I would like to thank all the members who sent in contributions to the logo contest and who send in submissions to the MAAM. Disa McAlister needs to be thanked for putting together the Leap Year Party. I would also like to thank Jerry Corbin for stepping up to be the RG programming chair and Pete Constantino for helping in this endeavor. The Regional Gathering will be held over thanksgiving weekend so start planning to attend now. If you are passionate about or an expert in a topic and willing to present or demonstrate on the subject at the RG, please contact Jerry. We would love to hear what each of you has to share. You can help make this the best RG of the millennium!

In the short term, we are looking for a Marketing Chair to send out press releases advertising our public events (eg. Forum), a Communications Chair to co-ordinate our internal communications, a party co-ordinator to fulfill the role, and many proctors that are interested in helping test prospects and being the first contact with new members. Contact any member of the ExCom if you’d like to learn more and volunteer and Russell Silverberg if you’d like to be a test proctor. For the new members, the ExCom members include the Members at Large, Recording Secretary, Treasurer, Parliamentarian, Newsletter Editor, and the LocSec and Assistant LocSec.

In the longer term, please start considering how you would like to contribute to Greater Phoenix Mensa (GPM) as nominees will be needed for elections coming up. Consider how you would like to help fulfill our mission to connect and energize Mensans by providing an engaging intellectual and social environment. If you want to know what each role requires, you can contact and ask the volunteers in them now. Keep enjoying 11111011100!

Greg Chandra
LocSec@phoenixmensa.org
480.254.5771

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Is everyone enjoying the not-as-short shortest month of the year? We expect to see you celebrate with your friends at the Leap Year party starting at 1 PM on Saturday, February 18^th. Even if you’ve never made it out to an event before, make your first foray out to the Mandarin Super Buffet Restaurant located at 1501 W.  Bethany Home Road, Phoenix, AZ 85015. Current members will have their meals covered by GPM and remember that guests are welcome. Please send your confirmation (your name, membership number, and number of guests you are bringing) to Disa McAlister with more details available in the calendar.

The GPM logo competition is still open. If you want to win two free entries to this year’s RG and can think of a logo for the group, please send your entries to the address listed in the MAAM and/or my e-mail address. Again, we are looking for a novel grayscale logo that fits within 2”x2” or 1200 x1200 pixels. We look forward to seeing your creativity.

Near the end of last year, several members met to discuss where we are now, what we have to offer, and where we want to be. The outcome of this meeting was discussed during the last two ExCom meetings and the vision, mission, and goals were laid out. These are in the minutes and I would like to engage each member to help us remain aligned with our vision, maintain emphasis on our mission and achieve or even exceed our goals.

Vision:  Discover! Learn! Create!

Mission:  To connect and energize Mensans by providing an engaging intellectual and social environment

Goals:

1) To be one of the largest 5 regional Mensa chapters within 5 years

2) Enhance our offerings to our members so that monthly events are available within 30 minutes of their home (for at least 90% of our members)

3) Increase our active volunteers by 100% within 5 years 

To reach our goals, we created a new post of volunteer coordinator this month and Chryssoula DePuydt has graciously volunteered for the post. We also created a “new member” committee to engage and welcome both new and inactive members and would appreciate your participation. If you are interested in volunteering in any aspect, you can contact Chryssoula or any member of the ExCom directly through the contact information listed on page 2.

Greg Chandra
LocSec@phoenixmensa.org
480.254.5771

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First off, happy new year from your friendly neighborhood LocSec! As this is a leap year, I hope you take the extra day as an opportunity to do something special. It is the right time for new year’s resolutions so please share your thoughts with ExCom, in person, online, or over the phone. What do you think we are doing right and what should we do differently?

We are working to provide more opportunities to you, our fellow members, in the coming year. Some items we have coming up this year include social events, monthly forums, scholarship opportunities (with deadlines coming up soon), and the Regional Gathering (RG). I would encourage each of you to come out to our annual RG over Thanksgiving, the Phoenix Phiesta XXX – More Desert Delights. The RG chair this year is Mel Anderson and contact him if you’d like to contribute to the effort. In addition to having these events, we want to provide you opportunities to share your experiences, expertise, and passions with us. For us to provide these opportunities, we would really appreciate you telling us what you like to talk about, show, do/perform, listen to, or discuss.

            Our mission locally is to connect and energize Mensans by providing an engaging intellectual and social environment. If you want to increase your time with your peers and don’t have events nearby, we would love to help you set up local events. As shown in the dot plots in the November issue, we have members all over the state and another member might be a neighbor the next street over. From my observations, a majority of our events tend to take place in a geographically constricted area and while we want to keep those events, I would really relish the opportunity to help you connect with other members of your local community. Let me or Kebba Buckley Button know if you would like this and can meet up for lunch, dinner, or discussion even once a month. If we can set something up on a recurring basis, we can provide the community experience to local members and recent transplants for each area. I know from personal experience that moving to a new place is tough and finding somewhere to fit in makes all the difference.

            Finally, I would like to expand our membership through the coming years. If you know someone that might be interested and capable or even has prior evidence to qualify for Mensa, have them contact our testing chair, Russell Silverberg, or our membership chair, Paul Beaulieu. If you are a member that is involved in testing, working with the gifted, or know someone else who is, we would like to provide you the opportunity to share our information with future members. Hope to make it a great year and to quote Kanye West, “Work it harder, make it better, do it faster, makes us stronger... Our work here is never over.”

Greg Chandra
LocSec@phoenixmensa.org
480.254.5771

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By the time the MAAM reaches you, we will be fast approaching the new year. I decided to reflect a little bit and look at the MAAMs from the previous year and change in honor of this and found a lot of positives alongside quite some turnover. I hope to have more of the positives and less of the turnovers. Our membership as of October is 969 and that is out of roughly 4 million Phoenicians. Let us get more involved in the community and reach others who would benefit from Mensa. I think we can go from the 14^th largest local group to the 6^th and we only need a 25% increase. The path towards this has to be both the quantity and the quality of activities.

                Another step towards this goal is that Disa McAlister has volunteered and been elected to the post of Gifted Youth Coordinator. She is looking for parents’ and youth’s input for events. Scholarship applications are open and students can submit them to Jennifer Hallden and the scholarship committee for consideration. She will be looking for volunteers to assist as well. We are also looking for people interested in being a proctor and the details on that role can be found on the website’s Member’s Only area under “How to become a proctor.” Finally, for volunteers, we have a marketing chair position open for someone looking to spend some time promoting the organization in local media.

                Another plan to increase our engagement with you is that we are looking for area coordinators for places like Prescott, the West Valley, and more. There are a few members in Yuma that may have never met each other and it would be great if we were able to get some activities started there. Any effort you can put in is more than we have now so please step up. Let Kebba Buckley Button or a member of ExCom know that you are interested.

                Finally, we discussed the creation of our own Logo at the November ExCom and decided to create a contest. We will take submissions from membership, followed by voting by our membership, and the winner will win two Regional Gathering (RG) entries. The deadline will be coming up soon so submit them as early as you can. The rules are published in this issue and will be up on the website. For entry details and official requirements, log into the National website, then under "LEAD", select "Logos", and there are details and a link to get the "Name and Logo Workbook." I look forward to seeing what you create.

Greg Chandra
LocSec@phoenixmensa.org
480.254.5771

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I recently completed my first marathon and will have run another one by the time this is published. A few days after the race, I spoke with someone that had climbed Mt. McKinley and found that we shared a common experience. While mountain climbing and running marathons may seem unrelated, these are fundamentally tests of individual strength, willpower, and teamwork. Teamwork could strike people as unusual because while we can imagine mountaineers roped together, running is clearly an individual sport. I am one of those runners with uncommon sense who doesn’t train and chooses to test his willpower on the course so I am even more isolated than those who train.* During the race, I started friendships with several other first time marathoners and conversing with them made the miles go by quicker and somewhat easier. We saw several runners down during the course and each was surrounded by a group of four or five fellow runners helping them out. This is one of the fundamental things you learn about the sport, while finishing as fast as you can is the goal, helping others do the same makes it even more rewarding.

This very lesson is what I wanted to impart on my fellow Mensans. We are individually strong and while we can do great things alone, working together can help us accomplish even more and be rewarding to us as individuals. Over the month of September, we’ve had volunteers step up and help our organization do even more for you. I would like to thank Paul Beaulieu for stepping up as our new membership chair; David Pivin and Carla Tillman for bringing us into the current decade as webmasters; and all the current volunteers for keeping us going. If you would like to join us in this adventure, contact me or another member of ExCom and we’ll see how your strengths can help us and we can help you.

Finally, we have the results from the Bylaws election. If you wanted proof that your vote matters, it passed by a single vote. This means that the new bylaws are in effect and Article V, item 4, allows us to create provisions for remote attendance. If you are interested in participating or attending the monthly meeting but are not able to be there, let me know ahead of time and we can get something set up. Have a great November and I look forward to reading more of your contributions in the MAAM.

* The sentiment applies equally to those who train with others.

Greg Chandra
LocSec@phoenixmensa.org
480.254.5771

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By the time you receive this issue, our Greater Phoenix Mensa bylaw election period will have closed and the 2012 federal election campaigns will be in full swing. While we will not know the results of the bylaws election until after this is published, the end of this election does not mean the end of your opportunity to get involved with our organization. I would personally like to thank everyone who decided to take an interest in these affairs and extend an invitation to all members to get a little more from your membership.

Your fellow Mensans are volunteering to bring you things from the MAAM to the events and everything in between. Have fun, be creative, meet interesting people, and jump on in. We have opportunities ranging from Webmaster to marketing and membership chairs and everything in between. Would you like to share an interest, story, or photo? Submit them to the editor. Feel like you don’t have much time to contribute? You can volunteer to proctor testing for Mensa or get involved in planning next year’s Regional Gathering. Have kids in Mensa? Help us provide engaging events for them as the Gifted Youth Coordinator. If you feel like you’d like to contribute but don’t see where you fit in, contact me or another member of the ExCom and we’ll work with you and your interests to see what we can do. More information on many of the positions is available on http://www.us.mensa.org/lead/handbooks.

Another item that has changed in this latest issue is that many of you received this Much Ado About Mensa electronically. With the paper copy, we can look for it if we misplaced it and with the electronic copy, we can do much the same (even if you happen to throw it away digitally). We can find the electronic copy after logging in through http://phoenix.us.mensa.org. I hope the new medium helps bridge the gap between the 15^th century and the 21^st century and connects more of our members.

In closing, I would like to encourage each person to get involved with your organization and enjoy the cooler weather that I hope we’re experiencing.

Greg Chandra
LocSec@phoenixmensa.org
480.254.5771

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In my new role, I want to have more members get involved in the organization given the numerous opportunities that are available. I realize that the logistics of a city/region as large as Phoenix can prove challenging but with available tools and resources, need not be a hindrance. Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are perfect examples of this.

Jessica Burstrem has recently resigned her role as Gifted Youth Coordinator as she’s moving to Tucson and we thank her for her service. In addition to filling this role, GPM is looking for volunteers to take on roles as Webmaster, Assistance LocSec, and more. Bring your ideas and yourselves to the ExCom meeting and we’ll see what we can do to make each year better than the last.

You will also find voting on the bylaws update is set to close September 30th and we look forward to your participation.

Finally, my predecessor, Ben Boyle, was a better and more prolific writer than I so bear with me as I grow into the role. I look forward to guidance and information from all our membership.

Greg Chandra
LocSec@phoenixmensa.org
480.254.5771

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If anyone has any ideas about how to proceed on this, please let me know.

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I am pleased to announce that Chryssoula De Puydt has joined the ExCom as a Member at Large. She is filling out the term of Al Scozari who was unable to complete his term due to illness.  You may have met Chryssoula at the recent RG where she reigned as Hospitality Queen.

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As some of you may have heard, Bob McCallum has stepped down as Assistant Local Secretary.  I want to take this opportunity to thank Bob for his service to Greater Phoenix Mensa over the past few years. The ExCom has appointed Clark Jones to fill out his remaining term.  Maynard has been appointed to fill the position of Member at Large, vacated by Clark.  

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Make sure to mark you calendars for our next Regional Gathering, which will be held at the Hilton Phoenix Airport Hotel, from Friday, March 18, through Sunday March 21, 2011. Dennis Clinefelter, our RG coordinator, and his team are putting together a great show.  There will be two tracks this year, one for gifted children and the other for the rest of us, the gifted adults.

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From: <glendon@abraxasarts.com>
Date: Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 11:07
Subject: Re: Peak Mensa

Howdy Folks,

Carolyn has directed me to lead our Sedona excursion. Please note the change in date and time. Here is the revised plan for everybody who can join us:

We shall meet on Friday June 25 at 6:15 PM. At 6:30 PM we shall depart on a 1/2 hour hike to the top of the Red Rock shown below to watch the simultaneous setting of the sun and rising of the nearly full moon. The sun will set over Mingus Mt. to the West, and the moon will rise at the same time in the East over Cathedral Rock. This is a delightful vantage point from which to watch the solstice dance of these celestial bodies. We shall spend about an hour on top, then walk down in the twilight to arrive back at the meeting point at about 8:30.

The hike is not arduous, but a flashlight may be helpful coming down. I recommend that everyone bring a snack or appetizer and beverage to enjoy while sky watching. The temperature is expected to be about 93 f. and breezy.

Meeting location is at the intersection of Upper Red Rock Loop Road and Cimarron Ridge Dr.  (at #2945 Red Rock Loop Rd.)

Directions: Hwy 89A to Upper Red Rock Loop Rd. (go East) approximately 3 miles down Red Rock Loop Rd to Cimarron Ridge Dr. on right.  Park on the right hand side of Cimarron Ridge Dr.

I hope you all can make it. Call or write with questions. If you are planning to come, please rsvp to me so I can get an idea of how many to expect.

Regards,

Glendon Good

928 282 6550

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