Q&A: Smart Stuff

Mensa’s Pam Donahoo shows it takes more than dumb luck to run a brainy meeting.

By Larry Bleiberg

Sometimes you have to work with people who think they’re geniuses. But in Pam Donahoo’s case, they’re right. As the executive director of American Mensa, she serves members who scored in the top two percent on IQ tests. (There are more than 57,000 members in the United States and more than 101,000 worldwide.)

The group’s annual convention features a gathering of often quirky personalities who have an insatiable hunger to learn about, well, everything. Recent meetings have included everything from dodgeball games to introductory classes on Mandarin Chinese. American Mensa’s 2010 Annual Gathering will be held in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn June 30-July 5 and will be a joint gathering of American Mensa and Mensa Canada. With a membership consisting of a wide-range of ages, ethnicities and even eccentricities, here’s how Donahoo, 46, makes her meetings work.

What’s it like working for a group of brilliant people?
It’s a little bit harder. Every problem or situation is viewed as a challenge or a puzzle. There’s always a better, faster mouse trap. I tell new staff members: “Don’t order pizza with these guys. You’ll starve to death before you figure out what toppings to order.” But discussing and arguing and thinking things through is part of what makes their brain matter tick.

Your annual meeting this year is in Detroit, a city whose image has taken a battering during this recession. Has it affected attendance?
My meeting registration is through the roof. If there was a year I’d expect it to not to be the same, it would be this year because of the economy. But people still want the opportunity to see and experience new things and see each other. We are on track to have well over 2,000. We may be up to 2,400, and that’s as high as we’ve gotten.

What’s special about a Mensa meeting?
We have a 24/7 hospitality area. It’s a lot of round tables, people coming and going. It’s kind of like being a 12-year-old. You don’t want to go to bed because you’re afraid you’re going to miss something. You sit down and look up and it has been an hour-and-a-half and you might have had conversations on 20 or 30 topics. We also have a game room. We will have tables and hundreds of board games. People may have poker or card games or bridge games. These are people who like to play games. They like the strategy, the competitive mentality. We annually have a weekend meeting where our members do nothing but play games, actually judging new games. For a new game that’s coming out, the developers get an opportunity to have a really good focus group.

Recruiting volunteers is a challenge for many associations. How have you fared?
I’ve been with Mensa for 13 years and I’ve never seen a group that relies so heavily on volunteers. There are two groups. The core is the planning and organizing group. They will do all the programs. They figure out the schedules; they do all the logistics. My staff and I are kind of on the periphery to help. I’ve been in other organizations where we come up with the three possible keynote speakers and bring it to them and say, “Which tape do you like?” That’s not how this group works. The people involved really have a passion for it. They don’t do it every year. It’s probably a once in 10-year commitment, because it takes a lot of work.

What’s the second group?
The on-site volunteers — they do everything. They may help serve food in some places. We don’t hire security guards. We have volunteers. We call them security, but they’re really ambassadors. They can point the way to the restrooms or to the nearest 24-hour CVS.

How do you recruit them?
When they register, we ask them. The key is just offering enough types of volunteer activities so everyone can find something they’re comfortable doing. For the first three days of registration, every volunteer shift is filled. I ask why, and they say ‘What better way do I have to see all my friends?’ or if [they’re] a new person it’s a great way to meet people. Sometimes they may get a T-shirt if they work several hours, but this is their organization. Volunteering’s really part of the DNA for them.

What about training?
In almost every area where we have volunteers we have someone from the core group in charge. They come up with a one-pager. For security, it has things like how do you call 911, because it’s different in every hotel. Who’s the head of security? Where’s the nearest emergency room? Sometimes at the beginning of the event they’ll hold a quick meeting, maybe 35 to 40 minutes and go over these things. We have each committee create a detailed post-report at the end of the meeting for the next year. The last thing we want them to do is spend their volunteering reinventing the wheel. But sometimes we have a volunteer who thinks they know how to do something better, and they do.

How do you keep younger members involved, and interested?
Our Gen-X SIG [Special Interest Group for members in their mid-30s to mid-40s] wanted to plan the convention. These younger folks are planning it for the first time, but I’ve gotten great attendance. There’s really a young spin on things.

In what way?
A few years ago, they started a pub crawl. It started out just as a young group and now everyone’s involved. What a great way to see a city. If I’m new in a city, even if I want to go barhopping, I don’t want to do it by myself. This year during the meeting they’re also bringing in speakers focusing on the Motown aspect of Detroit. Another tract is focusing on Mensa’s history since it’s our 50th anniversary.

How has the economy affected membership numbers?
They’re increasing. You hear that beer sales go up during a stale economy and Mensa’s kind of like that. Dues are $59; we have a very low price point. When kids are making a decision about colleges they want something for their resume. If you’ve been downsized, then Mensa’s there to make you standout.

As with many associations, your members pay to attend the annual convention out of their own pockets. Why do they come?
It’s to be at that place where people who qualify feel comfortable. You don’t have to explain your jokes around this group. You don’t have to worry about being the smart one or being treated like you’re a nerd. It’s really that safe opportunity. I have a lot of couples who are married in the organization. Often times they will find their spouse in Mensa. You are much more likely to be married to someone with the same intelligence level.

Are you a member?
I am not. None of my staff can be members while we’re in the organization.

Do you qualify for membership?
We don’t answer because it doesn’t matter.

Many associations have had to shorten their meetings due to expense and the commitment involved. Have you?
We’re bucking every trend. I’ve added days. We always meet over the Fourth of July. It’s a vacation — you don’t have to justify your time away from work. It’s a different mindset. I have huge shoulders on my event. I need three or four days on either end, and more. People are going to come in a few days early and go to Canada. Some are going to Northern Michigan.

With members like yours, do you use a lot of technology at your meetings?
If we’re behind the curve, that’s where it is. It’s mainly because our price-points are low. There’s not as much technology used mainly because of the cost of it. We certainly have our own community. We have fan pages on Facebook. We have a Twitter account. Like everyone else, we’re realizing there are lots of opportunities that are there. We considered using handheld technology for a media event: an ask-the-geniuses session. But it was too expensive.

Does Mensa have a broader message or mission?
To the general public, we’re saying, it’s OK to be smart. Today you see movies that depict the smart person as the protagonist instead of the antagonist, the hero instead of the nerd that gets beaten up. We promote intelligence as a valuable asset.

Tell me about hug dots.
When you come in to register and pick up your badge, over on the side is a table that has a bunch of stickers on it — red, yellow and green. It’s to show your whole comfort level with hugging. They’re hug dots. Red means: I’m a personal-space kind of person. Yellow means: I’m OK with hugging if I know you. Green means: I’ll hug everyone. It’s almost like a handshake. Mensa recognizes that among its members, it has a lot of introverts. It’s not usual for someone to start out with a red or yellow button and then move up the scale, especially with someone new. You go to Kiwanis meetings and everyone hugs each other. It’s not any different for them. But we’re Mensa. We had to create a solution.

Larry Bleiberg is an award-winning travel editor and feature writer, and creator of CivilRightsTravel.com.