From the LocSec
By
May 2008
If you're a life member or your mailing label has 2009 or later on it, by all means skip this paragraph. If your mailing label has the year 2008 on it, this may very well be the last Mencinnatian you'll get; the 2008 date indicates that as of March 31, you had not renewed your membership. There's a bit of a delay in starting newsletter subscriptions, so there's a similar delay in ending them; that's why you get one issue after your membership has lapsed. If you've renewed since March 31, go ahead and skip this paragraph, too; so long as you have renewed by the end of April, you won't miss a Mencinnatian. For those of you still reading, I hope your departure is temporary and brief; we welcome you back at any time, and re-testing is never necessary. If you have questions about renewing, the National Office is glad to help you with the process; the toll-free number is 888-66-MENSA, and you can call anytime (you'll get a call back if calling outside business hours in Texas).
A good many of you are reading this without having received a Mencinnatian in the mail. Electronic distribution is now a real option, and it has advantages both to the group and to the membership. As a member, you get your Mencinnatian sooner if you take the electronic option; you get color that's not in the printed edition; you can print out (or not) portions of the newsletter you want to have, and print as many copies as you'd like, or be environmentally conscious and read on line; and you have access to the newsletter any place you have internet access. As a group, we save printing and postage costs, and, hopefully, have happy members. We hope more of you will choose this option over time.
Cincinnati Area Mensa will be hosting American Mensa's Mind Games next year, and registration is just $60 through May 17. Mind Games is an intense weekend of judging new games - board games, word games, card games, etc. (pretty much every sort of non-electronic table game). Members get a play list of 30 games, and vote for the ones we like best; the top 5 games earn the Mensa Select Seal, something manufacturers consider valuable - past winners include such games as Set and Apples to Apples. At the end of the judging, members who have participated get to take home the games as door prizes (selection is done in random order). For the right person, playing the new games (those that were first marketed in the 15 months before the event) is a delight, despite the bad games in the mix with the good ones, and many attendees (myself included) return year after year as the event moves around the country. It's not for everyone, but if you think it might be for you, this is an opportunity to participate without traveling far from home. The 2009 event will be April 24-26, at the Drawbridge Inn in Ft. Mitchell.
There are other national Mensa events coming up, also. Within the next year, there is the Annual Gathering in Denver in early July, a colloquium on genealogy in Salt Lake City in September, another colloquium on weather that will be held in Atlanta in March, then Mind Games in April. Going to a national event is a great way to meet Mensans from around the country and even around the world, and a great way to use your membership. There are also events in the region, such as Southeast Michigan's Regional Gathering in suburban Detroit the first weekend in May, and the annual Queen's Croquet hosted by CAM's own Mary Lee Kemper in suburban Dayton at the end of the month. Or stay close to home and look much farther away, as we go stargazing for our monthly gathering this month. There are lots of ways to take advantage of your membership, and I hope you choose to take advantage of one or more.
--Rick Magnus
Local Secretary (LocSec)