After two years the coronavirus caught up with me as well. Even with two vaccine shots, COVID packed quite a punch, and hit just as I was getting ready for the third booster inoculation. The fever and sore throat were bad, but most annoying right now is the signature disappearance of all smell and flavour. Admittedly Swedish food is not known for its pungency but coffee has been reduced to nothing but hot black water. Even chocolate is no longer chocolate, but at least it tastes sweet.
Of course, none of this is unusual in any way. With a disease that has killed well over five million people, one should be lucky if these relatively mild discomforts are the worst that happens. By some estimates the Omicron variant is so contagious it will soon find a home in just about everyone’s nostrils. And maybe this is how it ends – and it will not be too soon!
When I wrote this column back in 2020, I described how we had to cancel our ExComm spring meeting due to Covid. Now in 2022 it’s the exact same story. How little has changed in two years! But also how much! And just like many shops and restaurants used the pandemic to renovate and rebuild while the customers were gone, Mensa International has focused inwards on our internal processes and services. So I like to think 2022 is the year we go back to normal, with more strength and preparation as an organisation.
The 2021 IBD Meeting
The main yearly event for Mensa International is the meeting of the International Board of Directors (IBD), with representatives from each Full National Mensa. Last year it was held on two Saturdays in November as an online Zoom conference live streamed to members on our Workplace community. You can actually still watch it there. More importantly, if you are curious about the governance and politics of the Mensa organisation, the IBD meeting should be your focal point.
The Agenda alone is 179 pages. Fewer than 20 of those pages deal with the actual meeting. The rest is a compact set of reports from each national Mensa in the world, as well as all international volunteers. Lots of fascinating data in there. You can find all historic agendas, and minutes on mensa.org. You can read what is going on in every national group, what has changed since last year, projects relating to PR, giftedness, testing and so on. A table of the membership number by country counts our worldwide membership to be 143,666. Comparing with the 2019 numbers, it means the pandemic has only caused a 1 per cent drop in members. This bodes well for the continuation.
Motions passed
Most motions passed were minor updates to the Bylaws, but some more substantial decisions were also made.
- The IBD voted to sponsor the European Mensa Juniors Camp in Germany this summer, with £4000.
- A donation of £16 000 to the Mensa Education and Research Foundation, for the purpose of funding international scholarships.
- The updated strategic plan for Mensa International was approved, replacing the older document from 2012.
- An update to the Special Interest Group policy. It makes clearer the distinction between National SIGs and International SIGs. N-SIGs are the responsibility of national Mensas, but they may still accept foreign members if they want. I-SIGs are the responsibility of Mensa International and have by definition members from more than one country from the start.
- A Task Group was set up to gather data and propose actions needed to reduce harassment and other inappropriate behaviours within Mensa.
- The 2024 IBD meeting will be held in the Asia-Pacific region. Host country to be decided in October. By earlier decisions the 2022 meeting is in Montenegro and 2023 in Texas, USA.
- An international member directory is to be set up, to serve as the master source of membership status information internationally.
This will require both the acquisition of an appropriate software platform (a CRM system) and coordination with each single national Mensa to ensure that updated member data can be shared with Mensa International routinely, securely and in line with data privacy regulations. An international member directory would be used to verify membership outside of one’s home group and would allow for easier access to FB groups, SIGs, the website, the Workplace community and whatever other services Mensa will offer in the future. A lot of work remains, but a policy foundation has now been laid in our Bylaws that will guide this work going forward.
A note on Workplace
Our sprawling community on Workplace from Meta is alive and well. Last year we managed to secure free access under the ”Workplace for Good” programme open to eligible non-profit organisations. All Mensa members are welcome to sign up. This is both a volunteer community where the IBD and ExComm are doing business, and a place for members to hang out with seventy active groups on many topics.
See www.mensa.org/members/connections/workplace for information on how to log in. If you cannot access mensa.org, please contact your national Mensa member support.
Floreat Mensa!
Reprinted from the Mensa World Journal, March 2022, issue 110.