Returning Mensa to the Members

During election season, several members posed questions to the candidates. Since I wasn’t running for anything and in fact, I was trying to facilitate the questioning and answering via the AML Forums, I refrained from offering my own thoughts on the issues. But now that is’ all over, those questions make for good jumping-off points for this blog.

Jared Levine asked:
What will you do to return "ownership" of AML to the members? i.e., taking away some of the tasks from the National Office staff and encouraging the members to undertake it (be it for the first time, or once again after the NO having done it for some years).

The members already “own” AML and they elect a handful of members to act as officers (or elect those who will appoint others, like me) to develop the policies and oversee that those policies and priorities are carried out. Those officers have, for decades, chosen to pay non-members to do some of the work that must get done in a consistent, timely manner. Despite how it seems, the National Office—the staff—do not dictate to members; they merely pass on information and requirements set by the AMC. Now, if you’re concerned that the AMC has taken over too much or that those 21 members have somehow forfeited their memberships, well then, that’s a different subject.

Anyway, what tasks do I think should be taken from the staff and assigned to member volunteers? Thinking about what each of these staffers does, here are ways I think we should increase the use of member volunteers:

• Dick—I’d love to see more member-generated professional-quality photography in the Bulletin.
• Paige—I’d like more Mensans to volunteer to call and sweet-talk lapsed members in April and May so the staff doesn’t have to stay late and do it. I think local volunteers should be more active in preparing and sending welcome packets to new members.
• Heather—Members should prepare and print clear financial reports instead of making her piece the information together from several sources. Members could also reliably report officer changes so Heather can spend more time on other membership-processing chores and less time reviewing newsletters for that information.
• Hilary—I’d like members to do more PR; they could send press releases to their local media outlets to promote testing and community activities. They could design, print, and distribute tear sheet ads and bookmarks.
• Catherine—I’d like Mensans to become involved in each state’s Gifted Children organization, including hosting a booth at the conventions. Members could also learn how to create connections with local generous corporate donors and advertisers.
• David—Members with expertise in corporate and IRS areas could assist their Local Groups with 990s, financial reporting, and other accounting needs.
• Howard—AG and colloquium committees could do their own high-quality and effectively maintained Web sites.
• Bryan—Members could keep track of their own passwords so Bryan can use more of his time to make the data-management processes more flexible for Local Groups.

What I’d really like to see is more members doing the tasks that paid staff in a Texas office can’t do as well—or in many cases, at all:
• Call new members and personally encourae them to come to an event
• Write articles for newsletters
• Create lively, inviting, interesting LG newsletters and Web sites
• Update local Web sites regularly
• Produce brilliant, witty lectures for podcasting
• Develop welcoming and Group-specific informational materials for new members
• Initiate and support unusual, intellectually stimulating events
• Arrange testing opportunities all over their Group’s area, including the outlying regions
• Team up to help with local schools’ gifted students’ programs, like science fairs and math competitions
• Enliven and promote their group’s online communities
• Organize Mensa-style enrichment activities for gifted children
• Raise funds to pay for exciting programming
• Personally recruit new members—widely
• Chat amiably with shy members
• Be vigilant about boorish members who might otherwise chase away newcomers