Mensa is an international organization whose only requirement for membership is scoring in the top 2% on an IQ test. This document summarizes various projects and activities of Mensa chapters around the world, including providing scholarships, supporting gifted children's programs, volunteering, and fundraising for charitable causes. Key goals of Mensa include fostering human intelligence, encouraging intelligence research, and creating intellectual opportunities for members.

1. Compiled by:
Cinthia Reyes, Mensa Mexico A.C.
Collaborators:
Chris Leek
Sylvia Herbert
freedom to innovate Elissa Rudolph
Tomás Kubes
Kymberley Wilson
Marina Tay
Ranko Rajovic
Gustavo Torres
To identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity
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2. What is Mensa?
 Meaning of Mensa
• Mensa is an international society in which the only qualification for
membership is a score in the top two percent of the general population on an
accepted, standardized intelligence test.
• The word mensa has a triple meaning in Latin of “mind, table, month,” which
suggests a monthly meeting of minds around a table.
 Founding of Mensa
• Mensa was founded in Great Britain in 1946 by two English barristers, Roland
Berrill and Dr. Lionel Ware.
• Worldwide, there are 115,000 members representing over 100 countries (as
of October 2011) with the Mensa International headquarters in England.
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3.  Mensa goals:
 To identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity.
 To encourage research in the nature, characteristics and uses of
intelligence.
 To promote stimulating intellectual and social opportunities for its
members.
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4.  To identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity.
 Good for volunteers
 Great PR!
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6. Mensa International
 Gives scholarships worldwide to university students. The
number of applications (4,000 to 6,000 in recent years), and the
amount of money available for awards (more than $70,000 in
2009-2010) comes from the Mensa Foundation’s scholarship
program.
 The Mensa Foundation's U.S. scholarship program is operated
by approximately 400 volunteers around the country with
support by the Foundation Director and American Mensa's
office staff. Applicants need not be Mensa members.
 Publishes the Mensa Research Journal 3 times a year.
 Watch video of the Mensa Foundation’s first 40 years.
 For more information, http://www.mensafoundation.org/
 Also, http://portal.sliderocket.com/BAGSO/Mensa-Foundation
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7. Historical and ongoing projects: Mensa Foundation & American Mensa
 Colloquiums
• Join several hundred Mensa members as well as members of the public for
this hot-topic event of speakers and high-level discussion. Sponsored by the
Mensa Foundation, the popularity of these events is growing each year.
• Past Colloquiums have focused on topics such as consciousness, energy,
global warming, cosmology, humor, politics and gifted children. The first
American Mensa Colloquium was held in 1982.
• Colloquiums are open to the public and draw attendees who have an interest
in the specific Colloquium topic, as well as Mensans who regularly attend
Colloquiums for the atmosphere of learning and intellectual exchange.
• For more information, visit www.colloquium.us.mensa.org.
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8. Historical and ongoing projects: Mensa Foundation & American Mensa
 Benefits for Young Mensans!
• FRED is a quarterly e-zine with a different topic each issue. Mensa members
are welcome to submit material for inclusion.
• Stanford’s EPGY program offers a significant discount under the BrightKids
group for YMs of elementary age.
• YMs can take advantage of all other member discounts at places like
ThinkGeek and Edmunds Scientific, and magazines like Mental Floss,
Scientific American, and more.
• YMs are eligible to participate as reviewers of books sent by publishers from
Random House to Candlewick to National Geographic to Harvard University
Press and beyond. The YMs review the books, send the review to Mensa, and
then donate the books to the library of their choice
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9. Historical and ongoing projects: Mensa Foundation & American Mensa
 MORE Benefits for Young Mensans!
• The Bright Kids listserv is an e-list for parents and other interested in issues
relating to raising and educating gifted youth. Mensa membership is not
required.
• Young Mensans can connect with others of similar interests at local, regional
and national events.
• Many Local Groups have Gifted Children Coordinators who volunteer to
serve the needs of gifted youth in their groups. Often, Local Group
newsletters will publish items of interest or resources for Young Mensans.
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10. Historical and ongoing projects: American Mensa
 American Mensa: Community Activities Program Awards 2009
 Greater New York Mensa
 Donations for Toys for Tots
 The group collected clean, gently used winter coats for donation to NYCares.
 The Give Back SIG has focused on volunteering at a soup kitchen to feed the
needy this past year.
 Piedmont Area Mensa
 Judges for the Bethel Elementary School Science Fair.
 Decorated a tree in Greenville's St. Francis Festival of Trees, the proceeds of
which support the St. Francis Foundation in its care of children.
 Judges for the NCFCA state debating tournament.
 Gave out three $300 scholarships in memory of deceased members.
 Tucson Mensa provided age-appropriate reading material, coloring books and
crayons to young patients at the Tucson Children's Clinics.
 Oregon Mensa raised more than $1,000 for scholarships in the area. The major
fund-raiser occurs at the RG, where they have a book sale, silent auction and a
live auction.
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11. Historical and ongoing projects: Mensa Croatia
 Yearly activity: Blood Donation Day, when the greatest quantity is
gathered that weekend compared to the entire year.
 NTC program (Nikola Tesla Center) UNICEF video
• Developed by Dr. Ranko Rajovic.
• Introduces elements that stimulate children’s mental development at pre-school age
and additionally stimulate their talent development, movement coordination, and motor
skills; prevents concentration and attention problems in the older age, and develops the
speed of thinking and drawing conclusions (functional knowledge).
• Increases the level of intellectual capabilities of all the children included in the program,
aids the endowment development.
• Early talented children detection.
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12. Historical and ongoing projects: Worldwide
 NTC Program has been implemented in:
 Serbia – Ministry of education gave permission to use program in state schools and kindergartens.
 Slovenia – as in Serbia, but a few differences.
 Czech Republic – as in Serbia, but main organizer is Mensa Czech Republic.
 Italy – as in Czech Republic. Currently, program is running in state school and kindergarten in town of
Gorizia in eastern Italy.
 Bosnia – direct contract with Ministry of Education.
 Switzerland – Permission from Ministry of Education (Basel canton).
 Croatia – PILOT PROJECT .
 Hungary – PILOT PROJECT.
 Romania – PILOT PROJECT.
 Norway – PILOT PROJECT - state school and kindergarten in 2 towns.
 MEXICO – TBD
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13. Historical and ongoing projects: Mensa Singapore
 Mensa volunteers take disabled people to the zoo and
other sites.This program is developed along with YMCA
and the Handicaps Welfare Association
 Pathlight School Program (for 13-16-year-old kids who do
not do well in school)
 Mensa Singapore focuses on helping the disadvantaged,
in terms of their financial or intellectual abilities.
Yum Sing was Singapore's first locally-produced interactive dinner musical (1999).
Attended by over 700 people - whose names read like the Who's Who of Singapore,
Mensa Singapore managed to raise over US$25,000 in aid of the Autistic Association.
Mensa Singapore had chosen to work with the Autistic Association because autism is
one of the lesser-known medical conditions in Singapore. With the tremendous
publicity and press coverage created, Mensa Singapore achieved both its targets of
raising funds, as well as raising the public's awareness of the Autistic Association,
which now is self-sustained.
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14. Historical and ongoing projects: British Mensa
 BML participated with Dr. Adrian Furnham
from University College London on a
scientific research regarding intelligence
beliefs.
 Dr. Furnham was interested on studying
how people thought of their own
capabilities, as well as how they would
estimate others.
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15. Historical and ongoing projects: British Mensa
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16. Historical and ongoing projects: British Mensa
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17. Historical and ongoing projects: British Mensa
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18. Historical and ongoing projects: Czech Republic Mensa
 Czech Republic’s Gifted Children Program includes activities to support
government education such as:
• Mensa for Schools.
• Gifted Children Clubs.
• Summer Camps – this activity is conducted by many chapters in Europe such
as Germany and Denmark.
• Mensa NTC for preschools.
• Logical Olympics.
• Mensa Charter School.
 For detailed information on each topic please check this file:
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19. Historical and ongoing projects: Australian Mensa
 Australian Mensa supports the Starlight Foundation which looks after
children in hospital.
Therese Moodie-Bloom supplies Mensa puzzles for their fundraising
dinners.
Australian Mensa awards grants to gifted children from two sources and
last year gave out around $19,000. In addition is setting aside $20,000
in the future to help tertiary students with their book expenses.
 Annual Prizes awarded to a Music student and to a Psychology student.
 Research top up grant of $5000 to be available per year from 2013 for
research that supports Mensa's Mission statement.
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20. Mexico’s experiment
 “Ideas de café” – Brainstorming sessions for enterpreneurs
 “Mundo Zeta” – Podcasting and videos
 “LUCI” (Línea Urbana de Ciclismo Integral)
 Blogs and blogs
 Ecological flyers (how can a person decrease their energy bill while
being ecologically conscious?)
 Conference and activities (Mensathlon) for Psychology week, public
University
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21. Mexico’s experiment
 “Festival de la Alegria” – Event to gather money in favor of an
organization that takes care of street children
 Gifted children and youngsters (still on planning)
• Online forum, with support of psychology department of Special Education
(Nuevo León), parents group, weekly group for children…
• Adolescents’ group with some government funding.
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22. Mexico’s experiment
 Reading incentive annual activities for April 30.
 Collaboration with Municipal Youth Institutes for several activities, lectures,
cultural and artistic activities, food and book gatherings for economically
disadvantaged people.
 Collaboration with other Civic Associations such as “Dr. Sonrisas” on
nutritional awareness and health programs.
 Lectures on different topics (sciences, economics, medicine, etc.) open to
public, some of them available on YouTube.
 Environmental activities such as trash collection in Puebla’s State.
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23. WHAT DO MEMBERS DO? HOW CAN WE TEAM UP?
 www.animusm.com
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24. WHAT DO MEMBERS DO? HOW CAN WE TEAM UP?
 www.animusm.com
 Projects follow-up
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25. WHAT DO MEMBERS DO? HOW CAN WE TEAM UP?
 www.animusm.com
 Filling the data for done, ongoing or just thoughts of projects
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26. WHAT DO MEMBERS DO? HOW CAN WE TEAM UP?
 www.animusm.com
 Free accessible online courses from mensans to mensans
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27. WHAT CAN WE DO NOW?
 If you think of anything…
• Mensa should be doing
• You should be doing
• What we could be doing together!!
 Let’s get it rolling! Contact:
• Cinthia Reyes
• Past-President of Mensa Mexico
• mail@cinthiareyes.com
• Facebook:
www.facebook.com/cinthia.a.reyes
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