Mensa BE

Mensa BE or Mensa.be is the Belgian section of Mensa International. Mensa has been present in Belgium since 1966. The actual asbl-vzw was founded in 2001 and counts more than 450 members. It functions along rules essentially similar to those of its mother-organization Mensa International. The only criterion for admittance to Mensa is to have passed any standard and supervised IQ-test with a score higher or equal to the 98th percentile. As a service, Mensa offers regular intelligence quotient tests throughout the country as well as local discussion groups.
Mensa's purposes are to identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity, to encourage research into the nature, characteristics, and uses of intelligence, and to provide a stimulating intellectual and social environment for its members. The word "Mensa" means "table" in Latin. The name stands for a round-table society, where race, color, creed, national origin, age, politics, educational or social background are irrelevant and where the most diverse views meet in mutual respect.
Services
The services provided by Mensa or by SIGs (Special Interest Groups) are being brought into existence or removed according to the level of interest shown by the members. The only limits to the start-up of an activity or a SIG are the endorsement of the society’s constitution and bylaws, the Belgian law and the promise never to use Mensa to defend an opinion, however noble it may be. Mensa is strictly non-political and non-religious and as such, holds no opinion. Contrary to its members who therefore need to show for nothing more than to have attained a score within the upper two percent of the general population on a supervised IQ-test and the payment of a membership fee.
List of current SIG
*A LA RECHERCHE DU PAIN PERDU: Gastronomy
*ART & CULTURE: Activities involving art or culture
*CREASIG: hobbies
*HELL’s M’s VLAANDEREN: humor
*HIQ-SE=X: Discussion group on the advantages and disadvantages of a high IQ
*GROUPE DE LECTURE: tea-time reading group
*M-AGORA: Philosophy
*M-FEMINA: Women with a high IQ
*M-MOVIES: Movies
For children, there is a framework called Mensa Youth..
Local meetings: informal discussions, board games and the occasional conference in Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Genk, Gent, Herenthout, Leuven, Louvain-la-Neuve, Liège and Namur.
The ComMensal (Meaning guest or host at the table): monthly trilingual magazine of the Belgian association: dutch, french and english, german or esperanto are possible but rarely observed
History of Mensa BE
Mensa was founded in England in 1946 by Roland Berill, a barrister, and Dr. Lance Ware, a scientist and lawyer, following a chance meeting on a train. The success was so huge that very soon requests came from around the world to create local chapters. Belgium too was interested and set up its own society in 1966. After an eventful start, a more solid structure was set-up in 1982 including Luxembourg. Mensa BE has a rare quality: that of being multilingual. Mensa International however only recognizes states, and no regions or communities so Luxembourg, initially included due to its size, quickly grew to gain its independent in 2001. The Belgian branch then redefined its foundations and modernized its structures and constitution under the name Mensa BE.
Consecutive presidents of Mensa in Belgium
*Edouard Valencyns (1966 - 1968)
*Herman Stenuit (1969 - 1970)
*Elisabeth Elliker-Franckson (1971 - 1976)
*Kris Roose (1976 - 1978)
*Herman De Vos (1978 - 1981)
*Freddy Huygen (1981 - 1982)
*† Bernard Senault (1982 - 1985)
*Didier Racheneur (1985 - 1986)
*André Jacquet (1986 - 2001)
*Peter Kravanja (2001 - 2004)
*Walter De Backer (2004 - 2010)
*Gino Vandenborne (2010 - ...)
Internal links
* Mensa International
* List of Mensans

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu