Mensa International

Mensa International is the largest, oldest, and most well-known high IQ society in the world. The organization restricts its membership to people with high IQs. Specifically, potential members must score within the top 2% of any approved standardized intelligence test.

Background information

Roland Berrill, an Australian barrister, and Dr. Lancelot Ware, an English scientist and lawyer, founded Mensa in England in 1946. They had the idea of forming a society for bright people, the only qualification for membership of which was a high IQ. The original aims were, as they are today, to create a non-political society free from all racial or religious distinctions. The society welcomes all people, regardless of background, whose IQs meet the criteria, with the objective of members enjoying each other's company and participating in a wide range of social and cultural activities.

Mensa accepts individuals who score in the 98^th percentile on standardized IQ tests such as the Stanford-Binet. New scores on certain common tests, such as the SAT and the GRE, are no longer accepted, either because they no longer are considered intelligence tests or because they no longer measure scores up to the 98^th percentile, although older scores on these tests are accepted. On the SAT, for example, scores from 1994 and earlier are accepted. Mensa administers its own tests for those who do not already have qualifying scores from other tests; each national Mensa group has its own rules and procedures for administering tests. Because different tests are scaled differently, it is not meaningful to compare raw scores between tests, only percentiles.

Mensa International has over 100,000 members, with over 50,000 in the United States alone. In addition to encouraging social interaction among its members, the organization is also involved with programs for gifted children, literacy, and scholarships. The name comes from mensa, the Latin word for "table," and indicates that it is a round-table society of equals (although the logo depicts a square table).

Mensa's goals

Mensa has three stated purposes: to identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity; to encourage research in the nature, characteristics, and uses of intelligence; and to promote stimulating intellectual and social opportunities for its members.

Mensa has published a number of books, including Poetry Mensa (1966), an anthology of poems by Mensans from all over the world, in which languages other than English are represented. Mensa edits and publishes its own Mensa Research Journal, in which both Mensans and non-Mensans are published on various topics surrounding the concept and measure of intelligence. The organization also issues periodicals, such as the Mensa Bulletin, the publication of American Mensa, which comes out 10 times a year. In addition to feature articles and book reviews, it contains an active letters section, in which numerous topics are debated.

Organizational structure

Mensa International consists of 50 National Groups. Individuals who live in countries with a National Group join that National Group, while others join Mensa International directly. The two largest National Groups are American Mensa, with about 50,000 members, and British Mensa, with about 25,000 members. The larger National Groups are further subdivided into local groups. For example, American Mensa has over 135 local groups, with the largest having over 2,000 members and the smallest fewer than 100. Additionally, members may form Special Interest Groups (SIGs) at international, national, and local levels; these SIGs represent a wide variety of interests, both commonplace and obscure, ranging from motorcycle clubs to entrepreneurial cooperations, reflecting the wide range of members, who come from a diverse range of occupations and social classes. Some SIGs are associated with various geographic groups, whereas others act independently of official hierarchy. There are now quite a number of electronic SIGs (eSIGs), which operate primarily as e-mail lists, where members may or may not eventually meet each other in person.

Gatherings

Mensa has many events for members, from the local to the international level. In several countries including the US and Britain, there is a large event called the Annual Gathering (AG), held in a different city every year, with speakers, dances, games (Carnelli is a popular Mensa game played at such gatherings) and other activities. There are also smaller gatherings called Regional Gatherings (RGs) held in various locations. In 2006, The Mensa World Gathering will be held from August 8 to August 13 in Orlando, Florida to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of Mensa. An estimated 2500 attendees from over 30 countries will gather for this celebration. The International Board of Directors will gather at this meeting also.

The British AG will be held in Nottingham between September 28th and October 2nd.

Mensa members

Mensa members come from all walks of life and almost every job and profession, representing almost every age group. There are many famous and prominent members. In 1990 the Mensa Hall of Fame was established in order to honour individuals who have demonstrated their genius through remarkable vision and accomplishments.

List of famous members of Mensa

Trivia

Mensa's name was once planned to be Mens, Latin for "mind," but this was potentially confusing. Mensa's name may also seem ironic in parts of Latin America, where menso (feminine: mensa) means "jerk". It is doubly ironic, as it appears that presently the word Mensa is used in Spanish slang to mean "stupid". Mensa is also the Italian word for cafeteria, as well as the German word for a canteen at a university or a school and mens is Dutch and Afrikaans for human and the Swedish and Norwegian expression for menstruation. In Galician, mensa is similar to (and often confused with) pensa (imperative for think), providing an interesting relation.
On February 14 2005 Mensa confirmed that a three-year-old boy had become the youngest current member of Mensa. Toddler Mikhail Ali of Bramley, Leeds, UK, has an IQ of 137, a level of intelligence which puts him in the top 2% of the population for his age. A Mensa spokeswoman confirmed Mikhail was its current youngest member and said the organization only has 30 members under the age of 10. Mikhail was three years and six weeks old when he joined Mensa. The organisation's youngest ever member, Ben Woods, was two years and 10 months when he joined in the mid-1990s . These records are meaningful only from a public-relations standpoint, however, since IQ changes little with age (that is, people who are smart in adulthood were just as smart as children, and vice versa, irrespective of whether or not they join Mensa).
Mensa sets a measured intelligence level in the upper two percent of the population as its only requirement for membership. Statistically, then, about six million people in the United States alone qualify for Mensa, of whom 50,000 have joined. Worldwide, about 130 million people qualify for Mensa, of whom 100,000 (or 0.08% of those eligible) have actually joined the organization.
At Mensa's 50th Anniversary, Dr. Ware, one of the founders, accosted Mensans by stating that he hoped "Mensa will have a role in society when it gets through the ages of infancy and adolescence." He also said, "I do get disappointed that so many members spend so much time solving puzzles," expressing his desire for Mensans instead to be solving some of the world's problems.
The Densa organization is a humorous antithesis of Mensa.

Pop culture trivia

In The Simpsons, Lisa Simpson is a member of Mensa along with Professor Frink, Dr. Hibbert, Comic Book Guy, Seymour Skinner and Lindsey Naegle.
In Stargate Atlantis, Dr. Rodney McKay is a member of the Mensa chapter at Atlantis. John Sheppard once took the Mensa test and, though it is stated that he passed, his results have never been revealed. He never actually joined Mensa, though.
In one episode of Columbo, named The Bye-Bye Sky High IQ Murder Case, the murderer is a member of the less well-known 'Sigma' society http://www.sigmasociety.com which has similar requirements for membership to Mensa.
In 8 Simple Rules, Kerry goes to a Mensa Meeting, which she describes as "a club for geniuses"
In Green Wing, Dr. Alan Statham is a member of Mensa.

Mensa puzzle books

Ken Russell and Philip Carter : Picture Puzzles

External links

High IQ societies

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Mensa International