Two questions I’ve read recently are: “Why don’t we do more recruiting at top colleges?” and “What are our leaders doing to see that Mensa has a presence at those universities?”
What Mensa's leaders are doing is appointing a Development Officer and supporting his Marketing Committee and their research and projects. About two years ago, that committee (I'm on it) did a large survey of members under 40 to find out why they join and stay— to see if we can nail down what that age group wants out of Mensa. We got lots of interesting data and some surprises (I had predicted that most people joined in order to find other smart people to ...um...play with, but I was wrong).
We learned that most youthful people join to prove their intelligence and to find intellectual stimulation. They want "Mensa" to plan convenient brainy activities for little money.
What I get out of that research is this: college students are already getting more than enough intellectual stimulation, so they don't need what Mensa has to offer. But after college, those 20-somethings are looking to recapture those deep-conversation-over-coffee-at-2am days, and that's when they start looking at organizations like Mensa. So we advertise in publications aimed at that demographic with slogans like "Stimulation for the uncommon mind" and "You already belong— isn't it time you joined?"
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