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Let Us Assess Your Crack! Mensa National Annual Gathering

By Wolf Bennett

In early July, I attended my first American Mensa Annual Gathering. It is a fairly large event, held over 5 days just after the 4th of July. Several thousand Mensans show up and like any typical sort of convention there are meetings, planning sessions, food available 24/7, parties, meet and greets and lessons. The difference is that this is a group of the highest IQ people on the planet (top 2% and up) so things get interesting very quickly.

There is a game room with several thousand games. The vast majority I had never played, much less heard about or imagined. A huge room with several dozen tables and all four walls stacked high (it took six of us several hours to simply put them in boxes to be shipped to the next event). There seemed to be several groups there at all hours and even more people during competitions.

The puzzle room was more subdued and a little smaller, probably only about a thousand puzzles of all types, sizes and experience levels. There are only 14 tables in there. (I solved one in a couple of hours and was quite proud of myself because it said “4 years and up." 3D puzzles, holographic designs, pictures and patterns and everything you can name and some you cannot.

The lecture rooms were constantly abuzz with talks of all sorts going on from early morning until late night. Physics, archaeology, astronomy, psychology, pirates, sing along, book reviews, poetry reading, counseling, health issues, physiology, Yoga, cyber-security, debate rooms, AI, mobsters, make your own hedgehog, Punctilious Punctuation, stress management, historic events, murder mysteries, sea shanty singing, Hell’s M’s, neuro science and languages. That list is only part of one day’s lectures.

There were events planned like formal dinners, featured guest speakers (the role of African American women in the space program – I had no idea of their huge impact), dances, talent shows, performances, competitions, etc.

A full day program was spent on the Mensa Foundation and its goals and processes for education in schools around the world. The goals are not related to the gifted but to all students to build programs that help all students achieve higher ranges by opening doors to creativity and guided discovery learning. It is titled “Unleashing Intelligence.” We all have possibilities and talents inside of us that are unused and untapped. Just a little nudge might get us into that state of joyous learning that we have all known but have not developed for various reasons.

IQ is very often misunderstood. I’ve heard many things like, “he’s smart because he gets good grades” or “I’m not as smart as you because I’m not good at math” or “I make too many mistakes to be considered smart.” All these are incorrect. High IQ does not mean that one is healthy, wealthy or wise. There are many types of intelligence. The official Mensa test (though they accept many other standardized test scores) measures over 15 different types of intelligence and if you qualify on any single one then you have qualified for membership in Mensa. You might be surprised. Just as in sports you would not expect the weight lifter to be great at swimming or expect the marathon runner to be a great skier or a cyclist. They might be pretty good at other related things and only stellar at one but that is all it takes to be a Mensan. Are you good at word games? (I’m not) How about spatial skills or math puzzles or an avid reader or are you just curious about lots of things? You could very well be a Mensan.

The Gathering ultimately was a big group of regular people with all the typical things that happen to us all. The only real difference was the intellectual level of those talks and the people you meet. High levels of education were common, with lots of computer type people and high level positions. There were many who were simply just fun folks. You could count on never knowing what would be said at any given moment over lunch or in a hallway. A taxi driver from Chicago and I were discussing AI computer analysis of calculus patterns and the possible applications for teaching skiing. They both want me to come back next year and teach a class on teaching and ski principles for nerds. I think I just might. I had an awesome time learning all sorts of stuff and I met fascinating people with great stories. Lots of great t-shirts, ideas to share, histories to explore and dreams to be nurtured. You should join us next year in Baltimore.

Photo by Gwen Skinner

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