Interesting Articles

What is happening in December 2002?

College and college-bound students: click here to request an application to participate in Mensa’s 2002-2003 scholarship contest. If you’re a US citizen or legal resident who lives within our member area (see below) and will be attending an accredited post-secondary institution next year, you’re eligible to complete our application and send us your scholarship essay.

Deadline for essays and applications will be January 15, 2003.
Complete rules and guidelines are available on the application.

What is happening in November 2002

Here are some drawings contributed by our artist Robert Exby.

What is happening in October 2002!

Mensa is an international society that has one – and only one – qualification for membership, a score in the top 2% of the population on a standardized intelligence test.

Prior test evidence is accepted. The American Mensa website has details on the more than 200 tests along with eligible scores. Tests are administered locally on a regular basis; see the testing information below.
With over seven hundred members in the eastern Kansas-western Missouri area, Mid America Mensa sponsors a number of activities each month. Approximately 22 special interest groups (SIGs), including games, singles, family, movies, and music meet each month. Members also gather at local restaurants and pubs for social occasions. Float trips on rivers within an easy drive of Kansas City have been summer highlights in the past as well as the Annual Picnic and White Elephant Auction. Special meetings with debates and/or speakers are also scheduled. Gatherings range from strictly fun to serious and everything in between.

As a member of the Mid-America Chapter of American Mensa, Ltd., you will receive our local newsletter, Mension, and the national publication, Mensa Bulletin. These will keep you in touch with Mensa happenings at the local, national, and international levels. For more information about membership, click here to send an email or call our Mensaphone at 816-471-7776.

To learn more about Mid America Mensa, click here. And click here for a history of Mensa itself.

Testing for Mensa
The tests are administered once a month, on usually the third Saturday or Sunday at a local library, beginning at 1:30pm and lasting approximately 2 hours. Please plan to arrive 10-15 minutes early to complete some paperwork. Late arrivals will not be admitted. You will need a picture ID and the $40.00 fee may be paid by cash or check at the time of the test.

Smoking, eating, and drinking are not allowed. There will be a short break between tests. Your test will be sent directly to the professional staff at our Arlington, TX, headquarters for grading. Your scores are kept confidential and should be returned to you within 4 to 6 weeks.

Two tests are administered: a version of the Wonderlic Personnel Test and the Mensa Admissions Test, a version of the California Test of Mental Maturity. You are required to score at or above the 98th percentile on either test for Mensa membership. The tests are designed to measure your thinking abilities rather than specific knowledge. We will supply all necessary testing materials; calculators and other mechanical devices are not permitted. Please be advised that if you have taken either of these tests before with the Mensa organization you may not take them again.

Candidates under 14 should contact me for additional information as these tests are not calibrated for that age. If English is not your primary language or if any physical conditions make testing difficult please advise me so that arrangements may be made. If you have any further questions please feel free to email me at [email protected].

Mensa started in its usual way, a mix of wacky and wonderful. The British founders were Roland Berrill, an Australian-English eccentric, and Lancelot Lionel Ware, a brilliant biologist-barrister. They met on a train from Cambridge to London and agreed that there should be a society for people with high IQ’s. Its original purpose was to be a think tank.

In November of 1946, they held the meeting of Mensa; the name was to be “Mens,” for “mind” in Latin, but that had already been used elsewhere so “Mensa” (meaning roundtable) was the next choice. Berrill staged the dramatic first meeting in Cambridge, with a female member presiding as the “Corps D’Espirit Queen” in royal robes; the other five members wore formal clothes and sipped wine.

Later the Queen was replaced by more usual club routines such as monthly roundtable meetings, annual gatherings and directories of members’ skills and interests based on a Constitution written by Founder Berrill. He led Mensa until 1952, when Victor Serebriakoff became International Chairman, guiding a world-wide expansion to 70,000 members in 29 countries.

In 1960, the New York newspaper, Village Voice, published an article on British Mensa leading many Mensans to write for membership applications. Four members held their first meeting in Brooklyn and organized so well that the next year they had a public-relations drive, and gained 55 members. From 1960-1964, Mensa in the United States was a “colony” of British Mensa. In 1964, American members voted on bylaws and a separate national Mensa was founded. The New York group developed into the national organization.

Marvin Grosswirth, whose IQ puzzle books brought attention to Mensa, attracted members like Isaac Asimov. Gabe Werba initiated “Colloquium”, the gathering that brings Mensa thinkers together for study and sociability. Harper Fowley developed the newsletter, Isolated M, especially for those Mensans who live in areas without local chapters (and there are many), as well as any other Mensans interested in reading it. The newsletter gives these M’s a means to exchange “feghoots” and lore.

It soon became apparent that a decentralized organization was essential and regions were established. A Regional Vice Chairman (RVC) is elected by the members of each of the nine regions. It is the RVC’s responsibility to represent the local groups of his region to the American Mensa Committee (AMC) and to act as a link between AMC and the local groups. The RVC is a mentor, troubleshooter and source of assistance to the LocSecs (Local Secretaries) in his region and, if needed, may act as an executive officer. A LocSec is the leader of each local Mensa group.

The first Mensa meeting in Kansas City, Missouri was April 14, 1964. Kansas City Area Mensa was officially recognized as a Local Group by the North American Committee on August 20, 1965. The geographical area was everywhere within 75 miles of Kansas City.

The name was changed to Mid-America Mensa on October 13, 1973 because of an increase in the geographic territory. All Mensans in Kansas and Missouri except those living in or close to St. Louis were members of MAM. Since then, Sunflower Mensa in Wichita, KS and Ozark Mensa in southwestern Missouri have shrunk the geographic area with their own Local Groups.

Mid-America Mensa has hosted two AGs (Annual Gatherings), in 1979 and 1991. An AG is similar to a national convention for Mensans. The first RG (Regional Gathering) in International Mensa was held in Kansas City in October of 1964. KCAM and MAM have hosted 10 RGs. An RG is an AG on a smaller scale.

Mid-America Mensa’s first picnic was in 1964. One has been held almost every summer since then. Other annual events are Halloween and New Year’s Eve parties. MAMs also have socialized by going to art galleries, art shows, ballet, live theater, movies, philharmonic concerts, planetariums, natural history museums, baseball games, Worlds of Fun and float trips in southern Missouri. They have also bowled, played miniature golf and hosted many, many parties.

An important area of socializing is SIGs (Special Interest Groups). MAM has had over 80 different ones, ranging from Lunch Bunch to Philosophy, some more lasting than others. The longest lasting have been Singles, Gossip (now retired) and Games.

Members learn when and where activities are from the Calendar of Events in the Mension, the MAM newsletter. It has been published monthly since September, 1973. There were other newsletters prior to that date.

MAMs have given back to the community by sponsoring scholarships open to anyone attending college the following fall since 1985. They contributed 200 books to an American Mensa project to restock a public library that was flooded in 1993. They have answered phones for KCPT during pledge week, contributed to the KCPT auction, taught literacy and judged high school debates, Odyssey of the Mind and a charity Trivial Pursuit Contest.

KCAM and MAM have grown from 147 members in 1965 to 626 members currently.

Several of those members have been national officers, and two have been International Mensa officers.