Clean Slate's working principles

The Clean Slate:
Working Principles for a 21st Century Mensa
Version 1.0

1. Make member services and "the Mensa experience" the primary focus of the entire organization. Make members not just satisfied in, but active contributors to, and advocates of, This Smart Thing of Ours.

2. Embrace that individual and local group activities are the primary interaction members have within Mensa. Actively fund local activities. Actively share successful activities across local groups. Actively document support information. Actively quantify critical success criteria to enable evaluation and doing more of what works, less of what doesn't.

3. Mimic what makes the internet the most successful invention in history. Experiment, learn, & enable tight/quick feedback loops. Let adoption, promulgation, & extension determine success.

4. Embrace social media & mobile culture. Make member interaction a 24/7/365 possibility. Use video to capture & share the joy of being a smartie. Integrate publications, events, & discussions via social media. Minimize lead times. Maximize coverage. Enable every member to customize their Mensa experience based on their tastes/preferences.

5. Quantify everything. Collect data obsessively. Use it to make data-based decisions. It's not science unless it can be measured.

6. Use SMARTER principles to enable objective, data-based creation & evaluation of goals & objectives: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely, Evaluated, & Re-evaluated. Actively compare objectives to results. Make course corrections as soon as a problem is evident.

7. Actively train local leaders in the nuts & bolts of running a successful local group. Update & futurize handbooks. Create FAQs. Hold regular training
workshops. Capture sessions on video for easy sharing & reference. Embrace remote & net-based education to expand reach while lowering costs.

8. Establish a sound financial base for Mensa now & into the future. Align expenditures with member services. Justify & control expenses. Budget revenue on data-based, realistic membership retention & growth. Establish transparency in budget & actual expenditures. Cut expenses & hold the line on dues.

9. Establish a culture of transparency, openness, & inclusiveness. Broadcast & capture AMC & budget meetings. Enable members to see how time, effort & money are spent representing them & governing the corporation. Explain decisions. Minimize/eliminate time spent in "executive session."

10. Embrace viral/word-of-mouth/recommendation marketing. Make every member's experience so good that they can't wait to share Mensa with their friends.