Hmmm...
By
June 2006
Fellow CAM members: unfortunately this column finds me in a low place. While I have just returned from an enjoyable weekend camping with my daughter's scout troop, I also spent last evening with a friend in need, so perhaps I am just tired. I struggle with this column monthly, but it has become increasingly difficult to write as I find that negativity keeps rearing it's ugly head and I do not think it is just my frustration that lends this interpretation. I feel that CAM is becoming an increasingly fragmented, that hostility is replacing acceptance and that intolerance and attacks have become accepted practices.
I know that part of my personal motivation for addressing this stems from the horrendous events of lasts year's elections and that has been the primary reason for my NOT addressing it prior to now - it seemed too personal an issue. But it is apparent to me that the problem is increasing and it is affecting the running of CAM.
There have been three events in the last few weeks that are contributing to this sense. First is my frustration. I have recently made attempts to discuss the topic with several different people and have found extreme resistance/negativity to doing so. Second is an issue with the Gen-X group, one that has left me feeling very sad and has also contributed strongly to my sense of the division in CAM. The final event was receipt of the Lapsed Member list from National, which I thought was much too high.
Of course, all of these events could be explained away as innocuous occurrences. Perhaps I was just having the misfortune of trying to talk to the wrong people or was simply catching them at ill-timed moments. Perhaps the issues in the Gen-X group are just one or two unhappy people and nothing more. And perhaps the number of lapsed members this year is not as significant as I believe (to put this in perspective, in 2004 we had 63, in 2005 the number was 59 and this year we have 86 out of a total membership of roughly 350).
So what is my point with all of this? I know that part of my personal issue has to do with my idealism. I still want CAM to be that place that I found 5 years ago - the place where I could be me and feel accepted for who I was, rather than the freakish smart girl with the odd sense of humor (of course, I still am that ;-). And I want it for all members of Mensa. Nothing unattainable, eh?
I also know that I am running the risk of alienating people simply by writing this column, particularly for singling out the Gen-X group. I can only hope that you will understand that Gen-X is the future of Mensa, the very near future, and that my goal is to preserve Mensa for all of us. This is not an attack; it is simply an acknowledgment of a real situation that affects everyone in CAM.
Finally I know that I can no longer do nothing. I will be calling the lapsed members and having more conversations with people, conversations not about attacking or blaming but about understanding and purpose. I hope that you will consider these issues and not simply dismiss them as the rantings of a senile Loc Sec who has clearly gone around the bend or, worse yet, dismiss them as insignificant and not worth your time and energy. The ways in which we relate to each other matter very much.