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American Mensa Region 10
RVC Column
by Mel Dahl, RVC 10
May 2026
The AMC had its quarterly meeting on March 28 at our national office in Hurst, Texas. It was a very productive session and there is much to report.
Routine business included updating a couple of handbooks, appointing an auditor., appointing several committee chairs, and approval of the budget. (You know what the difference is between Congress and the AMC? The AMC can approve a budget.) We heard a very interesting report from our membership officer, which I will discuss in greater detail below.
But the biggest item on the agenda is that we are completely restructuring what for want of a better term I will call our bureaucracy (and unlike some I do not view bureaucracy as a pejorative term). For years we have had committees that should have been sunsetted long ago, offices and committees with overlapping roles, and officers and committees with ill defined job descriptions. If this AMC accomplishes nothing else before the end of its term, this overhaul was long overdue and much needed.
A significant amount of what previously existed has been consolidated into five standing committees: Membership, growth and outreach; Member experience and retention; technology and operational efficiency; Sustainable revenue and events; and finally, trust, culture and safety. Going forward, most new initiatives will be assigned to the relevant committee in the first instance for review and recommendations. Having a single set of eyes will result in efficiency and consistency. A few bugs are still being worked out, but there we are, and I fully support it.
On the membership front, our membership officer, David Leavitt, spoke to us about developing personas, which is a fancy way of saying what types of members do we have and why do they join Mensa. Understanding that is an important first step in reversing our declining membership numbers. And several different member personas have been identified.
We have utility seekers (what can Mensa do for me). We have cognitive explorers (being in Mensa is an interesting intellectual exercise). We have social architects. We have institutionalists. Within those, we have safe harbor seekers, achievers, validation seekers, stewards, and the unreachable. It may be a crazy family, but it's our family. And of course some people are more than one, and there are probably others we've not yet identified. And of course none of those categories implies a moral judgment; there is nothing wrong with being any of them.
Taking care of our members means understanding that different people have different needs, and what appeals to one person won't appeal to another. There is no one size that fits all. So we are going to continue to look for ways to satisfy the needs of each of those groups. As usual, any comments are welcomed.
April 2026
Hi All:
I asked if there were any topics anyone wanted covered in this month's RVC column and received two responses. One, a locsec, suggested I single out to honor volunteers who have provided exceptional service, and to encourage others to volunteer. The second suggested I ask people about their interests.
I'm going to devote a future column to recognizing exceptional volunteers, and we do have them. It occurred to me, though, that then other two ideas -- encouraging volunteerism and asking people about their interests -- are actually related. Frequently one can find volunteer opportunities around one's areas of interest.
What do you like to do? Gardening? Hiking? Going out to eat? Movies? If there is something you like to do, chances are there are other Mensans who enjoy doing it too, so why not start a local event of it. In my own local group, one of our volunteers likes folk dancing, and on a lark asked that her folk dancing group be included in the Mensa calendar. It was, and half a dozen Mensans now go to her folk dancing event. Not only is she continuing to enjoy an activity that she loves but she's now doing it with other Mensans. That helps both her folk dancing group and her Mensa group, as well as makes new friends.
If you like to go to plays, put out an announcement to see who else in your local group might enjoy doing it with you. This adds value to your membership, helps you meet new people, and gives you something to talk about. What's not to love?
I enjoy hiking, reading good books (and I'm amazed an organization like Mensa doesn't have more book clubs), cooking, and movies. I am hereby announcing that anyone else who wants to join me in any of those activities is welcome to do so; send me an email at mel.dahl@mindspring.com and if there's enough interest in it, we'll make it a Mensa event.
You all do the same with whatever you enjoy.
Be well.
Best,
Mel
March 2026
I recently had a conversation with a member who told me that he thinks we put too much emphasis on local group events and not enough emphasis on how many great opportunities for networking we offer. We have special interest groups that cover a wide range of activities and interests. These include religious and political SIGS (for all different viewpoints), travel, lifestyle, reading, French conversation. We even have a SIG for underachievers.
It's easy to post a message on Mensa Connect that says, "Hey, I'm interested in starting a group to go to lunch and talk about the history of early modern France; any takers?" Or "Hey, I'm going hiking in the Everglades this weekend; anyone care to join me?" Or "My local science club is having a really interesting talk on (insert interesting subject here); anyone want to join me? We can go out for coffee afterward."
I disagree with the member that we are overemphasizing local group activities; I think we need to continue to push them full steam ahead. He is absolutely right, however, that one way in which Mensa is badly underutilized by its members is the opportunity to find other interesting people. Finding new friends who share your interests is like finding a job: They do not come looking for you; you need to go looking for them. The Bible says that if a man would have friends he must show himself to be friendly.
Mensa is full of great people well worth spending time with. Don't waste your membership; go find some and have a great time.
February 2026
It's a bit of an old chestnut but it makes an important point. A newlywed couple sat down for their first Sunday dinner together. The husband noticed that the wife had cut two inches off the pot roast, wrapped it, and put it in the refrigerator for future use before putting the remainder of the roast in the pot and into the oven. He asked her why she did that. She said "Because that's the way my mother always did it."
A few weeks later he saw his mother in law at a family event and asked her why she did it that way, and she said, "Because that's the way MY mother always did it."
At Thanksgiving dinner, he asked grandmother why she always cut two inches off the roast, and grandmother responded, "Because my pot is too small for the whole thing."
One of our greatest legal minds, Oliver Wendell Holmes, once wrote that "it is revolting to have no better
reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IV." Yet how many of the things that we do, are done only because that's the way we've always done them, even if the reason for doing them that way has long since vanished.
As we move further in 2026, I would challenge everyone to take a good long look at how we do things. If there's a good reason, keep doing it that way. If not, well, maybe it's time to do something else.
And, if you want to know if you're in a rut, ask someone who hasn't been around for very long. People who've been in ruts for a while tend to no longer see that they're in a rut; frequently it's the new people who see more clearly that it's a rut.
January 2026
On December 5, 2025, the AMC had a full day planning meeting at our national office in Hurst, Texas. I have both positive and negative things to say about it. First the good:
The facilitator reminded us of a number of very important concepts that I think boards tend sometimes to forget. Such as being stewards rather than leaders (stewardship means leaving the group better off than you found it; leadership means winning and is zero-sum). Governance means enabling the members and the local leaders. We need to anticipate what is coming at us before it arrives and plan accordingly. We need to focus on giving our members good value for their dues money, which means leaving them better off for being Mensa members than they would be if they weren't Mensa members. All true.
The bad news is that this is precisely what was said at the last planning meeting I attended in 2012. In 13 years, our strategic plan has not appreciably changed. In 13 years we are still talking about the same stuff we were talking about then. The very same points and the very same conversation were made on December 5 that were made then. Had I dozed off at the 2012 meeting, slept for 13 years, and reawakened on December 5, I would have had no clue, other than there being different faces in the room, that it wasn't still the same meeting. It's not that I disagree with anything that was said -- that's all good -- but rather that I would have expected some actual progress over time.
Here's what we did not talk about: Everyone knows that the greatest challenge facing Mensa at the moment is the loss of members. Since this was an, ahem, *PLANNING MEETING,* and since that is our greatest challenge, I was hoping to hear some very specific steps being taken to reverse that trend. I had some fairly pointed questions I would like to have asked: What steps are we taking to identify the most fertile ground for membership recruitment? What have we been doing to this point to recruit new members and, of that, what has worked and what has not worked? How do we know what has worked and what has not worked? During the time period in which our membership numbers were dramatically increasing, what were we doing then that we are not doing now? Do we know why in those specific time periods our numbers went up dramatically? There are others, but those will do for a start.
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