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Greetings to all,

I hope you are all getting out and enjoying our long awaited Rochester warm weather. As stated in the last few issues of the Constellation this is the end of my tenure as RAM’s Locsec and I’ve enjoyed my time as your fearless leader. We’ve had some challenges along the way but I leave the Locsec position with many happy memories. George Gerspacher will be succeeding me as Locsec and I’m very confident that George will do an excellent job for RAM. Many thanks to Sue Keller & John Bland for hosting last month’s Raptor Walk as well as this month’s Lunch & Nature Walk event on May 10^th.

Since there were no additional nominations, RAM’s 2008 election process is complete with George Gerspacher and Kristin Naiko (formerly Kristin Culkowski) installed as Locsec & Vice Locsec, respectively and I’ve been installed as Treasurer. RAM’s Board of Directors remains the same as our previous line-up with Miki Karner, Eric Murphy, Wayne Strauss and Karen Steiner returning this year. Good luck to all in their RAM positions.

I hope you will come out and join us for some of our fun activities. Check out the calendar for this month’s events. This is your group, have fun with it and share your experiences with the rest of us.

I hope to see you at this month’s events.

May 2008 Events

Thursday, May 1^st @ 8:00 PM, “First Thirstday” at Flaherty’s Three Flags, 1200 Bay Rd., (next to Wegman’s), 671-0816. Come out and enjoy some good food and Mensan conversation at Flaherty’s.

Saturday, May 10^th @ 1:00 PM “Lunch, Homemade Ice Cream & Nature Walk” at Brad & Dad’s, 623 E. Main St. (Rt. 31), Palmyra, (315) 597-0116. Brad & Dad’s features burgers, hots and sandwiches as well as hard ice cream and custard. Lunch & ice cream will be followed by a walk along the Palmyra Wetlands Nature Trail/Bike Path. Parking lot is on Church St. at Canal St., just north of Main St.. Recent sightings include red squirrels, turtles, waterfowl, woodpeckers, songbirds and a glimpse of the ghost raccoon.

Thursday, May 15^th @ 6:30 PM, “International Food Night” at Romano’s Macaroni Grill, 760 Jefferson Rd. (in Home Depot’s plaza), 427-8230. Come out and enjoy an evening in sunny Italy with a visit to Romano’s. The food is excellent (the bread alone is to die for) and the atmosphere is very warm and casual.

Thursday, May 29^th @ 7:00 –10 PM, “Fold, Spindle & Mutilate Party” (newsletter production) at The Walton’s Home, 33 Whippletree Rd., Fairport, 377-1686. Come for snacks, pop, conversation and a first look at the June newsletter.

Thursday, June 5^th @ 8:00 PM, “First Thirstday” at Salena’s Mexican Restaurant, 302 N. Goodman (in Village Gate), 256-5980. Come on out and join us at Salena’s for some excellent food, great margaritas and plenty of Mensan conversation. You may want to bring a sweater or light jacket; we hope to sit outside on their covered patio, space & weather permitting.

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Hello all !  I hope everyone is finally enjoying our late in coming Springtime.  Here it is the first week in April and crocuses are just beginning to bloom.  Our latest AMC meeting was held in San Francisco, which apparently does not experience our idea of Winters.  A truly beautiful, functional city - with palm trees.  Any place where palm trees grow is fine with me, especially at the end of March.  I have to give a special thank you  to the Bay area members who hosted this meeting, especially Mike Eager, Susan Heimlich, Barbara and her husband Tom, and Alan Winson.  Their hospitality exceeded any expectation I might have entertained, and certainly was well received.

This meeting, being the one where the budget is approved, was especially important.  Other topics were discussed and decided upon, but the financial ones were most poignant.  Unfortunately I have to report that a "spend as you go" attitude prevails within the AMC.  While I consider many of our fiscal actions as bordering on being irresponsible, it is my duty as a board member to uphold and support actions approved by the AMC.  It is my fervent hope, though, that the membership uses the next election to materially change the course we're presently headed on.  Increasing  spending in the name of providing marginally utilized services and programs and increasing dues to finance this spending is not fiscally sound nor sustainable.  The following synopsis of the motions and results are of course unofficial and my personal take on things - but I was there and most discussion and attitudes are not reflected in the official  minutes.

1.  The discussion items I can't really comment on other than to say there is definitely a lack of firm direction in the areas of testing, the hearings committee, and the planning committee.  It's not possible for the AMC to move forward when the staff and committees charged with given areas of responsibility do not know and cannot recommend firm and decisive courses of action.  Too much of an attitude of "we tried this back in  1900 whatever and  it didn't go anywhere"  prevails.

2.  The bylaws referendums were approved to present to the membership; legally, we needed to come up with some plan to fill RVC vacancies and there aren't a whole lot of acceptable options.  Either one works.

3.  The budget was approved as presented.  This one had the primal hairs on the back of my neck standing  up.  The budget is an unimaginative "add 5% to the past unimaginative budget" and raise dues to do it.  There is no evidence of fiscal restraint or attempt to reign in escalating costs in national office operations or general governance costs.  $35,000 was approved to hire a consultant to advise us on the optimal level of governance and the proper interaction between the various committees and staff.  This is where a lack of business savvy on the part of many AMC members became apparent.  I don't have a problem with giving money away to charitable groups, I do with giving money away to profit making enterprises.  To think of the tens of thousands Mensans, the thousands of those who have solid business backgrounds and experience, and not try to tap into that experience, was just plain foolish. 

4.  The motion to mandate electronic distribution of newsletters did not enjoy support but did spur good discussion on what the membership prefers and often demands.  It failed but I expect that  it naturally will evolve on its own over the coming years as electronic publications become more accepted in our society at large.

5.  A dues increase to $59 a year was passed (and must pass a second time at the next AMC meeting).  This will be used to fuel the ever increasing cost of conducting Mensa business.  You either act fiscally conservative or increase income, and your AMC is choosing to increase income.

6.  The Interloc distribution scheme was approved, but honestly was one of the non issues which should not ever have to reach the AMC level for discussion.  This is a management issue, not a policy issue.  This is where having a smaller, more focused AMC and committees with more responsibility would prove useful.

7.  Having the Mensa Foundation fund gifted children  program grants makes perfect financial sense, especially since we give them a $50,000+ grant each year and pay them a hefty rent for our headquarters.   This was easily approved. The down side is that Mensa relinquished control of how those grants are distributed.  Nothing is free, as the saying goes.

8.  Having the National Office administer the registration at Annual Gatherings was approved.  The debate here was between the advantages of having national office staff do all the financial accounting with the resulting security and the further weakening of local  hosting groups in managing an AG.  Both positions are absolutely correct, it comes down to the ideology of whether local groups should have a free hand in AGs or whether AML should protect their interest directly.  I've noticed the overall trend within Mensa is a strengthening of AML at the expense of local groups.  Personally, this is not a positive trend since it is at the local group level  that most Mensans interact (those that do, since most do not).  Being a national gathering, I can easily envision the day when AML holds AGs wherever they choose without any cursory support from a local group.  As I stated earlier, it will be the make up of future AMCs which determines where this trend goes.

The official minutes will be available soon, I only summarize these meetings to give the membership some thoughts for future consideration.

Dave Swanka

(716)833-5549