MenTally - The Newsletter of Tallahassee Area Mensa
RVC Columns
By Mel Dahl, RVC10
rvc10@us.mensa.org
It's a bit of an old chestnut but it makes an important point. A newlywed couple sat down for their first Sunday dinner together. The husband noticed that the wife had cut two inches off the pot roast, wrapped it, and put it in the refrigerator for future use before putting the remainder of the roast in the pot and into the oven. He asked her why she did that. She said "Because that's the way my mother always did it."
A few weeks later he saw his mother in law at a family event and asked her why she did it that way, and she said, "Because that's the way MY mother always did it."
At Thanksgiving dinner, he asked grandmother why she always cut two inches off the roast, and grandmother responded, "Because my pot is too small for the whole thing."
One of our greatest legal minds, Oliver Wendell Holmes, once wrote that "it is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IV." Yet how many of the things that we do, are done only because that's the way we've always done them, even if the reason for doing them that way has long since vanished.
As we move further in 2026, I would challenge everyone to take a good long look at how we do things. If there's a good reason, keep doing it that way. If not, well, maybe it's time to do something else.
And, if you want to know if you're in a rut, ask someone who hasn't been around for very long. People who've been in ruts for a while tend to no longer see that they're in a rut; frequently it's the new people who see more clearly that it's a rut.
By Mel Dahl, RVC10
rvc10@us.mensa.org
On December 5, 2025, the AMC had a full day planning meeting at our national office in Hurst, Texas. I have both positive and negative things to say about it. First the good:
The facilitator reminded us of a number of very important concepts that I think boards tend sometimes to forget. Such as being stewards rather than leaders (stewardship means leaving the group better off than you found it; leadership means winning and is zero-sum). Governance means enabling the members and the local leaders. We need to anticipate what is coming at us before it arrives and plan accordingly. We need to focus on giving our members good value for their dues money, which means leaving them better off for being Mensa members than they would be if they weren't Mensa members. All true.
The bad news is that this is precisely what was said at the last planning meeting I attended in 2012. In 13 years, our strategic plan has not appreciably changed. In 13 years we are still talking about the same stuff we were talking about then. The very same points and the very same conversation were made on December 5 that were made then. Had I dozed off at the 2012 meeting, slept for 13 years, and reawakened on December 5, I would have had no clue, other than there being different faces in the room, that it wasn't still the same meeting. It's not that I disagree with anything that was said -- that's all good -- but rather that I would have expected some actual progress over time.
Here's what we did not talk about: Everyone knows that the greatest challenge facing Mensa at the moment is the loss of members. Since this was an, ahem, *PLANNING MEETING,* and since that is our greatest challenge, I was hoping to hear some very specific steps being taken to reverse that trend. I had some fairly pointed questions I would like to have asked: What steps are we taking to identify the most fertile ground for membership recruitment? What have we been doing to this point to recruit new members and, of that, what has worked and what has not worked? How do we know what has worked and what has not worked? During the time period in which our membership numbers were dramatically increasing, what were we doing then that we are not doing now? Do we know why in those specific time periods our numbers went up dramatically? There are others, but those will do for a start.
By Mel Dahl, RVC10
rvc10@us.mensa.org
American Mensa, and Region 10, are facing a number of challenges that I will be discussing in more detail over the coming months. The AMC will be having a two-day planning session and board meeting in Dallas December 5 and 6 and I look forward to reporting back on it.
This month I would like to talk, again, about the need for more leaders to step forward, at the national, local group, and regional levels. Long-time Mensa volunteer Holly Horton recently passed away; she had been active for years in the Central Florida Mensa group. I liked her and am deeply saddened by her passing and send condolences to her husband Bill and family. In addition to losing a wonderful human being, her passing leaves a void in Central Florida Mensa leadership that will not soon be filled. Since Mensa runs on volunteers, we need to constantly replenish our supply of people willing to do the work of keeping Mensa the wonderful organization that it is. For anyone who has thought about playing a role in Mensa, or is thinking about it now, please reach out to me. I promise you, you will find it an immensely rewarding experience, and there is no shortage of slots you can fill.
On the same subject, it is not too early to be thinking ahead to the 2027 election, when my seat comes up for re-election. I would be delighted to pass the torch, and I would prefer that it be passed to someone whom I can spend the next 18 months mentoring, training, bringing up to speed, who will be ready to hit the ground running. If you see an RVC when you look in the mirror, please reach out to me.
I'm going to be attending a local group event in Tallahassee on December 17 and will publish more details as we get closer to the event. My goal is to visit every local group at least once every six months, and starting in January I'll be scheduling my attendance at more local group events. I look forward to seeing many of you there.
See our new proposed by-laws (PDF format).
See our current local by-laws (PDF format), and the
national minimum standards for bylaws (PDF format).
|
