Hello Mensans,

With World Earth Day having been celebrated on April 22, we received pretty apt photos to be used on the cover. On the cover is a blend of two photographs - one of a bee on an Egyptian lotus overlapped by a photo of raindrops as seen through a car window.

Durvya Mayee has transferred responsibilities to a new team. Raunak Onkar would contine to assist us with publishing the bi-monthly.

Please do keep sending your contributions of whatever nature - articles, quizzes, puzzles, crosswords, photographs, poems and anything that you wish to be published in the forthcoming issues of MInd.

Send in your articles and contributions in plain text format and pictures in high resolution .jpg format to: editors@mensaindia.com

Krishnan V. Iyer Chief Editor, Mind

In this Issue:

Crossword 1

Events 3

Sketches by Mensans 4

About Project Dhruv 5

Dhruv Spotlight 6

Sketches by Dhruv scholars 7

Tech Talk 9

Poems 10

Extracts from Mensa World Journal 11

Disclaimer:

All contents in this magazine are opinions of the individual authors and contributors. Neither Mensa India, the society, its office bearers nor the editors are responsible for any content or views expresses.

Editorial Team: Puneet Khurana Raunak Onkar Sahil Jain Bhuvan Sharma Roshan Alva Kiran K Krishnan V. Iyer

Cover:

By Anubhav Balodhi, Mensa Delhi

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Crossword 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27 28

29 30 31

32 33 34 35 36 37

38 39 40 41

42 43 44 45

46 47 48 49

50 51 52 53

54 55 56 57

58 59 60 61 62 63

64 65 66

67 68 69

ACROSS 1 The financial year begins at this. 6 An air, melody or tune 10 British currency for short 13 One who is trying to lose 15 Put a painting on the wall, maybe 16 Hopping marsupial (abbr) 17 Overcome 18 Backless, armless seat, in Turkey & elsewhere 20 Bart and Liza's Dad, courteously 22 Measure or car engine efficiency 23 It shows us how expensive things are getting

(abbr)

26 Of course not! 27 Take away someone's footware? 29 A poisonous plant also known as stinking

nightshade 31 One serving of medicine? 32 Cute dam builder, sleeps holding hands 33 Absolutely not! 35 Catch the criminal 38 Michelangelo's famous sculpture in St Peter's

Basilca 39 Three in Rome 40 8th letter of Greek alphabet, commonly used in

trigonometry

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42 Standard Template Library (abbr) 43 Bridegroom in North India 45 Auras 46 Being disingenuous 48 Army's frontline heavy assault equipment 50 Frenchman's emphatic 'here, here'. 52 Exit 53 Engg. degrees 54 Sans general knowledge (Abbr) 55 We mean 'mea culpa' when we say this. 58 Inhale cocaine by holding a flame under a

metal spoon filled with it.

60 Totality of the human mind. 64 Urge for Japenese currency? 65 A half of the African fly that causes sleeping

sickness. 66 TV ______ 67 Grounded faster than sound passenger jet 68 it makes the food taste better 69 First name of the spreader of dengue fever &

chikungunya.

DOWN 1 Sum up 2 Circumference/radius but can be eaten 3 Judge in a hockey trnmnt 4 Those two are an _______ 5 Prepare to converse in Qatar 6 One abode 7 Price/Quantity 8 Enter where unwelcome 9 In the past 10 Place where research in a special kind of

carbon is carried out. 11 Afro-Cuban percussion instrument 12 A body of men raised and commanded by the

Sheriff 14 Address used for Lord Mayor or Privy

Councillor.(abbr) 19 Multimedia messages for short 21 A chance or an exit 23 Delivers a heavy blow 24 What we do one meeting a cute pup. 25 Mensa qualifier, almost certainly. 28 A large body of water, but not in the South. 30 Wager

-Kishore Asthana, President, Mensa India

31 One who flies planes 34 One in Germany 36 Pay for 37 Lolls in the sun 41 I'll eat my ________ if you can do it! 44 To imbue with movement. 47 Exclamation of disgust 49 Animal trainers make lions jump through

these 50 Belonging to Infosys? (abbr) 51 Takes the seed out. 52 A dorky or nerdy person 56 Will do as you say boss! (abbr) 57 A spiral or vortex 59 Snort of dismissal 61 They find criminals 62 Tee _______ 63 Snaky letter

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Events

Mensa Mumbai's Potluck Brunch

Mensa Mumbai had a brunch get-together at the residence of Unmesh Divan. Theme - Summer special vegetarian foodie goodies. After the brunch Unmesh said "We had some very interesting conversations and lots of vegetarian food for the first time. New for me were 1) Pineapple pachadi 2) Kairichi udid methi 3) Gur paani 4) Katthal ki sabji in sarson ka tel."

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About Project Dhruv On the basis of the 2011 census, there may be about 5 million children in the urban villages and rural areas of India who can meet Mensa’s definition of ‘gifted’ with a score above the 98th percentile in our standardized IQ test. The genius of these gifted children, in the normal course will remain un-recognized and under-utilized. If properly identified and nurtured, we can even produce potential Nobel Prize winners out of these. We feel that recognizing and mentoring as many of these geniuses as we can, is a major effort towards nation building. Our Dhruv project has been initiated with this in mind. In this program in Phase 1 we have selected 102 underprivileged gifted children in Gurgaon. In Phase 2 we have selected 50 in Varanasi and 24 in Rishikesh. We now plan to expand the project by 50 Mensa scholars every year. Most of the Mensa Dhruv Scholars have an IQ in the range of 130-145. Some are even more gifted. Their parents work in occupations such as day-laborers, maids, rickshaw pullers, weavers, drivers, carpenters, petty shop keepers, street vendors etc. Some are from homes without fathers. Some others have fathers who are alcoholics. They have all seen tough, often violent, days. There are many stories that touch the heart. One Class VII child left her school to become a caretaker for two children 24x7 because she could not see her parents and siblings survive on dry rotiand salt for days. Her father is an acute alcoholic and her mother was a construction laborer but bricks fell on her head and she could work no more. We got her back into school and supported the family till the mother could join as a cook, a position that we helped find for her. So many other stories that tell the tale of incredible odds these children have to cope with. The daily lives of most of these gifted children are beyond what most of us can even imagine. A short program on two of our Underprivileged Gifted Mensa Scholars, titled India’s Beautiful Minds, produced and aired by Australia’s SBS channel can be seen at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zldHWibXelk Our aim is nothing less than changing the future – for these children and, in some measure, for India. Our

vision is to ensure that we see academicians, researchers, officers in the Civil Services and Armed Forces, corporate executives, innovative teachers, enlightened political activists, modern farmers and successful entrepreneurs emerge from this pool of largely unrecognized talent in our rural areas and underprivileged urban pockets. Our plan for the identified Scholars includes the following: 1. Personal Mentor: All gifted children are assigned a personal ‘Mentor’ who acts as a friend, philosopher and guide. 2. Monthly Stipend: All 6E Scholars receive a monthly stipend that ranges from Rs. 100 in Class VI and goes up to Rs. 1,000 per month in College. 3. Contribution towards Study Materials. 4. Coaching: Through Khan Akademy lessons and other tutors, we are coaching students in subjects they are weak in. 5. Nurturing: We have planned nurturing sessions designed to help their personality develop to its full potential. This includes career advice. 6. Social Responsibility: It is our effort to inculcate a sense of social responsibility amongst the scholars. 7. Aptitude & Personality Profile Tests: In Class X we administer Aptitude and Personality Profile Tests to each 6E Scholar. 8. School: Most Scholars are not studying in the schools best suited for them. We are trying to move those 6E Scholars who so desire, to move to different schools where their talent can flourish better. 9. Higher Studies: If the Scholar wishes to pursue higher studies, funding may perhaps pose a problem. We will try our best to ensure that bank loans are arranged. 10. Jobs: After graduation, depending on their academic performance, IndiGo, India’s fastest growing airline company has promised to consider all scholars favourably for an appropriate job, should they wish to apply.

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Dhruv Spotlight: Satyam is a Mensa IndiGo scholar in Varanasi. Mrs. Rajan Kaur is a philanthropist who startedthe Buddha's Smile school some years back for children of poor backgrounds. She not only shelters street children but also provides them free education. Even now the poorest children come here to study. Satyam studied till Class VIII in this school. Satyam is a bright scholar who comes from a very underprivileged background. His father works as a daily-wage labourer. Satyam was transferred to a government school in Class IX and X. His class X results have been released and he has done quite well (though he himself is not entirely satisfied with his result). He has scored an average of 86.6 with 99% in Mathematics and 91% in science. Satyam has got admission letters from two good English medium schools. He is likely to get a scholarship at St.Thomas International School.

From left: Rajan Kaur, Satyam, Kishore Asthana

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Tech Talk Mechanism To Create Waves

Geometry and motion have remained two lifelong fascinations and designing mechanisms to plot geometric curves is perhaps the best of their concoctions. From there sprouted about a dozen different inventions. Some evolved incrementally from others, while some branched off to interesting new forms. And then there were some that actually merged together to create something very advanced. The series tries to bring out that process of creation – inspirations, refinements, evolution and synthesis. Each will be accompanied by a YouTube link to the animation of the mechanism working and also a brief description of its parts. Basic Idea: Waves are closely related to oscillations. In fact they are made of very many particles in a gradually changing state of oscillation. Lightbulb moment: So why not take a particle (a point) that is oscillating and move it gradually forward?! That should trace a wave! Parts: Essentially we would then need three things [1] Something that is oscillating (moving back and forth). That is the Red cross link. [2] A carriage that moves it forward - done with the wheels rolling on the paper. [3] Something that couples these two motions. That is what the gears and pulleys do! The video attached lays it out in more details and shows the animation of the mechanism in action. The first one is a sine wave drafter. It plots simple wave patterns of different amplitude and wavelength.

You can see it in action by clicking the link: http://tinyurl.com/y4ym7r8c What’s next?: Real life waves are rarely so simple. They are actually a sum of many such waves. So how can we add them? The question haunted me for a year. I tried many different designs and finally came up with a simple solution. We’ll see that the next timeÉ -Ujjwal Rane, Mensa Mumbai

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Poems

Two kinds of love In deep sleep, I shall peep At your self and mine Both equally divine And newly born In the morn I'll be the knower And the known The painter and the sign If Truth Be Told – In My Borderlands Why do I go there, you may wonder Mostly calm, the mind seeks thunder Werewolves to slay, dragons to kill To live a dare, to hone a skill They’re dangerous and bereft of grace Yet Borderlands are a tempting place One never knows what may arise

Sometimes the mind craves surprise Often out in the mysterious dark Lured by what I thought was a lark Suddenly a vicious Keshi I find Making a Squonk of my mind But, if truth be told, In these lands where wild things dwell You, my love, are my magic spell When I can’t cope with a devil spawn I invoke your smile - and it is gone K (ps: As you may know, Keshi is the evil horse demon sent by Kansa to kill Krishna. Squonk is a mythical creature with ill-fitting skin which is full of warts and blemishes. It is so ashamed of its appearance that it hides from others and spends most of its time weeping).

-Kishore Asthana, President, Mensa India

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From The Mensa World Journal Mensa International Limited is a company registered in England and Wales under registration number 00848100. Mensa's registered office is Slate Barn, Church Lane, Caythorpe, NG32 3EL, United Kingdom MWJ Editor: Ms Kate Nacard 407/23 Corunna Rd, Stanmore NSW 2048 Australia mwjeditor@mensa.org T: +61 402152858 From the ExComm

Communication is Key We have some basic ways to communicate with our members wherever they may reside - our magazines and newsletters, and perhaps even a Facebook group or two. More venues, it seems almost daily, have become available and how do we reach them all? How do we keep up and make sure our members and officers receive the information that they need? To some, the answer is all of them. It would take a lot of volunteers to do that and we can’t meet, match, or even find some of the possible social media sites. This is why we use our websites and magazines to provide updated information to our members. Most members are less concerned with how Mensa is run than what Mensa provides to them. Their member experience is what is most important to them. Have they met new friends, attended exciting events, or feel they are a part of something where they feel they belong? These are the important things that need to be communicated to our members. This is also

something that we can share between countries to provide a broader experience. The Mensa.org website has many events all around the world listed, if one only takes a look. I believe sharing some of that information in the individual country magazines and/or websites would help our members see that we are truly an international organization and enhance their experience. Sharing and communicating what Mensa truly has to offer includes our events, not just our magazines and articles with clever themes. Members won’t know what is available if we don’t share. I’ve had members from different countries ask if they could attend gatherings in the United States and elsewhere or if the IBD meeting was open to members. We should communicate more widely that it is open and be welcoming to anyone that wishes to attend. Share your events and use some of the events listed on the MIL website to promote the international flavor of our organization.

Reprinted from the Mensa World Journal, May, 2019, issue 076, Editor Kate Nacard.

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Proposed Constitutional Amendments on the 2019 Ballot

Five proposed constitutional amendments appear on the current Mensa International ballot, along with the election of three international officers. As this does not happen on every ballot, a few words about the amendments and the process might be in order. Each of the five proposed amendments was placed on the ballot by the IBD. An explanatory statement from the IBD appears with each proposed amendment. So does an argument in favor of the amendment and an argument against the amendment. The amendments are voted on separately, not as a group. Each voter will have the choice of voting in favor, voting against, or not voting (leaving blank) on each amendment. There are currently two ways for an amendment to pass: either 2/3 of the voters vote in favour of the amendment, or a simple majority of the voters (50 percent plus one) vote in favour of the amendment and a majority of the voters in at least one-third of the national Mensas vote in favour of it. As there are currently 46 national Mensas, and fractions are not allowed in this sort of computation, the one-third requirement translates to 16 national Mensas. These are the five proposed amendments, along with shortened explanatory statements. Please see the election materials for the full explanatory statements and the statements in favour and against. 1. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT – REPRESENTATION CAP FOR IBD The following shall be put to a vote of the worldwide membership on the next regular election ballot: In the Constitution of Mensa, Article V, section B.2 is revised to read: “2. Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding paragraph, no national Mensa shall have more than 40 percent of the full Board membership, nor shall any national Mensa exercise more than 40 percent of the full Board vote. If the result of the calculation of the 40 percent limit includes a fraction, the national Mensa involved shall have the next higher whole number of national representatives or of votes if the fraction is one-half or more, or the next lower whole number of national representatives or of votes if the fraction is less than one-half.” In the Constitution of Mensa, in Article IV, section D, a new subsection 4 is added as follows, renumbering other subsections accordingly: “4. The “full Board membership” shall mean the maximum number of Board members if all officers and national representatives were present. EXPLANATION: The 40 percent cap is already present in section V.B.2, but the section refers only to voting on the Board (IBD); this amendment adds Board representation to it. No financial impact is expected from this amendment. 2. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT -- PUTTING AN AMENDMENT ON THE BALLOT In the Constitution of Mensa, Article XIII, section B is revised to read:

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“B. Any proposal for an amendment which is recommended by the Board, or by at least 1/3 of all national Mensa Committees, shall be submitted to a ballot among all members of Mensa.” EXPLANATION: The method being changed currently allows one or more national Mensa Committees representing at least 20 percent of the worldwide membership to put amendments on the ballot. This amendment changes that to 1/3 of the national Mensa Committees regardless of size. No financial impact is expected from this amendment. 3. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT – HOW AMENDMENTS CAN BE PASSED The following amendment to the Constitution is passed to a referendum of the worldwide membership on the next regular election ballot: Article XIII section A of the Constitution is amended by deleting the second alternative, so that article XIII section A reads: “This Constitution may be amended only as a result of a ballot among all individual members of Full and Provisional National Mensa and Direct International Members, provided that, of the members from whom completed ballots are received, more than one-half vote in favour of the amendment and the amendment is favoured by the voters in at least one-third of the national Mensas.” EXPLANATION: Currently, there are two ways for the membership to pass a constitutional amendment, one that considers the distribution of votes among national Mensas (with a total passage rate requirement of 50 percent plus 1) and one that does not (with a total passage rate requirement of 2/3). This amendment removes the way that does not consider the distribution of the votes among the national Mensas. There might be a small financial cost to this motion if it results in more processing by the independent vote-counting agency being needed. 4. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT – TERMS OF OFFICE The following shall be put to a vote of the worldwide membership on the next regular election ballot: The Constitution of Mensa, Article X, section A.1, is revised to read: “1. The term of office of the named International Elected Officers is three years, from July 1 following their election until June 30 three years later. They shall be elected by a majority of the votes received during the election period, which shall be April 15 at the latest through May 31 of every third year commencing 2021 (2021, 2024, 2027 . . .).” The Constitution of Mensa, Article X, section B.1, is revised to read: “1. The term of office of the named International Elected Officer is three years, from July 1 following his or her election until June 30 three years later. The officer shall be elected by a majority of the votes received during the election period, which shall be April 15 at the latest through May 31 of every third year commencing 2021 (2021, 2024, 2027 . . .).” EXPLANATION: This amendment changes the term of office for International Elected Officers (Chairman, Treasurer, and Directors of Administration, Development, and Smaller National Mensas) from two years to three years. It does not change the limit of a person being allowed to serve for a maximum of

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two consecutive terms in the same office. The financial impact of this amendment is a saving of 1/3 of the expected total election expenses going forward, as there will be two elections every six years rather than three elections every six years. This saving is expected to be up to £5000 per year. 5. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT – VOTING CAPS IN OFFICER ELECTIONS The following amendment to the Constitution of Mensa is passed to a referendum of the worldwide membership on the next regular election ballot: In the Constitution of Mensa, Article X, section A.1 is revised to read: “The named International Elected Officers may serve for a period of two years. They shall be elected by a majority of the votes received during the election period, which shall be April 15 at the latest through May 31 of the odd-numbered years, provided that no more than 40% of the votes in favour of a candidate come from any one national Mensa or, in the case of Direct International Members any one country, at any stage of the counting. The terms of office of the named International Elected Officers shall begin July 1 following their election.” If the constitutional amendment changing the officer term length from two years to three years passes, this amendment shall be adjusted accordingly to reflect three-year terms. EXPLANATION: This amendment changes the method of electing international officers to take into consideration the distribution of the votes, in that it requires that no more than 40 percent of the votes in favour of a candidate at any stage of the counting be from a single national Mensa. This matches the 40 percent voting cap on national Mensas in the IBD. There might be a small financial cost to this motion if it results in more processing by the independent vote-counting agency being needed. Reprinted from the Mensa World Journal, May, 2019, issue 076, Editor Kate Nacard.

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Mensa, a growing influence in Taiwan

- a member’s view What do you think of Mensa? “Friendship, sharing & acceptance” Because of friendship and sharing, Mensa is a platform that breaks the limitations of interests, expands our vision, and stimulates ideas. In addition, thanks to its tolerance and acceptance, Taiwanese members benefit a lot from this platform by joining voices outside the mainstream opinions. What do you do in Mensa Taiwan? Just like Mensa activities around the world, there are monthly meetings, the Taiwanese e-magazine and various Special Interests Groups (SIGs), such as food lovers (food is a common language for Taiwanese), board games players, travellers, and so on. I participated in some events last year, including real escape games - which are growing as popular as board games now - wine tasting, and Christmas gift exchange events. How about the Mensa Taiwan Annual Gathering (MTAG)? We hold the annual gathering at the end of each year and welcome friends from all countries to join. Besides communication activities, we have an idea-sharing section with several talks, one of which was voted the most interesting topic

beforehand, and which drew a lot of attention. Another exciting part of our MTAG in 2018 was the official founding conference in which Mensa Taiwan was recognized as a formal organization (see photograph below). How strong is the international connection? Due to geographical and historical relationship, members of Taiwan, Japan and mainland China have been in close communication. In addition, international events, such as the SIGHT program and AMG, are excellent channels to exchange ideas. I joined the Asia Mensa Gathering last year in Cebu, Philippines, and now have many precious memories. Now, many Taiwan members are looking forward to seeing friends at the AMG in New Zealand, and IBD in Kuala Lumpur 2019. I believe every Mensa member from different countries will make Taiwanese friends very soon!

Avery, Yu-Wen Hung Note: Mensa Taiwan is the informal name of the national Mensa known officially as Mensa Taiwan (Chinese Taipei). KN

Reprinted from the Mensa World Journal, May, 2019, issue 076, Editor Kate Nacard.

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From the Excomm

Honorary International Positions Open for Nomination

Nominations are being accepted for the positions of Honorary President and Honorary Vice-President of Mensa International. There may be more than one Honorary Vice-President. The holders of these positions are considered honorary members of the International Board of Directors, and the Honorary President has a small budget for expenses. There is no formal job description or requirement for either of these roles other than that the person must be a current member of Mensa. The term length is three years and can be renewed. Nominations may by submitted by any Mensa member and should be no longer than 300 words. There is no form to fill out, just send in a narrative saying why you think this person is deserving of being an Honorary President or Honorary Vice President of Mensa International. Nominations for the above positions must be received by August 20, 2019 and must be sent to the International Office at mensainternational@mensa.org, copied to the Director of Administration at admin-mil@mensa.org. Reprinted from the Mensa World Journal, June, 2019, issue 077, Editor Kate Nacard.

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Recently, Mensa Belgium was bestowed the great honour of receiving Royal Society status from King Philippe of Belgium. Mensa Belgium Chairman, Wim Proost tells us more below. “As of March 20th, Mensa Belgium is a Royal Society. The title “Royal” can only be awarded by the King to Belgian associations that have, among other criteria, been in existence for a minimum of 50 years. Other criteria also taken into consideration include good management, the non-profit-making objective pursued by the association, the vitality and robustness of the association, and, the social value our organisation brings. The awarding of the title ‘Royal’ is a favour, so it is always subject to the judgment of His Majesty. “The honorary title is granted after a favorable opinion has been obtained from the appropriate minister and the Provincial Governor, and is generally sealed with a ceremony held by the governor of the province where the association has its seat. It gives the association the right to bear the title of Royal Society and to include a Belgian crown in the logo. “A few years ago we had our 50th anniversary and the idea to apply for the title “Royal” was suggested to the board. The board asked the Annual Gathering for permission to persue this title. Under guidance of our Vice- chair, Professor Johannes Thuy, who is most knowledgeable about such things, we compiled a dossier about our association. We had to prove our 50 years of existence, mention our objectives, show an activity report for the past five years, elaborate on future projects, show our publications of the past five years, the federations or organisms of which the grouping is part of or to which it is be affiliated, and so on. This dossier was then sent to the Chief of Cabinet of the King, who sought information through the competent minister and the Provincial Governor about our association. After a favorable recommendation, the Chief of Cabinet recommended us to the King, to grant us the favor of the title “Royal”. Congratulations from all of us to you, Wim, and to all Mensa Belgium members! Reprinted from the Mensa World Journal, June, 2019, issue 077, Editor Kate Nacard.

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From the Executive Director Well, here we are again! Once every two years – when there is an International Election and the ExComm column is delegated to me – I have to decide what I should write about. Of course, as the Executive Director, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on matters that could be thought of as policy or controversial. So, I will start with a short story.

In 1986, when British Mensa offered its members the chance to buy a hardback copy of the current membership list as a way of marking the 40th Anniversary, I did so. The book listed the membership by local groups, which meant searching through the many lists to find if friends or perhaps even celebrities were members. Completely by chance I stumbled upon a name I knew very well - my mother! I immediately called her on the phone and challenged her.

ÒMother, you never told me you were in Mensa!Ó, I said. I had always known that she was undoubtedly highly educated and something of a polymath, attributes which she never hid, but she apparently had chosen to keep her membership secret from me. Her response was typical of her. ÒYou never askedÓ, she replied. Then there was a dramatic pause, before she continued, ÒBut I hope you never doubted for a second that I could have been a member!Ó. That was certainly true.

I knew that she had gone to university at the age of 16 at a time when fewer than 10,000 degrees were awarded in the whole of the UK each year and only a quarter of those were to women. In her adult life, she was successful in the largely male world of business; she wrote poetry and articles for magazines, as well as writing and directing plays in a popular amateur dramatic society. Her span of knowledge was intimidating, which made my frequent teenage arguments with her particularly frustrating. I eventually discovered her one weakness, though, which was that she really had no understanding of how electricity worked, and I exploited that ruthlessly thereafter!

I was reminded of the relationship between parents and children when I was visiting a Mensa group recently and had the opportunity to meet many of the members there, as well as parents of some of the younger members. The memorable feature of those meetings was that almost every parent spoke of the significant challenge of coping with a gifted child and wanted to know how they could best assist the child develop its full potential. In that country, there is currently no special provision made in the education system for gifted children, and this is unfortunately true in very many places. However, the minister of education was interested in discussing how to address the situation with Mensa, which was encouraging. There are a number of national Mensas around the world which are in the privileged situation of being invited to advise the ministry of education on the particular needs of gifted children, and one hopes that number will increase in the future.

In frequent discussions on the topic around the world, I always offer the view that policy-makers should not concentrate resources only on disadvantaged or under-performing children and assume that the children at the higher end of the intellectual scale will somehow be OK without help. It is surely the duty of educators to ensure that all children reach their full potential, and Mensa can certainly assist that process. As well as the many initiatives in national Mensas, the new international website will make a contribution to that in a new section in the public pages, where there is advice on how to recognize that one’s child may be gifted, as well as directing visitors to available resources.

Michael Feenan Reprinted from the Mensa World Journal, June, 2019, issue 077, Editor Kate Nacard.

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