Local Secretary Jim Lange also received a National Service Award late last year for donating his professional legal services to Mensa, and for his work as AML's ombudsman and as interpretive counsel. He has also served as a member of many RG and AG committees.

More information is available from Gordon K. Andersen, Chairman of the American Mensa Awards Committee. [February 2001]

For more information, see the American Mensa Web site. [January 2001]

Frank E. G. Weil, long-time MWM member and a former international chairman of Mensa, died January 9 at Washington Hospital Center following a stroke.

Until his retirement last November, Weil was chief of the policy branch of the Office of Civil Rights, US Department of Health and Human Services. His 42 years of government service included counterintelligence work during World War II. He served as a French and German interpreter at war crimes trials in Germany after the war.

He defended people arrested during voter registration campaigns in Mississippi in 1964. One night his rental car was fired on near the state Capitol in Jackson. When confronted with the car agency's demanded for compensation for bullet holes, he suggested the agency speak to the Mississippi police chief, who had insisted that no one had shot at him.

Our condolences go to his wife Barbara Courtney Weil, also a long-time MWM member.

For more details, see his Washington Post obituary. [January 2001]

MWM's new Executive Committee took office November 1, 2000. This year's local leadership election was uncontested. Later this evening you'll be able to click here for details. [November 2000]

International Mensa has appointed David Schulman as Honorary President of Mensa. This is a purely honorary office which was last held by Victor Serebriakoff until his death last year. it is removed from the political leadership of Mensa and carries with it no assigned duties.

Schulman has served as Mensa's International Chairman for four years. He chaired the 50th Anniversary celebration in London in 1996, and has served British Mensa in several roles over many years. [October 2000]

Six MWM members received Local Service Awards at the Election Party held in October 2000. Rob Elron, Jane Hautanen, Jerry Jennings, Lisa O'Neal, Jack Orwant, and Bud Stolker each received a certificate and pin for their contributions to our group. [October 2000]

Jane Hautanen has been nominated for an AIR (Achievement in Radio) Award. She will also be a presenter at the AIR Awards ceremony at the State Theater in Falls Church, Virginia November 2.

Jane holds down a regular chair as Jane Doe in "Frances and the Working Girls", a popular radio talk show which is currently in hiatus but which, she hopes, will soon be back on the air. The girls are online at http://home.earthlink.net/~jehaut. [October 2000]

Rebecca Prather has set up a personal Web site at http://www.geocities.com/prather2902/index.html. She includes photos and observations from her travels (and this is one Mensan who is well-traveled!), and invites interested parties to visit. [October 2000]

Dr Lancelot Lionel Ware died on Tuesday, August 15th in Surrey, England. He was 85.

He had entered a nursing home for long term care just 36 hours earlier, and despite his increasing frailness, his death was unexpected.

Dr. Ware was an Oxford scholar, scientist and distinguished barrister. His claim that he had the original idea for the high IQ society, which now has over 100,000 members world-wide, was finally recognised when he was given the title Fons et Origo in 1987. He leaves a widow, Francesca Quint, who is herself a respected barrister.

Born in Mitchum, Surrey on June 5th, 1915, Dr Ware's life reflected the intellectual versatility one might expect of the founder of Mensa. He was a Royal Scholar at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, a medical researcher and lecturer at St. Thomas Hospital, London and read Law at Oxford. It was there that Mensa was born on October 1, 1946.

Ware was called to the Bar in 1949. He specialized in intellectual property, copyright and patent matters, and retired in 1985 at the age of 70.

The last honor Dr. Ware received was in 1999, when he was made President of the Mensa Foundation for Gifted Children, a body which combined two of his great interests: education and charities. He continued to travel the world on Mensa related trips until well into his eighties, attending the society's 50th anniversary celebrations in both the USA and UK in 1996.

Cremation took place August 23rd. [September 2000]

--from a Mensa press release

MWM held its first ExComm Retreat Sunday, July 23. The retreat, created by American Mensa's national office and recommended to all local groups, is expected to continue as an annual event.

Purpose of the retreat was fourfold:

• to create a purpose statement which outlines MWM's mission,
• to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of MWM's operations,
• to set team goals from which our group can launch focused, manageable improvement efforts, and
• to set a follow-up plan and timeline describing when and how movemnt toward goals will be reviewed and adjusted.

Dr. Dorree Lynn, leader of this year's retreat, is a practicing psychologist in New York City and Washington, DC. She is co-founder of the Institute for the Advanced Study of Psychotherapy, and author of an upcoming book, Getting Sane Without Going Crazy. Dr. Lynn writes a nationally sundicated column, appears on radio and television, and writes weekly articles for Divorcenet.com, SecondWivesClub.com, and iSyndicate.com.

There was no cost to our group for the retreat. We invite comments from ExComm members on the experience, and from all MWM members about this new venture. [August 2000]

Delaware Valley Mensa hosted AG2K, American Mensa's biggest gathering of the year, in Philadelphia July 5-9. For the most part it was a great gathering. But on a sad note, it marked the passing of David Mann, a popular and respected member well-known on the national Mensa scene. He died of an apparent heart attack in his sleep Saturday night at the AG. He had just had a physical from his employer, NASA, and passed it with flying colors, according to Nancy Vogel. He was 55 years old and is survived by his wife Linda. Here's the obituary from the Huntsville (AL) Times, as posted on the North Alabama Mensa Web site.

Mensa has established a David F. Mann Memorial Scholarship Fund in his memory. Mail contributions to MERF, 1229 Corporate Drive West, Arlington, TX 96006. Checks should be payable to MERF (Mensa Education and Research Fund) and earmarked for the David Mann Fund. [July 2000]

Katherine DeWitt comments: Over 25 years of membership in MWM have given me a perspective. Because Maryland Mensa is so close, it really is better to do ours every two years and alternate with them. That way the resources (time, effort) of both groups are conserved and we don't burn out as many people.

Steve Potter writes: We should have an RG annually. If MM is willing to alternate and share with us, so much the better.

Linda Grow says: It is extremely easy to vote this way!! I was very busy with work and didn't get a chance to vote. I agree every 2 years is best for the reasons cited by Katherine DeWitt.

Jim Gross writes: I believe that we should use our success at the last RG as a "cookie-cutter" blue print for annual RGs like most of the other Mensa Chapters. The Maryland RG is in April and ours would be in January, which is far enough apart to avoid conflict. With 1400 members and new blood in MWM, some new energetic person stepping forward to chair the next RG, is the antidote for burnout.

If you want us to poll you on other subjects, let us know.

We have posted pictures from our Y2K Solution gathering on the Zing.com photo server. They're by Associate Webmaster Rawligh Sybrant, who was kind enough to share them. We know we have not identified some of you pictured. Remind us of your name and we'll put it under the photo pronto.

[May 2000] Well-known MWM member Catherine Merkel Cahn passed away Sunday, May 7, from complications of lung cancer. She was 54.

In the 1980's Cathy served as MWM's Programs Officer and as coordinator of CHEFSIG. She also held many open houses, scavenger hunts, and other theme parties.

Cathy is survived by her husband, Dave Cahn, also an M, by her daughters Lisa Robison and Erica Merkel, stepchildren Martin Cahn and Heather Steinberg (a former member of MWM), two brothers, and five grandchildren. Dave can be reached at davecahn@aol.com, 301-627-5126, or 14905 Mt. Calvert Road, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772.

Our condolences go to Dave and the family.

"Now we've got it what are we going to do with it?" Serebriakoff posed this question in 1963 in an essay aptly named Mensa's Purposes. It was he who, in answer to his own question, decided that Mensa as an organization must be completely uncommitted and impartial. It remains so today.

In a group which prides itself on fine minds, his was one of the finest. As befits a top member of a volunteer organization, he held the title (among others) of Mensa's honorary international president.

He wrote and lectured about the brain, intelligence and educating gifted children. Published works include How Intelligent Are You?, The Mammoth Book of Mindbending Puzzles, Mensa: The Society for the Highly Intelligent (out of print) and A History of Mensa (Bookondisk Ltd., London). We offer an excerpt from the latter, found on the Australian Mensa Web site.

Here's more about The Odd Way Mensa Began from an outstanding man to whom our "society of equals" will always be indebted.

[December 1999] Received the other day by e-mail: "It's our pleasure to inform you that your web page If people treated cars the way they treat computers will be in the spotlight at the CRAPCO Comedy Connection during Christmas gifts week, and the featured site 12-20-99. You probably couldn't care less . . . ."

For those who are interested, the particular Crapco page url that links to our site is http://www.crapco.com/comedy/archive/1299/122099.html. Be advised that Netscape users may not be able to escape from the Crapco site due to some incredibly obnoxious programming. Thanks to Ed Stepp for bringing the car joke to our attention.
Note from the Webmaster: Send us more material and maybe we'll start winning better awards!

National's direct phone number is (817) 607-0060.

In the Washington Metropolitan area, prospective members can get more in-depth information about our group by calling the MWM Mensaphone at (202) 328-6101. Just leave a voicemail message and a friendly Mensan will return your call or send you materials, as you prefer.

We proudly present the 1998-1999 Executive Committee, listed in order of succession:

• Local Secretary: Jim Gross
• Membership: Glenn Davis
• Programs: Leo Cotnoir
• Publications: Suzanne Tilton
• Treasurer: Stephanie Smilay
• Scrivener: Russ Nevins
• Member At Large: Jim Lange

Gerry Riley, Chairman of American Mensa's Cyberspace Committee, said "I always found Margie to be a warm, decent, caring individual, whether in e-mail or in person. She'll be missed in a lot of different ways. The worst shock was learning that she was only 34, *way* too young."

You may find more details on the usenet newsgroup mensa.talk.misc.

Ferne Robinson: An Era Remembered, a tribute to the "kindest of matriarchs" by Mary Matthews and Dick Holt