March 2018
THE CHRONICLE
IN THIS ISSUE Page 2. Letter from Editor
Letter from the Editor
Page 3. Mensa World Journal Articles - Challenges in Managing a Growing National Mensa -
MIL Positions - applications
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MY-Camp Eleven
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The 2017 Logical Olympics
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Mensa Korea Charity Bash
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See the world with SIGHT (pg10)
Page 8. Mensan’s Musings - Freelancing Ethics -
They're Your Rules.
Page 13. South African Letters - Mensan’s Memories -
Letter from the Chair
Mensa South Africa Webpage: www.mensa.org.za National Chairperson: Simoné Deyzel-O'Brien chairperson@mensa.org.za admin@mensa.org.za National Treasurer: Jaco van der Merwe treasurer@mensa.org.za
National Secretary: Jess Steyn secretary@mensa.org.za Page 2 THE CHRONICLE January 2018
The year has had an incredible beginning with some changes to the South African political dynamics, the global climatic changes showing its effect with drought conditions badly affecting Cape Town, and the large scale Listeriosis identified in our cold meats on the shelves of our retail stored. As it happens though, this edition of The Chronicle does not explore in any depth any of these three topics neither scientifically nor subjectively. I have started to receive some wonderful communication from readers. My favourite is the first letter published at the end of this edition. Due to how the story was told, I was completely absorbed into how each person must have been feeling in the moment, and it is a heart stopping example for me of how important it is to understand the dynamics of relating with each other and being sure not to make assumptions. In this edition we have updated The Chronicle cover page photo. This was a fun exercise for me to try to get the aperture, lighting and framing the way I wanted it. If anybody has taken a photo which could feature on the cover page, please send it to me for consideration, and let me know if I can give you the credit. We are really fortunate to be able to feature articles from regular contributors, specifically I’m referring to both Steven and Douglas. I believe that The Chronicle is taking shape, and I am still on the lookout for more South African contributors. Whether your contribution would be highly technical, quite arty, puzzling or even a fun cartoon, please get in touch with me. I wish everybody a fantastic Autumn. Erik Lear chronicle@mensa.org.za
MENSA WORLD JOURNAL – Germany Challenges in Managing a Growing National Mensa This year saw major upheavals in our German national Mensa, as more than half of our board members left before the end of their two-year term. That prompted new unscheduled elections, but more importantly, forced us to rethink how to manage our national Mensa, which has been growing steadily, to more than 13,500 members. Our last regular elections for our five-person board were held in April 2016 prior to our Annual Meeting in Bonn. Since then, a total of five board members, including one of the two filling in vacant positions, resigned before their term was up. Some of the early resignations may perhaps be explained by personal differences, as they may from time to time occur, but when board members resign in large numbers, it is more likely a sign of a more profound structural challenge. In any case, our constitution forced us to call for an unscheduled vote for a new board. A record of 24 candidates volunteered for a board position. The vote took place electronically between late August and late September, and the results came out only ten days before the most recent IBD Meeting in Nice, France. While I had expressed an early interest in working on international topics, I was taken a bit by surprise not only to be voted in as the last standing board member, but that I was also asked to act as proxy for our new chairwoman Tina Acham, to represent Mensa Germany on IBD and in ExComm. So, what lies ahead for us? Our records show that we changed the number of board members the last time in 1990, when we had only about 1,000 members. In the
MIL Positions/Committees Open for Appointment If you are interested in serving Mensa International in an appointed position, now is your opportunity to apply. These positions are open to all members worldwide. All are for terms of two years unless otherwise stated, with the term commencing after the IBD meeting in October 2018 unless otherwise stated. The following International positions /committees are due to be appointed in 2018: - Events Coordinator - International Archivist - International Communications Officer - International Gifted Youth Committee (committee chair and members) - International Governing Papers Advisory Committee (committee chair and members)
meantime, the membership has grown more than 13-fold, and with it the number of activities, groups, decisions, the budget, and the expectations of our members. And all of these activities need to be coordinated. While for some of the functions we hire and pay for external services, much of the actual work is done by volunteers. Where we do have coordinator roles defined, and teams built up, things run smoothly, but in other areas, too much depends on individual board members. We therefore see the challenge that we need to strengthen the role of our volunteers, and the members of the board need to concentrate on delegating responsibilities instead of doing everything ourselves. We took this challenge to our membership with a day-long open space discussion forum during our Active Members Weekend in late October. The large amount of suggestions that came from this exercise will be the basis for constructing a coherent new strategy. We then have to tackle the major task of rewriting our constitution and by-laws accordingly. As you can see, there is a long way ahead for us, and it will certainly not be easy as we still have to cope with the current, insufficient structures while at the same time introducing structural change. So, please wish us a steady hand and stay tuned as we go ahead in the coming year to bring forward the necessary changes.
- International Name, Logo, and Licensing Committee (committee chair and members) - International SIGHT Coordinator - International SIGs Coordinator - Mensa World Journal editor
Members currently serving in a position or on a committee are requested to reapply if they wish to continue to serve in that role. The application form is available on the Officers/Appointees page of the members-only section of the Mensa International website at https://www.mensa.org. You must be logged on. Job descriptions for each position are linked to each role. Both the application form and the job descriptions are also available from the Mensa International
Peter H. Hellmonds, proxy for the Chair of Mensa Germany Office by emailing mensainternational@mensa.org or by post to the address given in the Officers Directory of this issue. Applications for the above posts must be received by June 20, 2018 and must be sent to the International Office at mensainternational@mensa.org, copied to the Director of Administration at admin-mil@mensa.org. We are also calling for applications from members to be part of the 2019 International Election Committee, for a term commencing May 1, 2018. Applications are now open. Dan Burg Director of Administration
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MENSA WORLD JOURNAL – International MY-Camp Eleven - Summit of the summer! MY-Camp Eleven was organized by MY-SIG. MY SIG stands for Mensa Youth Special Interest Group and is an international SIG that is targeted at Mensans in the ages 18-30. MY-SIG was founded in 2007 and has more than 2000 members all over the globe. In the founding year the first MY-camp was organized in Denmark. The second camp was organized in The Netherlands and so a tradition was born! Camps MY SIG’s two major events are the seven day MYNY (Mensa Youth New Years-event) and the ten-day summer camp (MY-Camp). Every year these are arranged in a different European country. Each camp is of course unique, but the setup of every camp is always the same: - We stay at a venue which is reserved exclusively for the event. - The camps are low budget. The price of the camps is kept as low as possible. We usually stay in cottages or rooms for about 3-10 persons. Sometimes booking a double or single room is possible. - Dinner is included, as is breakfast and lunch in the form of the so called “Eternal Kitchen”. This means you can eat when you want and how much you want. We did not have something against the (almost) infinite access to Nutella... - Apart from dinner, there are no set times. You can do what you want and when you want, of course this also applies to sleeping routines. - A number of activities is arranged by the camp organizers but the participants are also encouraged to arrange activities, which is done generously. - New participants have the option to be coupled to a “buddy”: a person that helps the newcomer feel comfortable and can answer all kinds of questions a newbie might have - or partake in an icebreaker activity.
Fun and games: Tamara Szilágyi-Hajdú
MY-Camp 2017 in Hungary The latest summer camp, MY-Camp Eleven, was held in Csopak, Hungary, where almost 200 young Mensans were gathered to have fun. How was the camp? As Cinderella would put it: "Completely... Completely wonderful." What did we do? It is hard to convey the atmosphere of the camp in writing, but hopefully the list we made of the most appreciated activities can give something of an impression: Amusement park with bob sleighs and tree top adventure trails, escape room, sailing and exciting games on the Balaton lake, paintball, beer pong, poker tournament, chess tournament, street dance, capoeira, medieval longsword fencing, trigger point massage, Hungarian beer tasting, Chinese tea tasting, wine tasting, cocktail workshops, pálinka tasting, miracle berry food tasting, sightseeing in Budapest, sailing museum, “Behind the scenes” at a restaurant,
However, there are other events as well! As we are writing this, smaller camps are being planned in both The Netherlands and Austria! More games: Tamara Szilágyi-Hajdú. Page 4 THE CHRONICLE January 2018
street music festival, Kapolcs valley of arts festival, campfire nights, swimming, sunbathing, night swimming in the lake, volleyball workshop, yoga, hiking, “The Hungary games”, Battle of the gods (outdoor Stratego), programming a go-bot, pubquiz, open mic night with music, poetry and theater, karaoke, Game of Thrones and in contrast to that a tasteless B-movie night, about 3141592 different board and card games to play, a bunch of informative talks and finally a mythical party preceded by a make-up session!
MYNY 2017/2018 Between December 27th and January 2nd MYNY was held in Basel at the Basel Backpack Hostel where more than 100 young mensans enjoyed a great time and, among other things, celebrated New Year’s Eve together. What can possibly be more wonderful than spending New Year’s Eve with a bunch of old and new Mensan friends? We certainly can’t think of much!
The most important thing to emphasize is the enormous freedom you have during the camps. You have the opportunity to join a lot of awesome activities, but you are always free to not partake in anything at all and just chill and have interesting conversations with other young Mensans - something we appreciated a lot. Simply, it is just fun to be with other Mensans of the same age! Jump!: Bidou Abdudler
Do you want to partake in an upcoming event, for example the upcoming summer camp in Italy or just connect with the community? Then join our group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MYSIG/. (You will receive a few questions to verify that you are a member of Mensa.) And visit www.my-ny.org or www.my-camp.org. You need to have or acquire a Mensa International account on www.mensa.org in order to be able to answer one of the questions. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us personally. Open mic: Bidou Abdudler
Sander Cox (Mensa Netherlands), Johan Ruthberg Sällquist (Mensa Sweden) and Jessica McCluskey (Mensa UK).
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MENSA WORLD JOURNAL – Czechia The 2017 Logical Olympics - the 10th year running “Every time there is something special, something odd, a task that confuses everyone,” Jakub Kislinger (15), the winner of The Logical Olympics in category C, said about the final.
questions focused on attention after watching it” Eva Sedlackova said, one of the organizers. “We experienced some problems evaluating that kind of tasks quickly. It’s quite new so we don’t have an optimal evaluation system yet.” Tens of volunteers were helping out in the final round. “Over 300 volunteers were involved in the organisation this year. They prepared the tasks, tested them, communicated with registered schools and children, and organised regional rounds …” explained Zuzana Polakova, coordinator of the LO 2017. She added: “I think that all volunteers are sure that the LO is meaningful. Thanks to the free registration and the qualifying round online every child has a chance to give it a try, and so the LO helps to reveal gifted children.”
The final round of the annual 10th Logical Olympics took place in the historical Micovna Hall of Prague Castle, on November 27th, 2017, where 196 finalists in three age categories solved various logical tasks. The Logical Olympics is organized by Mensa CR, and has kept its popularity throughout the years. This year more than 61 000 pupils and students from a total of 3 014 schools all around the Czech Republic were registered. Each year the organizers strive to come up with new tasks in order to always surprise the finalists with something new. The final of 2017 was enhanced with a module focused on logical spatial orientation in combination with manual skills or memory and attention. “We had shot a video clip with the help of a few Mensa members, and the finalists had to answer a set of
The final round and the preparations preceding this were surveyed by two foreign guests from Poland – Elisa Ropka, the chairman of Mensa Poland, and Piotr Strzyzewski, board member and development coordinator. Both were excited by the popularity of the LO among young people and schools and by the number of cooperating volunteers. They would like to organise the LO in Poland, initially only in big cities. The fact is that this kind of competition needs good marketing and the Mensa brand is not that strong in Poland, which slows down the negotiation with authorities and schools. “The great advantage of the LO in the Czech Republic is that it is positively accepted by The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, and by most schools. When we achieve such a state of support, the
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organisation of the LO will be much easier,” claimed Ropka. “The mission of Mensa should be to find and take care of gifted children at the first place and the LO serves as a perfect tool for this purpose. This knowhow should be used in other countries, too”
And what are the impressions of this year’s winners? All three of them had already been at the final before and said that the tasks were at the same time both difficult and challenging. They pointed out that the organizers succeed to come up with some new, surprising or unexpected tasks every year. And all three of them are planning to take part in the Logical Olympics 2018.
MENSA WORLD JOURNAL Mensa Korea Hosts its first Charity Bash On November 11, 2017, Mensa Korea hosted its first Charity Bash benefitting the Korean Paediatric Cancer Society. The event was held in South Korea's worldfamous district of Gangnam at La Felice Art Square. This is one of the many social contribution and collaboration events that Mensa Korea regularly hosts including blood drives, and more recently, volunteering for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. Activities at the Charity Bash included auctions, games, and piano performances. Over one hundred Mensans donated items, volunteered their time, and enjoyed a variety of food and drink. Each year, Mensa Korea hosts many events to cultivate opportunities for fellowship, collaboration, and communication among its members. These functions have been instrumental in creating pathways to volunteer time for the local community, as well as showcasing talent to establish a positive image of Mensa Korea. According to a medical report in 2014, approximately 14 000 Korean children had been diagnosed with paediatric cancer up until that year. After receiving tremendous support and approval from many Mensans, Mensa Korea is proposing that the Charity Bash become an annual event.
The winners! From left-to-right. Category C: Jakub Kislinger, school: Gymnázium Jaroslava Vrchlického, city: Klatovy. Category A: Leonard Oeding, school: ZŠ Jana Amose Komenského, city: Karlovy Vary. Category B: Matěj Ságl, school Gymnázium, city: Jihlav
Photo: Richard Petřivalský Text: Janka Unruhová Mensa Czech Republic
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Freelancing Ethics for The Modern World In the UK, it’s called the "Gig Economy" and its growing exponentially, albeit off a small base. In Germany it’s not as acceptable because of the strong work ethic. In the USA, it’s starting to become a lifestyle choice. South Africa hasn't caught on yet, because it competes in nature with what we here call "the informal sector". But what is it? In days gone by, it was desire rather than skills that secured a job. Be presentable, be on time and you could have the same job for your entire working career. Skills were learnt on the job, formal qualifications seldom needed. A brief look at the employment stats for post-war Britain reveal a world which is very one dimensional: most men worked in manual labouring jobs where the unemployment rate was below 3%. Most women were considered "economically inactive", but those who did work, were either secretaries or typists. Pay was mostly standardised and most households did very nicely on one income. Prior to this era, say in the early nineteenth century, about 60% of all employees in Europe and North America were employed in the production of food. As new tools and production methods came to the fore, this number dropped steadily so that today no more than about 4% of a modern, industrial society is Page 8 THE CHRONICLE January 2018
engaged in agriculture. Industrial manufacturing techniques have gone both high tech & global, so that small numbers of trained employees in low-wage areas are fulfilling the needs of different communities all over the world. So, what’s the 'big picture'? From the 1960's a new type of job description entered our lexicon. It’s the "service economy" and it’s getting bigger and bigger. Over time, this type of work has evolved, but briefly, it can be described as "doing things rather than making products". So, while a car manufacturer is producing many more cars than 50 years ago, they are being produced faster, using robots rather than people. Of the remaining employees on the factory floor, most are not making cars, they are controlling the robots that are making the cars. This has produced a new type of workforce: a workforce which is rapidly dividing into the haves and the have-nots. The service sector relies on personal skills, so the two most important criteria for getting a service-orientated job are professional qualifications and previous experience. Some service options, such as call centres, are ongoing, others are not. It is the latter type that is growing and morphing into freelancing options. These jobs use specialist knowledge to
perform a unique task: once the task is done, the job is over. These might include website set-up, accounting and tax jobs for small businesses, a payment gateway for a large online retailer or a travelling hair-stylist. The nature of the service economy is such that it relies both on ability to do the job and availability to do it. Employing someone fulltime to provide short-term adhoc work is not economically viable, so in most cases, it’s not done and leaves a major skills gap. Someone who has skills, does short term work, is mobile or works online and gets paid for a unique service, fills that gap and is a freelancer. This is different from an entrepreneur; whose aim is to set up a business for profit. Although it’s entirely possible to set up a business with the aim of providing services, an entrepreneur isn't likely to be a freelancer, due to the profit motive. A business owner would want to achieve critical mass, by optimising expenses (i.e. employees) against income. A freelancer is strictly independent, cannot optimise costs, must charge higher rates, and possibly has more free time. There exists another type of job description within the service economy, called the “professions”. These are your doctors, lawyers and accountants and the difference is that these occupations are regulated, usually by a self-regulating body. To qualify, one must fulfil the required academic standards and be licensed, i.e. be a member of good standing in their respective regulatory body. While these are also serviceproviders, they are called professionals and not freelancers due to their professional status. However, they have much in common with freelancers; only really differing in the single aspect of registration to their professional body. Experts in the USA predict that within a couple of decades, self-employed service providers will comprise up to 40% of the workforce. Almost all of these freelancers will be providing services without having to establish professional credibility and therein lies a serious social problem. How do we validate that our car mechanic is really a mechanic or our hairdresser knows how to style hair?
Modern tools of evaluating employees rely on qualifications, evaluated formally against Key Performance Indicators (KPI) or previous references. Since these do not apply to a freelancer, how do you know how a "good" one differs from a "bad" one. Not surprisingly, there is no real way, which is why personal recommendations are useful. I work as a freelancer IT trouble shooter and I have developed a set of ethics which I work by. A condensed list would involve:
No over-charging. Typically, 'padding' an account is done often, and is blatantly dishonest.
Accepting with good grace that clients can have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to technical know-how. Correct them where appropriate and keep quiet when not.
Sensitivity to client's privacy. Not an obvious one, but when one has access to a client's database, one has access to a lot of personal things.
Not outsourcing their work to someone else and taking a cut. Unless disclosed, it is wrong. It’s about personal responsibility to undertake the job and be able to explain it to the client in first-hand terms.
No "scraping". This is unique to online web work and it means stealing data from another website. It’s usually done when a start-up wants to demonstrate lots of products or satisfied users. It’s wrong, its rife and its professionally embarrassing.
Commitment to excellence. I am not a jack of all trades, nor do I want to be. I do one thing and I do it well.
Above all, I am accountable for what I put out. I have in the past, committed real howlers and the only way past it, is to put up one’s hand, accept the blame, learn a fine lesson and move on. Without some sort of professional ethics to work from, freelancing devolves into a bunch of cowboys, with everyone trying to fleece everyone else. Professionals get away from this problem by committing to a set of licensing standards. In the Europe of old, guilds were set up to govern local trade and established a hierarchy from apprentices to master-craftsman. The model of self-regulation for the freelance industry is there: it’s time to go forwards, by looking at the past.
Steven Silbert Page 9 THE CHRONICLE January 2018
They're Your Rules GOT surprise-factor? To communicate in unforgettable ways, your brand must ‘break the human guessing machine’ The phrase has become iconic, and even those who have never caught an episode are familiar with it: ‘Winter…is coming!’ Many viewers have a love-hate relationship with Game of Thrones. On the one hand, it is impeccably well made, delightfully strategic and, as the most expensive television show ever produced per episode, visually stunning. On the other hand, the level of violence beggars belief. Even if you are not an especially squeamish or puritanical viewer, the erasure of characters in Game of Thrones is as explicitly graphic as it is sudden and unexpected. And therein lies at least part of the reason why the books and the TV series are so phenomenally successful. No, it’s not the gore. It’s the fact that they are utterly unpredictable. The good guys don’t necessarily win. The bad guys don’t necessarily lose. You will loathe a certain character in the first season
for being a scoundrel, and then be rooting for him by Season 4. Upheaval and disruption rocks the storyline at every turn, which makes it one of the least formulaic productions around. You simply don’t know who’s going to prevail and you don’t know who’s going to die next. And that keeps fans coming back for more. The awards garnered by Game of Thrones are becoming too numerous to mention. In its first season alone, it received 13 Emmy nominations. So why is it so attractive for a story to defy conventions and, in a sense, ‘betray’ reader expectations? ‘I didn’t see that coming’ In Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, authors Chip and Dan Heath describe the powerful communication technique of ‘breaking people’s guessing machines’. In order to make communication – any kind of communication – genuinely riveting, simply organise the information into a mystery. It can be done with something as traditionally dusty as a university
See the world with SIGHT – how to be a SIGHT Power-User Nothing is more rewarding than getting a lot of reactions after writing an article. After our article on SIGHT was published in the November 2017 MWJ, the International SIGHT Team noticed a tremendous increase in requests, especially by first time users. We were very happy – finding out that people do read what you publish is the most flattering result for volunteer work. To be honest, however, we noticed that some of you wonderful Mensans out there had seemingly only read half of the article and did not take a look at the SIGHT website, not to mention our wonderful FAQs.
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So here are the basic rules for SIGHT, hoping that you will ALL enjoy reading them: If you are planning to use SIGHT for your next private or business trip feel free to follow our in-SIGHT-full recommendations: 1. Register as a prospective SIGHT Traveller on the International pages: https://www.mensa.org/sight 2. Inform BOTH the Nat-SIGHT-Co (National SIGHT Coordinator) of the country you plan to visit as well as the Nat-SIGHT-Co of your home country about your trip. Early birds tend to catch more worms and mattresses!!
lecture, and George R.R. Martin certainly did it in a medieval fantasy about warring kingdoms. It can even be done in a sales pitch. In Adam Grant’s Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, Babble founder Rufus Griscom is described giving a completely counterintuitive presentation as part of a sales pitch. He headlined his slide: ‘Five reasons you shouldn’t buy Babble’. And there was no trick implied. The presentation covered precisely these ideas, and not in an ironic way. He went into detail about the obstacles the company was facing, and described why these hurdles could be a difficulty to investors. So why did it work (and work it did!)? The answer is two-fold. Initially, the novelty factor drew attention. How do you not listen to a presentation like that? Secondly, the executives evaluating the presentation were basically being covertly invited to problem-solve. ‘That’s not so bad!’ they would say, psychologically bypassing the ‘should we or shouldn’t we?’ step and going straight into assumptive ownership. They then began discussing ways of overcoming the obstacles. It became a challenge to their abilities. In all of these cases, the approach has been to break accepted conventions in order to ‘break the guessing
machine’ of the audience. The net result is heightened engagement, sustained curiosity and delight upon the reveal of the ‘answer’. When you depart from the accepted formulas of communication, you create cognitive dissonance. The audience (despite themselves, in the case of Thrones viewers who might not actually like violence), have to know how this will turn out. Breaking the rules makes you distinctive Rules can create set expectations. When you break and betray the rules, the level of anticipation remains high. In communication, surprise is effective and often attractive. Does your brand ever surprise? Or is it constantly communicating in ways that are so predictable as to be sedating? In your pitches and presentations, does your copy stand out? Or suffer death-by-sameness? What might you accomplish if you tampered with the rules on purpose, in order to up-end expectations? Do you have what it takes to break the human guessing machine? If you do, you just might achieve true brand distinction.
Douglas Kruger
Douglas Kruger specialises in dismantling needless rules. A business speaker and author of 5 books with Penguin Random House, including ‘They’re Your Rules, Break Them!’, he presents locally and internationally on the topic of disruptive innovation and how to reduce your own rules in order to achieve it. Douglas is also a multiple award-winning speaker, who was inducted into the ‘Speakers Hall of Fame’ in 2016. See him in action at www.douglaskruger.co.za.
…continued
Your incredibly charming email should give possible hosts a good idea about WHO you are. So please be smart and try to include the following information: - Name and Address - Proof of current Mensa membership (this will then be confirmed by your Nat-SIGHT-Co!) - Age (you can either be specific or shy and just admit to your age group (18-30, 31-50, 50+) - Special requirements (e.g. dietary requirements) - Occupation - Interests, hobbies, music you love, nerdy stuff you indulge in (because it is these weird things that really connect you to others) - Whether or not you smoke, drink (and if, what exactly).
SIGHT Power-User
- Other persons travelling with you (and please don’t just consider them as an attachment – describe them as vividly as yourself!) - Mode of transport (i.e. how you are getting to the place in question! Some hosts might be able to pick you up.) - Detailed itinerary, including dates. - Any other information you would like if someone were coming to stay with you, e.g. links to your profiles on social networks. If you can’t concoct such a charming email on your own you can also provide the information using one of the standard SIGHT Traveller Forms that can be downloaded on the SIGHT pages. Enjoy your trip! TeeKay Proxy Int-SIGHT-Co Page 11 THE CHRONICLE January 2018
MENSA South Africa 2017 Johannesburg Mensa Quiz night: A member's account and lessons learnt 16 November 2017 was the night for us, Mensans, to show what we were made of.
of the teams had the same type of Cat-Ear Alice-bands as the Quizmaster… hmmmm.
We held our annual quiz evening at Radford House school in Fairland. Their generosity and awesome atmosphere creates a Mensa Johannesburg home away from home feel (plus they are smart! I think of them as the pool table hustlers in intelligence). The turnout was great and the team had done an awesome job planning and preparing for the evening.
The Radford House team were not shy in advising that their stronger team could not be present, and called themselves the B-Team. There were a number of Mensa teams who had given their own names but were identifiable by certain characteristics – we could identify a few – The Need-a-map, The Rowdy Ones, and The Cat-ears (bribe makers?) amongst others. The questions were quite varied, and we had to do foldy things with paper, taste innocent-looking but suspicious sweets and even listen to music to get points. The trophy eventually went to the Radford house team, who were totally surprised with winning the trophy. (Hustlers, or agents?) Overall, it was a great evening out! I definitely will not miss the next one and hope to see more Mensans present. We need to get our trophy back.
The inclusion of donations towards Afrika Tikkun as part of the event was brilliant idea. A gift towards Afrika Tikkun would earn a free answer, to be cashed in when required. With that knowledge in hand, I accumulated my bribe money before heading to the venue. Yes, I will give the kids their money back! The first challenge that many of us faced was using the urn to make a cup of coffee. One by one, fellow Mensans battled with the latest tech. in dispensing hot water. After finding the solution, I was sure to earn some good points. That, apparently, was an unreasonable expectation as the urn did not form part of the quiz challenges. Bummer! The Quizmaster (Karini) was brilliant, although she did not accept my attempted bribes... Maybe I should have moved to threats but being assaulted by THIS Quizmaster was probable. It occurred to me that one Page 12 THE CHRONICLE January 2018
Lessons learnt: Carry more money for bribery. Do not wait too long to offer bribes. Forget your diet for the evening. Do not eat any flavour sweets from Karini. Bring a bag for the prizes. Have fun! Thank you to all for creating this awesome event, the fantastic contenders for making it eventful and Radford House for their great support.
Lennon Sukhoo
MENSA South Africa Letters Hello Erik, I have it under good authority that the following scary story is authentic and comes from a long-standing Mensa SA Member. The story is set in a village in Mecklenburg, North Germany in May 1945. The war was over by some days but no Russian troops had set foot nearby until this day. When we saw soldiers travelling toward our house, we rushed out to witness them passing by as we had done so often before. I was 11 years old, my sister was 7 years old and Baby Sister was 18 months old, being carried by my mother. We were horrified to discover these troops were the feared Mongolian Infantry. One huge, nasty looking, almost black, Mongol soldier suddenly snatched my baby sister from mother’s arms and held her high in the air. His torn and tattered Greatcoat nearly brushed the ground as he bellowed towards the sky, exposing a solid set of gleaming upper and lower steel teeth. Whether it is true or not, we had been told that these brutal beasts actually ate young kids. We were terrified. Frozen to the spot. The war was over but we were expecting the worst was just about to happen. My Mother nearly fainted. He waved Baby high in one hand towards his cheering mates. One produced a battered harmonica which was slung around his back, and started playing, whilst another began to play on a small Mandolin (known as a Balalaika). They all started singing and dancing, whilst my Mum watched imagining her little blond Angel was about to be taken from us. Forever.
None of the soldiers spoke German, and my Mum could not speak Russian. At eleven I was spoke Russian very well as it was part of our basic elementary schooling to learn. Hitler obviously had plans for us to be settlers in Mother Russia. My Mother, knowing the risk she would be putting my under, asked me to try and bargain with the celebrating group to get Baby back. They dragged me into the circle and began swinging me from one to the other. After a while they stopped, and they could finally hear me pleading with them to return my sister to my Mum. The big brute put the baby carefully on his 2 huge hands and offered her back my Mother. He was so gentle as he handed her over to my Mother thanking me profusely and saying he was so happy. He was so happy to be here to do it. He was happy to just be alive. Now we understood; these Russians where so happy to get out of this terrible war alive. They were truly celebrating life, Baby Sister represented innocent life at its core. As a reward (and perhaps prompted by an element of an apology,) we were all invited to follow them and join them to line up at the Stovepipe Field Kitchen to share their evening meal. I learned much later in life that these very troops lost 200 000 companions in the battle for Berlin just days before coming to us. The ending of this story is not ideal because little Baby died in March 1946, just a bit older than 2 years. She died purely because of illnesses like Typhoid fever and the lack of food, drink and heating. The story teller and his sister are living rich lives, he is 84 and she, 80. (Anonymous letter) Page 13 THE CHRONICLE January 2018
Letter from the National Chair, Simoné Deyzel-O'Brien Dear Mensans, I was reminded today of my promise in my last letter, of sending our personal update letter every month. I missed two and this one will also not go out separately but will sit in the Chronicle (we’re hoping to avoid a spam impression) – and I didn’t circulate the constitution but at least I have some positive news to report on as well. Testing Material Our testing material from Germany finally arrived. All of the Chapters can now be fully stocked again. Our National Supervisory Psychologist has undertaken to courier the materials directly to the testing professionals in the respective areas. Streaming Speaker Evenings We have created a YouTube channel that we will be using to stream speaker evening content via the website. We already have some content and I’m very excited about the amount of value that this can add to your membership. Just as an aside – I see members have started blogging on the site and there is some nice interaction going on there in the forums. So perhaps you should go have a look once a week and see if you’d like to start something of your own or to join one of the existing conversations. Ombudsman All of the nominations that were received have been circulated amongst the National Committee. I am collecting votes next week and will then make a separate announcement on who our next National Ombudsman is. Our Chronicle editor, Erik, will do a short interview so that you can get to know the new officer. If there are any specific questions you would like to submit in advance, please send them to comments@mensa.org.za National Marketing Officer Sadly, our National Marketing Officer had to resign from the Executive Committee. Shaun Heunis was a wonderful team member who worked very hard for Page 14 THE CHRONICLE January 2018
both the Pretoria and National Committee and I’d like to thank him from the bottom of my heart for all of the hours he dedicated to Mensa. Hopefully Shaun will feel like getting involved on committee level again one day, the Chapter who has him then will have a real superstar among them. This necessarily means that we have to replace Shaun. The Marketing Officer is the main volunteer that I reply on to help run the online shop. Without another volunteer, I will not be able to manage the logistics. Could you please consider this vacancy and send a nomination to comments@mensa.org.za for us to consider? I will be inviting all nominees to an online video conference to have a chat to get to know them a bit and also to give them an idea of what they would be getting themselves into by working on a national committee. National Survey A national survey will be making the rounds in midApril. We’ll be asking you questions based on your specific Chapter but also questions regarding Mensa South Africa and the greater Mensa International. I will be sharing this survey on Facebook as well. I would like to appeal to all of you to please engage with this exercise because it allows us to better serve your needs. National Administrator During October of last year, shortly after the International Board of Directors meeting, I took over the national administration function for Mensa South Africa. During that same month we happened to have found someone that could take the admin over again in a few months. Possible TMI (warning for people who are accustomed to having feelings come out of their eyes :P ) – I got retrenched at the end of October last year. So, I had loads of time to handle admin and started working on some changes. Fortunately, I found employment again in January. The new job ended up picking up rather faster than anticipated and my new studies also ended up being a lot more demanding than I thought it would be.
As a result, there have been delays that have crept in with daily replies and so on. The member who was originally going to take over will be stepping in again and some of the admin will be passed on. I’m hoping we can start getting back up to standard now. Our previous administrator, Yvonne Kruger-Steyn (Winelands Secretary) set the bar really high. We won’t be able to reach it but I think we’ll be able to start delivering well-enough nonetheless. Membership Cards The distribution status of the membership cards are as follows: some have already been sent out via post. One of our members is processing what they can every week. Everyone will be receiving their cards. The primary reason for the delay in distribution comes down to the FICA problems we have with Nedbank. To try and relieve some of the frustration that members were experiencing in having to wait for the cards, I went ahead and personally paid for the print run and had Mensa refund me once the account was running again. We got the cards at the start of February and I believe they started going out about a week after that. I know that this has been a very delayed process and is definitely due to the time restrictions I was facing after getting a new job and starting to study again. I am addressing the issue by getting the administrative assistance I mentioned a bit earlier in this letter. Nonetheless, I’d like to apologise to the membership for all delays that you’ve been experiencing, especially the delay with the online shop. We will get these things right. Mensa South Africa does have a video conferencing platform with content sharing etc. – so I would like to invite members to reach out and block out some time to talk directly to either myself or your local Chairperson or the ExCo or the NatCom. Please send me an email and I will gladly set it up for you. Until next time. Stay safe on the roads.
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