Increasing Member Participation

 I was recently asked "What would you do to increase member participation?"

Here is my answer:

For decades, I’ve heard Mensa leaders express concerns about low member-participation. However, having done quite a few in-depth research projects on the topic, I have come to the conclusion that “participation” levels are not nearly as bad as they might seem. 

Mensa has members of all ages and interests. At each stage of life, free time and resources vary; young people may be busy with school, establishing careers, or raising children and older members may have limited finances or mobility. Some members live far from the urban areas that offer many in-person activities. Some members are introverts and don’t particularly enjoy large gatherings.The extroverted members who attend big events simply don’t see the quiet, introverted members who are participating in their own ways.

“Participation" in Mensa includes much more than just physically showing up at large  gatherings. Members participate when they attend a small monthly games night in their home town. They participate when they read a newsletter or silently lurk on a Mensa social media platform. They participate when they encourage a friend to join. They participate when they vote in elections. They participate when they socialize online with fellow SIG members. They participate when they connect with a SIGHT host while traveling. They participate when they send a link to a Mensa scholarship opportunity to a friend’s child. They participate when they encourage a frustrated gifted child to keep going because there really are people in the world who think the same way and there are communities where they can find acceptance. They participate when they carry their membership card as a token of pride.

So how would I increase member participation? Adding more ways to connect online, obviously, but more importantly, getting the message out to all members— we see you and your choice of how you participate in Mensa is valid... and valued.

Renew or Not To Renew- That is the Question

It is no secret that I’ve been quite down on Mensa for the past many months. My reasons are fairly well-known and shared by many.

Lots of members, newish and seasoned, are seriously questioning the direction and future of the organization we all love. So much so that many are intending to just give up and walk away, especially during this time of year when the renewal notices are piling up on our desks.

Matt and I are life members, so to walk away from Mensa would take a bit more effort, though it can be done if we wish to forego the investment we made in order to make a statement of our displeasure. However, our kids are not life members; we have been paying their membership bills for them each year. This year, they’re off in college, getting far more intellectual stimulation and camaraderie than they get from Mensa (albeit at a much higher price). So the simple way for me to express my lack of support for the direction and administration of Mensa would be to simply not continue those two memberships.

However, the only way Mensa will change— will turn around and start back on a path towards being the great smart thing we want it to be—is if there are significant changes at the top. So I’m going to renew Owen and Lindsay’s membership—not because I like how Mensa is, nor because they get anything out of it, but because…

I’m buying two votes.

Sure, it costs money. But when I think of all the money I’ve invested in Mensa over the years, beyond my dues, it’s a drop in the bucket. And I’m not the only one. Think of the receipts for mailing testing packets back to the office every proctor has neglected to turn in. Think of the gas money we’ve all spent to get to a meeting because our help was requested. Think of the ink and paper we’ve donated to print out flyers for events. Think of the TIME we’ve given to do our part to cart food and answer phone calls and write articles and design websites and edit newsletters and prepare reports and and and…

When you add up how much non-dues money I’ve spent in one form or another for the good of Mensa, two memberships is nothing.

So I’m going to spend money on improving Mensa one more time.

I’m buying two votes.

I urge others, especially the angry, disgusted, passionate members questioning the value of membership in Mensa-As-Is…

Renew.

Buy a vote.

Make a difference.

A "Natural" Size of 50,000 Members?

I’ve been cleaning my basement, and found an old Bulletin. I flipped it open to the Chairman’s column and read this (sharing because I found this mentality-of-the-past interesting in light of my post earlier this week.):

From Across the Table (Chairman’s column) March 1994

...Growth of the society has been a consideration one way or another during virtually all of my 25-year membership. We have promoted growth through both membership contests and heavy advertising. And, to some extent, the pursuit of growth was successful—obviously there are more Mensans now than there were 15 or 25 years ago. But Development Officer The Joyce Lundeen and I agree that we seem to have reached our peak at about 50,000 members. Heavy investments in advertising raised that number to nearly 56,000. Continued heavy investments in advertising maintained that number only tenuously, and have not been successful in increasing it.

Our working hypothesis is that Mensa has a “natural” size of about 50,000 and a “natural” annual attrition rate through all causes of about 12 percent. Our goal, then, is to shape and size a development program that is appropriate for our resources and that aims to maintain our natural size by minimizing attrition and attracting enough new members to prevent stagnation.

…Abandoning growth as an organizational goal does not imply a conscious effort to reduce the size of the society or to permit it to dwindle to nothing. It means only this: allowing the membership to stabilize in numbers. The fundamental idea is to manage today’s society with today’s resources rather than spending money we don’t have on a society that doesn’t exist....

Personally, I’m torn. The “spend what you have on what you already are”… seems rational. But looking only at what is and not at what could be… seems like a recipe for Mensa eventually heading the way of the pony express or Blockbuster.

French & French Manicures

I’m reading an interesting thread on the forums about value of membership, and whether to renew or not. I think it's reasonable to claim that I've had more than my fair share of unkind treatment from members during my years of service. I am a life member, but even so, I can certainly quit, or at the very least, stop attending events, refrain from participating in forum discussions, and refuse to lift a finger. But I'm staying. After thinking about it for a while I came up with two main reasons: commitment and self-definition

.

Commitment

I ended up with a degree in French; I stuck it out for nearly a decade, even though I hated every class I took after the first one in 7th (I had a crush on Monsieur Russell). It started out with such potential and excitement. And for a few subsequent years, I just kept hoping the boredom and frumpy teachers were anomalies and that it would surely get better next year. By the time I realized that Monsieur Russell was the anomaly, I'd already put in so much time that if I'd quit, all the suffering through Mesdames Vieille and  Ennuyeuse would have been for naught. The effort wasted. So I stuck it out and eventually ended up, believe it or not, as a French teacher. Yeah, the universe is a funny place.

Mensa... it's little like that. I've put so much into it, that if I quit now, all my work will be for nothing. Without really doing so consciously, I made a commitment to learning French.

A few years ago, when I became a life member, it was not because I was crazy rich, nor because I figured it'd be a wise investment (we really did run the numbers regarding estimated investment returns on the money versus estimated inflation of dues rates). I became a life member as a commitment to the organization. So just as people stay in rocky and and stressful marriages, screaming when it's really bad and helping to rebuild after a setback, I'm staying.

Self-Definition

The second reason I stay is the same reason I spend stupid money on my fingernails. I don't need them. They make it hard to open things. None of my friends even notice them anymore. My career as a hand model is never going to take off.  But to me, they have become part of my self-identity. I have long hair, glasses, and manicured nails.

I'm a Mensan, as I have been for nearly half my life. It's part of who I am.

Is the AMC "Out of Touch?"

Pam recently returned from her annual ASAE convention, and shared some observations and lessons and pointers to blogs reviewing the convention. I read this one at Social Fish :

Most of it was pretty specific to ASAE, however, this jumped out at me:

"Here’s a lesson: there is no such thing anymore as “unofficial” versus “official”member activity. We’re all part of the same community. We’re all building community and engagement on behalf of ASAE – for you, not for us. The point of YAP is to get young association professionals (including “young to the profession” and “young at heart”) more involved in ASAE. Get it?  We’re doing it for the love.  All we’d like in return is a little love back once in a while.  We’re feeling our love is unrequited, and if you’re not careful, one day we’ll take mom’s advice and go find other fish in the sea."

We in Mensa do try so hard to distinguish between official and unofficial, between ASIE-regulated and Fist-waving independence. Mensa has very much become a huge set of overlapping groupings of members, some of which are initiated top-down, and some of which are grown grass-up. But all are equally essential to gestalt of the Mensa experience.

Reading the comments, the recurring theme was that ASAE leaders were out of touch with their membership. I see this same complaint about AMC on some of the Yahoo lists. I really don't feel like I'm out of touch. So either I'm not and other AMCers are, or I am and I am not seeing that in myself because I don't understand what members mean by "out of touch."

So, readers.... are Mensa's national leaders "out of touch" with the membership, and if so, what do you mean by that? What actions or inactions make you reach that conclusion? 

Hhmmm.... and since there are so many members and so many member communities, are there  particular segments of the membership that leaders should be touching more than others? (Get your minds out of the gutter!)

Two interesting bits of data

How many lapsed members were taking e-publications?
As of 4/1/2009 of those lapsed at that time, there were 2211 people out of 13694 or 16%.  Recouping those folks over the year, the number is now closer to 1256 out of 7946 ... still 16%. 


Is there validity to the fabled assumption "Only 10% are active?"
The raw responses from the massive LGS&F survey which asked "Do you attend at least one Local Group activity a year?" show that 43.6% do go to at least one event a year.

Novel Approach to Recruitment

I read this in another blog (Acronym Jan 29, 2010) today (catching up a bit). And it struck me as a worthy exercise at both the national and local levels when we strive to recruit and retain members.

Assume that your prospects are content, lazy slouches with no ambition, little desire to expand their horizons, and zero familiarity with membership organizations. Then figure out how to make membership in your association relevant to those people.

I don't have any ideas.. it just made me go "hmmmm....."



In another post (Jan 25), he wrote

...a passion for governance eludes me. I understand all the blah blah about how important it is to the association etc., but I am asking all of you governance gurus out there: What is the source of your personal passion related to board governance? What motivates you and what rewards do you get out of it that make you feel all warm and fuzzy?

Good question. I'm putting it here to remind me to mull it over and post my answer when I get it jelled in my mind.

Those charts I mentioned

Dues influencing Retention

Looking at charts of membership totals, renewal rates, and dues increases. Interesting.

Facts do not support the myth

that dues increases lose members.

Even the renewal rates do not support it-- you can't say membership is going up because of new members replacing old members.

If I can get it, I'll post that graphic.

AMC Meeting Day One

Today is day two of the AMC meeting. Yesterday went well. It was long and dull in parts. We broke it up into a bit of formal motion-discussion and voting and then long periods of "planning."

Planning Sessions

Most of the "planning" was listening to explanations of prior efforts and progress, followed by a few small group work. My table worked on aspects of the  membership strategic goal. We identified, using the quarterly reports and our own knowledge, what the organization as a whole has accomplished in that area since July. And then we identified a bunch of pieces of data we wanted to have and track over time to help the AMC and staff stay on top of and react to and assess various aspects of the membership goal. I felt a bit patronized during the process, and my eyes glazed over a few times, but in general, it was useful and I'm feeling a bit more positive about this "strategic planning" stuff. Now if only we could get rid of all the fluffy words so I wouldn't be constantly wanting to shout out "but the emperor is naked!"

Tweeting

I tweeted as best I could during all this. Yes, De, I know you don't like Twitter, but it was much easier to use from my iphone than the AML Online Community ( I didn't have my laptop out during the meeting). If you are interested in the tweets about the whole day, including the things the various small groups came up with, go look at my twitter feed (to the right of this column).

Charter

The motion on the LG Charter passed with little discussion- what was left to say, really? I am soooooo glad to have that off my plate!

Discussion on LG Directories

We had some formal discussions about LG directories-- should they be allowed to email them, should they be allowed to create them at all, etc. Result is that LGs can make local directories but that we'll keep the rule that LGs can't email the electronic versions out of concern for member-privacy issues.

MIL Exchange program

We talked about the MIL program to send a few Americans to the European AG to give some LDWs, and to send some Europeans here to our AG for the same reason. Sounds useful and interesting. The Leadership Committee ( Peggy is chair) will choose candidates and the AMC will approve. (I think that's how it's going to work.)

Replacing RVCs

We talked about the options for replacing RVCs. Narrowed it down to:

* LocSecs choose

* LocSecs and Excomms choose

* Nominate regionally, elect nationally- each member has one vote to cast

* Nominate regionally, elect nationally- each member has ten votes to cast

* Elect and RVC and a spare the first time around

* Hold a full regional election

* Do nothing-- appoint a regional rep if we have to, and a non-voting rep if there are two RVCs who leave in a term.

All have merit. None are perfect. We had a series of straw polls to determine preferences so we could then direct the Bylaws Committee  to craft the proposals. First round of straw votes showed a clear preference for the LocSec option, and fairly even splits for the other options.  I voted for the Nom regionally, elect nationally with each member casting one vote option. In discussion, Burg explained why the LocSec option was legal. I pointed out that our membership had already told us that they don't think it's legal enough. Then he chewed me a new one.

The downside of the concern about the full regional election is the cost and the time it would take. The upside is that members in a region would really, no bones about it, get to vote for their representative. I then pointed to RVCs Lori, Marc, Betsy, and Ken (in my line of sight) and asked them how many members voted for them in the last election. The answer: none. My point is that if we held a regular style full regional replacement election, at least 60% of the time it would go fast and cost little, simple because there would be only one volunteer willing to do the job. And that all this howling about members should get to choose their representatives' replacements  is kinda lame, since plenty of times, they have no choice the first time around.

Anyway, second straw poll had most "votes" (most in this case being about 8) supporting the LocSec option again, so the Bylaws Committee was instructed to go work on that. Guy asked for a poll to confirm that there would be at least 11 AMC members who would support that option, as otherwise it's useless for the bylaws Comm to spend time on it. We did yet another poll, and yes, it looks like more than 11 AMC members would support that method. I voted against it. So did Guy. I did not take notes and cannot recall who else voted against it. But this was a straw poll- not a formal vote. I doubt it will be in the official minutes.

Day is Done

We broke up, some went to a Site Selection meeting ( not me, so I have no idea what they discussed). We had dinner. I went to the Finance Committee meeting ( two hours!). We reviewed our motions we're making today, answered questions of committee members, looked at budget projections and balance sheets, gnashed our teeth, and pounded our chests. The thing that is clear to me, at least, is that we only have to borrow (from life dues principal) the amount listed in the motion before the AMC today. The rest of the ~$2 million spent on the lawsuit we had in reserve. The other finance motion is not about replaying that $2mil (we didn't borrow it, so who would we repay it to?), but about building our reserves back up until the net assets are positive on the balance sheet. I suggested an LDW presentation at the AG about how to find and read AMLs financial documents. Others scoffed that no members would attend such a presentation.

And then, a glass or two of wine in hospitality, and off to bed around 11pm.

Looking at Prior research

As part of our work on the Local Group Service & Funding committee, we had to read and analyze some of the prior research. There was a lot to chew on, but our job was to focus on teasing out conclusions regarding

What members expect and require at the local level

Here are my conclusions.

Renewal Survey 2003 (lapsed members):

* Most lapsed member did not participate in anything.

* 31% did some Local Group things.

* Most joined to meet other smart people.

* Greatest reason (34%) for lapse was inability to participate in things.

* Other reasons for lapsing included low value to dues ratio, meetings not interesting, locations not convenient, LG not friendly , too expensive to participate, obnoxious members, wishing for more service opportunities.

Marketing Survey (aka Mensans 24-44 of Gen X Survey) 2005:

* People join to prove their intelligence and to find intellectual stimulation.

* They want others to plan convenient brainy activities for little money.

Forum Survey 2006:

* Online interaction is a good thing.

Mensa Bulletin Readership Survey 2006:

* Members like to read about science, social problems & solutions, and humor. (Presumably they also like to talk and listen about these topics.)

* Members want intellectual stimulation.

Local Group Funding Report 2006:

* Volunteers, more so than money, are the key to a LG being able to provide good service to its members (although adequate funding is still essential).

* Money does not buy talented and enthusiastic volunteers.

* Local volunteers should receive training and encouragement to use funds to expand existing or initiate new methods of member interaction.

Local Group Study (aka LocSec Survey) 2008:

* LocSecs’ greatest concern is lack of interest on the part of members.

* Their second greatest concern is lack of volunteers.

* The main reason people don’t volunteer is lack of time.

* To improve the group, LocSecs want more members, volunteers, and participation.

Governance Survey 2008:

* The core purpose of Mensa is social. The overriding thing we need to do to improve Mensa is get more members. And then, teach them how to interact and be social.

What do members want from LG newsletters?

Do we know --I mean empirically-- what members what from a Local newsletter? Has anyone done any research to determine if they want thick, juicy newsletters with locally-written articles, puzzles, photos, etc, or if they just want to know when and where the next get-together is? Do your readers want to read about upcoming AMC motions, or do they just want light-hearted reviews of local events? Are we creating bigger, more expensive newsletters than our members need or wish for? What are your customers' priorities?

(and no, I don't have the answer to my questions-- I'm just wondering outloud here.)

It seems to me that we should start by determining what the members really want and need from a local newsletter before we try to determine how to deliver and pay for what we think they want and need.

This is actually a piece of what the Local Group Service & Funding committee is trying to figure out.

Membership Milestone

Today, American Mensa has 56,935 members. This is the highest membership level ever, surpassing even the 1989 high of 56,929.

And to think, some members are wailing that Mensa has lost its way. If so, the numbers do not seem to support that theory.

Retention Questions

Would holding dues down keep the members who are dropping out because they don't meet enough pleasant people? Will it keep icky members from quitting in a fit of pique because not enough other members gave them the warm fuzzies they feel they deserved? Will it help the members who hook up with someone, break up, and then drop out because they want to distance themselves from the pain? Will it keep members from dying?

Retention is hovering near 90%. How much better is reasonable to expect?

Dues and Retention

Some members assert that high —and always increasing—dues are negatively impacting Mensa’s membership rates. I’ve read in the ReVelle survey (the 1986 survey of former members) that high dues were the top factor (40% of respondents) in quitting. In 1986, dues were $33. Adjusted for inflation, they’d be $61.92 in 2007. According to the 2006 Local Group Funding Report, dues, which were $30 in 1982, would be $67.20 in 2006.

So using my very weak math skills, I can set a mid point of those two inflation-adjusted figures of $64.56 as what one might expect Mensa dues to be if we just kept up with inflation. In reality, our dues are $52—nearly 20% less.

So not only is AML holding the line on dues increases, there has definitely been an increase in the number of services and perqs in that time. Even just comparing the Bulletin of today with the Bulletin of 1989 (when I joined) I see huge differences. I compared the June issue from 1989 with the June issue from 2007:

1989
Total pages 33
Cover—two-color (with screens)
Number of interior pages with color—0
Non-business articles/puzzles/columns—9 pages
Letters—2.5 pages

2007
Total pages 55
Cover—four-color
Number of interior pages with color—15
Non-business articles/puzzles/columns—19 pages
Letters—3.5 pages

I’d love to know, empirically, how dues levels affect modern retention figures. Is a buck a week simply too much for some folks to pay? Do those same people who can’t afford membership also forgo buying 17 Starbucks’ lattes, ten packs of cigarettes, four DVDs or two cases of decent beer in a year? Or would it be a reasonable amount if those unhappy members were getting more bang for their bucks? I think it’s not the actual cost of membership that is at issue; it’s the perception of the value of membership after purchased.

Local and national officers and staff have really put in a great deal of effort in the last couple decades to increase the value of when members get for their dues. Bigger magazines, better LG newsletters, vibrant online communities, elaborate Web sites, dozens of cost-saving member benefit opportunities…

I wish we would do another ReVelle-type survey to see if we’re succeeding.

Some Members are Worth More?

Someone opined on a forum discussion that active members are worth more— more attention and resources and acceptance.

I was incensed.

Many Mensans go through phases throughout their membership lifetimes. When I first joined, I was young, single, and attended many things— for the fun of it. I did not lift a finger to help. Not once. I didn't even offer to clear a table of debris at the RG. I was lazy and a taker. But still I felt welcomed.

Then I got married and had babies and spent several years under a rock. I went to nothing. I tossed my Bulletins unread. I glanced at our local newsletter occasionally, but it only contained information about events I would miss and people I didn't know. However, that once-a-month paper reminder on the coffee table reassured me that there was more to me than laundry and diapers. It kept me connected, though Mensa officers didn't know I existed.

A few years later, the kids started school and I emerged from my rock. This time, I was looking for challenging projects to do that would stay done (unlike laundry) and I wanted to give something back to the group that welcomed me and kept me hooked despite my laziness and lack of participation. And I have volunteered and given thousands of hours to Mensa since then.

If anyone had told me I was not worth his time or attention in my two earlier phases, Mensa would be one volunteer poorer today. So to all you silent, seemingly inactive members I say: You are wanted. You are valued. You are needed. Mensa is here for you when you need us.

College Students and Marketing

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?"

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

Attending Events

I'm from a giant, basically urban group with many well-attended activities. Here's what I've noticed: The same people attend the same events all the time. I go to the things where I know my pals will be. And since I have so many choices, I'm not often inclined to gamble on an event I've never attended before--why take a chance that I'll get stuck listening to a boor when I could go to a "sure thing?" Why go to something where I'm not sure people will like me?

Tripling the number of new members—all strangers—won't increase the number of friends I know will be at an event. But increasing the number of people at one of the huge events, like an RG, which I would go to anyway, will potentially increase the number of "cool" people I know. This, in turn, would make me more likely to go to an event I've never been to, but which I know has at least one of my friends in attendance. (Actually, that is the reality I find myself in nowadays—I know and like someone at just about every activity on our calendar. Part of that is because when I was LocSec, I made an effort to go to many events all over the area and part of it is simply that being LocSec and editor exposed me to a higher percentage of our members than I might have otherwise encountered.)

It takes guts to show up at an event when you don't know anyone. It takes real inner strength to show up a second time if you encountered an unpleasant person the first time. I'm not shy, not at all. But if I think this way, imagine how the majority of members who are introverts feel.

What I get for my Dues

All amounts are approximations and subjective guesses:

Ten Bulletins $10
Twelve ChiMes (our LG newsletter) $12
Savings on pet insurance $5
Savings on Mental_Floss $4
Savings at Think Geek $10
Forum, elist, Facebook, etc access $12
Savings on food and drink at ten Monthly Meetings $10-$20
Ego trip of being in Mensa $1
Easy access to others who accept me $priceless

Not bad. It adds up to more than $52.