2014 MWM RG Registration Rate Schedule

We've finally crunched the numbers and have figured out... we can REDUCE the registration rate for next year's RG for most people. How much will it cost?

Full-Weekend (Note: New this year - this does NOT include Saturday dinner):

$70 thru September 30, 2013

$75 October 1 - December 31, 2013

$80 January 1 - April 30, 2014

$85 thereafter and walk-in

$55 youth (under 18 years old)

Single-day rates (adult or youth):

$30 Friday only

$40 Saturday only (Note: This does NOT include Saturday dinner)

$30 Sunday only

Saturday night dinner (separate purchase required): $20 (deadline for purchasing dinner: May 9, 2014)

Cancellations accepted through April 30, 2014 (8% fee retained for cancellation, same as this past year)

To be crystal clear, meals included in Hospitality with the full weekend price:

Friday dinner, Saturday breakfast and lunch, Sunday breakfast and (new this year) lunch. 

As soon as our webmaster's schedule frees up enough, you will be able to register online at mwmrg.org

Stay tuned for further updates, as we hope to get our blog up and running in the near future.

Just over One Month to MWM's RG

It's been a fast-paced year. Believe it or not, Matrix V: Superhero Edition is almost upon us. Come join us at the Hyatt Dulles in Herndon, VA from May 17-19. Like us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/superheroedition) and peruse (and subscribe to) our blog at http://superheroedition.wordpress.com. Go to the Register tab to register for the RG (currently $94 for adults for the full weekend, $55 for 17-and-under for the full weekend; partial weekend rates also listed) and to purchase a souvenir t-shirt! Lots of Program information is available and an ever-increasing list of games, too.

Come Marvel at the DC RG!

Odyssey of the Mind - finished

Well, it was a long day. I was judging one of the Spontaneous rooms (sorry, can't give you any details beyond the fact that it was a "verbal" problem), and we had 18 teams over the course of 9am through 4pm. And lots of teams (124 total) participated in the contest. It'd be great if people helped out either being a judge or, even, coaching a team. Consider it for next year. It's never too late to get involved. And the kids greatly benefit from it.

What's more, we got about a dozen people providing their contact information, all of whom were looking to receive additional information on the Gifted Children Program. Thanks to everyone who came out to assist with judging and with running the Mensa table!

Great numbers! Renew early

Not only did we stay ahead of Chicago in the national rankings, but we pulled even further away. As of the end of February, MWM had 2142 members -- 17 more than Chicago. GNYM tops the list with 2304. By the end of March, we should have 2150+ members right before the annual dip of ~20% because of people lapsing their memberships.

Make sure to renew your membership before April 1 -- let's have a high retention rate, stay ahead of Chicago, and make up relative ground on GNYM.

MWM Hosting AMC

MWM will be hosting the March 2013 AMC meeting at the Hyatt Dulles hotel in Herndon, VA. When I have more details, I will post them here.

National Nominating Committee Members Named

Congratulations (and condolences?) to the following Region 2 members who have been named to the national Nominating Committee:

Jody Carlson (MWM)
Pat Horsley (DVM)
Steve Kaess (DVM)

Anyone in Region 2 considering jumping into the race for the AMC should contact one (or more) of these three members.

Group Rankings

After pushing hard and strongly encouraging for at least a year now to increase our membership size, MWM has *finally* managed to surpass Chicago in the group rankings. As of January 31, we eked past them by 6 members -- we're now at 2,107 members. Greater New York, watch out! We may have a way to go to catch you, but we're motivated.

Marbles: The Brain Store's post-testing Mensa Shopping Event

About a month ago, I held our very first testing session at the Marbles store in Montgomery Mall. (Our next such session is Sun., Feb. 19, 2012.) Marbles very generously offered to hold a Mensa Shopping Event during the first two hours after the conclusion of the test session, during which Marbles would give us 15% of their sales from the event. As the arrangements for the session (and, hence, the shopping event) was very much last-minute, we had precious little time to spread the word to get people to the store.

That said, though, the store's sales during that time period amounted to over $620, and MWM wound up getting over $90 from the whole deal. And I think that money will likely be put towards our scholarship fund. Way to go, everyone, who helped make this possible.

Hurricane Irene

Thankfully there wasn't much on tap for today, and the word was sent out pretty well about the few cancellations that we had thanks to our most unwelcome visitor - Irene.

For those people as far out as me in Sterling (or even further), this is merely a long-lasting rainstorm - nothing special. But for those people who are closer to the coast, this is a pretty big storm, causing some damage and taking out power for LOTS of people in its path.

Stay safe out there.

Seeking Testing Locations

I've made a big push in recent months to get some more proctors (check - a few of us are nearly fully certified) and for a Testing Coordinator (check - we have a few candidates for the position, and I think all are willing to be an assistant coordinator if someone else is chosen as the big cheese). The one thing that we very much need are testing locations.

I've intermittently looked around to see what venues are available in Northern Virginia for testing. (Need to have a quiet space, free of distractions, with sufficient space for testing candidates to spread out; ideally it can accommodate 10+ candidates, but as few as 5 is fine -- spaces in one's home are highly discouraged.) Libraries have a rule against it, given we charge for our tests. (Looking to see if there's a legitimate way around that.) Some local schools will work, but cost about $50/hr. Other venues are available at far less amounts. All need to be looked at in person to see if they're viable spaces.

Do you have a viable space available to loan or rent us for 2-3 on a test date that would be set up weeks (if not months) ahead of time? If so, please contact me so we can attempt to work something out. If far enough in advance, your office/company would get a sort of free advertising with a listing in the newsletter and on our website. Win-win.

This is a very easy way to give a huge boost to the chapter, and help us get on top of Chicago as the 2nd largest chapter in the country. (!)

Publications Recognition Program Nominations

Congratulations, Dave Aronson, former Editor of Capital M, for your two nominations in this year's PRP contest: Member Recognition and Mensa Awareness.

And, somehow, I also managed to snag a PRP nod for Non-Fiction (Mensa-related) with one of my LocSec columns (June 2010).

We'll see if we take home any of the owls that get handed out at the AG in July. Good luck, Dave!

MWM LDE a Great Success

The LDE - Get the Lead Out: Time to Take the Lead - went VERY well today. We had 34 of the people who RSVP'd show up and most of them were there the whole day.

Hospitality (put on by George and Chris Cooper -- our upcoming RG's Hospitality Chair and Registrar, respectively) was VERY good. Plenty of food for everyone throughout the day. Snacks. Healthy stuff. Tasty "junk" (such as doughnuts). More than enough soft drinks and water.

The speakers, by and large, went over VERY well. Thank you to:
Loren Kropat
Karen Caron
Dave Cahn
Eileen Roberts (with additional assistance from both Karen Caron and GCC Donna Campbell)

Also thanks to Nancy Vogel, our emcee, for her intros of the various speakers. My apologies for not realizing where the microphone was during the first couple of intros.

Kudos go out to Leslie Jane Fahrney, for showing up very early to help out with the set-up, and to staying to the bitter end helping with breaking things down, clearing out the room, and even volunteering to hauling out the trash!

The people who stacked the chairs to the sides of the room -- THANK YOU! I was distracted enough by other stuff I was doing and people I was talking with, I didn't notice who was doing the stacking. It made clearing things up SO much easier.

For the several people who handed in the sheets re: volunteer -- THANK YOU! We will do our best in terms of taking "advantage" of your interest/offers as soon as possible. And all of the comments that were handed in will be helpful, especially if/when we hold another such event.

And, once again, a big thank you for the person who kicked this all off by putting in an entry into last year's contest and winning the Region 2 version -- Hal Handerson.

Proctors Needed!

We have an approximate 1,000-person backlog, in our chapter alone, in people who have, at one point in time, indicated some level of interest in testing for and joining Mensa. With more people being added onto that list all the time, it's a daunting task to whittle that down.

How can we do it? With as many proctors as we can possibly get certified from among our ranks.

What do you need to do to get certified?
1) Fill out and mail in the Proctor Application which you can find at https://www.us.mensa.org/lead/certifications/proctors/ -- making sure to have (either on the hardcopy of that form or as separate e-mails to the National Office) the endorsement of both the LocSec (me, through the end of October) and the Testing Coordinator (currently Nancy McMahan Farrar). You'll get a manual and need to send back an open book exam.
2) Attend one or two testing sessions as an observer - dependent on your background and having conducted such tests previously. Depending on timing, you might be able to attend a webinar instead, "bypassing" this requirement. (The next webinar is on May 26 at 8pm CDT. The one after that is tentatively scheduled for late July or early August.)
3) Proctor one or two testing sessions while observed by a Mensa-certified proctor.

It's really that simple.

The benefits? You help out the chapter by whittling down our backlog, describing just what Mensa is and does to the testing candidates, and bolster the number of members in the chapter with each person who passes your proctored test that decides that they want to join after all. You also get to meet lots of new people and be "the face of Mensa"/the authoritative expert for everyone who attends your sessions.

So, if you're a member of MWM, contact me and our Testing Coordinator. If you're a member of a different chapter, you need to contact your chapter's LocSec and Testing Coordinator.

What are your opinions of the local, regional, and national status quo?

Are things in Mensa going the way that you want them to and/or approve? That question can and should be asked regularly, and is applicable at all levels of Mensa - locally, regionally, and nationally.

If you answered "no" with respect to any of those three "levels" of Mensa, are you doing anything about it? That doesn't necessarily mean running for office, running a local event, or even attending the local ExComm or national AMC meeting. It could be as simple as talking with an officer at an event you both attend, making a phone call, or sending an e-mail or snail-mail letter to them.

Letting one's opinion be known can be some of the most powerful tools at one's disposal. That said, ideally one won't hold everything back until there's one straw that finally breaks the proverbial camel's back. That does no one any good. To do so and then finally let loose with a litany of previously unstated complaints lessens the impact of any of them and potentially lets fester legitimate problems that might be going on unrecognized by anyone else.

Make your voice heard. Vote in elections to help steer the organization where you want it to go, and provide timely feedback.

LDE almost full

With the deadline tomorrow (Saturday), there's very little time left for you to RSVP to the Leadership Development Event we're holding on May 21. And, to boot, there's precious little room left. RSVPs are set to be cut off at 50, and we are currently at 48 people already signed up. Should be a good time. Take advantage of it while you can.

Late-breaking edit: As of May 6, we are completely FULL -- we've hit our max of 50. So, if you STILL want to attend the LDE, send me an e-mail to place you on the waitlist. If people cancel in advance of the event, I will proceed down the waitlist to add people in to fill up to that 50-person limit. Only members of MWM and their immediate family members, now, please.

My Advice on Building a Local Group SIG

Earlier this evening, I had a phone call from one of MWM's members that, in part, was about one of our listed SIGs and the low number of members who belong to it. While I have sent an e-mail to the person who runs that SIG offering some advice for growing the SIG, it seems appropriate to share that advice more widely.

SIGs are different things to different people. Between the three groups I've been a member of in my years in Mensa, I have had, essentially, three different types of local SIGs:
1) Community-oriented
2) Mailing list-RSVP essential (a "lesser" version of the first type, IMO)
3) "SIG" as term of art

In the first instance, a sense of belonging, ownership, and membership is desired. You are getting together because of some sense of a common bond, moreso than "just" the activity at hand. To me, this is the appeal of such groups as the GenX, GenY, and other such "affinity" groups. Building these requires the most time and effort, as the ideal situation would have the SIG leader building and maintaining some online venue for conversation and discussion - yahoogroup, Facebook, Twitter, whatever. Bring that online venue up in in-person conversations. Encourage people to join, get to know the others in the group, and come out to events that are held (be they scheduled on-calendar or impromptu off-calendar events).

The second instance seems, to me, to be a slightly less involved group than the first. This is what I used for my Bridge SIG back in New York and what I know the Bridge SIG here does as well. There is an e-mail list where advance coordination is necessary. In bridge, if you don't have full tables of 4, it pretty much kills the game. In New York, I struggled to have 4 people (from the about 10 or so on my list) coming in any particular week. If we knew in advance there wouldn't be enough people coming, we'd cancel. While intermittent non-SIG e-mails might have been sent, that wasn't the primary purpose of that SIG up in NY. So, while we got along, no sense of "community" was fostered. The only effort involved was sending out the reminder in advance and a cancellation when necessary.

The final instance is, essentially, what I do with the Tourist SIG. There is nothing "formal" about this SIG. People come to the events that interest them that fit into their schedule. There are times when I get about a dozen people. There are other times when it's just me. It truly is just a conceit/term of art using "SIG"; it's an excuse for me to get off my duff and do something I otherwise might not expend the energy on, and invite others to join me. The sense of community from the SIG lasts for the event, but is not an ongoing feeling, per se, in the context of the SIG. No e-mail list is maintained, and rarely is an RSVP of any sort needed (though they're usually requested so I can know if I should look for someone, or just march on solo or with a small group).

All of these methods work. It depends on the type of SIG that you are trying to run. What's more, publicity is also needed. The two primary methods of publicizing the SIG are: 1) putting an event in the calendar (using the SIG name in the title, of course), and 2) writing up an article (even if it's just a small paragraph) for the newsletter. Even when you are alone at an event you're running, write everything in the plural "we" instead of the singular "I", and you can make it sound like you had a large turnout for the SIG activity - which is always more attractive to fence-sitters than a group that sounds like there's no interest out there.


Interested in running a SIG? Contact our SIG Coordinator - Member-at-Large Chuck Divine - with the SIG's name, brief description, and your contact information to be included.

Interested in putting together a calendar entry, whether it's for a SIG or not? Contact our Programs Officer - Ben Paul - with that information. All calendar entries are due in by the 5th of the month for publication in the following month's CapM.

Interested in submitting an article talking about the great time you had host an event, whether it was for a SIG or something else in the chapter? Contact our Editor - Dave Aronson - with that. All submissions to the newsletter outside of the calendar are due in by the 10th of the month for publication in the following month's CapM.

Interested in having something related to your SIG (any of the above, or something else you may come up with) posted onto our website? Contact our Webmaster - Chris Rittweger - with that. There are no specific deadlines for submissions to the website, though the further in advance of your event, the likelier it is that it will be noticed by your target audience.

All of the contact information for the above individuals is listed in the inside front cover of CapM each month.

MWM Proctoring and our Proctor Incentive Program

We've got several proctors who are either "active" or "past active", as far as National's terminology is concerned. We do hold 1 or 2 test sessions, generally, monthly. Given the number of people who have previously expressed interest, and over the geographic area that our chapter covers, relatively few people wind up testing in any one session. But if we can, instead, test about 5 or 6 times per month across the area, this will add up fast and help us garner yet more members.

For those of you who are "past active" proctors, what can we do to help you get back into regular testing again - even if it's only once every few months? Do you need additional training to become "recertified"? Are you having difficulty locating a venue for testing? Or is it a time/overcommitment issue - which is something we likely can't help you with. Let us know.

For those of you MWM'ers who have contemplated becoming proctors but haven't gotten the process rolling, contact me or, better yet, our Proctor Coordinator, Nancy Farrar. We can point you to the right information. We also want you to remember about the Proctor Incentive Program that the ExComm approved earlier this term: we will give a free registration to the 2011 MWM RG to any proctor who proctors at least eight sessions prior to the RG. (Note: those people who are training, the initial two "observation" sessions count as to proctored sessions, as do the two sessions you proctor while being observed by a certified proctor; and those sessions count for the certified proctor, too.)

If you know an MWM'er who has been thinking about becoming a proctor, give them a nudge and point them to this blog post.

Recruiting at Odyssey of the Mind

On Saturday, while I was one of MWM's several Problem Judges for Odyssey of the Mind, we had a table manned by a few members of the chapter. During the course of the approx. 7 hours that we had the table set up, there were lots of people who stopped by and took some of the promotional material (flyers, pencils, bookmarks, promo Bulletins). Even better, we actually had more than a dozen people who were willing to provide their name and e-mail address to be contacted for additional information. And even one mom whose daughter is a current member who wanted further info.

I'm looking forward to getting some extra members within the next few months from this straightforward effort. And all of this is perfectly timed, as it turns out, as we are reinvigorating our Gifted Children program; as of Sunday, the ExComm appointed Donna Campbell as our newest Gifted Children Coordinator.

We'll definitely have a table again next year. And with the suggestions that the people who manned to the table have provided on how to increase our visibility at the competition and what we should have available to attract more attention amid the chaos that is Odyssey, we should be able to get lots more people expressing interest, testing, and eventually joining.

Gifted Youth Program

There are lots of resources related to the Gifted Youth Program within American Mensa. To list some:

--mensaforkids.org website

--MERF scholarship program (not restricted to Mensans)

--BrightKids e-list (open to both Mensans and non-members)

--Newly hired Gifted Youth Specialist to implement model program to be emulated around the country

--Gifted Youth Program Mini-Grants to the local group (to assist in putting on gifted youth-oriented events)

--Gifted Youth Coordinator awards (which recognize individual members for their service to American Mensa's Gifted Youth Program)

--Items featured in the Gifted Youth section of the AML website (and accessible to non-Members, I believe):

--Book list for parents of gifted children

--Facts on being gifted

--Fred: The Magazine (approximately quarterly magazine)

--Gifted children FAQ

--Gifted resources (lots of links to different websites related to children children)

--Is my child bright? (list of commonly observed characteristics)

--Parent/Teacher resources (includes educational activity plans, various lesson plans grades K-12)

--Article on succeeding in school

Here in MWM, we are currently looking for someone (preferably a parent with kids with elementary or secondary school) to be our Gifted Children Coordinator. We're in the process of trying to arrange a get-together with "gifted children families", will have a presentation regarding "Whole Family Activities" at our upcoming Leadership Development Event, and are seeking other ways of getting out the word and stirring up interest.

Are you a Mensan with a gifted child (regardless of whether they are a Mensa member)? Interested in helping to organize and lead events for your kid to be involved with others of his/her intellectual peer group? We've got a couple of people who are great informational resources regarding gifted children, but who aren't able to organize and attend activities any longer.

If you're a member of MWM and have any interest (even if it's only "hey, can you tell me a bit more? it seems too vague to me"), please drop me a note or reply to this blog.

Get the Lead Out - Prepare to Take the Lead

Our Leadership Development Event is coming together. We will be reserving a meeting room so that we can hold the LDE at:
Tyson's-Pimmit Regional Library
7584 Leesburg Pike
Falls Church, VA

Date: Saturday, May 21, 2011
Time: 10:30am - 4:30pm (library opens at 10am and closes at 5pm)

Preliminary order of presentations to be given is as follows:

Running Effective Meetings
Dispute Resolution
Getting People Involved
Whole Family Activities Programming

The event is FREE to Mensa members and food and drink will be provided; RSVPs are required, though, for planning purposes. Keep an eye on the newsletter for more information.