You hold in your hands something you did not seek. You hold in your hands a newsletter about the internal workings of Mensa. You may think you have seen something like this a million times before. You may think that actions at the national level are the concern of a small clique and have nothing to do with your activities, your newsletter, your local group. You may think you have seen the names of the authors before and expect to hear the same old thing. You may be about to crumple this up and toss it away.

Please don't.

It's true: this newsletter is about national Mensa. Whether you believe it or not, what is done at the national level does affect all Mensans at every level. Lately, what has been done—in your name and under the guise of protecting Mensa—has been a short-sighted abandonment of what many feel are the founding principles of Mensa. What has been done was done quickly and quietly, in private e-mails and in go-along-to-get-along conversations, under a cloak of collegiality and team spirit.

Why do we write? Because we know that there is more to Mensa than the ever-growing list of regulations and prohibitions being enacted at the national level. Because we know that the growing list will eventually strangle the life out of Mensa at every level. Because we know that there will be no defense in claiming that our interest is only in our local group and what is done at the national level will not affect us. Because we know `it can happen here'. 

Some of the names you will see inside are familiar. They are among those who have tried to raise questions about the directions in which Mensa is heading. They are among those who have received public ridicule and private condemnation as payment for their honest concern. And, they are among those who have watched, with growing discomfort, as Mensa has spiraled away from an association of equals to a regimented organization with an entrenched elite playing musical chairs with offices. 

Some of the names will not be as familiar. They are among those who have been shaken by recent events at the national level into raising their voices against what has been done in their—in our—name. They are among those who realize that what has been done today in the name of leadership is a step towards creating a Mensa in which everything not expressly permitted is forbidden, and in which those who do not fit a preconceived, arbitrary notion of an acceptable member can be consigned to Mensa oblivion.

Why do we write? Because we know that there are others who agree with us. Others who will read this newsletter and think about the implications of what has already been done—and the implication of good Mensans who would do nothing.

And we hope that one of those others is you.

— Allen Neuner Contents | Next Article