The following table summarizes many of the major contributions Sander made to the establishment of Mensa's traditions based on the vision of Victor Serebriakoff. In each case, Sander was the implementor of the action or directly supervised others following his initiatives.
A. Problem | B. Condition | C. Change | D. Result |
Members felt Mensa did not belong to them. Dissonance between the PR pitch and the actuality. |
AMC held closed meetings. Excuse: We would
have to hire Yankee Stadium.. |
Open meetings (1967) |
Problem gone. |
Business not done. |
Meetings conducted as a family gathering. A club within a club. |
Shifted from personal friendships to Mensa business issues. |
Business done. |
"The government [business] of Mensa is conducted in a cloud above Iceland." |
Decisions referred from NY to London and bounced back. |
Negotiated national autonomy with International officers.(1967); applied functional analysis rather than structural principles. |
Killed excuses for inaction. Took national
responsibility for national functions. |
Alienated local groups |
Heavy handed polices: |
1 Established policy that LGs were part of Mensa,
entitled to use name. |
Laid basis for a truly national
organization. |
Mensa faced bankruptcy and potential fraud investigations. |
Obligations to members were not recognized in accounts. |
Shifted from cash accounting to quasi-accrual accounting . |
Discovered Mensa's true financial picture, need to increase dues to stay solvent. |
Mensa faced embarrassing scrutiny. |
AMC had incorporated as an educational institution under provisional NY Board of Regents charter, but could not sustain conditions for ultimate approval. |
Changed to not-for-profit 501(c)(4)
corporation. |
Avoided major legal problems and embarrassment. Served the diverse goals of Mensa. |
Mensa was not performing its benefit of humanity functions as stated it its Constitution. |
Mensa had no legal structure in the US for fulfilling its eleemosynary objectives. |
Conceived a separate Mensa Education and Research
Foundation (MERF). |
Launched a major function of Mensa comporting with its original intentions. |
Management inefficiency. |
Renewals processed on members anniversaries. Monthly process operated continuously. |
Membership processing put on an annual common date basis. (This method is used by most societies.) |
Numerous benefits: |
Management inefficiency. |
Member records kept manually. |
Established first records computerization. |
More reliable and ultimately less expensive data management. |
Failure to deliver essential member benefits |
Essence of Mensa was communication between members, but there was no up-to-date member list. |
Established first annual (or biennial) member list by direct printing from official records. Sent as (nearly) free benefit to all members who submitted a self-addressed 9"×12" envelope. |
Established that National Mensa's first obligation
was to give value to members, not to legislate. |
Inefficient responses to LG's financial
needs.. |
Created RVC funds system, block grants to be disbursed by RVCs. |
Stopped micromanaging from afar. Countered a sense of hierarchy. |
Devolution of responsibility to those close to the
issue. |
The above table sets out facts, conditions, and actions that occurred in the early days of American Mensa. It cannot convey context, intentions, and personalities that framed those objective statements. I can only offer a reference to my 1973 Annual Report that memorializes Sander's own intentions. Those intentions, for the most part, remain at this date.
Copyright © 2004 Sander Rubin
Created: 07 Apr
04
Revised: 23 Apr 04