Mensa International
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Mensa is an organization for people with high IQs. Its sole requirement for entry is that potential members must score within the top 2% in any approved standardized intelligence test.
Background information
Roland Berrill, an Australian barrister, and Dr. Lancelot Ware, an English scientist and lawyer, founded Mensa in England in 1946. They had the idea of forming a society for bright people, the only qualification for membership of which was a high IQ. The original aims were, as they are today, to create a non-political society free from all racial or religious distinctions. The society welcomes all people, regardless of background, whose IQs meet the criteria, with the objective of members enjoying each other's company and participating in a wide range of social and cultural activities. Mensa accepts individuals who score in the 98th percentile on standardized IQ tests such as the Stanford-Binet.
Mensa International has over 100,000 members, with over 50,000 in the United States alone. In addition to encouraging social interaction among its members, the organization is also involved with programs for gifted children, literacy, and scholarships. The name comes from mensa, the Latin word for "table," and indicates that it is a round-table society of equals. The name was once planned to be Mens, Latin for "mind," but this was potentially confusing.
Mensa's goals
Mensa has three stated purposes: to identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity; to encourage research in the nature, characteristics, and uses of intelligence; and to promote stimulating intellectual and social opportunities for its members.
Mensa has published a number of books, including Poetry Mensa (in 1966), an anthology of poems by Mensans all over the world, and not all of them in English.
Organizational Structure
Mensa International consists of over 40 National Groups. Individuals who live in countries with a National Group join that National Group, while others join Mensa International directly. The two largest National Groups are American Mensa, with about 50,000 members, and British Mensa, with about 25,000 members. The larger National Groups are further subdivided into local groups. For example, American Mensa has over 135 local groups, with the largest having over 2,000 members and the smallest fewer than 100. Additionally, members may form Special Interest Groups (SIGs) at both the national and local levels; these SIGs represents a wide variety of interests, both commonplace and obscure.
