HalloweeM 36 Logo

Today I'm working on designing the logo for HalloweeM.

(Yes, a lame point for a blog post, but I've been busy)

Personal Forum Milestone

My 1,000th post.

Reducing LG Funding (I'm opposed)

De asked:
Do you have a position on this—reducing funding?  Good idea?  Bad idea? 
What do you think about the chapters not getting any addition funding from the latest increase in membership dues?

And here's my answer:
I have my hands on more data than most AMC members regarding LG funding, and I see nothing that indicates wisdom in reducing funding to Groups.


I can think of ways that Groups might shave some off of their expenses, but I would expect that any such saving would be used to improve other member services. Unless National begins to provide more on-the-ground service to members (which is not really possible), I don't see how cutting funding to LGs would benefit Mensa as a whole.


As for not getting any funding from this latest dues increase, keep in mind that dues rates and LG funding rates were decoupled years ago—when the traditional 1/6 of dues was found to be an inadequate amount for Groups to do what they need to do. Why no motion to increase funding to Groups this past year? I know I informally floated the idea back in August (gotta think that far ahead in the budget cycle) and it didn't gain any traction among the other Finance Committee members. No other AMC members crafted and put forth motions to raise LG funding, so it didn't happen. 


There is a task force working on the funding issue; I'm chairing it. I will have a report done in time for the July meeting, and well ahead of time for the next budget cycle. My goal is, once again, to figure out how much groups need in order to serve their members well and how to fairly allocate the right amount of money for those services.


One way that I differ from other AMC members is that I am very opposed to looking at Groups' bank balances as a determining factor in how much funding they need. We know all too well by now, bank balances do not tell the whole picture. That a group has a large lump in the bank in March means little... perhaps they haven't finished their RG books yet. Perhaps they have a trust fund with restrictions on use. Perhaps it's a scholarship fund. Perhaps they have some monster bills outstanding. Perhaps they're saving up for a color printer.


And what you didn't ask, but are thinking, I suspect:
Now that Groups are sending newsletters electronically, will you assume they don't need as much money and subsequently cut the funding?


I seriously doubt it. All the research shows that members want social opportunities and intellectual stimulation. As long as Groups are forced to spend most of their income on newsletters, they can't do much for the social and intellectual stimulation services the members really want. Funding to Groups is supposed to be for providing the services members want, and letting those that wish to go electronic do so easily will only help them improve their other important member services.


Groups still need that money—but for other things.

Ignore This

This has nothing whatsoever to do with Mensa.... but I just had to save it for posterity.

Some people love Peeps®.
Some people hate them.
Some prefer them stale.
Some make dioramas with them

My
children
like
them
in
the
microwave.

Why I Blog

Recently, Lee Berkovits,
Candidate for Chairman of American Mensa, wrote about me:

“…frankly, why she 
blogs about what happens in Mensa - instead of posting it to the forums or 
discussion groups - is beyond me. Do we really need MORE avenues of 
communication, when so many good ones are available already?”

Wow. A Communications Officer daring to use additional venues for communication?! Outrageous!

Why do I blog? Several reasons:

• Sometimes I write looooong essays— too long for the AML forums, and certainly too long for micro blogging venues, like Twitter.

• Millions of people blog or have personal Web sites for sharing their views with whomever wishes to read them. In Mensa, for example, I know that Dick Amyx ,Sander Rubin, John Recht, Dan Tobias, and Jared Levine all have had Web presences, some for many years. Heck, even Lee himself has a Web site now, so apparently the forums and discussion groups are not meeting all of his communication needs.

• If I were to use the official forums for my essays, I’d be accused of taking advantage of a medium I oversee in order to further my own slanted views, especially in light of no other AMC members doing so.

• My blog site costs Mensa nothing. I suspect that if I used up so much space on the AML forums, I’d be taken to task for spending members’ money for my own advancement.

• There are no appropriate official elists for generic discussion of Mensa issues.

• Using official venues limits what I can write. Like any other Mensan, sometimes I prefer to express myself without worrying about political correctness and oversight.

• There are times when I wish to express myself as just Robin, regular member, and not as “Robin Crawford, Communications Officer” writing ex cathedra. That is harder to do on official forums.

• If I were to use unofficial discussion groups, such as the Yahoo groups Lee is fond of, I would be limiting my audience to only subscribers of those lists, and there are many involved members who do not care for the climate of those groups and would never read what I write.

• Long emails are not generally read thoroughly.

• Email is too ephemeral for some of what I care to write. A blog has a bit more of a static publication feel to it, and new visitors can easily find and read old posts.

I have been sharing information and opinions for years. Quarterly reports, year-end articles in the Bulletin, participation on various official and unofficial elists and discussion groups, Twitter, Facebook, forums, and here. Not every member sees everything, but limiting myself to only one or two of those media would decrease, not increase the flow of information. When I have something significant to share, I do cross-post it, or at least a link—in many venues.

 It comes down to this—there are many ways to communication, and each has different advantages and disadvantages. A good communicator knows how and when to use them all. Yes, Lee, Mensa needs more communication.

Just Sharing

I'm home and tired and I'll work on writing up more notes this week, but meanwhile, here is
Frank Fortin's blog post about Digital Now.

Notes from Digital Now: Strategic Thinking

I went to many presentations and scribbled notes. What follows are some of those notes and things that made me say "Ahah!" or "hmmmm..."

Operational effectiveness means performing activities better than rivals perform them. In contrast, strategic positioning means performing different activities from rivals or performing similar actives in different ways. Ideally, we need to do both.

Too many execs surveyed say they don't have the capabilities to support their strategy for success or have too many conflicting priorities.

Is strategy about the future, or is about how to provide services now?

This is what our strategic planning should be addressing:
* How will we create value for our members?
* What must we do well to deliver that value?
* What are we going to deliver to whom?




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Mobility includes more people at lunch

Pam, Howard, and I are sitting at lunch, all three of us looking at our phones and checking out twitter feeds, Facebook, email. And as we do, we're talking with each other.

Oh look, Andrew likes your status.
Marc is telling me I need to start implementing before my term is over.
My mom is laughing and saying that she's home.
Claire says her lunch appointment is cancelled.

We may look like we're being rude and isolating each other, but really, we're not only interacting, but we're including more people in our conversation.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPadl (while the soup gets cold)

Digital Now

Mensa collects members' cell numbers, but not permission to text them. Time to do that the same way we do with their email addresses.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Digital Now

Oohhh... If we could send out renewal notices via SMS and take payment via SMS...


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Digital Now

keynote speaker: Tomi Ahonen www.tomiahonen.com

"In a connected age, sharing information is power."

How big is mobile? 5.2 billion mobile phone subscribers versus 4.9 billion television, Internet, personal computer users.

How addicted are we?Average user checks his phone150 times per day.

Text messaging is the primary use of cell phones, not voice calls.
SMS alone is 3 times as big as email. MMS is a little smaller, but that is the next wave.

42% of American teens can send text messages blindfolded. 61% would choose their phone over TV. Only .3% choose email for their preferred communication.

Where are Mensa's younger members? ON THEIR PHONES. Where are Mensa's social events? At homes, restaurants, and email lists. See the problem?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Digital Now Conference

I'll be blogging quite a bit over the next few days from Digital Now (see earlier post for details).

Already, I'm bursting with ideas. QR codes... We could use these at AGs or RGs. Real effort to bring in paying vendors to our events... Some associations make 75% of their income this way... Imagine if Mensa didn't have to rely on dues!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Reflections on the Lawsuit

In one of my several campaign messages, I pledge to offer members my “bravery.” Ok, time to put my actions where my words are. You won’t like my answers, but I’ll bravely share my thoughts on the lawsuit.

First, refresh your knowledge by reading the FAQ.

Next, understand that what follows is just my ever-dimming memory of how things played out. Do not consider this essay as the definitive "minutes" of the lawsuit process. It is quite possible that I have factual errors in this. This is just me, Robin, sharing my own perspectives and recollections.

Yes, I think we were right to contest their trademark application. That's a step we take frequently. It’s not a lawsuit.

Yes, I think we were right to negotiate with Ipharmatica to get them to not call their product ADMENSA, or AdMensa. Part of those negotiations were asking them to use "Admensa" or some other variant of font sizes that downplayed the "mensa" part of their chosen product name. They refused. They weaseled and prevaricated and dragged out the negotiations. Meanwhile we found smoking gun evidence that they planned to draw a marketing connection between Mensa and their "smart" product. No wonder they were unwilling to negotiate to lessen the confusion between the names.

Yes, I think we were right to initiate a suit when our good-faith negotiations failed. We had strong evidence. And we knew that letting one company use our name and cachet would forever diminish our ability to stop other companies from doing the same. We did not have our eyes on some big pile of gold settlement. We never ever went into this hoping to make money. Keeping our grip on our property and hopefully recovering some of our costs for doing so were the only goals we had. Yes, I think those are reasonable goals.

Inpharmatica turned the tables on us and counter-sued, saying that AML doesn't own the name "Mensa." This was a big deal. Fortunately, we had evidence to prove that we do own it, so we did not roll over and give it up. Yes, I think we were right to defend ourselves when counter-sued.

Warning: the figures in the next two paragraphs are made up for illustrative purposes!

(but the relativity of the figures to each other is fairly accurate).

The kicker was the concept of "fame." According to our research, which was diligent, a mark is famous if 40% of the general public and 75% of a specialized subset of the public (such as professors or landscapers) recognize the mark. Our data proved that 50% of the general public and 85% of the specialized subset knew what Mensa is and stands for. Awesome— Mensa is plenty famous for our case.

My memory is starting to fade on this a bit, but as I recall, the judge seems to have looked as different case law, and somehow took the 50% figure and noted that it is less than the 75% figure necessary for fame.... and ruled that "Mensa" is not famous. Something like that; I'm neither a lawyer nor do I have a eidetic memory. Basically there was a judgmental mix up we did not anticipate, but which deflated our case significantly.

We authorized our lawyers to negotiate a settlement instead of proceeding with the trial. I think we were right to offer settlement. Our offers did not include recouping everything we'd spent up to that point let alone any "profit." We were pretty damn reasonable. However, the other side had also spent a fortune on this mess, and saw an opportunity to recoup their costs.

Inpharmatica smelled blood, and declined our settlement attempts. We had to go to trial. Could we have given up and relinquished our claim of ownership of “Mensa?” I suppose so. We chose not to. I think we were right to fight to own our name.

We won ownership.  This is huge, as it will significantly strengthen our case if we are ever in this situation again.

We considered going into a full-blown appeal, with the possibility of recouping some of our costs, but by then we were all weary and unwilling to spend additional money on it. Instead, we did some wrangling with appeals and settlements and blustering (all kinda dim in my mind now) that resulted in getting the judge to vacate his ruling on the fame issue. While it would have been better to have him say “Yes, Mensa is famous,” at least we no longer have on the record a statement that Mensa is NOT famous. Yes, I think the wrangling instead of fully pursuing was wise.

We absolutely did not see a little mash-up of our name on a product not generally seen by the public and think to ourselves, “heck, let’s sue ‘em!” It was a step-by-step process, and at each stage, the AMC was informed and consulted and asked to decide how to proceed. It was never seen as frivolous, and we were never blithe about the costs.

Would I be willing to spend two million on a frivolous lawsuit?  Of course not. I’m not sure I’d be willing to spend that much on a non-frivolous lawsuit, and as a result of the Inpharmatica suit, I suspect we won’t ever have to. We have established that we own the mark. We have demonstrated to would-be challengers that we are not push-overs. We get to keep the piles and piles of evidence we already paid for that can be used in our defense if we ever need it.

The whole thing took several years and was financially and emotionally draining. We won—kept ownership of our name and got Inpharmatica to not use it— but it was a pyrrhic victory. We learned much and I do not anticipate ever having such a legal nightmare again.

Getting Ready for Digital Now

I know, I know... I haven't blogged in a while. usually I blog my notes rom the AMC meeting, but this time, i was very much involved in some of the more heated scissions, so it was difficult to type at the same time. Additionally, Marc and Jared were both writing notes. Marc posted his in the forums  and Jared posted his in several places, including his own blog. I looked at both gentlemen's summaries, and pretty much agree with them.

I came home from the AMC and went right into spring break, with kids home and my mother visiting, so my mensa time has been a bit limited and consumed by the panic regarding the e-newsletter changes. The team is working on developing a full educational campaign for Group officers and general members, and you'll hear more in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, I'm preparing for my next trip, to the Digital Now conference in Florida. Regardless of the election outcome, this will certainly teach me a great deal and pump up my enthusiasm for Mensa's future. Some of the topics I'll be learning about are:

•  Finding the Path to Sustainable Growth
•  How Mobility Brings Traditional and Digital Marketing Together for Successful Engagements
•  How Global Connectivity is Revolutionizing the Way We Do Business
•  Integrating Leadership, Strategy, and Technology to Go Global 
•  Engaging and Empowering the New Member Volunteers
•  Creating and Tracking Member Engagement
•  The Art and Science of Micro Volunteerism
•  e-Commerce Best Practices

My first task was downloading a QR app to my phone-- I'm curious to learn how this will be useful to Mensa.

I'll try to blog or tweet from the conference when I can.