There seems to be so much anger and resentment over the concept of paid staff in Mensa. If there are so many qualified volunteers with the time to do big tasks like running the national Website or editing the Bulletin, why do so many Local Groups, even giant ones like San Francisco and Chicago, have difficulty recruiting and keeping them? And of those qualified volunteers, how many of them would really be willing to take all the conflicting orders from members?
How many volunteers are available, during business hours, to answer 26,283 calls in a year? How many are available to score 4,369 tests? To process 5,107 offers of membership and 4,930 new memberships? How many are willing to sort and stuff materials for ~500 LG officers every month? How many will patiently provide forgotten passwords to ~50 members every month?
Which volunteers are best suited for processing credit-card payments and all of the daily cash receipts from dues, new members, testing and prior evidence? Who do you suggest to call members to follow up on declined or invalid cards and sends letters to members regarding NSF checks?
Who will volunteer to daily (during non-renewal-season) process more than 100 member data changes from the Web, more than 100 direct requests for testing information, 50 Mensa Home Test requests, 50 PDQ updates, 50 renewals, 30 address corrections from the U.S. Postal Service, 20 event transactions and 20 customer service emails? Which volunteer will process a 150 pieces of undeliverable mail each week, checking the database and contacting members for their new information?
Maybe it’s a generational thing, but I’d much rather hire people to do those chores so I can spend my volunteer time on more interesting, rewarding endeavors.
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