Unfortunately, Mark Motta's input must have been lost somewhere along the line when I asked for feedback on the Monthly Forum a while back, but I am confident that he would be happy with the subject matter of recent Monthly Forums. Lately we have been trying to have Monthly Forums with topics that will create intellectual stimulation for our members. Hopefully he will attend one.
I am looking forward to the next Regional Gathering, since there is no policy that requires attendees to attend a certain number of lectures. Playing "Find the Soap" sounds like fun, but I have always skipped that event. I have been too busy attending intellectually stimulating lectures on raptors and endangered species, meteorites, cryrogentics, the Internet, the history of the moon in art, etc. I knew that there was some recreation going on at Regional Gatherings, but it never occurred to me that people might actually attend just to party. What a country! I want to make it clear, though, that there is NO policy that requires attendees to attend recreational events at Regional Gatherings. You do NOT have to party unless you WANT to.
Speaking for myself, we (the ExCom) are always open to suggestion as to the best time to hold Mensa functions. It simply didn't occur to us to move the February Forum away from Valentine's Day. We could easily have held it on another Friday. Of course, we would then be answering complaints about why the Monthly Forum was rescheduled into a conflict with another regularly-occuring event. Twenty-four people attended the February Monthly Forum, which is way above last year's average, so I guess Valentine's Day didn't put too much of a damper on attendance.
The Regional Gathering is held on Thanksgiving weekend by design. Historically, that weekend has been slow for hotels, and it gives GPM leverage to get good room rates for our members and other hotel-provided goodies in support of the event. I understand that San Fransisco and Dallas also have their Regional Gatherings on Thanksgiving weekend for the same reason. Thanksgiving weekend business has picked up in recent years, though, and we may want to consider changing the date of the Regional Gathering. If anyone would like to make a specific recommendation, please call a member of the ExCom (most of us have phones), or better yet, attend the ExCom meeting, and we can examine and work out the issues.
I fully support having intellectually stimulating sessions for our members. GPM elections are coming up soon, and we will soon be planning the 1997 Regional Gathering. I would be proud to support Mr. Motta for Assistant LocSec (the person who schedules speakers for Monthly Forums), for Regional Gathering Chair (even if it means giving up playing "Find the Soap"), and/or for Member-at-Large, in which capacity he can become Drum Major and conduct polls on issues of interest to the members of GPM, and gain insight and generate interest in the coming months, since I am "rhythmless."
Bruce Stiles