Increase Community Service?

I have been involved with Odyssey of the Mind for five years now. And most of those years, we had an informative Mensa table set up, too.

Many members are dismayed that Mensa, in general, doesn't do more community service. In what  venues would you like to see Mensa members performing community service? What, if anything, should Mensa (either the AMC or local group boards) do to bolster such efforts?

What do you want from Mensa?

I'm reading a thread in the American Mensa group on Facebook right now, related to what members would like to see AML do. Some interesting suggestions, especially with respect to advertising possibilities.

What would *you* like to see being done? What do you want to get out of your membership in Mensa?

Possibly a different topic (but I'll risk it within this thread): What would you like to tell the next AMC (that gets seated at the AG in July) that they should be focusing on?

Unofficial mini-minutes

Below is my brief set of mini-minutes from the AMC meeting that was held this past Saturday. Note that these are unofficial. Mini-minutes, by their nature, are supposed to just mention, in brief, those actions taken during the meeting. The vast majority of this AMC meeting comprised discussion items, rather than votes. The minutes should have more of the detail of those discussion.

The AMC met at the Hyatt Dulles in Herndon, VA on March 23, 2013. Approximately 16 members (mostly from MWM) were present in the audience at some point.

The Executive Director gave a brief report covering the American Mensa Academy app, memberhsip numbers, licensing efforts, and a series of video spots that will be available for local groups to use.

Discussion items:

1) SIGs program – Presentation/Discussion led by SIGs Officer Barbara Kryvko

2) Welcoming suggestions for local groups – Presentation/Discussion led by Membership Officer Beth Anne Demeter

3) Discussion of general legal matters – Presentation given by Intellectual Property Counsel Cliff McCann

4) Mensa Foundation – Presentation given by Foundation President Dave Remine

5) Mega issues – Exercise with AMC and audience led by Executive Director Pam Donahoo

6) Mobile tech and local groups – Presentation/discussion led by RVC1 Andrew Heffernan and Secretary Heather Poirier

7) Awards Task Force – Discussion led by Past Past Chair Jean Becker

Adjustment to Strategy:

1) Treasurer's report/Budget presentation – Presentation given by Treasurer Nick Sanford. Budget was approved.

2) Administrative fee approval – Add $20 fee to the proposed 2014 AG registration rate schedule to cover staff-time expenses. Adminstrative fee was approved.

3) Appointment of auditors – Clifton Larsen Allen was appointed to perform the audit for AML and the Mensa Foundation.

Policy Determination:

1-10) 1 bylaws amendment and 9 ASIEs were proposed by the Nominating Committee Task Force. After brief discussion on each, vote approved postponing consideration to a later conference call, to be held before May 31.

11) Approval of March teleconference minutes: the minutes were approved.

Routine Business:

1-2) Consent agenda approved

Adjourned 4:45pm.

AMC Committee Meetings

The conversations in the three committee meetings were pretty good. Brainstorming where appropriate, and certainly pushback when controversial items were mentioned by one person or another. (While the few of us who were spectators were welcome to contribute, there were only a few points that we decided to make within the discussion; we were mostly just listening in.) Here are some of the highlights (not exhaustive):

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Leadership Development Committee:

The only topic that was talked about was the Leadership Exchange Ambassador Program (LEAP), given the short amount of time at hand. Several ideas were captured as to how to try to energize AML members to participate in this program. (e.g., hand out informational flyers at AGs and RGs, emphasize the MIL-paid international trip that would be had by AML LEAP participants, have RVCs actively recruiting from good speakers at RGs and AGs, etc.)

For anyone who wants to view some actual LEAP talks, there are a few available for viewing at http://animusm.com (specifically at http://animusm.com/leap) and there are also some of the initial candidate videos available on http://mensa.org (specifically at https://www.mensa.org/member-news/leadership-exchange-ambassador-program-leap).

While the deadline for this year's program is passed, the push is to try to raise the profile of this program so that we can get more applicants from which to choose presenters to send to the international level. (This year, AML only had 2 applicants. A couple of years ago, there were about 28 applicants; there has been a precipitous drop, and the committee is unclear why. Even internationally, there were only a total of 12 applicants total, down from 25 last year; and we've never put forward more than 3 candidates from AML to the international level.)

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Site Selection Committee:

There was discussion about what the timeline for submitting AG bids should be; should we keep it at 4 years out, or change it? The change of site selection guidelines will surely affect this decision, IMO.

Some of the things discussed included:
--putting forward a new set of minimum guidelines to ensure consistency (broad-stroke items to help with matching experience to expectations; the intent here is explicitly not to create cookie-cutter AGs)
--determining how to deal with an AG committee that doesn't provide a certain task within the needed timeline (e.g., tours should be arranged for *well* in advance of the AG, so that people can properly make their travel plans and take advantage of deals, rather than not having them set up as close as 3 months out)
--have known people with a successful track record for specific AG-related tasks ready, willing, and able to step in if an AG Committee falls through on such task, even after being provided a warning and a grace period for rectifying the situation; these people would only be used in case of emergency
--have Hospitality provided 100% by the hotel, as part of the hotel contracts
--have an outside company do a search for hotels which meet our needs in certain cities which would be specified to them, to then go to those local groups and request they consider putting through an AG bid; these outside companies work like a temp firm getting an individual a job at no cost to the individual (they make their money from the hotels, rather than directly from the client who is having them do the search)

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Finance Committee:

There was a brief discussion about the expense of moving the AMC meetings around the country. The consensus appeared to be that it was worth the additional cost (~$5k more per meeting not held at the National Office compared to holding it at a hotel elsewhere in the country).

Nick is looking to delete many finance-related ASIEs where the items are blatantly obvious, irrelevant, or the items described are going to be done anyway because of processes already in effect. He also wants there to be consideration of "revolutionary" motions, such as putting in a variable dues rate, some sort of automatic inflation of dues rate, a requirement that Life Fund Assets must equal Life Fund Liabilities. More specifics to come out for the October meeting, should he be re-elected. He requested the committee start thinking about these items and coming up with other motions which they think might be reasonable to create a basic financial framework.

There may be a survey created and sent out to help determine a pricing philosophy (including dues), but the question was whether the AMC would be open to implementing recommendations that come from such a survey (e.g., if the recommendation were to either double or halve dues, would the AMC be open to the suggestion, or know in advance they wouldn't entertain going past X point)

The committee is starting to think about the possibility of renting out the list of e-mail addresses (for those members who permit their e-mail address be used that way). Several points related to privacy issues and "selling out" the membership for a small amount were raised. Discussion will continue with respect to whether AML would receive sufficient money to be bothered, and what would be the way to implement such a system with as little confusion/pain as possible.

AMC meeting weekend

For those who haven't seen it elsewhere... The AMC has come to town. Starting in less than 1 hour from now, there will be three committee meetings:
8:00 pm - 8:30 pm Leadership Development Committee
8:30 pm - 9:00 pm Site Selection Committee
9:00 pm - 10:00 pm Finance Committee

Tomorrow morning starting at 9am, the full AMC meets. The agenda and the proposed budget (and various officer reports) are on the AMC website.

Tonight and tomorrow, the meetings are at the Hyatt Dulles (our RG hotel) in Herndon, VA. After tomorrow's AMC meeting, the AMC and 1-2 dozen MWM'ers will be having dinner at Red, Hot & Blue (about 1-2 miles away from the hotel). You can still join us, but you would likely be seated at one of the tables in the main dining room, rather than the area that has been arranged for those who RSVP'd and paid in advance for the prix fixe menu, as mentioned in CapM. 

July AMC Meeting and the ABM

As announced earlier today (emphasis added mine):

The American Mensa Annual Business Meeting (ABM) will take place at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 4, 2013, in conjunction with the American Mensa Annual Gathering in Fort Worth, Texas.  The ABM will be held in the Norris Conference Center across the street from the Worthington Renaissance hotel.

 

The order of business will include reports from the Chairman, Treasurer, Foundation President and Executive Director of the society, followed by motions, resolutions and questions to officers. Those wishing to submit motions or resolutions for consideration should send them, along with explanatory information as needed to Chair@us.mensa.orgwith a cc to ExecutiveDirector@americanmensa.org or via regular mail to: American Mensa, Ltd., Attn: Annual Meeting, 1229 Corporate Dr. W., Arlington, TX 76006-6103.  Motions and resolutions must be receive by 11:59 p.m., Central time, on June 1, 2013.

 

Those motions that are considered proper for consideration by the membership at the ABM include proposed changes to the AML bylaws or sense motions to advise the AMC on desired actions to be considered by the board. Members who submit motions must be present at the ABM for the item to be considered.

 

Additionally, the summer 2013 AMC meeting will take place at the Norris Conference Center, across the street from the Renaissance Worthington hotel, on July 4, 2013. The AMC meeting will begin at 9 a.m.

Permit Opt-Out of Bulletin

We spend an oodle of money printing and mailing the Bulletin every month. Approximately 50% of all AML members are currently receiving epublications or are eligible to do so. An extra 27% of AML members have e-mail addresses on file (but presumably have one or more settings put in such a way that they don't get epublications).

Given the above, why don't we give the membership the opportunity to receive their Bulletin online rather than in hardcopy. If we were able to hit 50% of the membership opting to receiving the Bulletin only electronically, we could save somewhere in the vicinity of $150,000 (approximately $3/person worth of dues). Why don't we do that?

If elected as Secretary to AMC, this is certainly one of the things I will try to get implemented.

Budget webinar tomorrow

Should be interesting to see what answers are to be had during tomorrow night's budget-related webinar. I sent lots of questions (mostly related to the footnotes that weren't included with the budget we were pointed towards) and haven't heard anything back. Hopefully that means they'll answer them tomorrow.