I have a friend who’s getting reasonably active in the local Mensa social scene.
I joined Mensa back in high school, had an off-putting experience with my local group, and have not had any experience with them in the past 30-ish years, except for attending a social function just recently my friend hosted, and that I attended as “friend of the host” rather than “lapsed Mensan.”
Anyone have any feedback about Mensa, past or current?
Off-putting experience… anything to do with how it appears to be nothing more than a mutual backslapping club for self-aggrandizing pricks? Got dragged to a meet once, and I’ve never in my life felt the urge to preform a field trepanation with a brick more than I did that day.
Thanks, GHO57.
I’ve been an active member for about 20 years. As I’ve posted before, I joined after my father died, because he was so incredibly high-maintenance that I needed to find some non-work friends who could give me a break from the insanity. I didn’t want to go to bars or church or take a class or get fixed up on blind dates.
My Mensa friends are the best friends I have. They get me. It’s like the real-life SDMB, except without people who don’t know me calling me a self-aggrandizing prick.
There are jerks in every organization, just as there are on the SDMB. There’s not a personality test to get in; you have only to score in the top 2% on a recognized intelligence test. You can be a convict, a janitor, a professor, a junkie, a movie star. Maybe all at the same time. We have some jerks, and it appears that both Bricker and GHO57 met some. I’ve met some. If you don’t want to go back, it may be for the best, or you may be missing out. I don’t know what jerks you talked to, but maybe they’re gone now.
Count me with Bricker and GHO57. In fact, GHO57 nailed my feelings towards the organization quite accurately.
Presumably there would be good and bad ones on a local level as well? As in if the jerk ratio gets too large in a particular place it becomes somewhat self reinforcing, and (hopefully) vice versae.
Otara
I attended a get together with a woman I was dating a few years back. We arrived a bit late, and after introductions it became clear they had been waiting for us before getting on with the festivities. Everyone began disrobing on their way to the hot tub in the back yard.
My date was embarrassed. She had participated in the past, but thought that evening was just going to be drinks, snacks, and conversation. She told me she was ok with leaving, but I was curious.
The oldest people there were in their late sixties. Youngest was a girl I hope was eighteen. It was a crisp fall night, and the hot tub was very comfortable, though crowded. At one point a woman looked down in the water, between my legs, and said, “that’s beautiful”. She was looking at some tattoo work on my leg.
Weird group!
One of my cousins met his wife in Mensa; they were both living in Tulsa at the time and I’d guess there weren’t a whole lot of alternative “elitist” intellectual possibilities there. Not something I’ve ever felt much desire to do, but then I’ve mostly lived in big cities and college towns.
I joined the organization in Hawaii in 1973 and had great experiences with a very broad cross-section of people. The local president was head of the Honolulu CIA field office, a few lawyers, business people; several were teachers-active and retired- I was a young sailor, recently married, etc. I recall the membership brochures saying things like “we are devoted to absolutely nothing, or meetings are for fun”.
Went home to Florida, tried the local chapter for two meetings, and didn’t have contact with the organization for 30 years.
Rejoined 5-6 years ago, but avoided anything like meetings, still not sure I want to fully engage.
I decided to take a look at joining based on the hope that it might be a good resource for information on different countries / help surviving culture shock, as I could foresee that my new line of work was going to involve a lot of country-jumping. The SIGHT program, set up specifically to “host” Mensans moving between countries, has been a blessing for me.
I’ve been to Mensa meetings in several countries; the cultural differences don’t just disappear because you’re with a high-IQ subset of the population. There have been locations where “so what’s your IQ” was almost the first thing to be said after “hello”, others where such a question is considered incredibly gauche.
In Spain there’s three basic reactions from new Mensans, and I’m told they happen in roughly equal proportions:
there’s the ones who spent their whole lives hearing how wonderful they were, and then spend their first few hours in a meeting being taken down a notch. And another. And a third one, until they get the message of “you’re not particularly special here; we’re glad to have you but special snowflakes lose visibility in a snowstorm”;
there’s the ones who spent their whole lives being told that whatever it was they’re good at was automatically not valuable; these eventually have a great time;
and then there’s the Invisible Ones. They never go to a meeting. They never sign up for the forums. They never send an article for the magazines. They never use any of the programs. Apparently all they want is the card, which in Spain doesn’t even carry their picture… 
For me, being in Mensa had a strange and unexpected advantage as well. Middlebro has always been overly sensitive; helping him with anything used to mean a lot of time walking on eggshells to avoid hurting his lordship’s ego. One day he was complaining to Littlebro about my having run a calculation faster than he had “it’s not like she qualifies for Mensa or something, she isn’t smarter than anybody else!” “Uhm… actually, she is in Mensa” “Uh?” “She doesn’t just qualify for Mensa, she is in Mensa. I’ve seen her card. I don’t know if she’s smarter than we are or not, but she is smart enough for Mensa.”
I don’t think I’ll ever understand why that means that Middlebro is now fine about my being able to perform some basic substraction faster than he does, or about my being better than him at jigsaw puzzles, or why it means he’ll ask for (and listen to) my advice in some areas. But I’m not looking at that particular gift horse in the mouth, walking on eggshells is tiresome.
I also happened to run into several classmates from college in Mensa, which meant we took up the ribbing exactly where we’d left it.
My grandfather (deceased since 1988 - you did say past or present) had joined Mensa. He dropped out and when asked would just say the following, “For a bunch of geniuses, they’re a bunch of idiots.”
UK mensa.
I’ve made some good friends through mensa. And now I come to think of it, I haven’t met a single jerk.
OTOH I think they’re struggling to get young people to participate in many of the events. I’m often the youngest person in attendance, and I’m 31.
Oh, and another thing to add is that in Western culture at the moment, high IQ and mensa and things like that are really revered.
People imagine that if you have a high IQ you have expert knowledge of any subject, you never do anything stupid (though you may lack “street smarts”), you have a calculator built into your brain etc etc.
The reality is of course that they are just people and the differences, if they exist, are subtle.
Many of the events I go to we grab a beer and end up talking about films, or girls, or some dumb thing I did today.
The difference is though, if I do want to say something philosophical I don’t need to prefix it with something like “I don’t want to get too deep or anything, but…” or “This might be a bit sad, but…”
Wait, there’s a club for self-aggrandizing pricks? Where do I sign up?
So just how big of an IQ do you need to join?
I’ve become jaded of late, to be honest.
I’ve gone to 2 Snowballs in New Jersey. The last one I attended was packed to the rafters with pretense so thick you could almost cut it with a knife. And the lectures, even on topics I find interesting, were so self-serving and sleep inducing that I found it difficult to remain to the end. In a nutshell, I was disappointed.
I’m also surprised that many of the articles and features in the Mensa Bulletin are not particularly well written.
I don’t want to disparage the organization too badly because, I have to admit, I was over-freaking-joyed to have passed their exam, and I do proudly carry my membership card. I simply wish there weren’t so many pompous dicks in the rank and file.
Top 2% of any generally recognized test. You can get in on your SAT scores, although I’m too lazy to look up what numbers you have to exceed. I know that for SATs, it depends on the year.
OK - maybe I’m energetic enough to Google a little. The Mensa test score list is at http://www.mensafoundation.org/Content/AML/NavigationMenu/Join/SubmitTestScores/TestScoresFAQ/TestScoresFAQ.htm
It’s a page full of links. You can pick a test and click through to find out what score you need on it to qualify. They used to give their own tests as well.
That last sentence - their/there error included* - is awesome, and very true on so many levels. Applicable to all walks of life.
So many punchlines, and so little time…
Heh. Yep. Caught that myself on review, and fixed it within the edit window. 
I’m waiting for a club for mental side-kicks. Those of us who don’t have the SUPERpowers but are just kind of smart. In my education and work I rub elbows with MENSA members quite a bit and don’t find them any more jerkish than anyone else in an exclusive club. I confess that every time I hear MENSA member I can’t help picturing the Simpson’s comicbook guy.