From a comment on M-Leaders about Mensa's lack of relevance to society today:
For Mensa to have cultural relevance, our members have to feel like Mensa has relevance to them -- and I think that the best way to achieve this for this organization is to help Mensa members become relevant themselves.
We try to achieve relevance by encouraging people to join who are already doing OK in that area - we try to recruit successful scientists, actors, children, business people, to pay their money and carry the card, so we can promote them....we try to put our references into Dancing With the Stars, or Big Bang Theory, or anything else we feel is already successful for being smart...when we are already sitting on the biggest PR goldmine every -- members who are already here who high intelligence and also have dreams and goals and desires that Mensa could, if we wanted, help them learn to achieve. We could be instrumental in some great things - some relevant things.
Our purposes are "to identify and to foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity; to encourage research into the nature, characteristics, and uses of intelligence; and to provide a stimulating intellectual and social environment for its members." What better way to do that than to take people who come into our organization wanting to achieve more, find an intelligent mate, write a book, plan a career, or find a place where their ideas and opinions can be turned into action. I know I'm not alone in coming into Mensa knowing that I was really smart, but underachieving - I looked to Mensa to find out how I could turn that into something relevant to me, to my family, to my career, to the world.
What would Smithsonian Magazine think if, instead of coming to them and saying, "Hey, do an article about us because we have existed for 50 years and we talked a few successful people into putting their pocket change down to be members," we said, "Hey, do an article about us because we helped hundreds of people become authors, advance in their career, find love, start businesses, join think tanks, invent items on the market today, become artists, actors, viral web superstars?"
So, in short, the best way for Mensa to be relevant to people today, is to BE RELEVANT TO PEOPLE TODAY!
For Mensa to have cultural relevance, our members have to feel like Mensa has relevance to them -- and I think that the best way to achieve this for this organization is to help Mensa members become relevant themselves.
We try to achieve relevance by encouraging people to join who are already doing OK in that area - we try to recruit successful scientists, actors, children, business people, to pay their money and carry the card, so we can promote them....we try to put our references into Dancing With the Stars, or Big Bang Theory, or anything else we feel is already successful for being smart...when we are already sitting on the biggest PR goldmine every -- members who are already here who high intelligence and also have dreams and goals and desires that Mensa could, if we wanted, help them learn to achieve. We could be instrumental in some great things - some relevant things.
Our purposes are "to identify and to foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity; to encourage research into the nature, characteristics, and uses of intelligence; and to provide a stimulating intellectual and social environment for its members." What better way to do that than to take people who come into our organization wanting to achieve more, find an intelligent mate, write a book, plan a career, or find a place where their ideas and opinions can be turned into action. I know I'm not alone in coming into Mensa knowing that I was really smart, but underachieving - I looked to Mensa to find out how I could turn that into something relevant to me, to my family, to my career, to the world.
What would Smithsonian Magazine think if, instead of coming to them and saying, "Hey, do an article about us because we have existed for 50 years and we talked a few successful people into putting their pocket change down to be members," we said, "Hey, do an article about us because we helped hundreds of people become authors, advance in their career, find love, start businesses, join think tanks, invent items on the market today, become artists, actors, viral web superstars?"
So, in short, the best way for Mensa to be relevant to people today, is to BE RELEVANT TO PEOPLE TODAY!
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