Hello, my fellow Mensans!

SPEAKER EVENING:  TAEKWONDO – THE ORIGINS AND INTERACTIVE DEMONSTRATION

On the 6^th of November, Mensa Pretoria got physical with a breathtaking display of skill, power and grace, by members of the Acestes Taekwondo Club (ATC).

We were treated to some synchronised katas and a very useful interactive self-defence session where everyone could learn a bit of Taekwon-Do mastery. A nice change from our usual seated discussions, this was a really fun way to get up close and personal with the topic of the evening... and a perfect way to unwind after a hard day at the office...

 

 
SPEAKER EVENING:  ARMAGEDDON, THE WORLD'S OLDEST CAVE

What a wonderful Speaker Evening we had on the 4^th of December! Our very own Rick Hunter took us on an amazing trip through his caving adventures with wonderful video clips and photographs throughout.

 

 

As usual, it was a very interactive Q-and-A session where our members posed questions to Rick, as well as to some of his caving colleagues, who also attended the Speaker Evening. What amazed us most was the sheer size of some of these underground caverns. 

The presentation included a wonderful display of "painting with light" on underground formations (for those who aren't into Photography, painting with light is when you leave your camera shutter open in low light conditions to expose your “film” to light for long periods of time. This allows you to "grab" light over that extended period of time by shining coloured lights or torches on the surface you want to capture. This can lead to colourful and fairytale-like images).
 

Rick will be sharing his videos, pictures and further caving news with us soon – so keep an eye out for our jam-packed 2013 final Newsletter/Blog that will come out shortly. 

 

 

COMING UP IN OUR NEXT ISSUE:

We are doing a feature article on one of our members who recently took part in the Toshiba Tablet Competition, and who will be telling us about his experiences in the Question & Answer Section.

Our Mentor Blog-site will see a bit of a revamp in the New Year, to make space for individual areas for:

• Recommended articles of interest
• Articles written by members, posted by members on Facebook or submitted directly to the Blog-site
• Articles about events, SiGs and newsworthy happenings in your area
• Puzzles

We will soon be launching a quarterly competition with some great Mensa-prizes up for grabs. Our Puzzle Section will have both graphical and worded logic problems, ranging from Mediocre Medium, to Darnright Difficult to Diabolically Difficult problems.

The sections will also feature “print me” options to allow you to either print out the articles or puzzles for easier completion.

JOIN US AT OUR PLANNED EVENTS:

Once again we encourage all members to try to attend all the events we have planned. We had a really great turnout for the caving talk and it made the evening a lot of fun. Our Year Kick-Off Function Will be held on Sunday, the 26th of January 2014.  The details thereof are listed in the e-mail invitation.  This is another opportunity for you to get up, dress up and show up - and just enjoy the company of your fellow mad Mensans.

FINAL WORDS:

For those of us who are winding down towards year-end, take some time to smell the roses instead of the coffee and make some time to contribute to the content we share.

Mensa membership will always be what you make of it!

Pretoria BIKE SiG

On Saturday, the 12th of October the Biking SiG gathered once again at our normal meeting point - the Shell Garage on Lynnwood Road. We had a few last minute cancellations but were still eager for our much anticipated ride. After the requisite "hallo's" and "how are you's" we headed to Harties, whereafter then we took the well-known Satellite road towards Magaliesburg. 

Here we stopped for an enjoyable breakfast at the Pan-Ally Restaurant and Pub and as always, a good chat between Mensans before a fun ride home.

 

 

The year certainly started off with a lot of excitement after the AGM was held on the 2nd of October, with a new committee elected and a wonderful speaker evening that followed.

 

Our stalwart chair of old, Reyaan Uys was there to see us elect Beverley van der Merwe as the Pretoria Chapter of Mensa South Africa's brand new leader. Beverley won't find the new position too new, after having served as interim Chair for some weeks prior to the AGM. As many of you will know, she has also served as National Secretary as well as Pretoria Secretary and Testing Officer and as such is well equipped to take us to new heights within South Africa. Watch your numbers Jo'burg, we're coming for you.

 

Changes in the committee:

 

• Beverley van der Merwe (Chairperson) - taking over from Reyaan Uys

• Terma Kussman (Secretary) - taking over from Bianca Ferreira

• Peter Smythe (Treasureer) - taking over from Eduard Teichert

• Schalkwyk van der Merwe (Marketing and PR) - taking over from Susan de Swardt

• Simoné Deyzel (Newsletter / Blog) - taking over from Marjone Zeeman

 

Because of the timing of the last testing session for September being so close to the AGM, the new members' evening was held the week after on the 9th of October at Ed's Diner. It was a fun evening with lots of new friendships made and old friends catching up. Food and drink was plentiful and so too the conversation. These evenings are a lot of fun and we encourage all members to join us in the months to come.

 

Then this past weekend, on the 12th of October, Mensan Gareth Daniell a.k.a Braai Boy, attempted a record first 3 hour underwater braai in Centurion. Committee member Lourens Grove snapped some great photos and uploaded a great clip showing the set up in the water tank - have a look: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151744658366723 and https://www.facebook.com/lourens.grove/media_set?set=a.10151744656386723.1073741846.562121722&type=1

Many of you might also have been following the comment feeds about our website on the Mensa Facebook Page recently. We encourage you all to go have a look at Reyaan and Charl's updates on work done and work planned, so that you give your inputs and make your voices heard.

Please feel free to forward any news items to us for inclusion in the Blog or Newsletter - we rely on you all for growth!

On 5 June Mensa Pretoria held our annual Games Evening.  We combined it with our monthly New Members Evening to create an event full of fun and games.  Games like Trivial Pursuit - Bet you know it, Fluxx and Dixit were played.  We welcomed our newest members over a drink and some good supper from the kitchen at the Pretoria High School Old Boys Club.

PBHSOBC TV Donation

On 18 May the Mensa Pretoria Committee met with Louis Legat from Pretoria High School Old Boys Club to hand over the television donated by Mensa Pretoria.  This donation was made in gratitude of our long relationship with this club.  Mensa Pretoria has been using this facility for their monthly Speaker Evenings and AGMs for nearly 10 years.  In response to the gift, PBHSOBC promised that their doors will stay open to Mensa Pretoria for years to come.

April Speaker Evening

Our April speaker evening was very interesting. Titled "The rise of personal robotics", it gave us some insights into efforts to create a personal robot that are happening around the world.  According to Jonathan Claassens, our speaker, the time when each of us will have a robot to attend to our every need is still many years away. It seems like teaching a robot (or any artificial intelligence, for that matter) to do one thing, is easy.  But teaching it to behave like a human is hard.  It's like taking a baby and trying to teach it in a short time everything it needs to know in order to be an adult. Jonathan's words: "We will have automated cars before we have personal robots."

Jonathan Claassens is a roboticist who runs an automation and design company based in Centurion. He is also completing his PhD with Imperial College London on the topic of enabling a personal robot to cooperate with a user in completing a task.

Thank you Jonathan for a very insightful evening.

As with any Mensa Pretoria gathering, everyone had a great time at the Year Kick-Off braai.  Before the fires were lit there was plenty of time for conversation.  Some intellectual, some not!  Although some Mensans forgot their meat and drinks (some things are apparently too mundane for great minds...) the rest of us were more than willing to share. So with stomachs full of food and minds full of new ideas, Mensa Pretoria took off into the new year.  And it promises to be a great one! Join us for our next gathering to share in the fun.