Sep-Oct 2020 MInd

In this Issue Puzzles, Crossword and Quiz Corner Updates from Tribal Mensa Mensa International Election Details Referendum To Constitutional Amendments of Mensa Pages From Mensa World Journal

From the Editor 03 05 16 30 40

Cover Avinash Singh, Mensa Bengaluru

Know your editors Chennai Bengaluru Hyderabad Mumbai Pune Kolkata Delhi

- Nishanti Sudhakar - Kiran K - Abhishek N - Saurabh Garg - Siddesh Dubal - Vasudha Verma - Kajal Gupta

Dear Mensans, The Tribal Mensa Nurturing Program initiative has over the years accomplished several feats and the outstanding performance of gifted students in the recently held board exams adds another feather to its cap. This edition of MInd has several pages devoted to the marvellous work being done by TMNP team.

For the arts and LENSA section, we generally cherry-pick one or two items if the submissions are too voluminous. But the story of Laxmi Gunjal, one of the program’s mentees is so awe inspiring that we wanted to showcase several of her fabulous sketches in this edition.

On the cover is a photograph of lightning streaks during a stormy weather in Bengaluru by Avinash Singh.

Also in this edition, you will find details of the upcoming election for the posts of Chairman, Director-Administration, Director-Development, and Treasurer of Mensa International. Please do take a look at the information about the referendum to constitutional amendments of Mensa.

Special editorial support by Shreya Singhal, Mensa Delhi

Please keep sending your contributions of whatever nature - articles, quizzes, puzzles, crosswords, photographs, poems and anything that you wish to be published in the forthcoming issues of MInd.

Magazine design and layout by Gaurav Sinha, Mensa Delhi

Send in your articles and contributions in plain text format and pictures in high resolution .jpg format to: editor@mensaindia.org

Disclaimer: All contents in this magazine are opinions of the individual authors and contributors.

Neither Mensa India, the society, its office bearers nor the editors are responsible for any content or views expressed.

Krishnan V. Iyer Editor-in-chief, MInd

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Crossword

Down: 1. A collection of objects laid on top of each other.

2. Imitate in an absurd way.

3. Percussion instrument.

4. -----”I dare you!”

5. Movement once around a course.

6. Of crucial importance.

11. Reverse an action or its effect.

12. Secluded valley.

15. Feel irritated or resentful.

16. A small skullcap.

19. Provoking laughter 21. Phone message.

22. It is pumped in a gym.

23. The time period between dawn and noon.

27. A short theatrical episode.

28. Of a verydrkblack 30. Possessive form of pronoun “it”.

31. Feminine pronoun.

Across: 7. A cup of tea.

8. Pigments that account fo the colour of skin.

9. Billiards stick.

10. Dirty and messy.

13. The process of decaying.

14. Discard.

16. Speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly.

17. look ----(investigate) 18. A long narrow mark.

20. A single undivided whole.

22. Persia.

24. The central part of the Earth.

25. Enough.

26. Set of parts needed to assemble something.

27. A small piece of rock.

29. Finish 30. It is 32. An ancient area 33. An unknown or unspecified person.

Rashmi Garg Mensa Delhi

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020

Solutions to previous edition’s crossword

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020

Tribal Mensa Nurturing Program Academic excellence shown by underprivileged gifted students As the results of 10th standard board exams were announced, the underprivileged gifted students in the TMNP workshops and study skills program showed outstanding academic performance. Underprivileged gifted students in Maharshi Karve Stree Shikshan Sansntha Pune, Wai and Satara showed exemplary academic results with many of them exceeding their own expectations! Members of (TMNP) - Mahindra CSR Project showed outstanding academic performance and are the first three students in

the merit list of Maval taluka. Congratulations to Niranjan Thite (98.60%), Bhumi Shinde (98.40%), and Sphurti Kaduskar (97.60%). These three students are recipients of the Mensa India Intelligence Certificate and European Talent Support Network for Giftedness Nurturing (ETSN).Â

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020

Continuing the Nurturing Journey The Covid -19 Pandemic has forced all of us to work from home. In this scenario TMNP strives to continue the nurturing of underprivileged gifted students. We continue to meet via social media platforms like WhatsApp, and Zoom to continue the modules of the nurturing program on digital platforms.

Webinars have served as a powerful tool to reach out to different schools and create awareness about giftedness, the importance of nurturing giftedness and the work of Tribal Mensa Nurturing Program.

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020

Outstanding Achievement TMNP has in all 16 ‘gifted’ WhatsApp groups and around 760 underprivileged gifted getting giftedness services.

We anticipate this number to reach 1000 in the next one

month. If we cross 1000, then we will be world’s biggest and youngest gifted group.

Art collection of an underprivileged gifted girl in TMNP Bharati Prakalp Laxmi Gunjal is an underprivileged gifted girl who studied in Maharshi Karve Stree Shikshan Sanstha. She is gifted in Poetry, Art Performance and Foreign Languages. She wants to follow a career as an artist using charcoal art as a medium, but faced a lot of opposition from her family. Now she is a part of TMNP’s Bharati Project. We all remember her unique introduction when she was in 8th standard. In

her first interaction, she introduced herself in the Turkish language!

TMNP is going to provide her with a scholarship and she is going to provide the art work for the nurturing endeavours of TMNP. This collection of hers is titled ‘Gifted and Emotional Expressions’.

Gifted and Emotional Expressions

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020

Akshay Kulkarni Principal Investigator, Tribal Mensa Nurturing Program

Akshay Kulkarni has been working with Tribal Mensa Nurturing Program for the past 5 years. He is involved in various activities of Tribal Mensa Nurturing Program such as identification, nurturing, counselling sessions, and content development.

Tribal Mensa Nurturing Program is an initiative to identify and nurture gifted children among underprivileged populations in India. TMNP team believes that there is a strong need to recognize gifted youth, as their accomplishments, potential, capacity to lead, their concerns about the world and ability to think creatively are in fact national assets. Once identified through Mensa India IQ tests, these children are nurtured through a series of non-academic workshops designed to ensure holistic learning and development of the child’s body, mind and brain. Team members make two trips a month to each school that we work with and conduct nurturing activities based on the ‘Pancha Kosha’ Model of Human Development which is derived from ancient Indian texts. Each student receives a “Nurturing Kit” which contains activity books and games that challenge the child’s intelligence. Individual counselling, assessments and teacher training programs are conducted to increase the effectiveness of the Gifted program.

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020

Mensa International elections NEW DRAFT ELECTION RULES The following rules have been adopted by the International Board of Directors to govern the election of the following International Elected Officers of Mensa International: Chairman, Director-Administration, Director-Development, and Treasurer.

Throughout these rules, unless otherwise specified, all dates will correspond with Coordinated Universal Time, all starting times will be 00:01 UTC on the date in question, and the time of all deadlines will be 23:59 UTC on the date in question.

DEFINITIONS: Throughout these rules, the following terms have the meanings indicated: “DIM” means Direct International Member. “election period” means the period in which the voting process takes place in the election year, which shall be April 15th at the latest through May 31st, as defined in the International Constitution.

This includes the period during which votes are verified and is different to the “voting period”. See below. “election year” means the year in which an election is held.

“IBD” means the International Board of Directors.

“Independent Election Supervisory Agency” means a commercial company expert in conducting electronic balloting and supervising elections.

“IEC” means the International Election Committee (see Constitution Section X.A.2).

“MWJ” means Mensa World Journal. “national chair” means the member with chief executive authority within a national Mensa Committee. “national Mensa Committee (NMC)” means the governing body (the board) of a national Mensa group. “national Mensa group (NM)” means a Full National Mensa, a Provisional National Mensa, or an Emerging National Mensa.

“NCIE” means “national coordinator for international elections.” This is the person who actually runs the international election within a national Mensa and interacts with the IEC on behalf of the national Mensa, whether that be the national chair, or an appointee, or an employee, or anyone else.

By default, it is the national Mensa chair, unless a different person is appointed “preferential voting system” means the voting system wherein the voter expresses their preferences by means of a transferable vote. “publish” means distribution to the entire Mensa membership of the entity doing the publishing (e.g., to all members of a national Mensa, or to all DIMs, or to the entire worldwide membership), whether electronically (via email or the like) or in print or both. “votekey” means a unique identifier used to associate an electronic vote with the voter who cast it. “year before the election year” means the year before one in which an election is held. Elections will now be held every 3 years (2021,2024, 2027……) “voting period” is the period during which votes may be cast – April 15th through May 15th.

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 INTRODUCTION These rules apply to the election for International Chair, International Director-Administration, International Director-Development and International Treasurer. The remits for the four positions may be found in the International Constitution IV.C. (Note: A fifth international elected office, that of Director – Smaller National Mensas, was added to the international Constitution of Mensa in 2005. However, the election for that position is managed separately from the election of the four member-elected officers. See Constitution Section X.B.) Because several of the processes for the conduct of the international elections are different to previous years, and some of the deadlines are different as a result, the following is provided as a summary of the new process.

International elections require actions both on the international level and within individual national Mensas. The outline process is as follows: è Candidates register their intention to stand for election to the International Election Committee (IEC), by seeking nomination. è The IEC notifies National Mensas of the nomination process; national Mensa boards or individual members acting together can nominate candidates. è Candidates provide their election campaign materials to the IEC by the deadline date. è The IEC creates nomination webform for candidates. è National Mensa nominate candidates they wish to support. è The IEC collates and checks campaign materials from the candidates, creates a ballot for the candidates that are not unopposed. The IEC sends the ballot and the candidate materials to the national Mensas. è The national Mensas appoint a national coordinator for international elections (NCIE) and inform the IEC. This can be the national chair, an appointee or an employee. è The national Mensas decide whether voting for their members will be electronic only or if they will also offer a paper ballot option. è The Independent Election Supervisory Agency will distribute vote keys electronically.

National Mensas may share their entire record of member e-mail address with the Agency.

Otherwise, the registered e-mails on Mensa.org will be used to distribute vote keys to their members. è The candidate material, or a link to these, must be distributed along with the vote keys. è The national Mensas that offer paper ballot voting publish the ballot and the candidate materials to their members on paper. The members vote and send their ballots to their national Mensa (or vote electronically). è For paper ballots, the national Mensas collect the ballot envelopes, check them for validity according to the election rules without opening the envelopes, and send them to the Independent Election Supervisory Agency for counting. è The Independent Election Agency tallies the electronic votes; cross-checks paper envelopes against the names of those who voted electronically in order to eliminate any double votes; counts the paper ballots and sends the consolidated results to the IEC. è The IEC notifies the candidates, the IBD and the wider Mensa membership of the results. è All members must be given the opportunity to vote electronically and no national Mensa shall confine its members to paper voting only. The decision on how to send out candidate materials to their members lies with the national Mensa, but the cost of printing and

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 distributing candidate materials will not be reimbursed by Mensa International.

These Rules describe each of these steps, and more, in detail.

IMPORTANT. Every stage of the process has to be performed entirely by persons who are impartial and disinterested in the outcome of the election: -- The Independent Election Supervisory Agency, and each of the personnel within the Agency assigned to the Mensa election, must be impartial and disinterested in the results of the election.

-- If a member of the IEC becomes a candidate, or if the spouse of a member of the IEC becomes a candidate, or if a member of the IEC has any conflict of interest regarding the election, the IEC member must immediately resign from the IEC. -- -- The national coordinator for international elections (NCIE, and any other key personnel) in each national Mensa must be impartial and disinterested in the results of the election.

RULE 1 – NOTICE OF ELECTION 1.1 No later than September 1st of the year before the election year the IEC will issue a notice announcing the election and initiating the nomination process. This notice will be published in the MWJ and in all national Mensa publications, or circulated by other appropriate means, in order to ensure that the notice reaches all members by November 1st of the year before the election year.

The notice is also to be published on the mensa.org web site and via any other appropriate electronic channels.

1.2 The notice will instruct candidates for the four offices and specify that the IEC must receive nomination requests from candidates no later than January 4th of the election year for them to be valid. The notice will also specify how to obtain rules for completion and submission of nominations and the address to which nominations must be sent.

RULE 2 – INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES FORMAT OF NOMINATION REQUESTS 2.1 Candidates inform the IEC that they intend to stand and are therefore seeking nominations and provide their candidate material to the IEC. The IEC will then inform national Mensas of the names of the candidates and request nominations from national Mensa committees. To be permitted to stand a candidate must secure at least one nomination. The process for nominations is described in Rules 3 and 4.

2.2 The IEC will provide a web form for nominations to ensure uniformity of requests, with all supporting documents. Nomination requests shall not be disclosed by the IEC to third parties before the deadline. Candidates are free to disclose their intention to stand as they wish.

2.3 Nomination requests from candidates must be sent to the IEC (iec@mensa.org), who will confirm receipt, no later than January 4th of the election year and contain the following information; • Full Name of candidate; • National Mensa to which they belong (or declare that they are a Direct International Member); • Address and other relevant contact information including email address;

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 • Mensa.org user ID (for which they must be registered on the mensa.org website), • Acceptance of candidacy, if nominated; • Current portrait photograph, no older than 2 years; • Scan of personal pages of their passport; • Campaign statement (limited to 200 words), biographical statement (limited to 150 words) and answers to the four IBD questions as shown in ASIE 06-49 (each answer limited to 150 words). These are not mandatory, but it is clearly in the interest of a candidate to submit them.

2.4 The biographical and campaign statements and responses to IBD questions must be provided in the English language. These documents may also be submitted in a translation into one or more additional language(s). The word limit for each translated statement must be reasonable in accord with Rule 2.3. The IEC reserves the right to ask neutral parties to verify the content of the translation is equivalent to the statement in English, and to reject any statements that are not equivalent to the English translation.

2.5 The IEC may request additional supporting documentation to support factual claims made in the candidacy (diplomas, degrees etc).

2.6 If a candidate intends to stand in the election as part of a slate of candidates, this must be stated on the request, and if the other named candidates on said slate reciprocate, they shall be identified in the election material as belonging to the same slate. The name of the slate shall be stated in the nomination request. The term “slate” means a list of two or more candidates wishing to be identified as a group supporting each other’s candidacies; each member of the slate must explicitly agree to be a member of the slate in order to be included on the slate. Good standing is defined in Constitution Section III.F. 2.7 National Mensas are required to ensure that all their members have the opportunity to vote.

The NCIE of each national Mensa must submit evidence to the IEC of actions taken to meet with this requirement, such as copies of official publications or other national election correspondence.

Deadline for submitting this is March the 20th of the election year.

RULE 3 – Nominations by national Mensa committees 3.1 The IEC will collect all nomination requests and accompanying documentation and make it all available online for the IBD and all national Mensa representatives.

Deadline for this is one week after deadline for nomination requests by candidates, January 11th of the election year.

3.2 The IEC shall offer an on-line form for the chairs or permanent proxies of NMCs to indicate which candidates, if any, they want to nominate, and issue instructions for the nomination process.

A candidate needs at least one nomination to be eligible in the election. Nomination of a candidate shall constitute an endorsement of the candidate and indicate that the national Mensa believes that candidate is well-suited to, and capable of fulfilling the requirements of, the post for which the candidate is standing.

3.3 When marking a candidate's name for nomination, the nominating NMC shall have the choice to make the nomination public or not. If not, the nomination shall count, but the identity of the nominating national Mensa will not be disclosed in the election material. If yes, the name of the nominating national Mensa shall be included in the election material. The total number of nominations shall be displayed regardless. Example: John Doe, 13 nominations, including Germany and France.

3.4 All NMCs are to inform the IEC whether any candidate seeking nomination who claims to be member of their NM is a current member in good standing. The means of doing this shall be

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 provided by the IEC. 3.5 If any NMC wishes it to be known that a candidate from their national Mensa is not nominated by them, it must inform the IEC. 3.6

Deadline for making nominations to the IEC is February 1st of the election year.

RULE 4 – NOMINATIONS BY MEMBERS’ PETITION 4.1 The Constitution, Section X.A.5., permits nominations for a candidate or slate of candidates by means of a petition signed by at least 100 members in good standing as of January 1st prior to the election. A webform petition template will be provided by the IEC. 4.2 The IEC will verify the good standing and the validity of each member adding their name to a nominating petition. Each person signing the petition must be identifiable and contactable and the validity of each petitioner will be verified by emailing them and requiring them to confirm their participation in the petition. No candidate may verify the supporting signatures of their nominating petitions, or of nominations for slates in which they are included. The Mensa International office will certify whether a DIM who signs a petition is a current member in good standing.

4.3 Petition signatures must be submitted on a webform provided by the IEC. Failure of any signatory to provide all information required on the petition form will invalidate that supporting signature.

4.4 For a petition to be valid, it must reach at least 100 verified signatures no later than February 1st of the election year.

RULE 5 – PRESENTATION OF CANDIDATES 5.1 If there is only one valid candidate and nomination for an office, the Election Committee shall declare that candidate elected, informing the International Chair, the Mensa International executive director, and the successful candidate(s) of the result. This information is embargoed for 24 hours, after which the IEC chair will inform the IBD, and the result shall be published in the next issue of the MWJ. Any name of any such candidate shall not appear on the ballot.

5.2 The campaign statements, with pictures, of all nominees shall be presented to the members online in a suitable location determined by the IEC and on the independent election agency website.

5.3 The ballot shall list the candidates for each office in order determined by lot by the Committee. The Committee shall designate on the ballot which candidates are running jointly (as a slate).

5.4 The IEC shall have the right to edit the material submitted by a candidate or a slate of candidates under Rule 2 only when: a) It is necessary, guided by legal advice, to edit potentially libellous or obscene material; or b) The material exceeds the word allotments specified in Rule 2. If time permits, the candidates or all candidates on a slate shall be informed of the proposed editing and be given the opportunity to submit revised materials. If there is insufficient time to discuss the content with the candidate(s), words will be eliminated at the end of the material to bring it into conformance with the allowed word count. If this is done, the ballot material will so state.

5.5 The IEC is not responsible for the content of any candidate’s statements. The IEC will not, on its own, verify any information or material presented as fact included in the candidate statements, and the ballots will state this. However, if an allegedly false or misleading statement is brought to the attention of the IEC by a third party, the IEC may choose to investigate and take action in accordance with Rule 5.4.

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 5.6 The national Mensas, the editor of the MWJ journal, the editors of the national Mensa magazines and the Mensa International office staff are not permitted to add text to, remove text from, or change the election material submitted by the IEC. It is only allowed to make changes in the layout of the material to fit the format of the magazine.

RULE 6 – CAMPAIGNING REGULATIONS 6.1 National Mensa groups may not release membership data to candidates or to others for the purposes of campaigning for international office. Persons possessing membership data released by national Mensa groups for other purposes shall not use such data for international Mensa campaign purposes.

6.2 Social media may be used freely but national Mensa platforms, mail lists and magazines that reach all members in a country must not be used for campaigning by, or on behalf of, candidates, unless all candidates are given equal access to such channels.

6.3 National Mensas may not campaign for or give preferential treatment to any candidate. It is, however, allowed for a National Mensa to issue a recommendation to their members on how to vote, as long as this recommendation is published separately from the actual ballot and ballot materials.

6.4

False or misleading statements in campaigning may result in disqualification of candidacy.

6.5 Candidates who use a website or web pages accessible to the public outside of Mensa must include the following general disclaimer: “These web pages are an internal Mensa communication in connection with a campaign for the election of Mensa International officers. It is not an official communication of Mensa, and the statements contained herein do not express official policies or positions of Mensa. For information about Mensa, please go to: “ followed by a graphic containing a hyperlink to www.mensa.org. This message must be the first thing the viewer sees.

RULE 7 – E-VOTING 7.1 The centralized voting procedure is purely electronic and is defined as the IEC, or the Independent Election Agency acting on behalf of the IEC, distributing vote keys to those members for which they have received e-mail addresses.

7.2 National Mensas may choose to share their membership list, with e-mail addresses, with the Independent Election Agency in order to maximize the number of members who will receive a vote key. Deadline for doing this is April 3rd of the election year. Only members in good standing as at 00.00 on April 1st of the election year shall be included in this list; the deadline relates to the timezone where the membership would normally be administered or registered. The IEC will arrange for national Mensas to be able to share these lists in a way that is compliant with common data privacy laws.

7.3 Members of national Mensas that do not share their membership list with the Independent Election Agency must register on the international website mensa.org in order to receive a vote key.

The IEC will extract these e-mail addresses and share them with the Independent Election Agency, who will create the final list of members who will receive individual votekeys.

7.4 National Mensas that do not share their membership list with the Independent Election Agency must inform their members that, in order to vote electronically, they must be registered at the international website www.mensa.org and submit an e-mail address. Deadline for informing the members of this is 28th of February of the election year.

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 7.5 Only members in good standing as at 00.00 on April 1st of the election year shall be eligible to vote; in the case of members who registered on the international website to vote, the deadline relates to the time zone of the Mensa International website, from which the registered email addresses will be extracted.

7.6 The candidate materials and the electronic ballot form will be prepared by the Independent Election Supervisory Agency and approved by the IEC before use.

RULE 8 – PAPER BALLOTS Note: The provisions of Rule 8 apply only to those national Mensa groups that have decided to offer paper ballots for members, which shall be a way to vote without using the Internet.

Preparation of election materials.

8.1 Each national Mensa must inform the IEC of the person nominated to be that national Mensa’s NCIE, no later than February 1st the election year.

8.2 The IEC will provide a master copy of the paper ballot and other election materials to the NCIE of each national Mensa group, to the IBD, to the Mensa International office, and to the candidates, by March 1st of the election year. The NCIE of each national Mensa group will be responsible for distribution of the ballots and other election materials to the members of the national Mensa group concerned by publication in the group newsletter to ensure that it will reach members

by April 15th of the election year.

8.3 National Mensas that offer voting by paper ballot are required to provide their members with all candidate materials on paper along with the ballots to be submitted. This is necessary if they have members that wish to vote without using the Internet.

8.4 The cost of printing and distributing candidate materials is not reimbursed by Mensa International.

8.5 Only members in good standing as at 00.00 on April 1st of the election year shall be eligible to vote; the deadline relates to the time zone where the member’s membership would normally be administered or registered.

8.6 Failure of any national Mensa group to arrange for a timely distribution of ballots and election materials may result in the loss of voting privileges for the members of that national Mensa group, but will not affect the validity of the election.

8.7 The ballot form must be published in English and must be identical in content and style to the ballot supplied by the IEC. The ballot forms must be printed in A4 or US letter size and may not be reduced in size to fit a smaller format national magazine. The ballot will include only contested offices. For each contested office, the ballot will list the name of each validly nominated candidate on a separate line. Each line will include a ballot position number in Arabic numerals, immediately following a box to be marked, then followed by the candidate’s name and, if any, his/her slate designation.

8.8

Other election material to be published with the ballot will include: (a) Envelopes designed for voting in accordance with Rule 8.10 below. (b) Instructions for voting, including clear instructions for what is required on the outside of the envelope if a ballot is to be valid. Also included should be the deadline for return of ballots, which is that all ballots (paper and electronic) must be received no earlier than April 15th and no later than May 15th. This latter date is to allow sufficient time for validating the ballots before sending them on to the International Election Supervisory Agency before the end of the election period. (c) The address to which the completed ballot must be returned. (d) Photographs of candidates, biographical and campaign statements and responses to

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 candidate questions accepted by the IEC (in accordance with Rule 2.3). This information will be listed in the ballot sequence referred to in Rule 5.3. (d) For each candidate, a statement listing their nominations or a statement that the candidate has been nominated by petition of at least 100 members. Where appropriate, this statement shall also include any notice of non-nomination requested by a national Mensa group under Rule 3.5. (e) The candidate statements may be published either in the original English version, or in an accurate translation into the language(s) of the national Mensa group concerned, accuracy to be determined by Rule 2.4. If the material is also submitted in a translation into an additional language as provided for in Rule 2.4, this translation may be published as submitted instead of the material in the English language. It is not permissible to translate a statement submitted by a candidate into a national language (as provided for in this rule), unless all statements submitted by candidates are also translated into that language.

8.9 In all Mensa International elections and referenda conducted by mail ballot, postage for mailed ballot returns shall not be provided. Voters must pay their own postage if they choose to return a ballot by mail.

Return of Paper Ballots 8.10 After voting, each member voting on a paper ballot must place the ballot in an envelope that must be sealed and marked “International Mensa Ballot�, in the upper left corner of the front side of the envelope. On the outside of the envelope, each member must write his/her name in block letters as it appears in Mensa records, plus his address and Mensa membership number. An envelope lacking the member’s name, address, or membership number will be deemed invalid and the enclosed ballot will be invalid.

8.11 If the ballot and election materials are printed as part of a national publication, and, if two or more members in one family receive one issue of the national publication, each additional member may copy the ballot, vote, then place the ballot in a separate envelope marked and sealed in accordance with 8.10 above.

8.12 In each national Mensa group, the NCIE will designate the address to which ballots must be returned. This address will be published with the ballots (Rule 8.8.c). All completed ballots must be mailed or otherwise delivered to this address.

Validation of Ballot Envelopes for Paper Ballots 8.13 The NCIE of each national Mensa group will have the responsibility to determine the validity of each ballot envelope returned to the designated address, following these guidelines (a) If more than one envelope is received from the same member, only the first ballot sent (postmarked) from that member may be considered valid (if it meets all other requirements); all subsequent paper ballots from that member must be declared invalid. (b) Any ballot envelope submitted by a person not a member in good standing, must be declared invalid.

8.14 If a national Mensa fails to have sent said information to the Independent Election Supervising Agency by May 31st of the election year, all ballot envelopes of that national Mensa must be declared invalid.

8.15 Any ballot envelope that does not have all required information (Rule 8.10) must be declared invalid.

8.16 Any ballot envelopes postmarked prior to April 15th of the election year will be deemed as received during the election period.

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 8.17 Immediately after the end of the voting period, the Independent Election Supervisory Agency shall compile lists of member numbers that have voted electronically based on used votekeys, for each national Mensa group; and, by May 16th of the election year, i.e., the day after the voting period ends, it shall send the lists to the IEC for forwarding to the appropriate national groups for use in the validation process. The forwarding by the IEC to the national groups is to take place no later than May 17th of the voting year. These two one-day turnaround periods are to ensure that the national Mensas have the maximum time to perform their duties regarding the electronic and paper ballots.

Forwarding of Paper Ballots 8.18 By May 22nd of the election year the NCIE will sort all ballot envelopes into valid and invalid groups. None of these envelopes will be opened. The NCIE will write a note on each envelope that was declared invalid indicating why it was declared invalid.

8.19 No later than May 22nd of the election year both the valid and invalid unopened ballot envelopes will be sent in bulk by courier or express mail to the Independent Election Supervisory Agency, where they must be received by no later than May 28th of the election year; only ballots received by the International Election Supervisory Agency on or before May 28th of the election year will be counted. The ballots must be accompanied by a statement from the NCIE, certifying: (a) The number of ballot envelopes being forwarded. (b) That all forwarded valid ballot envelopes are from members in good standing. (c) That all valid ballot envelopes were received no later than May 15th of the election year, and only those, are being forwarded 8.20 Each NCIE is to inform the IEC when it has sent the ballots to the Independent Election Supervisory Agency. The IEC is to send acknowledgement of the notification back to the NCIE. The Independent Election Supervisory Agency is to notify the IEC when it has received ballots from a national Mensa. The IEC is to acknowledge receipt of the notification back to the Independent Election Supervisory Agency and to the national Mensa.

8.21 If the ballots of a national Mensa group are not received by the International Election Supervisory Agency in time to be counted, i.e., if they are not received on or before May 28th of the election year, then that national Mensa group will not qualify for reimbursement of the postage cost for ballots related to this election.

RULE 9 – INDEPENDENT ELECTION SUPERVISORY AGENCY 9.1 The IEC will appoint an Independent Election Supervisory Agency as specified in Constitution Section X.A.2. ExComm can advise the IEC in the selection of a supervisory agency.

This agency will have the following duties: (a) To tally the electronic and any paper votes for the individual candidates and to report the results to the IEC Chair. (b) To compare the list of voting members with the envelopes received, to ensure that no member is voting twice, both electronically and by paper. (c) To retain physical custody of the ballot and ballot envelopes, sorted according to their national Mensa group of origin, from their receipt, during counting, and until notified by the IEC chair that the election process is complete and finalized. The election process will be considered complete and finalized, when the deadline for resolving disputes, if any, has passed. (See Rules 12 and 13.)

9.2 The agency shall destroy the ballot, ballot envelopes and all other election material after completion of the election process, once directed to do so by the IEC chair (see Rule 13.1.d).

9.3

The agency shall not make the ballots, ballot envelopes and electronic material available to

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 any Mensa member or any other third party, unless directed to do so by the IEC.

RULE 10 – VOTING SYSTEM 10.1 If there are two candidates for any office, the candidate obtaining the higher number of valid votes will be declared elected.

10.2 If there are more than two candidates for any office, a preferential voting system will be used as follows: 1. Each voter will have one transferable vote.

2. A voter in recording his/her vote on the ballot (a) must place on his/her ballot the number 1 opposite the name of the preferred candidate for whom she/he is voting. (b) may indicate the order of preference for as many other candidates as he or she pleases, by putting the numbers 2,3,4 etc, opposite their respective names.

10.3 The Independent Election Supervisory Agency will tally votes using the preferential voting system. See Rule 10.2 and Appendix II. 10.4 Any ties that develop during the process of counting votes will be decided as follows: (a) If there are more than two candidates in the race, the number of first-preference votes for each of the tied candidates will be determined, with the candidate who has the largest number of firstpreference votes among the tied candidates being declared the winner of that tiebreak procedure.

(Note that this procedure could be used to determine who wins an election, or it could be used to determine who gets eliminated and who goes on to the next round of counting if no candidate has a majority and there are two or more candidates tied with the smallest number of votes.) (b) If (a) does not apply, or if (a) does apply and a tie still remains after using the procedure in (a), the tie will be decided by a coin toss. In this event, the coin toss will be performed by a representative of the Independent Election Supervisory Agency and will be witnessed by Mensa International’s Executive Director or by a Mensa member in good standing who is not a candidate.

10.5 The Mensa Constitution X.A.1 requires the following additional factor to be complied with before declaring any candidate elected: (a) If more than 40% of the votes in favour of a candidate come from one national Mensa or in the case of Direct International Members any one country, then the number of votes in favour of the candidate from that national Mensa or country, and the total number of votes in favour of the candidate, shall be reduced one by one until the number of votes in favour of the candidate from that one national Mensa or, in the case of Direct International Members any one country is not more than 40% of the total vote in favour of the candidate; then the normal vote-counting shall occur using the new total in favour of the candidate. (b) If there are three or more candidates in a race, the 40% cap shall be implemented in second and following counts as follows: All the ballots from the previous counting shall be redistributed and added as normally done in preferential voting, i.e., none shall be eliminated on the basis of the 40% cap; then the 40% cap shall be applied to the votes after redistribution.

RULE 11 – PUBLICATION OF RESULTS 11.1 The IEC chair will give notice of the final vote count to the International Chair, the Mensa International Executive Director, the MWJ Editor, and all candidates, no later than June 5th of the election year.

11.2 The candidates, and the other initial recipients of the election results, are to hold the results in confidence until 24 hours after the IEC chair sent the results out. The reason for this 24-hour

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 period is to allow an opportunity for all candidates, who may live in any time zone anywhere in the world, to receive the results directly from the IEC in advance of anyone else learning the results.

11.3 At the end of the 24-hour period, the IEC chair will notify the IBD by email of the election result. The detailed results, including a full breakdown of votes received by country will be published in the mandatory pages of the next available issue of the MWJ and on mensa.org. The newly elected officers will assume their offices on July 1st of the election year. Their term of office will end on June 30th of the year three years after the election year.

RULE 12 – ELECTION DISPUTES 12.1 Any candidate for office who wishes to protest an alleged defect or irregularity in the election process may contact the IEC through its Chair, about that defect or irregularity.

12.2 Each complaint must be in writing and must state a specific grievance. The complaint must be sent by e-mail. He/she will receive a confirmation that the complaint has been received.

12.3

Each complaint must contain specific requests for remedial action.

12.4 All complaints must be received no later than seven days following the date election results are notified to candidates by the IEC. The identity of the complainant (real name, or name on Mensa membership records, and national Mensa of which the complainant is a member) must be included when the complaint is filed.

12.5 The IEC will consider each properly filed complaint in a timely manner and will take whatever remedial action it considers to be necessary or desirable. The action taken by the IEC will be communicated to the complainant and to all others affected including but not limited to the Mensa International office executive director, all candidates of that election, and the IBD. 12.6 When the IEC cannot make a decision within seven days after having received the complaint, the IEC will inform the Mensa International executive director, all candidates of that election and IBD. 12.7 The IEC shall disclose the nature of the complaint to the Mensa International executive director, ExComm and all candidates.

12.8 Where the impact of any election irregularity affects a total number of votes too small to change the outcome or validity of the Mensa International election, the irregularity will be corrected if correction is possible, and any correction can be done without substantial expense. “Substantial expense” will be determined by the IEC in consultation with the IBD and will require the approval of the IBD. The validity and outcome of the Mensa International election will not be affected by any failure to correct the irregularities described in this section.

12.9 In the event that there are alleged irregularities affecting a national Mensa group, all consequences of such irregularities, all remedial actions of the IEC, and any effects of those remedial actions will be strictly limited to the national Mensa group in which the irregularities occurred. Any such irregularities will not invalidate the Mensa International election, but may cause the ballots from that particular national Mensa group to be invalidated.

12.10 If the party complaining is not satisfied with the actions taken by the IEC, he or she may appeal to the International Ombudsman. This appeal must be in writing and must be received no later than seven days after the IEC’s decision concerning remedial action has been e-mailed to the complainant. The appeal must also contain a copy of: (a) the original complaint to the IEC. (b) the IEC’s reply. (c) any other necessary pertinent information.

12.11 The International Ombudsman will have authority to order any remedial action he or she may deem necessary, including but not limited to: modifying election deadlines, recounting ballots,

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 allowing those deprived of the opportunity to vote to send in ballots and have them counted. If the International Ombudsman believes that the only way to remedy a situation likely to have materially affected the outcome of the election for any office is to hold a new partial or full election, he or she shall so recommend to the IBD.

RULE 13 – END OF TERM OF OFFICE OF IEC 13.1

The IEC will remain in office until the following steps have been taken: (a) Completion of the election and announcement of results as described in Rule 13. (b) The time for resolving any election disputes has passed, including the time the Ombudsman may need to resolve disputes. (c) The IEC has prepared statistics regarding the election, including the total number of votes received from each national Mensa (counting DIMs as a national Mensa for purposes of this Rule), the number of spoiled ballots from each national Mensa, the number of invalid ballots from each national Mensa, and the number of votes for each candidate from each national Mensa at each stage of the counting, and has sent said statistics to the Mensa International office for retention. Most of these statistics will necessarily come from the Independent Election Supervisory Agency, and the reports and statistics of the Agency should be forwarded to the Mensa International executive director exactly as received, unedited. The IEC should also send to the Mensa International executive director any other statistics and/or reports the IEC feels will be of assistance in explaining the particulars of that election for the benefit of future IECs. (d) The Independent Election Supervisory Agency has been notified that the election material can be destroyed.

13.2 The foregoing steps must be completed by August 31st of the election year, unless the IEC can show good cause for extending this deadline.

RULE 14 – MISCELLANEOUS 14.1 The IEC will define its own mechanism for internal communication, such as mailing lists, forums and other means the IEC deems convenient. The IEC will not use the Mensa infrastructure for their internal communication as Mensa technicians, system administrators and others have access to the servers and emails.

14.2 All candidates, national groups, national offices, NCIEs, and national chairs must cooperate with the IEC and follow its directives.

RULE 15 – HAND-OVER TO NEXT COMMITTEE One week before dissolution the IEC will send the following to the Mensa International office Executive Director: (a) Templates of all forms that were used, together with web archive copies of any webforms used. (b) Text of the “notice to call for nominations to be provided to the MWJ editor, the national chairs”.

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 (c) Text of the email to the national chairs where a local member was not nominated by their own national Mensa. (d) Ballot used. (e) Text of the instructions to the MWJ editor and the national chairs how to publish the election material, how to collect the ballots, and how to send these to the Independent Election Supervisory Agency. (f) Text of the mail that was used to inform the candidates of the location, date and time of counting of the ballots. (g) Any other material the IEC deems useful for the next IEC.

==================

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020

DRAFT TEXT FOR RESPONSES TO POTENTIAL CANDIDATES Dear …

Thank you for contacting the IEC regarding your interest in registering as a candidate in the Mensa International 2021 Election.

The 2021 Election Rules have changed the procedure used in past elections. Candidates must now register their interest with the IEC, who will validate the candidate’s application and collate all the candidate requests into one package for the Nomination Process.

We will be using a webform to collect candidate information and compliance documentation. The webform is independent of the MIL website. Your application can only be viewed by the IEC members. All such viewing will be in-confidence.

The webform will be available from 00:01 01 December 2020 and close at 23:59 on 04 January 2021 UTC. No further applications will be accepted after the closing time.

You will receive a link to the webform on 01 December 2020 with full instructions for completion of the form. In the meantime please familiarise yourself with the attached Election Rules, also available on the MIL web site, and also the following list of requirements to complete the form.

The following information must be provided: A. Full Name of candidate.

B. National Mensa to which you belong (or declare that you are a Direct International Member).

C. Address and other relevant contact information including email address.

D. Mensa.org user ID (for which you must be registered on the mensa.org website).

E. Acceptance of candidacy, if nominated.

F. Current portrait photograph, no older than 2 years, for use in Candidate materials.

G. Scan of personal pages of your passport, not used in Candidate materials.

H.Campaign statement (limited to 200 words), in English. One or more translations may be submitted and must be verifiable as an equivalent translation.

I. Biographical statement (limited to 150 words) in English. One or more translations may be submitted and must be verifiable as an equivalent translation.

J. Answers to the following four IBD questions (each answer limited to 150 words) in English. These are not mandatory, but it is clearly in the interest of a candidate to submit them.

1. What do you see as the most important aspect of the role for which you are standing?

2. Why have you volunteered for this role, and what in particular qualifies you for it?

3. What do you see as the most important issues facing Mensa International at the present time and in the next few years?

4. What do you wish to achieve during your term of office?

Mensa International is in the process of an Aperiodic Referendum which includes some issues regarding eligibility for candidacy. The change may affect your application. The email containing the link to the webform will provide an update to that situation.

Full instructions for completion of your application will be provided with the link to the Registration webform.

If there is anything you would like further information on, or need to discuss your registration, please contact the IEC at: iec@mensa.org Kind regards, Trish Kennett IEC 2021 – Chair iec-chair@mensa.org

- for confidential communications only

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020

Referendum To Constitutional Amendments Constitutional Referendum The International Board of Directors (IBD) of Mensa is asking the membership to consider three specific changes to the Constitution of Mensa, all relating to the international elected officers. Each amendment is presented with the current and the proposed new version side by side. In addition, arguments for and against have been solicited from members and selected by the IBD, these are presented as well.

The Constitution of Mensa is the highest governing document of our organisation. Any change to it requires a referendum where all members are given a vote. To pass, more than half of the total number of votes must be in favour, and it must also be favoured by the voters in one third of all national Mensa groups.

The IBD comprises representatives of all national Mensa groups with more than 250 members, and is the highest governing body. The decision to propose these changes was made by majority vote, see minutes from the 2019 meeting in Kuala Lumpur for more details, available on the website mensa.org.

AMENDMENT 1 – TERM LIMITS FOR ELECTED OFFICERS PROPOSAL: Section IV.C.10 of the International Mensa Constitution is changed as described below.

CURRENT VERSION

PROPOSED NEW VERSION

No International Elected Officer shall serve in the same international elected office for more than two consecutive terms.

No International Elected Officer shall serve in the same international elected office for more than two terms.

EXPLANATION: The word ”consecutive” is removed in the new version. The Constitution currently does not limit the total number of terms that an officer may serve in the same office, only the number of terms in a row. This allows a candidate to switch back and forth between two offices and serve in the same office for three or more terms. This might have been fine in the past, when terms lasted two years, but since they have been lengthened to three years, nine or more years in the same office may lead to too much concentration of power in one person. Two terms in the same office should be enough. Also, as Mensa grows and there are more National Mensas, the number of possible well-qualified candidates with previous Mensa leadership experience also grows. The IBD also made a point to specify that ”terms served before the adoption of this amendment shall be counted towards the term limit”. This means that members who have already served two terms in one position will not be eligible for the same position again, if this proposal passes.

FOR

AGAINST

It should not be possible to stay in an elected office forever, by switching positions. Now that terms are three years instead of two years, it is even more important to recruit new people instead of having the same people rotate between themselves.

If the members want a particular officer to come back to an office even if they have served in the same capacity before, we should not stop the members from deciding this.

When new people join ExComm, they often bring fresh ideas and new perspectives to the table, which is good. However, two terms of three years each should be enough to execute these ideas – and then step aside and let the next person take over the office.

Willing volunteers are among the organization's most scarce resources. If anything this change could make that resource even more scarce by limiting permanently the ability of such people to contribute to the organization through office positions.

In a perfect democracy, no limitations would be needed. In real life, term limits are safeguards against organisations getting stuck with the same old people. Organisations thrive when new blood arrives.

This motion is trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. An effect of this motion will also be to drive officers from a post they are good in to one they are less suited for if they wish to continue serving.

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020

AMENDMENT 2 – HOW TO COUNT PARTIAL TERMS FOR ELECTED OFFICERS PROPOSAL: Section IV. D 9 of the International Mensa Constitution is changed as described below.

CURRENT VERSION

PROPOSED NEW VERSION

In the event of the death, resignation, or removal of In the event of the death, resignation, or removal of an International Elected Officer, the vacancy shall be an International Elected Officer, the Board shall filled by the Board. appoint a member of Mensa to fill the vacancy. A partial term served shall count toward the term limits provided in Article IV, section C.10, except in the case when the time served by an International Elected Officer appointed by the Board to fill a vacancy is less than one half of a full term.

EXPLANATION: It can happen that an officer resigns voluntarily or is removed from office. What is not clear in the Constitution currently is how to count these partial terms, both for the person who did not serve the full term, but also for the volunteer who is appointed to fill the vacancy. Since there is a limit to how many terms one can serve, it is necessary to decide if partial terms count as one or zero. The proposal makes it clear that any term that is not completed counts as one regardless of length, but a vacacy filled counts as one only if longer than half a term, which is 18 months under current rules.

FOR It is good to have a clear rule for these cases to ensure fair and equal treatment based on a simple principle. The IBD is asking the members to clarify the matter by voting in favor of the amendment.

AGAINST The IBD is competent to set down additional clarifying policy for how to interpret cases not explicitly mentioned in the constitution. Therefore this is an unnecessary amendment.

AMENDMENT 3 – WHEN TO APPOINT THE ELECTION COMMITTEE PROPOSAL: Section X.A.2 of the International Mensa Constitution is changed as described below.

CURRENT VERSION

PROPOSED NEW VERSION

No later than May 1 of each even-numbered year the No later than May 1 preceding an election year the Board shall appoint an Election Committee Board shall appoint an Election Committee Explanation: This is a simple correction of an error. When the term of office was changed from two years to three years in the 2019 referendum, the term length for the election committee should have been changed as well. Not to change it would allow the inconsistency to remain and result in the election committee being appointed out of sequence with the timings of future elections.

FOR

AGAINST

The election committee should obviously not be (No arguments against have been presented.) appointed more often than there are elections. This is a necessary correction of an error.

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 ASIE 20-08

Appendix 22: Procedures For Conducting Aperiodic Constitutional Amendment Ballots The following rules are adopted by the International Board of Directors to govern the procedures for conducting aperiodic ballots for Constitutional amendments – i.e. ballots carried out in between the normal cycle of international officer elections.

Throughout these rules, unless otherwise specified, all dates will correspond with Coordinated Universal Time, all starting times will be 00:01 UTC on the date in question, and the time of all deadlines will be 23:59 UTC on the date in question.

DEFINITIONS: Throughout these rules, the following terms have the meanings indicated: “Constitutional Ballot Committee (CBC)” means the persons appointed to manage the ballot to approve the Constitutional amendments.

“DIM” means Direct International Member.

“IBD” means the International Board of Directors.

“Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency” means a commercial company expert in conducting electronic balloting and supervising referenda.

“MWJ” means Mensa World Journal. “national chair” means the member with chief executive authority within a national Mensa Committee. “national Mensa Committee (NMC)” means the governing body (the board) of a national Mensa group. “national Mensa group (NM)” means a Full National Mensa, a Provisional National Mensa, or an Emerging National Mensa.

“NCIE” means “national coordinator for international elections.” This is the person within a national Mensa responsible for managing the amendment ballot and interacts with the CBC on behalf of the national Mensa. By default, it is the national Mensa chair or permanent proxy, unless a different person is specifically appointed, “publish” means distribution to the entire Mensa membership of the entity doing the publishing (e.g., to all members of a national Mensa, or to all DIMs, or to the entire worldwide membership), whether electronically (via email or the like) or in print or both. “votekey” means a unique identifier used to associate an electronic vote with the voter who cast it. “voting period” is the period during which votes may be cast INTRODUCTION These procedures will apply to the process for balloting the membership on proposed Constitutional amendments that are conducted at a time other than in conjunction with the elections of the international officers. They will also apply if Constitutional amendments are planned to coincide with the international elections but all 4 officers are elected unopposed, thereby negating the need for a ballot for those positions.

The outline process is as follows:  The amendments are drafted and sent to GPAC for scrutiny in accordance with ASIEs 08-24 or 09-34.  Pro and Con statements are sought. The most appropriate statements and the voting period for the ballot are decided by IBD.  The national Mensas appoint a national coordinator for international elections (NCIE) and inform the CBC. This can be the national chair, an appointee or an employee.  The CBC collates and checks the amendment texts and accompanying statements approved by the IBD and creates a ballot in consultation with the Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency. The CBC sends the final ballot containing the proposed amendments and the accompanying statements to the Agency and to the national Mensas.  The Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency will distribute vote keys electronically, using the email addresses provided. National Mensas have the option of sharing their entire record of member e-mail address with the Agency. Otherwise, the registered e-mails on Mensa.org will be used to distribute vote keys to their members.  The amendment materials, or a link to these, will be distributed along with the vote keys.  The voting period opens and closes on the decided dates.  The Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency tallies the electronic votes and sends the ballot results to the

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 international Executive Director, who informs the International Chair.  The International Chair (or the Executive Director) notifies the IBD and the wider Mensa membership of the results.

As outlined above, there are a number of decisions that are required by the IBD in order to permit the ballot to go ahead: 1. A decision to hold the aperiodic Constitutional amendment ballot.

2. The appointment of the Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency. (This could be decided as part of the decision to hold the ballot, or devolved to the CBC.) 3. The appointment of the Constitutional ballot committee (CBC).

4. The approval of the wording of the amendment(s).

5. The dates for the ballot process. (These could be approved as part of the decision to hold the ballot.)

Decisions/Actions for the Constitutional ballot committee: 1. The formal notice of the ballot.

2. The format of the ballot paper (with agreement of the Independent Agency).

3. The issuing of votekeys (either directly, or arranging for them to be issued by the Independent Agency.

4. The checking and issuing of all amendment ballot materials to national Mensa NCIEs. 5. Acknowledgement of confirmation from national Mensas of dispatch of paper ballots to the Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency.

6. Publication of Amendment Ballot Results.

RULE 1 – NOTICE OF AMENDMENT BALLOT 1.1 The usual practice, as laid out in ASIEs, is to combine a ballot on proposed Constitutional amendments with the election of international officers. However, there will be occasions when it is necessary or highly desirable to seek amendments to the international Constitution in the intervening period. When the IBD has approved the intention to hold an aperiodic ballot, the CBC will issue a notice announcing the amendment ballot. This notice will be published in the MWJ and in all national Mensa publications, or circulated by other appropriate means, in order to ensure that the notice reaches all members at least two months before the ballot starts. The notice is also to be published on the mensa.org web site and via any other appropriate electronic channels.

1.2. As soon as the ballot has been announced, the processes set out in ASIEs 08-24 or 09-34 as appropriate will begin, except that the dates associated with a ballot in conjunction with the election of international officers will not apply; the dates for the aperiodic approval of amendment texts and accompanying statements will be announced by IBD along with the notice of the ballot.

RULE 2 – BALLOT PROCESS 2.1 Voting procedure for aperiodic Constitutional amendment ballots will be similar to those for the election of international officers and are as shown in Rules 3 and 4.

2.2 National Mensas are required to ensure that all their members have the opportunity to vote. The NCIE of each national Mensa must submit evidence to the CBC of actions taken to meet with this requirement, such as copies of official publications or other national ballot correspondence. Deadline for submitting this will be announced by the CBC for each ballot.

2.3 For each individual proposed amendment, voters will be provided the full text of the proposed amendment, together with a detailed explanation of the reason for the amendment, plus supporting statements for and against the amendment. The voters will have the option to record a vote for or a vote against; there is no option to abstain.

RULE 3 – E-VOTING 3.1 The centralized voting procedure is purely electronic and is defined as the CBC, or the International Ballot Supervisory Agency acting on behalf of the CBC, distributing vote keys to those members for which they have received e-mail addresses.

3.2 National Mensas may choose to share their membership list, with e-mail addresses, with the International Ballot Supervisory Agency in order to maximize the number of members who will receive a vote key. Deadline for doing this will be announced for each ballot. Only members in good standing as at 00.00 on a defined date

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 to be announced for each ballot shall be included in this list; the deadline relates to the time zone where the membership would normally be administered or registered. The CBC will arrange for national Mensas to be able to share these lists in a way that is compliant with common data privacy laws.

3.3 Members of national Mensas that do not share their membership list with the Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency must register on the international website mensa.org in order to receive a vote key. The CBC will extract these e-mail addresses and share them with the Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency, who will create the final list of members who will receive individual votekeys.

3.4 National Mensas that do not share their membership list with the Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency must inform their members that, in order to vote electronically, they must be registered at the international website www.mensa.org and submit an e-mail address. Deadline for informing the members of this will be specified for each ballot and notified in good time to ensure that the registration process may be accomplished prior to the cut-off date specified in accordance with Rule 3.4.

3.5 The amendment ballot materials and the electronic ballot form will be prepared by the Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency and approved by the CBC before use.

RULE 4 – PAPER BALLOTS Note: The provisions of Rule 4 apply only to those national Mensa groups that have decided to offer paper ballots for members, which shall be a way to vote without using the Internet.

Preparation of ballot materials.

4.1 Each national Mensa must inform the CBC of the person nominated to be that national Mensa’s NCIE, no later than a specified date to be announced for each aperiodic ballot process.

4.2 The CBC will provide a master copy of the paper ballot and other ballot materials to the NCIE of each national Mensa group, to the IBD, to the Mensa International office, by a specified date to be announced for each aperiodic ballot process. The NCIE of each national Mensa group will be responsible for distribution of the amendment ballots to the members of the national Mensa group concerned by publication in the group newsletter to ensure that it will reach members by a specified date to be announced for each aperiodic ballot process.

4.3 National Mensas that offer voting by paper ballot are required to provide their members with all ballot materials on paper along with the ballots to be submitted. This is necessary if they have members that wish to vote without using the Internet.

4.4 The cost of printing and distributing amendment materials is not reimbursed by Mensa International.

4.5 Only members in good standing as at 00.00 on a date to be specified for each referendum ballot shall be eligible to vote; the deadline relates to the time zone where the member’s membership would normally be administered or registered.

4.6 Failure of any national Mensa group to arrange for a timely distribution of ballots may result in the loss of voting privileges for the members of that national Mensa group, but will not affect the validity of the ballot.

The ballot form must be published in English and must be identical in content and style to the ballot supplied by the CBC. The ballot forms must be printed in A4 or US letter size and may not be reduced in size to fit a smaller format national magazine. For each amendment, the ballot will show the text of the amendment, a detailed explanation of the reason for the amendment, plus supporting statements for and against the amendment. There will be only two options: a vote for or a vote against.

4.7 Other ballot material to be published with the ballot will include: (a) Instructions for voting, including clear instructions for what is required on the outside of the envelope if a ballot is to be valid. Also included should be the deadline for return of ballots, which is that all ballots (paper and electronic) must be received no earlier than a date to be specified for each ballot. (b) The address to which the completed ballot must be returned.

4.8 In all Mensa International referenda conducted by mail ballot, postage for mailed ballot returns shall not be provided. Voters must pay their own postage if they choose to return a ballot by mail.

Return of Paper Ballots

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 4.9 After voting, each member voting on a paper ballot must place the ballot in an envelope that must be sealed and marked “International Mensa Ballot�, in the upper left corner of the front side of the envelope.

On the outside of the envelope, each member must write his/her name in block letters as it appears in Mensa records, plus his address and Mensa membership number. An envelope lacking the member’s name, address, or membership number will be deemed invalid and the enclosed ballot will be invalid.

4.10 If the ballot and referendum materials are printed as part of a national publication, and, if two or more members in one family receive one issue of the national publication, each additional member may copy the ballot, vote, then place the ballot in a separate envelope marked and sealed in accordance with Rule 4.9 above.

4.11 In each national Mensa group, the NCIE will designate the address to which ballots must be returned.

This address will be published with the ballots (Rule 4.7.b). All completed ballots must be mailed or otherwise delivered to this address.

Validation of Ballot Envelopes for Paper Ballots 4.12 The NCIE of each national Mensa group will have the responsibility to determine the validity of each ballot envelope returned to the designated address, following these guidelines. (a) If more than one envelope is received from the same member, only the first ballot sent (postmarked) from that member may be considered valid (if it meets all other requirements); all subsequent paper ballots from that member must be declared invalid. (b) Any ballot envelope submitted by a person not a member in good standing, must be declared invalid.

4.13 If a national Mensa fails to have sent said information to the Independent Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency by the date specified for the referendum ballot, all ballot envelopes of that national Mensa must be declared invalid.

4.14 Any ballot envelope that does not have all required information (Rule 4.9) must be declared invalid.

4.15 Any ballot envelopes postmarked prior to the start date for the referendum will be deemed as received during the ballot period.

4.16 Immediately after the end of the voting period, the Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency shall compile lists of member numbers that have voted electronically based on used votekeys, for each national Mensa group; and, by the end of the day following the end of the voting period, it shall send the lists to the CBC for forwarding to the appropriate national groups for use in the validation process. The forwarding by the CBC to the national groups is to take place no later than three days after the end of the voting period.

Forwarding of Paper Ballots 4.17 Within seven days of the end of the voting period, the NCIE must sort all ballot envelopes into valid and invalid groups. None of these envelopes will be opened. The NCIE will write a note on each envelope that was declared invalid indicating why it was declared invalid.

4.18 No later than seven calendar days after the end of the voting period both the valid and invalid unopened ballot envelopes will be sent in bulk by courier or express mail to the Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency, where they must be received by no later than 14 calendar days from the end of the voting period; only ballots received by the Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency within 14 calendar days of the end of the voting period will be counted. The ballots must be accompanied by a statement from the NCIE, certifying: (a) The number of ballot envelopes being forwarded. (b) That all forwarded valid ballot envelopes are from members in good standing. (c) That all valid ballot envelopes were received no later than the end of the voting period, and only those, are being forwarded.

4.19 Each NCIE is to inform the CBC when it has sent the ballots to the Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency. The CBC is to send acknowledgement of the notification back to the NCIE. The Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency is to notify the CBC when it has received ballots from a national Mensa. The CBC is to acknowledge receipt of the notification back to the Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency and to the national Mensa.

4.20 If the ballots of a national Mensa group are not received by the Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency in time to be counted, i.e., if they are not received on or before 14 calendar days after the end of the voting period,

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 then that national Mensa group will not qualify for reimbursement of the cost for sending paper ballots to the Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency.

RULE 5 – INDEPENDENT BALLOT SUPERVISORY AGENCY 5.1 The CBC will appoint an Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency for aperiodic Constitutional amendment ballots. This agency will have the following duties: (a) To provide the on-line voting means. (b) To tally the electronic votes and any paper ballots for the individual amendments and to report the results to the international Executive Director.

5.2 The agency shall not make the electronic material or results available to any Mensa member or any other third party, unless directed to do so by the CBC. RULE 6 – PUBLICATION OF RESULTS 6.1 A Constitutional amendment passes, only under the following conditions: “provided that, of the members from whom completed ballots are received, more than one-half vote in favour of the amendment and the amendment is favoured by the voters in at least one-third of the national Mensas.”

(Constitution XIII.A) 6.2 The announcement of the results will, therefore, show the totals of votes received for and against each proposed amendment, together with whether the conditions have been met for that amendment to pass. Full tallies of the votes cast will also be provided.

6.3 The Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency will tally votes and inform the international Executive Director.

6.4 The international Executive Director will give notice of the final vote count to the International Chair in the shortest practical timescale after receiving the results from the Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency. The international Chair (or the executive director) will inform the IBD and the MWJ Editor.

6.5 The detailed results, including a full breakdown of votes received by country will be published in the mandatory pages of the next suitable issue of the MWJ and on mensa.org.

6.6 The approved amendments to the Constitution will become effective immediately upon the publication of the results, unless a date is otherwise specified in the text of the amendment.

RULE 7 – MISCELLANEOUS 7.1 All national groups, national offices, NCIEs, and national chairs must cooperate with the CBC and follow its directives regarding the conduct of such Constitutional ballots.

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020

Constitutional Referendum 2020 THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE A SUMMARY ONLY. COMPLETE REFERENDUM RULES ARE PROVIDED SEPARATELY AND SHOULD BE MADE AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS IF REQUESTED. 1. The procedure for conducting this referendum ballot are similar to those that will be used for the 2021 election.

Please note, these instructions relate only to the referendum to be held in 2020. Since these differ a little from previous procedures, there may be aspects that will be unfamiliar to you, even if you have participated in earlier elections and referenda.

2. National Mensas are required to ensure that all their members have the opportunity to vote (Rule 2.2) 3. Only members in good standing as at 2359 hrs UTC on 1 October are entitled to vote in the referendum.

4. Because in this case there is only a referendum, the whole process is shorter and more straightforward. You are receiving the ballot materials and the instructions immediately and there is no preamble in the form of nominations etc, as with elections. In summary, the process is as follows: I. National Mensa chairs are notified of the referendum ballot.

II. National Mensa chairs declare the name and email address of the NCIE for their national Mensa to the Constitutional Ballot Committee (CBC). [Note: The NCIE for the referendum does not have to be the same person as the one for the 2021 election, but it would be advisable, so that they become more familiar with the election processes].

III. The CBC forwards the contact details of the NCIEs to the Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency.

IV. The national Mensas choose whether to offer paper ballots to their members in addition to electronic ballots. Remember that there is no reimbursement from Mensa International for the cost of distributing paper ballots or the amendment materials.

V. In order to allow their members to vote electronically, national Mensas may choose to share their membership list with Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency, who would then be able to send votekeys directly to the membership.

VI. The ballot agency will contact the NCIEs with their requirements for electronic voting, including the format for submitting membership lists and contact email addresses to allow their members to vote electronically.

VII. National Mensas that choose not to share their membership list with the agency must ensure that their members are made aware that, in order to vote electronically, they must be registered on the Mensa International website www.mensa.org with a current email address no later than 2359hrs UTC on 1 October 2020.

VIII. All members whose details are available to the Independent Ballot Supervisory Agency, whether through shared membership lists provided by the national Mensa or because they are registered on the Mensa International website will receive electronic voting instructions and votekeys directly from the agency.

IX. The rules for paper ballots are similar to those for international elections; those rules and a pdf of the ballot paper are provided to national Mensas for them to implement if they intend to offer paper ballots.

(Rule 4). The ballot paper for paper ballots must not be altered in any way and must be printed in A4 or US letter size; they may not be reduced in size to fit a smaller format national magazine. (Rule 4.6) 5. The voting period opens at 0001 UTC on 1 November 2020 and closes on 15 November 2020. This is a shorter period than is usual for the international elections, but is to allow the results of the ballot to be tallied in time to inform potential candidates of the conditions for the 2021 international election.

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 INSTRUCTIONS TO VOTERS - PLEASE READ BEFORE VOTING In addition to electronic voting in the 2020 Referendum, national groups may offer their members the opportunity to vote via postal ballot. If you wish to vote, you may vote using one of the two options offered. However, you may not use both options.

Any member returning an electronic vote and a postal vote will have the postal vote declared invalid by their national group.

1. VOTING ELECTRONICALLY If your national Mensa has supplied the membership list to the independent ballot agency, or if you have registered on the Mensa International website, www.mensa.org, the ballot agency will email you a votekey consisting of two codes to enter the web site for electronic voting and may provide you with a unique direct link to the site bypassing the requirement for codes, together with instructions. The web site is: http://www.cesvotes.com/mensainternational2020. That URL will be made live only when voting opens.

Enter the web site either directly or using the provided codes depending on the advice received with your votekeys. These instructions will be issued by the ballot agency. On entering the site, the instructions will be on the screen, with a Google Translate button to translate the instructions into your home language if necessary.

Follow the instructions on the screen. You will be able to review the referendum materials from the voting screen. When you have finished voting and have exited the site you will not be able to go back and vote again or change your vote. Once you exit the site after having voted you have nothing further to do. Your vote is cast.

2. VOTING BY POSTAL BALLOT 3. Returning your Ballot Paper 1. Put your ballot into the envelope provided, then close and seal the envelope. If not already marked, write clearly in the upper left front corner of front of the envelope “International Mensa Ballot�.

2. ON THE BACK OF THE ENVELOPE, write your name, address and membership number in block letters as they appear in your Mensa records. Your national Mensa will use this information to verify that you are a member in good standing that is entitled to vote. If this information is not on the back of the envelope, your vote will be invalid and WILL NOT BE COUNTED. Should you be uncomfortable with this information being openly visible on the envelope, you may place this envelope into another one that you address to the national Mensa office (address below).

3. Put a stamp on the envelope suitable for delivery to your national Mensa.

4. Complete the front and back as instructed in points 1 and 2 above and return to the address of your national Mensa as shown below, ensuring that it will arrive no later than the 18th of November 2020.

5. If you also vote electronically your postal ballot will be invalidated.

The envelope should be addressed to the national Mensa HQ. DO NOT SEND YOUR BALLOT ENVELOPE TO ANY OTHER ADDRESS. If two or more members live at the same address but you received only one postal ballot form, each additional member may copy the postal ballot paper and vote following the above instructions using a separate envelope. Any member who returns more than one ballot form will have the first received form declared valid and subsequent envelopes declared invalid.

Only ballots received by 18th November 2020 will be counted. Do not place anything else in the envelope because it will be forwarded unopened to the independent ballot agency, which will discard any other materials in the envelope.

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 2020 Constitutional Amendments – Ballot Paper

¨ FOR ¨ AGAINST

1. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT – TERM LIMITS FOR ELECTED OFFICERS In the Constitution of Mensa, Article IV, section C.10 is revised to read: “No international elected officer shall serve in the same international elected office for more than two terms”

2. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT – HOW TO COUNT

¨ FOR ¨ AGAINST

PARTIAL TERMS FOR ELECTED OFFICERS

In the Constitution of Mensa, Article IV, section D.9 is revised to read: “In the event of the death, resignation, or removal of an International Elected Officer, the Board shall appoint a member of Mensa to fill the vacancy. A partial term served shall count toward the term limits provided in Article IV, section C.10, except in the case when the time served by an International Elected Officer appointed by the Board to fill a vacancy is less than one half of a full term.”

3. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT – WHEN TO APPOINT

¨ FOR ¨ AGAINST

THE ELECTION COMMITTEE

In the Constitution of Mensa, Article X, Section A.2, “No later than May 1 of each even-numbered year the Board shall appoint an Election Committee” is revised to read: “No later than May 1 preceding an election year the Board shall appoint an Election Committee”

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020

Pages From Mensa World Journal Mensa International Limited is a company registered in England and Wales under registration number 00848100.

Mensa’s registered office is Slate Barn, Church Lane, Caythorpe, NG32 3EL, United Kingdom MWJ Editor: Ms Kate Nacard 407/23 Corunna Rd, Stanmore NSW 2048 Australia

mwjeditor@mensa.org T: +61 402152858

From the ExComm Mensa in Lockdown As I pen this, my country, and my national Mensa group, are cautiously emerging from the most radical curtailment, in my lifetime, of what we considered only a few months ago to be ‘normal’ society. In last month’s Mensa World Journal, the Director-SNM described how Mensa groups across the world have been coping with the coronavirus pandemic. British Mensa, like so many others, has also had to find a new way of working.

There have been downsides, of course. The months of lockdowns in Britain and Ireland meant no in-person interaction among Mensa members. Many meetings, events and get-togethers, large and small, usually take place every month, organized by our tireless volunteers.

Casualties included the Irish and Scottish annual gatherings, as well as the main British Mensa AG and our flagship Mensa at Cambridge and Thinks @ Oxford. The closing of our administrative office has stopped us issuing printed newsletters for our SIGs. No test sessions have been held, so we have had very few new members to welcome.

There have, however, been benefits as well. The British Mensa office staff have all been working from home, and have continued to provide an excellent service for our members.British Mensa has tended to do rather less online than more recently founded Mensa groups, and we have now been forced to re-evaluate this approach. Members have pulled together to find innovative ways of keeping in touch, and there has been an explosion of virtual chat dropins, quizzes, murder mysteries, science lectures and general entertainment. Irish Mensa replaced its annual gathering with a whole weekend of virtual events, with guests from countries including America, Germany and Mexico joining via video.

Many of our regular activities have been relocated online.

The Board has been holding its meetings via Zoom for some time, and this year’s regional officers’ and editors’ conferences took place in the

virtual world. This is also the case for our games competitions, including Brain of Mensa, and the 2020 Young Mensans’ Future Paths conference, our popular event for aspiring Oxbridge students.

Our Annual General Meeting, a requirement under UK company law, is likely to be a blend of online and (a small number of ) in-person attendees. Moving events online has the major advantage that members in more remote locations, who might struggle to get to a regular meeting, can participate. Mensans have also been reaching out to the wider community. A team of Irish members set up an online school to keep some bright sparks busy while schools were closed, and our gifted child consultant has been offering advice to parents who might feel overwhelmed at the thought of teaching their children at home. A new service, managed by our Research Officer, has debuted in the Mensa Wellness section of the British Mensa website, to share information to help members look after their and their families’ physical and mental wellbeing. I’ve been proud to see how our members have reacted to the upheaval caused by coronavirus and I’m sure this has been repeated in groups worldwide.

Looking forward, but still on topic, I’d like to recommend next year’s Mensa at Cambridge, which has already been scheduled for September 2-5, 2021, with an outstanding panel of presenters. The topic, The Skills Crisis, is highly relevant to what we all hope will be our postpandemic world.

Coronavirus arguably represents the largest quake to the world economy, with serious physical and mental health and other societal issues to be addressed, since the Second World War, and skills are key to our recovery.

So what is the future going to look like, both for Mensa and for society as a whole? It’s a topic which has been exhaustively and passionately debated in our various online forums. Mensans are, in my experience, an optimistic bunch of people, and I hope we’re right to be. Will home working become the norm wherever possible? Will less polluting travel leading to a greener planet? Will people desert the big cities? Is this our opportunity to review our priorities and reset society in accordance with them? Discuss.

Chris Leek Chairman, British Mensa

Reprinted from the Mensa World Journal, September, 2020, issue 092, Editor Kate Nacard

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020

What’s in the MWJ this month?

• Congratulations to all the Mensa International Scholarship winners, 2020. See p2 for details.

• Find out how Google Translate, or even custom-built machine translation engines tailored to specific companies, measure up against human translation, on p4.

• Haiku and Mensa limericks are two of the many hundreds of entries in the MWJ Poetry competition 2020. You’ll find these on pp2 and 5. The MWJ International Poet, 2020, will be announced in the December issue!

• Advik Unni, a young Mensan from Dubai sees a positive consequence - geophysical pluses - from the COVID-19 pandemic, on p6.

• Can you imagine a couple sailing alone through often dangerous territories, spanning 20 countries in three years? Meet our intrepid duo from the USA on p7.

• I think we can all agree that COVID-19 is possibly the single largest pandemic of our generation.

• Features Editor Inham Hassen sums up some of the ingenious solutions to overcome some of the key problems faced by society, on p8.

• Did you know that birds have four colour sensors instead of three, and one of them is in the ultraviolet range? Our science guru tells us more on p10.

• And for all you puzzle-solvers, Therese’s Teasers are here as usual on p12!

Download or read at www.mensa.org Kate Nacard, Editor Reprinted from the Mensa World Journal, September, 2020, issue 092, Editor Kate Nacard

Mensa Foundation Scholarship Winners 2020 The Mensa Foundation is proud to announce its 2020 Mensa International Scholarship Winners: US$3,000 International Scholarship - Niki Stypidou, Mensa Greece US$1,000 International Scholarship - Simon Hai Yang, Mensa Germany US$1,000 International Scholarship - Aisha Safia Jamal, Mensa India US$1,000 International Scholarship - Tadija Miletic, Mensa Serbia US$1,000 Ed Vincent Scholarship - Viola Taubmann, Mensa Germany Scholarship monies are funded by Mensa International and a kind donation from Mensa Switzerland allowed this year’s normal US$2,000 prize to be increased to US$3,000. Any Mensans, and Mensa groups, are welcome to donate money to the Mensa Foundation towards increasing the value of future international scholarships.

Any non-American Mensa student pursuing university studies is eligible to apply for these scholarships each year. Details can be found at https://www.mensafoundation.org/what-we-do/scholarships/ I would like to thank the international Mensa judging panel. Our 2020 judges are Elissa Rudolph (American Mensa) Cadu Fonseca (Mensa Brazil), Ann Rootkin (British Mensa), Delma Murray (Mensa Canada), Andreas Athanasakis (Mensa Greece), Zabeda Abdul Hamid (Mensa Malaysia), Cinthia Reyes (Mensa Mexico), Willem Bouwens (Mensa Netherlands), Jacek Cywinski (Mensa New Zealand), Aleksandra Borovic (Mensa Serbia).

Vicki Herd Chair of International Scholarship Program Chair of Ed Vincent Scholarship Program Reprinted from the Mensa World Journal, September, 2020, issue 092, Editor Kate Nacard

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020

From the ExComm Intellectual exchange among members The Constitution of Mensa states in section I. paragraph B. “Mensa provides a forum for intellectual exchange among members. Its activities include the exchange of ideas by lectures, discussions, journals, special-interest groups, and local, regional, national, and international gatherings; the investigations of members’ opinions and attitudes; and assistance to researchers inside and outside Mensa in projects dealing with intelligence or Mensa.”

This intellectual exchange among members is indeed one of the key purposes of Mensa. It was exactly what I was looking for when I joined at the age of 62. And I have not been disappointed. Rather the contrary is the case. The large offer of lectures, presentations, discussions and other formats have surpassed my expectations. Hamburg, which is my first place of residence, offers many such activities locally. There are many more at the regional, national and international level. So I am completely satisfied, like most of those Ms that live in or near a big city.

area, which offers many regular and ad-hoc events that are advertised in our event calendar and that can also be booked there.

This substantially increased offer of events has certainly been welcomed by many, but it has also enlarged two major challenges: the need for additional volunteers to manage these offers and an increased activity of trolls who do not miss exploiting the growing multitude of on-line channels.

Mobilizing additional volunteers is only part of the challenge. The other part is to constitute teams of them where required. Teams built of members that do not get along well or that compete for influence or leadership tend to fail or at least perform way below those where the members respect each other and value the different contributions of other team members.

In response to problems with trolls and at times use of inappropriate language in forums, social media groups and mailing lists, Mensa Germany has recently issued rules for mailing lists, forums and chat systems. These rules have been worked out through long and detailed discussions among the board members and the group of the coordinators of the different areas of activity that constitute the second level leadership in Mensa Germany. The future will need to tell to what extent these rules serve their intended purpose.

But what about an M that lives somewhere out in the boondocks where there are not many other Ms nearby? In most cases there is no regular local activity if any at all and they are required to go to the nearest bigger city to benefit from an intellectual exchange with other members.

Investigations of members’ opinions and attitudes are carried out through periodic surveys among German Ms. And there are a number of research projects on intelligence and Mensa that receive active assistance from Mensa Germany.

Their needs are at least partially met by on-line forums, social media Mensa groups, on-line events and a number of different e-mail lists they can subscribe to (in Germany we have a large choice, such as M2M-discussion and M2M-who-knows-what, they cover all of Germany, while discussion-Hamburg for example covers our locsec area only).

I am firmly convinced that most of what I mentioned about activities within Mensa Germany holds true in similar fashion in other national Mensas. One piece of evidence of this is that the worldwide membership has grown by about 60,000 over the past 20 years.

The coronavirus pandemic has led to a considerable increase of Mensa Germany’s on-line offer. Initially the on-line hotel Mensa, a Discord-based service that had been set up for MY-Germany (target age group 18-30), was opened up to all German Ms. Eventually we have set up a cyber locsec

Whenever there is an opportunity for intellectual exchange among members it is for me a distinct pleasure and I believe the same must be the case for the vast majority of us.

Reprinted from the Mensa World Journal, October, 2020, issue 093, Editor Kate Nacard

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Peter Fröhler Mensa Germany

MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020

What’s in the MWJ this month?

• How exciting if science can come up with a biomarker for Mensans! Inham Hassen has the latest news on p2.

• On p3, Peter Fröhler of Mensa Germany brings us up to date on members’ intellectual exchange during COVID-19.

• I was so pleased to read in the results of the first International Member Survey (pp4-5) that close on 26% of respondents almost always, or always, read the MWJ regularly!

• If you’re planning on seeing a lawyer any time soon, have a read of Canadian Mensa’s Joshua Tayar’s legal advice on p6.

• Our member profile this month (p7) is of Norwegian Mensan, Olav Hoel Dørum. Olav works for a computer company, is a published author, has co-developed an IQ test, and appears regularly on TV. • My heart goes out to these two American Mensa boys - 16-year-old Dhruv Pai and 15-year-old Matt Casertano - who have launched a very successful venture - Teens Helping Seniors - during the COVID-19 pandemic. Congratulations to both boys! (p8) • On p10, our science guru, John Blinke, explores what happens when the COVID-19 virus infects us.

• If you’re thinking of nominating for the 2021 International Elections, all the information you need is on p12.

• And, Therese’s Teasers are here on the back page for all you puzzle addicts!

Download or read at www.mensa.org Kate Nacard, Editor

Reprinted from the Mensa World Journal, October, 2020, issue 093, Editor Kate Nacard

Notice Inviting Nominations for the International Election 2021 In accordance with Article X of the Constitution of Mensa, the International Election Committee (IEC) invites registration of Candidates and nominations for the following internationally elected offices: • INTERNATIONAL CHAIRMAN • INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR-ADMINISTRATION • INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR-DEVELOPMENT • INTERNATIONAL TREASURER Registration of Candidates Candidates for the 2021 Election must personally register their interest in being nominated for a specific position and must secure at least one nomination to be permitted to stand in the election.

Eligible members may register their interest in being nominated by completing the Registration Form and submitting their documentation.

Eligibility criteria and instructions for registration may be obtained from the IEC at iec@mensa.org The closing date for registration of Candidates is 23:59 UTC 4th January 2021.

Nomination Process After registration closes, the candidates seeking nomination will be verified by the IEC . After the verification process has been completed, a list of all candidates available for nomination will be published in appropriate channels and available via email from the IEC at iec@mensa.org.

Nominations may be lodged for any or all positions by National Mensa Groups or by petition from members. The closing

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 date for all nominations is 23:59 UTC 1st February 2021.

Instructions for submission of nominations can be obtained from the IEC at iec@mensa.org Nomination by National Mensa Committees National Mensa Committees may nominate a registered candidate or a slate of candidates for any or all offices by submitting the name(s) of such registered candidate(s). A national Mensa group may nominate more than one individual for each office. Instructions for the Nomination process will be provided to National Mensa Committees with the list of verified Candidates.

Nomination by members Members may nominate a registered potential candidate or a slate of candidates for any or all offices by submitting: i. the name(s) of such registered candidate(s); ii. a petition signed by at least 100 members who are in good standing as of January 1st, 2021; iii. verification of such good standing.

Contact the IEC at iec@mensa.org for all enquiries regarding the election including registration and nomination. If a communication requires confidentiality use the address iec-chair@mensa.org Reprinted from the Mensa World Journal, October, 2020, issue 093, Editor Kate Nacard

Member Survey Results This summer, we sent out our first Mensa International newsletter* including a membership survey.

1,193 people participated and shared their thoughts. * If you want to receive our newsletter just register on mensa.org!

Q1: In what year did you join Mensa?

Q2: What is your National Mensa?

American Mensa 231 Germany 115 France 102 Sweden 69 British Mensa 62 Direct International Members 53 Netherlands 39 Italy 34 Canada 30 Malaysia 31 Australia 28 Hungary 28 Greece 25 Brazil 23 Mexico 23 South Africa 22 Spain 21 Other 257

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020 Q3: How likely are you to recommend someone to join Mensa?

Q4: What content would you like to see in our newsletter?

Top mentions: • Events (>100) • Stories about members (69) • Science (60) • Puzzles (43) • National activities (41) • Research and insights on giftedness, intelligence etc (39) • SIGs (29)

Q6: What international services should Mensa offer to the members?

Top mentions: • SIGHT & travel, support, recommendations etc. (>100) • Career/business opportunities and development (50) • Networking & matching members with similar interests (50) • Gatherings & events (27) • Discounts (19) & travel discounts (16) • Online meetings (18) • Learning/lectures, courses (14) & language learning (9) • Better access to other national groups, local event calendar, guest membership etc. (16) Q7: COVID-19 pandemic: when do you think things will “go back to normal?”

Q5: How often do you usually...

Reprinted from the Mensa World Journal, October, 2020, issue 093, Editor Kate Nacard

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MInd - The Mensa India Magazine, September-October 2020

Mensa India HQ Jnana Prabodhini Institute of Psychology Jnana Prabodhini Bhavan, 510 Sadashiv Peth, Pune, Maharashtra 411030

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