March 2007 eSounding - Tampa Bay Mensa

Wise Guy
Thomas George Thomas
A Corporate Social Club
Although I joined
Mensa for the first time a little less
than twenty years ago, I don't consider
myself a “long-time member”
in the sense Meredy Amyx uses. My
participation was sporadic at best,
and although we have a significant
percentage of the membership who
are satisfied with the card and
magazines, I'm the kind of person
who doesn't feel like a part of a
group unless I participate. In fact, I
barely even noticed the National
organization until just before my
first Annual Gathering experience
nearly two years ago.
Part of that has to do with my personal
slant on Mensa. Ms. Amyx
speaks of a “society”, and in fact
Mensa does promote itself as such,
but my own focus has never been
that grandiose. I joined because I
wanted to belong to the club --
someplace where I could use words
that seem normal to me (such as
“sporadic” and “grandiose”) without
having my conversation partner feel
like I was talking down to them.
I suspect that most members don't
notice the National organization at
all, any more than they notice the
local organization. And those who
do participate in Tampa Bay Mensa
don't spend much time thinking
about American Mensa unless they
consider going to an Annual Gathering.
Meredy has a point that the National
organization today is different
than the organization I initially
joined. At that time it was a more of
a social club. Now it's being treated
like a big business, with a development
office, a marketing director,
and apparently many legal consultants
who advise the corporation on
a regular basis how not to get sued
when they wish to remove a member
(which makes such a process
extremely expensive).
Here's the thing: I can't imagine
anybody getting excited about joining
a corporation.
“I already work for a company.
I want to belong to a club.”
To me, Mensa remains at its core a
club. As such, we hold meetings,
parties and gatherings of many
sizes, and something for every level
of participation one chooses As long
as the National Office doesn't interfere
in the existence of the organization
at that level, where's the harm
But there are indications that they
do interfere. Two cases in point involve
the “protection of the brand”
message that came out of the Communications
office last year, stating
a number of rather trivial restrictions
on the use of the Mensa
“Table” logo and even the use of the
word “Mensa” itself, which prevented
their use in our ARRR-RG!
logo. We can have a Gathering, but
we can't incorporate the logo How
insane is that And there is an exclusive
agreement with an external
for-profit company called “Mensa
8 Tampa Bay Sounding March 2007