October 2024

RVC Column – October, 2024 – Michael Eager, RVC 8

September was a busy month. My main focus was the AMC Planning/Strategy meeting followed the next day by the AMC meeting, both at the American Mensa offices in Hurst, Texas, between Dallas and Fort Worth. The in-person meeting allowed me to meet Communications Officer Lily Noonan and Marketing Officer Greg Wright, as well as get together with the AMC members I had met in July. I also had a chance to talk with a couple of AML staff members, but, to my disappointment, we were not introduced to other staff members with whom I had exchanged email who were in the office.

The Planning/Strategy session had both good parts and not so good parts. There was a presentation about the work of the Governance Task Force (GTF) and the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC). At the AMC meeting, Jon Gruebele was appointed chair of the former and Franck Mounier of the latter. Briefly, governance concerns how American Mensa is organized, officers and their duties, etc. Strategic planning is identifying our objectives and how we want to achieve them. I had served on two past governance committees, and I look forward to being appointed to the GTF.

On the negative side, there was a presentation about the American Mensa budget where I came away with no more than a vague hint about how the budget is developed. I had hoped that we would talk about AMC committees, bylaws, and some other topics. There’s only so much that can be done in an eight hour session.

We tried something at the AMC meeting which was a good idea, although it did not work well this time. The Executive Session, where we discussed personnel matters, was moved before the regular AMC meeting so that people viewing the meeting remotely would not have to wait for it to be over. Unfortunately, the closed session lasted longer than planned and this resulted in a delay starting the regular meeting. A few of the AMC members did a fairly impromptu effort to publicize the live-stream of the AMC meeting in advance which resulted in twice as many members viewing it as in the past. We are looking at ways to improve member involvement with AMC virtual meetings. (By the way, a video recording of the meeting is available on the American Mensa website under Meeting Reports.)

There were several motions at the AMC meeting which I either moved or seconded. All were adopted. The most important of these was the creation of a Technology Committee to coordinate and provide guidance on a wide variety of technology issues in American Mensa. If you are interested in participating on this committee, take a look at the committee charter (https://mensa.eagerm.tech/Main/TechnologyCommittee) and drop me a note.

Every so often, someone raises the question of whether in-person meetings are worth the expense. Can’t we do everything by email, Zoom, phone, text messages, or maybe mental telepathy? We do a lot of that. I attended several local group ExComm meetings, had discussions with other AMC members by Zoom, held a Region 8 LocSec Zoom meeting, participated in a Gifted Youth webinar, and exchanged seemingly countless emails and text messages. There is significant value in personal conversations. When talking face-to-face, issues are raised and discussed which don’t get addressed elsewhere, and there is both more time to explore these issues and more nuance in the interchanges. There’s a cost, but the result is that American Mensa works a little bit more efficiently and effectively.

Drop me a note at rvc8@us.mensa.org with questions or comments. Past RVC columns and more can be found at https://mensa.eagerm.tech.