After gathering input from donors, Mensa members and officers, and the Foundation Trustees, the Foundation’s Web team recently embarked on a redesign of www.mensafoundation.org. The goal of the project was to better personalize and profile the Foundation’s mission to encourage excellence in intelligence around the world through its education, research and recognition programs.

Site menus have been revamped to highlight the Foundation itself, its programs (both national and international), the individuals it impacts, and how you can help the Foundation achieve its goals. You’ll read Foundation Voices, the new Trustee blog that brings the people most involved with the Foundation to your browser. You’ll learn about the Foundation’s support of gifted youth through programs like the Mensa for Kids Web site and about the Foundation’s award programs that recognize myriad aspects of intelligence. You’ll meet the people who’ve benefitted from the Foundation’s efforts, like Colloquium speaker and Mensa member Jamison Selby, who noted that “Colloquium offers access and ideas you can’t replicate elsewhere.”

If you haven’t visited the Mensa Foundation Web site recently, there is no better time than now! Keep in mind, of course, that the Foundation’s activities are funded only through donations from involved individuals like you. We hope you’ll support the Mensa Foundation today. To make a donation, please visit www.mensafoundation.org/donate.

Young readers around the world are taking advantage of the Foundation’s Excellence in Reading program.  The Foundation, in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities, provides a list of selections that children’s librarians around the nation have identified as books no child should grow up without reading. The titles are separated into grade-level bands (K-3, 4-6, 7-8 and 9-12). 

Young readers who complete any one of the lists, either by reading the books or having the books read to them, earn a T-shirt, a certificate of completion and the satisfaction of knowing they’ve distinguished themselves as readers of merit. 

Lisa Van Gemert, the Foundation’s Gifted Youth Specialist, says, “I have a master’s degree in English education, and yet I haven’t read all of the books on the 9-12 list. It’s a true challenge, and it reflects a depth of cultural and literary exploration that would be hard to find anywhere else.”

Highlights of the program include:

• It’s free. There is no registration required. Parents or teachers simply print out the list, check off the books as they are read, and then send it in when completed.
• There is no time limit. Young readers can take as long as they want to complete a list. 
• Children can read advanced yet appropriate books. The titles at the higher grade levels make for challenging reading, yet because they are classics, young readers are unlikely to encounter inappropriate material.
• The books are readily available and often free for download in the public domain.

The program is available for download from the Mensa For Kids Web site (www.mensaforkids.org), and all of the books are linked and available in the Gifted Youth Resources section of American Mensa’s SmartBuys online store (www.us.mensa.org/smartbuys). For more information, please visit www.mensaforkids.org and click the Excellence in Reading icon on the main page.

New TED learning extensions will be added to our educational materials over the course of the spring. These extensions are short, easy-to-use guides that help teachers, parents and kids use talks from the TED Web site (www.ted.com) in the classroom or at home in a way that extends beyond passive watching. Each has a list of discussion questions and books, links and other resources connected to the topic. Some of the topics you can expect include:

• “Digging Ants,” led by ant biologist Dr. Deborah M. Gordon;
• “Electrifying Cancer,” led by Bill Doyle, executive chair of Novocure; and
• “Shape-Shifting Dinosaurs,” led by paleontologist Jack Horner.

The TED extensions will be available in both the Parent/Teacher and Kids’ Resources sections on the Mensa For Kids Web site.

The TED talks used in this program are copyright TED Conferences LLC and distributed under a Creative Commons license for noncommercial and non-derivative use. For more information, please visit the FAQ on the TED WEb site at www.ted.com.

Mensa for Kids’ Bright is the smartest monthly enewsletter for kids ages 6-10, brought to you by Mensa for Kids and the Mensa Foundation.

Every issue is full of fun games, puzzles, activities and factoids specially selected to encourage children to learn, explore and think in new ways. Regular features include games of logic, math, spatial relations and word usage; science features; activity ideas and “edutainment” programs; and feature stories courtesy of the Mensa for Kids Web site (www.mensaforkids.org) and the Mensa Foundation (www.mensafoundation.org). For example, March’s issue includes brain bending trivia from American Mensa’s annual CultureQuest® event, tips on how to become a mad scientist, comics and word games.

It’s easy for all your favorite young people to subscribe. Current Mensa members can subscribe at www.us.mensa.org/enewsletters, and nonmembers can visit www.mensaforkids.org/bright and follow the links under “Bright Newsletter” (parental permission for nonmembers under 13 is required). The most current 90 days of issues are available on both sites, and PDFs also are available for download and printing within each email issue.

Support the Mensa Foundation and programs like this at www.mensafoundation.org/donate.

American Mensa, Ltd., and the Mensa Foundation are saddened to note the passing of Dorothy Bloom Cumley on Feb. 29, 2012. She was 77.

Dorothy joined Mensa in 1973 and soon became active in the Mensa Education & Research Foundation, holding various positions on its Board of Trustees including First Vice President and Acting President. She resigned her position on the board — and put her Mensa membership on hold — in 1994 in order to oversee the relocation of American Mensa’s National Office to Ft. Worth, Texas, as Executive Director of American Mensa, a position she held on a two-year contract. She was also a former Executive Director of the American Heart Association and held similar positions with other associations. She earned a doctorate in business administration, was a life member of Mensa, and was also a member of Intertel.

Her husband, James Cumley, preceded her in death in 2008. She is survived by her daughter, Paula Cornell; her son, David Lynch; five grandchildren; and several great-grandchildren. Memorials may be made in Dorothy’s memory to your favorite charity, including the Mensa Foundation. You can make a Foundation donation in her memory at www.mensafoundation.org/memorials.

The Mensa Foundation hosts Colloquiums to help further its mission of identifying and fostering human intelligence for the benefit of humanity. Attendees gather to learn and share information on a chosen topic with experts in the field and each other.

On July 3, attendees of Colloquium 2012: Social and Video Games will explore the evolving world of social gaming and how gender issues are changing the development of games. They’ll learn about the gamification of society and how organizations are turning to social games for marketing and fundraising and discover how the five dimensions of game addiction might relate to their experiences. They’ll also learn about the history and development of video games from experts in the industry.

Speakers at this event include:

• Keynote speaker Warren Spector, Vice President and Creative Director for Disney Interactive Studios’ Junction Point
• Mia Consalvo, Ph.D., Canada Research Chair in Game Studies and Design at Concordia University in Montreal
• Seth Cooper, Creative Director of the Center for Game Science at the University of Washington
• Douglas Gentile, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Developmental Psychology at Iowa State University
• Jamison Selby, Vice President of Sales for Socialtype

This event is being held as a special one-day precursor to American Mensa’s 2012 Annual Gathering in Reno, Nev. To see a summary of each of the speakers’ backgrounds, visit www.colloquium.us.mensa.org and click on the Speakers tab. To register, click the Registration tab.

To support these and many other Foundation-sponsored events and programs, visit www.mensafoundation.org/donate.