|
Local Group Profile
|
Greater Los Angeles Area Mensa
Description:Greater Los Angeles Area Mensa (GLAAM) is one of the oldest chapters in American Mensa. Records show that the first LocSec (Local Secretary, referenced internally as ‘Chair’) of the L.A. chapter was elected in September 1962; since that time, dozens of people have served as the head of our organization.
The first issue of the newsletter contained a draft of the first set of bylaws for the chapter. These bylaws, which took up less than a full page, established a Los Angeles Mensa Committee which any member of the chapter could join by attending three consecutive meetings. Our bylaws have undergone extensive revision and expansion since then, particularly when Greater Los Angeles Area Mensa became incorporated in 1977.
In July 1965, American Mensa was divided into four regions (Eastern, Mid-Western, Western, and Canadian). In addition, any local group comprising at least 10% of the total American Mensa membership could send a representative to the North American Mensa Committee. At the time, only New York City was large enough to have a separate NAMC representative, but Los Angeles achieved this status in February 1967. The L.A. constituency was expanded in January 1980 to become the Southern California Region, or Region #9 of the nine regions which then constituted American Mensa. It was renamed the Far West Region in August 1985, while what was originally called the Western Region became the Pacific Intermountain Region (Region #8) in November of that same year.
In 1973, GLAAM began holding local conventions in the Southern California area. For five years, this was done as a joint venture (known as Asilomar South, after the popular Labor Day gatherings in Monterey County) with the Santa Barbara chapter. The first actual Los Angeles RG was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in January 1980 and was chaired by Paul Victor. The second RG, chaired by Bob Abrahams, was held at the Pacifica Hotel in Culver City in October 1981, and was known as LARGO (Los Angeles Regional Gathering in October); the next two RG’s were held at the same time of year. It was decided afterwards to conduct the event in the early spring. The next LARG was therefore conducted in March 1985. By 1989, we had settled upon Presidents’ Day weekend as the normal time for our RG, and we have conducted one nearly every year since then.
We celebrated our 50th anniversary in 2012, by rolling out an ongoing Awards program which presents annual recognitions to exceptional volunteers for the Mensa organization. Rollout included appointing a special Awards Committee which undertook the monumental task to review all the newsletters for the preceding 50 years, and to catalog every single thing that anybody ever did, so that we could create a Hall of Fame for our most prolific lifetime volunteers, as assessed over time by the same objective points-based criteria.
Founding Date:September 01 1962
Connect:
|
|
Chapter Officers
| Name |
Position |
| Samuel Moses |
Local Secretary |
| Roy Ball |
Assistant Local Secretary |
| Fa'auliulito Meni-Trood |
Assistant Local Secretary |
| Wilbert Woo |
Local Treasurer |
| Samuel Moses |
Member-at-Large |
| Andrea Nolan |
Member-at-Large |
| Roy Ball |
Member-at-Large |
| Craig Lancaster |
Member-at-Large |
| Perry Lanaro |
Member-at-Large |
| Jonathan Elliott |
Local Ombudsperson |
| Nikki Frey |
Newsletter Editor |
| Alan Stillson |
Local Circulation Manager |
| Alan Stillson |
Calendar Editor |
| Madeline Walker |
Programs Coordinator |
| Susan Barr |
Programs Coordinator |
| Yvonne Carrick |
Local YAM Coordinator |
| Anrey Wang |
Web Contact |
| Jonathan Elliott |
Web Contact |
| Roy Ball |
Proctor |
| Fa'auliulito Meni-Trood |
Proctor |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|