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About Mensa
BACKGROUND
Mensa was founded in England in 1946 by Roland Berrill, a barrister, and Dr. Lance Ware, a scientist and lawyer. They had the idea of forming a society for bright people, the only qualification for membership of which was a high IQ. The original aims were, as they are today, to create a society that is non-political and free from all racial or religious distinctions. The society welcomes people from every walk of life whose IQ is in the top 2% of the population, with the objective of enjoying each other's company and participating in a wide range of social and cultural activities.
Mensa Hong Kong was formed in 1987 by a small group of expatriates and local Chinese who had gained Mensa membership while living overseas. Since then, membership has steadily increased to more than 3,000 nowadays.
3 STATED PURPOSES
UNIQUENESS
“Mensa” means “table” in Latin, and the organisation was so named because Mensa is a round-table society where ethnicity, colour, creed, national origin, age, politics, educational and social background are all completely irrelevant.
Mensa has no racial, political, ideological or religious affiliation but promotes the concept of free thinking and free speech amongst its members. Therefore, Mensa does not in itself have a view on most topics, but reflects a wide variety of different views. The general principle is that if even one member out of 100,000 holds an opposing view on something, the opinion of the rest cannot be said to represent Mensa's view. It is held that each member is intelligent enough to make his or her own judgment on controversial topics.
The only common binding thread is that all members must have attained a score within the upper 2% of the general population on an approved test, as determined and administered by Mensa psychologists. There is no other basis for membership, whoever you are, whatever you do.
Currently, there are over 150,000 members in over 50 countries around the world. The largest concentrations are in the UK and the USA, but in recent years, new groups have been set up in many parts of Asia and other countries.