COMensarations

Monday, October 17, 2005

A Denver Mensan Comments….

Someone from Denver writes, saying…

I wonder if it has dawned on anyone that since Mario has declared himself the “leader”, by both his own choice and by default, of Denver Mensa, that he may in reality be one of the root causes of apathy in the rest of the group. He is the reason that people like myself have chosen not to become more involved, and the more he declares himself to be the leadership of the group, the less many will become involved. He even declares his discussion group to be the “unofficial” discussion group for Denver Mensa, and moderates the group based upon his whim and his moods. There seems to be a significantly negative correlation between the fact that our chapter membership grows each month (according to the Matrix), and the fact that fewer people become involved in the chapter’s activities and meetings. One would think that if more people are joining, that more people would become involved. Just food for thought.

Mario has the advantage of being the only one who seems to be interested in doing the job. His motivations for this are unknown to me. I do remember him as being energetic. That’s a plus. However, I also remember him as being mercurial, and that could well be a minus. I recall when I was LocSec and he was Treasurer, he walked into a Mut Fodle event at our house in Englewood, put down a brief case containing all the Treasurer’s information, said, “I don’t like you,” to me, quit and walked out. I would not be surprised if he were to do the same in this position as LocSec. The Assistant LocSec would be well advised to be prepared to pick-up the reins at the drop of a similar hat.

Whether or not Mario’s coup d’etat is the reason for people’s apathy is subject to considerable discussion. I’d say it is not so much a result as it is a contributor. As I said, apathy was a growing problem some years ago.

Getting ‘involved’ in Denver Mensa does not necessitate getting involved with Mario. The life of Denver Mensa was found its SIGs. Not in its ExComm. If one wants to ‘get involved’ all one needs do is go to a SIG. If there’s no SIG that deals with what one is interested in doing, start a SIG to do it. It’s as simple as that, and, of course, publishing what you SIG is going to be doing, when and where in the Matrix.

Someone in my Men’s Group at church, in Denver, sent me an article that I think touches very close to this matter; apathy. Not only that, but to life in general and how getting ‘stuck’ in our ways has a detremental impact on our life, including how long we ‘live’. I think I’ll address that come tomorrow, or the day after. Stay tuned....