From the Editor |
Once again, I have looked at several other newsletters and I am perhaps my own worst critic. Our newsletter stands up well as I mentioned previously, but I want it to be even better. The MAAM has not been well proofed in the past and I intend to see that this situation is improved. So I am assembling a list of people who have indicated a desire to proof the MAAM the night before it is submitted for publication and I will call upon them in the future to proof.
Another issue that has come up recently that has occupied some effort by your board and your elected and paid persons in National Mensa is the type of articles we should run in a local Mensa newsletter. Mensa, in principle, is an organization where all sit around the same round table. The opinion of any Mensan is as important as that of any other. Yet, there are practicalities as to what we choose to publish in a local Mensa newsletter. I spent some time this month looking into this. I read carefully inputs such as those from Marie Mayer, our National Publications Officer. But more down to earth, inputs from rank and file Mensans. Looking, for example, at the tone of the other newsletters I now receive from all over the country. Generally, Mensans want to see three things in their newsletter. They first and foremost want to know what is going on. Hence, our calendar is the singly most important part of the newsletter. As an aside, many Mensans do not regularly participate in Mensa, but consider it to be a place where they can meet new friends if they so desire. Sort of a "backstop" organization. Secondly, they like to be entertained. Finally, to be stimulated to think, but not kicked in the behind. A local Mensa newsletter is not a platform to outlaw guns, (or insist that every family be armed), gay rights (or anti-gay) etc.
With that in mind, I want to say that one thing we lack are pictures of Mensas doing stuff. So if you have articles of that tenor and especially with pictures, send them along.