Mensa International
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Mensa International is a group with the sole requirement for membership being a score within the highest 2% on a mensa-approved standardized test.
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History of Mensa
Mensa currently boasts over 100 thousand members, over half of them living within the United States. Most likely, all of those people who are eligible have not sought membership.
Mensa was founded by and Australian barrister, Roland Berrill and Lancelot Ware, and English lawyer and scientist in England during 1946. At its inception, the sole admission criterion was defined and the society became open to people with a high IQ. The original plan was to set up an organization that would not be riddled with segregation based upon things such as religion or race. This would enable those with high IQs to have the ability to socialize with other members.
Requirement for Membership
As stated, the only criteria for entry into Mensa is scoring in at least the 98th percentile on an IQ test like the Stanford-Binet. Prior to 1994, the SAT and the GRE served as Mensa approved tests, however their scores are no longer accepted for membership consideration. Mensa will make testing available for prospective members upon request.
The Goal of Mensa
There are three standard purposes of the organization:
- To identify and foster human intelligence toward the benefit of humanity;
- Encouraging research in the nature, characteristics and uses of intelligence;
- Promoting stimulating intellectual and social opportunities for members.
Structure
Mensa International is formed as a collaboration among 50 national groups. For individual members in countries that do not have their own sub-group, Mensa International can be joined without joining one of the national groups. Mensa also boasts a number of Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that represent many interests including entrepreneurial groups as expected, and even more uncommon interests like motorcycles.
Because of the single admission criteria, it is obvious that members come from a huge variety of backgrounds and interests. Mensa is organized in such a way that they are able to celebrate the diversity of the membership.