HalloweeM 36

As a member of Chicago Area Mensa, I'd like to personally invite you to enjoy our Regional Gathering, HalloWeeM, from October 27-30 in Wheeling, IL.  WeeM (as we tend to call it) is four full days filled with programs, gaming, food, and beverages for all ages as well as hundreds of friends you haven't met yet!
 We have traditional events that happen every year, like:
* Thursday night pig roast
* Friday night pun-filled costume contest  (the theme this year is Spooky Scary WeeM!)
* Pretentious Drinking and Desserts on Saturday night
* Live bands and dancing
* Poker tournament (just for fun and pride, no real money involved)

We also have gaming going 24 hours a day, using our incredibly huge game collection (one of the largest collections in the midwest!). There are programs, including lectures, forums, and interactive sessions.  And, of course, there's hospitality, with our famous soda machines keeping you hydrated, a chilled salad bar, and several hot meals throughout the weekend.

Our hotel, the Westin in Wheeling, IL is only a couple of years old and thus shiny and new-feeling, surrounded by fun restaurants, with lots of space for our hospitality, gaming, and programs.  At only $126 per night if you book by October 1st, the hotel is an incredible bargain for the Chicago area! HalloWeeM is really a great value, too, at just $85 for four full days, including meals!  You can register and book your hotel at our website.

If you want to add even more fun to your HalloweeM, volunteering will put you right in the middle of the action.  By being a volunteer, you'll be entered in a raffle for a great prize, and you'll receive a highly collectible WeeM pin! The design is different every year!  If you'd like to volunteer, contact our volunteer chair.

Or, perhaps you have a great product that Mensans would love?  HalloweeM is the best opportunity to sell your wares or get the word out about your business, by signing up for a vendor table.  Your products will get visibility to hundreds of Mensans!  Contact our vendor coordinator  for details!

HalloweeM is also a great time to indoctrinate--err, I mean, introduce--your non-Mensan friends to the group.  While registration rates are slightly higher for non-members, the difference is provided back to them as a coupon for the Mensa test, so it's a perfect opportunity to bring them to the dark side (where we have smart cookies).

Make sure to book hotel soon, as the block tends to fill up early. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me here or e-mail the event chairs at .  We're also on Facebook (search for HalloWeeM) and Twitter (@ChicagoMensa).  We hope to see you at WeeM!

Tiny Change for the Better--Bravo!

One of the recommendations from the Governance task Force last fall was to open national-level volunteer positions to all members, including those not already known to the AMC folks. This would mean writing up good descriptions of the task to be done and the skills necessary to to the job well and then advertising far and wide.

I was very pleased to see that concept actually used recently when John Recht sent out the call for an LDW Chair. He specified who the person would be working with, what the goals of the committee are, what responsibilities would be, and what special skills are being sought.

I suspect there will be some new highly qualified and enthusiastic people dipping their toes into the national waters, which can only improve the organization, regardless of who is ultimately chosen.

Bravo, John!

Local Groups Will Remain Strapped

The fall AMC agenda is out. Looks like the AMC is going to not consider increasing funding to Local Groups who could use it to improve their services to members. To say I am disappointed is an understatement, but it seems that members chose to elect representatives who do not care for the plight of members at the local level. 

Ah well, I tried. In retrospect, I would have been wiser to simply take the ~$600 I paid out of my own pocket to print those reports and distribute it to groups myself.

Live and learn. Local Groups will just have to make do with the 2007 funding levels.

LG Funding Concern- Reductions for Underperforming Groups

The AMC finally read my LG Service & Funding report, and they had questions and concerns, which Elissa forwarded to me so I could address them. Since then, it's been quite amusing to tussle with the new Membership Officer, who seems to be against the plan for a number of reasons, one of which is that the groups who have their funding reduced under this plan will be displeased. Here was my response to that:

Those amounts were suggestions. You could certainly tweak the rubric so that Groups which provide little or no service still get 82¢ per member. And you can eliminate the current practice of cutting off funding to Groups that don't meet the minimum requirements... just keep throwing money at them and perhaps someday, a spark plug will move into the area and use it.

But I firmly believe that Groups that want to provide more than the minimum should be funded to do so. Don't keep holding back your racehorses in order to not offend your slugs.

Every time Mensa policy defaults to pleasing the slowest, the timidest, the most luddite..... we put another nail in our coffin.