advertisers or Mensans?
15. Moved FOLKS, seconded VASILIAUSKAS that the words "and mailing address" be removed from ASIE 0000-112.
AMENDED:
All Mensa Bulletin display advertisements must include, as part of the advertisement, an identification of the advertiser. Such identification may be a box number, a company or firm name, or any other identification which is sufficient to identify the advertisement as originating from an individual source to which replies or correspondence may be addressed.
Items 17 through 19 are more unexplained ASIE recissions. Here are the affected ASIEs:
1997-011 05-Apr-1997
That the AMC ask MERF to invest the bequest of $50,000 Australian as capital and apply annually the income as an award called the "Copper Black N. F. Award" to the Myers Briggs N. F. Mensan whose creative achievement is most outstanding each year; and that the bequest (one of two from her estate) be transferred to MERF for this purpose.
One has to ask: If the intent of the bequest is to disappear entirely from our institutional memory, should not the bequest be returned to Copper Black's estate as a matter of principle? The motion to do that seems to be missing.
1994-054 17-Sep-1994
To send candidate fulfillment material by first-class mail. That material shall be defined as Brochures, A Tests, A Test results, Supervised Test results, Prior Evidence results, Offer of Membership packets, and New Member packets.
Pony Express?
1996-095 14-Dec-1996
That the Lens Express Vision Care Service be approved as a member service.
This last one is positive in that it removes a commercial entanglement from Mensa. Mover and seconder, SOPER and VASILIAUSKAS respectively, should be commended.
Now we enter the deliberated part of the meeting. Items 68 and 69 are best summarized: Your dues are going up $3 to $52. Your local group will see $0.49 of this, bringing the total per capita amount your group receives to $8.64 per year. The interesting aspect of these two agenda items is the discussion. The dues increase passed with little discussion, only a question from MCBEAN regarding whether there are any contingency funds. The answer is that, aside from raiding the Life Member dues fund, there are not — an interesting lapse for a risk-obsessed committee. The discussion of item 69 was extensive. An excerpt is quoted below.
SEIGLER asked if this could be increased to $9.00. BAKKE said that historically, local groups have been funded at 1/6 of the current dues amount. REMINE noted that some Local Groups have more money than others in their treasuries. Some Local Groups have had as much as one year's total subsidy in a CD. FOLKS said that about ten groups have asked him the requirements for a paper newsletter, due to a money crunch.
We'll save you doing the math — 1/6 of 52 is 8 2/3. While there seems to be considerable variety in the financial health of local groups, we have to wonder where REMINE was going with his comment. Does he believe that local groups that have managed their funds well should be penalized? Most of the remaining discussion consisted of distress on the part of WERDELL, WERBA, and BURG at the thought of unbalancing the fiscal 2005 budget — from what basis?
Item 76 starts the "Discussion" items on the agenda. Here is the beginning:
76. Mensa Membership/SIGS BECKER Discussion Item: Shall we require current membership in Mensa to be a member of AML SIGs? If so, must the person be a member of American Mensa, or is being a member of another Mensa acceptable?
Discussion Item: If non-Mensa-members are not members of a SIG, may they participate as a guest? If so, what should be the distinction between such a "guest" and a "member" of the SIG?
A summary of the discussion is in order. The sense of the discussion is that since the AMC decided to take control of SIGs (by defining them as a "member benefit"), AML must control their membership and, to some extent, their activities — to avoid the liability AML incurred by the takeover. This part of the discussion led to a motion (BAKKE/REMINE) that begins the alteration of SIGs as we have known them. Your commentators take no pleasure in noting that we predicted this outcome. Here is the motion:
Moved BAKKE seconded REMINE that to be a member of an AML SIG requires current membership in Mensa. Guests sponsored by a SIG member are permitted at the discretion of the SIG Coordinator.
Those who voted against the insidious motion were in the minority. They were: SOPER, MCBEAN, WERBA, VASILIAUSKAS, BEATTY, GORDON, and RUDOLPH. RVC 8 RAINEY abstained. The discussion continued into the definition of "guest"; look for a policy on that to be on the next agenda.
With the management of SIGs into oblivion well in hand, the AMC turned to two discussion items that could (and quite possibly will) end Regional Gatherings as we have known and loved them for decades. Here they are:
81. Serving alcohol and home-cooked food at Mensa events BECKER Discussion of risk management concerns and what we can do to lessen the risk to AML, local groups, and SIGs.
Several things leapt out of the description of the discussion on this item. One is that concern about over-regulation barely rated a passing mention. Another is that RG approval forms are being revised to ask if and when the Hospitality Chair has had a food safety course. The discussion closed with:
BECKER said that the Risk Management Committee will be asked to come up with some recommendations regarding policy for serving alcohol for the September AMC meeting.
82. Ride-sharing and Transportation BECKER Discussion of risk management concerns and what we can do to lessen the risk to AML, local groups, and SIGs.
Transportation was, in the main, decried as creating excessive liability to AML. REMINE proposed banning any mention of private ride-sharing arrangements in local publications. This was finally referred for further study. In the future, you may be unable to get from the airport to your favorite Gathering without paying for a cab.
Altogether, for those who believe that how and under what conditions Mensans interact must be controlled and cocooned by the national organization, this meeting was a success. It was not a good day for Mensa as a vibrant, member-driven, member-oriented club.
— compiled by Staff