By Carol Young
What a wonderful get-together Paul Nowak hosted for new and prospective members on April 13. I was able to meet several brand-new members, a few re-enlistees (after many years’ absence) and a potential new member who was checking us out. There were also some familiar faces of Mensans who’ve been members for a while. Our nice mix of new and "nearly-new" Mensans provided an afternoon of conversation on a wide variety of subjects. I found out first-hand that our lingo can be really confusing as I was asked such questions as "What does ‘RG’ stand for?", "What do you mean, ‘PTA’?" Hmmm, we’ll all have to watch that and help new members figure out what the heck we’re talking about.
Of course, we could also go to the other extreme and even developed secret handshakes and high-signs! Yeah, that’s the ticket. That could work!
Where was I? Oh yes, Paul’s get-together. Paul loves to cook and it showed in his food table. Wonderful home-made chili, barbequed chicken, and some very tasty gourmet finger foods (my personal favorite was an asparagus stalk and a carrot stalk in a round pasta shell, covered with a raspberry vinaigrette dressing. Crunchy. Yummy.). All-in-all, a swell afternoon, and hopefully just the first of a regular series. A periodic get-together geared toward making new or prospective members feel at home could be a big boost to our organization and help new members break the ice and become active new members. Consider hosting a new members party. You don’t have to do all the cooking. That was Paul’s choice. Your choice could be to make it a pot luck with older members bringing the food. Or have a small "owl" to defray the costs. Think about it.
This will probably be my last regular (Wo)Mensa column for a while as I turn my attention to other matters Mensan. But it was fun being reporter-about-town and having a public forum in which to express my (always humble) opinion. If you’re interested in taking over — or creating a column of your own, here’s how I was able to do it: I said to Stevie, "this is what I’d like to do."
And now you know the secret of how to get involved.