March, named for Mars by the Romans who highly valued their military might, breathes life back into the world. It’s the month when we observe the vernal equinox here in the Northern Hemisphere and when we begin to see the leaves start to bud. Also, it’s sort of like a renewed quest for culture here in the heart of America where we’ve learned that MAM’s CultureQuest® team (2020) placed 13th and well within the top 20 of all other teams. Congratulations!

Ad Astra Mensa via Zoom

Ad Astra Mensa (Topeka, Lawrence, and environs) met virtually via Zoom on February 8th. Topics discussed included Covid-19, availability of vaccines, effectiveness of vaccines, prevention and curing, Super Bowl, halftime show, history and evolution of computers, cookies, toolmaking function of humans and animals, education, tendency of different people to see things differently, language, weather, QAnon, cults and conspiracies, politics, ghost hunting, and other matters, some controversial, some not.

If you are interested in discussing these or other topics, please join Ad Astra Mensa when we meet again virtually via Zoom on Monday, March 8 at 7:00 pm.

Mensa Foundation Scholarship Judges Needed for Region 7

Regional Judges are needed for the 2020–2021 Mensa Education and Research Foundation Scholarship Essay Contest in Region 7. Judging involves reading essays submitted by scholarship applicants and scoring them for points to determine the winners. Regional judging will be conducted online over email and will take place between February 23, 2021 and March 30, 2021.

We are looking for people who have not been judges for any of the local groups in Region 7 for the 2020–2021 competition. Judges may judge at either the local or regional level but may not do both in the same region.

Spring Salon

We’re experimenting with another new twist on an old favorite. The old favorite is a Salon where everyone gets together to share their thoughts and ideas on a particular subject. The first new twist was to add a time-keeper to keep the conversation flowing and on its toes. The next generation twist is to take it virtual instead of in person.

MAMs have never been known to be boring and this is the place to show it. Send along your ideas and time and date preferences. We’ll see how many people we can accommodate.