Referendum To Constitutional

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

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.

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.

THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE A SUMMARY ONLY. COMPLETE REFERENDUM RULES ARE PROVIDED SEPARATELY AND SHOULD BE MADE AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS IF REQUESTED.

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.

National Mensas are required to ensure that all their members have the opportunity to vote (Rule 2.2)

Only members in good standing as at 2359 hrs UTC on 1 October are entitled to vote in the referendum.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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”

¨FOR ¨

AGAINST

2. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT – HOW TO COUNT 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.”

¨FOR ¨

AGAINST

3. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT – WHEN TO APPOINT 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”

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 virtual world. This is also the case for our games my national Mensa group, are competitions, including Brain of Mensa, and the 2020 cautiously emerging from the Young Mensans’ Future Paths conference, our popular event most radical curtailment, in my for aspiring Oxbridge students. lifetime, of what we considered Our Annual General Meeting, a requirement under UK only a few months ago to be company law, is likely to be a blend of online ‘normal’ society. In last month’s and (a small number of) in-person attendees. Moving events Mensa World Journal, the online has the major advantage that members in more Director-SNM described how remote locations, who might struggle to get to a regular Mensa groups across the world meeting, can participate. Mensans have also been reaching have been coping with the out to the wider community. A team of Irish members set coronavirus pandemic. British up an online school to keep some bright sparks busy while Mensa, like so many others, has schools were closed, and our gifted child consultant has also had to find a new way of been offering advice to parents who might feel overwhelmed working. at the thought of teaching their children at home. A new There have been downsides, service, managed by our Research Officer, has debuted in of course. The months of lockdowns in Britain and Ireland the Mensa Wellness section of the British Mensa website, to meant no share information to help members look after their and their in-person interaction among Mensa members. Many families’ physical and mental wellbeing. I’ve been proud to meetings, events and get-togethers, large and small, usually see how our members have reacted to the upheaval caused take place every month, organized by our tireless volunteers. by coronavirus and I’m sure this has been repeated in groups Casualties included the Irish and Scottish annual gatherings, worldwide. as well as the main British Mensa AG and our flagship Looking forward, but still on topic, I’d like to recommend Mensa at Cambridge and Thinks @ Oxford. The closing next year’s Mensa at Cambridge, which has of our administrative office has stopped us issuing printed already been scheduled for September 2-5, 2021, with an newsletters for our SIGs. No test sessions have been held, so outstanding panel of presenters. The topic, The Skills Crisis, we have had very few new members to welcome. is highly relevant to what we all hope will be our postThere have, however, been benefits as well. The British pandemic world. Mensa office staff have all been working from home, and Coronavirus arguably represents the largest quake to the have continued to provide an excellent service for our world economy, with serious physical and mental health and members.British Mensa has tended to do rather less online other societal issues to be addressed, since the Second World than more recently founded Mensa groups, and we have War, and skills are key to our recovery. now been forced to re-evaluate this approach. Members So what is the future going to look like, both for Mensa have pulled together to find innovative ways of keeping in and for society as a whole? It’s a topic which has been touch, and there has been an explosion of virtual chat drop- exhaustively and passionately debated in our various online ins, quizzes, murder mysteries, science lectures and general forums. Mensans are, in my experience, an optimistic bunch entertainment. Irish Mensa replaced its annual gathering of people, and I hope we’re right to be. Will home working with a whole weekend of virtual events, with guests from become the norm wherever possible? Will less polluting countries including America, Germany and Mexico joining travel leading to a greener planet? Will people desert the big via video. cities? Is this our opportunity to review our priorities and Many of our regular activities have been relocated online. reset society in accordance with them? Discuss. The Board has been holding its meetings via Zoom for some time, and this year’s regional officers’ Chris Leek and editors’ conferences took place in the Chairman, British Mensa Reprinted from the Mensa World Journal, September, 2020, issue 092, Editor Kate Nacard | 40 |

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

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. 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. 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). 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

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. 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. 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. 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.

Peter Fröhler Mensa Germany

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 | 43 |