The whole of cognitive or intellectual abilities required to obtain knowledge, and use it to solve problems that have a well described goal and structure.
IQ is an acronym for Intelligence Quotient. The IQ is a measurement of your intelligence and is expressed in a number.
IQ is a type of standard score that indicates how far above, or how far below, his/her peer group an individual stands in mental ability. The peer group score is an IQ of 100; this is obtained by applying the same test to huge numbers of people from all socio-economic strata of society, and taking the average.
The term "IQ" was coined by the psychologist William Stern for the German term Intelligenzquotient in 1912. At that time, IQ was represented as a ratio of mental age to chronological age x 100. So, if an individual of 10 years of age has a mental age of 10, the IQ will be 100. However, if the mental age is greater than the chronological age, eg, 12 rather than 10, the IQ will be 120. Similarly, if a mental age is lower than the chronological age, the IQ will be lower than 100.
When current IQ tests were developed, the average score of the norming sample was defined as IQ 100 and standard deviations (SD) up or down are defined as, for example, 16 or 24 IQ points greater or less than 100. Mensa accepts individuals who score in the top 2%, ie, two SDs or more above the average. This would include those who score at or above 132 (Stanford-Binet) or 148 (Cattell). Mensa accepts many different tests,as long as they have been standardised and normed and are accepted by professional psychologists’ associations.
Mensa was, for all intents and purposes, an exclusively British club from its beginnings in 1946 up until 1960. The establishment of a branch in America in the fall of 1960, with its subsequent rapid growth, brought forth the inevitable issue of co-existing national Mensa groups versus one international group (with many branches). Since Roland Berrill had felt that a formal constitution was unnecessary, Mensa had never had anything but the most rudimentary official structure. As Mensa grew, however, the adequacy of the informal governmental and organizational structure came under fire and discussions began on the adoption of a formal constitution. In 1961, a referendum was held to determine if a formal constitution should be written.That vote, in August 1961, failed (153 for, 418 against, 3 abstentions). For the next few years, almost all matters continued to be handled through the governing (British) board in London.
At the November 1963 Annual General Meeting in London, the membership approved a policy on the structuring of an “international” Mensa, and separation of the international board from the British board. This policy provided for the drafting and membership approval of a constitution, with subsequent elections to fill the posts created by it. The first “formal” international constitution was approved in June 1964 (2,206 for, 264 against); it provided for 8 officers (Chairman, General Secretary, Treasurer, Membership Officer, Developments Officer, Editorial Committee Chair, Research Committee Chair and Premises Committee Chair). It further provided for one representative from each of the recognized national Mensa groups (United Nations style - without regard to group size). In September 1964, the first election was held, with the Wilson/Serebriakoff panel receiving the most votes (by about 4 to 1). The “panel,” or “slate” system of voting is still used in International Mensa elections today (although there had not been a contested international election in many years until recently).
Another provision of the 1964 constitution was the establishment of Mensa as a legal entity. After considerable work, Intermensa, Ltd. was incorporated as a “holding company” on May 7, 1965. Maurice Salzedo, a solicitor and active British Mensan, became Secretary of the Corporation. It is interesting to note that in 1965, the name “Mensa” was already in use in another corporate name and thus the preferred “Mensa International, Ltd.” could not be used.
In late 1969, a major reshuffling of the International General Committee (IGC) took place, following which several substantial constitutional amendments were proposed, approved and enacted. Although the people and the “job titles” were in seemingly constant flux throughout the 1970’s, the IGC nevertheless remained essentially intact. By 1980, however, the inequities of the U.N.-style system (from the large groups’ perspective) had generated serious problems. The United States, with over 30,000 members (and a large financial obligation to International Mensa), had but one vote, the same as the Ivory Coast, which had only 10 members and virtually no financial obligation. Following a period of contentiousness, and several unsuccessful attempts to create acceptable drafts of a revised constitution, Hyman Brock (the Chairman of Mensa Canada at that time) brought the major players together in Miami and a compromise (“The Miami Pact”) was hammered out on October 31, 1981.
The subsequently-approved constitutional changes and election dramatically altered the composition of the international governing body. Two boards were created: the IGC (International General Council), consisting of the International Chairman and the CEOs of all recognized national Mensas (with some qualifications). This body generally acts in an advisory capacity to the second board, the IBD (International Board of Directors). The IBD consists of the International Chairman, Director of Administration, Director of Development and Treasurer (the four elected International Officers), along with representatives (“Nat Reps”) chosen by each recognized national Mensa meeting a specified minimum membership level. The number of votes allocated to each national Mensa is based on its membership, with no group carrying more than 40% of the votes and no Nat Rep carrying more than three votes. The IBD sets policy, giving consideration to IGC advice. Ongoing management decisions are made by the Executive Committee, consisting of the four elected officers plus the CEOs of American and British Mensa.
The vote approving the above changes took effect at the end of April 1982. The Society was officially without officers from May 1, 1982 until July 1, 1982, when the newly-elected officials took office. Nevertheless, for continuity purposes, the outgoing IGC voted to allow the incoming officers to assume their duties on an unofficial basis as of May1, 1982.
In 1976, Mensa International, Ltd., another corporate entity, was incorporated in England. It co-existed with Intermensa, Ltd. from 1976 to 1985. Intermensa, Ltd. was dissolved in May 1985 in favor of MIL for legal reasons.
Finally, the requirements for voting representation on the IGC/IBD have been modified numerous times throughout the years. In the following sections, no attempt has been made to confirm that the individuals listed were actually entitled to vote at all times during their tenure. Moreover, appointed officers often had voting rights prior to 1982, but it has proven too difficult (so far) to determine which ones had voting rights during any specific meeting. Finally, no attempt has been made to compile a comprehensive history of each National Mensa; only basic information has been compiled, and even that has sometimes been based on less than iron-clad data.
As a general caveat to the reader, the information in this "International" section is not as reliable as the information in the American Mensa sections, even though I have spent over a thousand hours researching and compiling this information. My goal has been to make the data as reliable as possible, and most of it is reasonably accurate. The information should be useful for most purposes and for general enlightenment. With the reader’s assistance in seeking out corrections and additions, I’m confident that future revisions will be more comprehensive, accurate, and reliable.
The History of Mensa in India is well documented by this Article by Amit Das in MInd magazine Apr 2002 edition. Excerpt enclosed below:
In 1963, when I was cramming for my Higher Secondary exams in the following year, I qualified for Mensa through a test sent by post from London. Then Mensa had about 4,000 members worldwide, nearly three-fourths of whom were in Britain. When I wrote to Mensa, the Chairman Victor Serebriakoff himself replied and encouraged me about getting Mensa going in India. Victor, probably THE most important person in the history of Mensa, took a keen interest in the development of Mensa worldwide. The main thrust of International Mensa was then to expand in USA, but in1965 we too received permission to conduct supervised testing in Calcutta and to charge much lower rates than prevalent in Britain.
From 1966 we started inserting personal column ads in newspapers and the membership in India grew from 12 then to about 100 in 1970, much of which was in Calcutta. From ‘66, regular Mensa meetings were held in Calcutta at residences of some members. Most Mensans were then college and university students and often they were very argumentative. Often it was necessary for the host to produce a dictionary to settle disputes about the meaning of a word.
From 1966, the then “Indian Mensa” had a cyclostyled newsletter of irregular periodicity that was sent by post. We conducted some opinion surveys and one interesting result was that a majority of the members responding to a survey thought that India should try to reduce the population to 300 million! The percentage of FMs (female Mensans) was always rather low, but some of them were very good hosts (i.e. the snacks they served were superb). We had some very interesting people. Pranab Ghosh, who had a photographic memory and always came first in all exams, was ardent about his hobby of flying kites (i.e. the ones made of paper). Trinanjan Mitra and Raghu went on exchanging witticisms like an unending game of table tennis. He had shortened his original name Raghupati Raghavan because of “that damn song”. Devinder Singh Garewal, whose father was a Brigadier, was ultra-patriotic, and anyone criticising the Indian armed forces could expect a verbal lashing from him. (Trinanjan got a MBA in Brussels and has settled down in Luxembourg. The three others did Ph.D. from USA and Canada and are now established scientists.)
From 1966, the Calcutta Ms started meeting visiting Mensans from different countries through the SIGHT service of International Mensa. Two Australian FMs were so interested in the problems of Calcutta that we made an appointment with the Ford Foundation experts of C.M.P.O. The town planners gave such an impromptu seminar about the 25-year perspective plan for Calcutta that we Indian Ms also could also learn a lot. A Californian ecophile praised Indian garbage highly for its bio-degradability. A young German M was so concerned about power shortage in India that he kept the fan shut in the room he was staying at the residence of a Mensan host. The number of Ms in Calcutta increased steadily from 1963 to 1970. Most of the active members were students of the same age group. Starting from 1970 within two years a large majority of them completed their studies in Calcutta. Then suddenly a large number of them moved out of the city for higher education or for employment. I remained in Calcutta but had to disengage from organising Mensa by the pressure of M.Tech study and the subsequent research fellowship.
Just when Mensa was in a poor shape in Calcutta, in 1973 we heard that Dr. V.V.Pendse of Pune had met Mensa International officials in Europe and wished to play an active role in organising Mensa in India. In September that year, two Mensans, Prabir Mukhopadhyay (working in Bombay after studies in Calcutta) and myself visited Pune and met Dr. Pendse at Jnana Prabodhini, the school for intelligent children. The school had impressive facilities by Indian standards and he offered to use them to set up a permanent headquarters of Indian Mensa with the ready availability of qualified psychologists. Then “Mensa India” was launched in Pune shortly afterwards and the headquarters of Mensa India are still there. There were a number of problems that held up the growth of Mensa in India. But, to understand the prospects, let us see how the number of Mensans in India have grown as compared to USA and the whole world :
| Year | Approximate number of Mensans in | |||
| India | USA | Whole World | ||
| 1964 | 04 | 800 | 4,000 | |
| 1970 | 100 | 13,000 | 17,000 | |
| 2001 | 700 | 50,000 | 100,000 | |
If we can organise Mensa properly in India, there is no reason why in the next few years it should not grow here the way it did in USA between 1964 and 1970.
More women move to other countries from India affecting our gender ratios. Time for a focused membership drive?
Must be easy to get blood for groups O and B…
So if I was January or July born with blood group B or O, would I have a better chance to get into Mensa in India???!!! You tell me!