This article is classified "Real"
What Mensa is and isn't:
First of all, the name "Mensa" is derived from the Latin word for
"table"; the implication being that in Mensa, all members are equal when
gathered together. Mensa members can be anything from trash collectors
to salesmen to university physics professors; the SOLE requirement for
membership is to score at or above the 98th percentile on any one of a
number of recognized IQ tests.
The reason that the membership requirement is expressed as a percentile,
as opposed to an IQ "score," is that the actual IQ resulting from a test
may fluctuate wildly between tests. That is, on one test, one's IQ may
measure at 133; on another test, it may measure at 141. In both cases,
though, the percentile might be the same: 98%.
Membership in Mensa, as noted, only requires a single score at or above
the 98th percentile for that test. One might take several tests, and only
meet the Mensa requirements on one of them - but that one "passing" score
is sufficient.
Mensa is a loose affiliation of national Mensa organizations, and within
a national organization, there might be any number of local chapters.
There exist Mensa organizations in the U.K., Canada, the U.S., South
Africa, Japan, Malaysia, and many other countries.
Many Mensa members express surprise at meeting the qualifications for
membership - a surprising number of them never particularly thought of
themselves as "smart." Some in Mensa gain acceptance through presenting
their national office with documented evidence of qualification; others
will take the tests regularly offered by local chapters. In the United
States, these testing sessions are generally offered monthly, and consist
of two tests which the applicant must pay for. The testing session
generally consists of a brief overview of what Mensa is, what the tests
involve, and how the applicant will be informed of the results.
Some of the benefits of membership include social events such as parties
for different holidays, picnics, and the like where all members are
invited (generally held in someone's home), and what are called SIG's
(Special Interest Groups), both on the local and national levels. There
exist SIGs for virtually anything a person might be interested in - all
the way from religion, philosophy, and sexuality to humor, firearms, and
different kinds of games (though some argue that sexuality is a kind of
game...). If there doesn't exist a SIG for some subject, the members are
encouraged to form one; the costs involved in SIG membership vary from
free to covering the costs of materials for newletters.
There are also larger, more formal gatherings, for such things as new
member welcomes and what are called Regional Gatherings (RG's) - which are
essentially 3-day non-stop parties. Most national and local groups offer
some kind of publications; for the United States, the national magazine is
the Bulletin, for the North Texas Mensa chapter, it is called the M-Aura;
these magazines include such things as articles by and about Mensans,
puzzles, games, letters, calendar events, and even classified advertising.
There is also a certain amount of exchange of information between national
organizations - typically requests for pen-pals, national gathering
schedules, and so on.
As mentioned above, the professions of Mensa members fluctuate wildly; it
would be fair to say that the personalities of members also fluctuate, even
more wildly. There are the Genuine Characters, as well as those than
almost anyone would be glad to know and have as a friend. Generally,
though, Mensa members are a sociable (!) group, where the members are free
to talk and discuss on a wide variety of subjects (!!) without concern that
the person they're talking with won't be able to "keep up" with them.
There is very little discussion of an individuals' IQ - the general
consensus is that the fact that someone is a member indicates that they're
smart enough. The only exception to this are occasional references to
Densa, a fictitious group of people who scored at the BOTTOM 2% (Mensa's
mirror image).
Mensa members, when together, are generally not afraid to ask questions -
frequently from hard-learned experience, they understand that knowledge
does not transfer by osmosis. Mensa, as with any group, has it's share of
assholes or one kind or another; but the consolation is that they're
intelligent assholes.
If you think that you would like to find out if you could qualify for
Mensa membership, or are simply interesting in finding out just what your
IQ is, you should be able to find out if there is a Mensa organization in
your country by checking the telephone book from a larger metropolitan
area. If you can't find out that way, you can try subscribing to the
rec.org.mensa newsgroup on Internet, and asking there - someone will
certainly get back to you with an answer (just make sure you leave a valid
Email address, or some means of contacting you, if you can't check back
frequently). For the United States, you may contact the national office
of Mensa at:
American Mensa, Ltd.
2626 East 14th St.
Brooklyn, NY 11235-3992 USA
(718) 934-3700
They will be happy to assist you in finding out if you meet the membership
requirements.