If you have not yet made your booking for this year’s Annual Gathering, please do so as soon as possible.  Our Johannesburg Region will be hosting, and it promises to be a terrific event.  For ease of reference, herewith a recap of the details for the AG:

2014 MENSA SA ANNUAL GATHERING
Friday 19 Sep 2014 - Sunday 21 Sep 2014
Magalies Manor (one hour from JHB and PTA)
 
Executive Summary
 
The Mensa South Africa Annual Gathering 2014 hosted by Mensa Johannesburg will take place from Friday, 19 September to Sunday, 21 September 2014.
 
Accommodation will be provided at the Magalies Manor,, an elegant and exclusive country establishment for leisure or business functions, and only one hour’s journey from Johannesburg and Pretoria.
 
For those flying in from other regions, please keep in mind that Lanseria Airport is nearby so arranging lifts shouldn't be a problem.
 
Finer Details
 
The Mensa 2014 Annual Gathering, organized by Mensa Johannesburg will be a fun-filled affair. Some of the activities will be interesting speakers, “fun in the sun”, chillaxing by the pool(bar), hikes, cable car ride with a meal on top of a mountain (No Cape Town! You’re not the only ones who have that :)), and many more.
 
We are aiming to strike a good balance between “organized activities” and “free time”. During “free time” members could engage in different activities, e.g. Horse Rides, Balloon Safaris, Pub crawls, or anything that tickles your fancy. You are welcome to arrange any of these activities, or relax at the venue, with its many on-site options at your leisure.
 
Facilities
 
Magalies Manor is an elegant and exclusive country establishment for leisure or business functions, and only one hour’s journey from Johannesburg and Pretoria.
 
The 32 luxury individually decorated rooms are hidden among the exquisite landscaped
gardens on 16 acres. There are more than five dedicated conference rooms, including air conditioning and lighting control.
 
GPS co-ordinates: 25° 57′ 10” S | 27° 32′ 32”
Address: Magalies Manor, R98 Road
Tel: 014 577 1827
 
Experience an idyllic valley on the banks of the Magalies River, lined with trees and home to many bird species. Toast the sunset from the poolside or La Plume ladies bar. Dine by candle-light on our irresistible continental cuisine and have breakfast to views of the mountains.
 
Retire in peace, privacy and personal touch indulgence in one of the 32 double elegant luxury rooms.
 
There is a thatched conference centre, professionally equipped, including smaller
rooms and breakaway areas in the gardens. Swimming pool, river walks, bird watching. Fly fishing. Possible Activities: Hot Air Ballooning, Game Drives, Paint Ball, Drumming, Gladiantics, Murder Dinners, etc.
 
The “Smokey Quartz” outdoor swimming pool bar can seat 24 in a casual format.
It is the unwinding area after a long day spent conferencing If you feel tired of working in the city and want to get a change of surroundings, then call a conference at Magalies Manor. In this tranquil and serene country setting “Minds meet and souls renew”.
 
Now What?
 
The cost for the whole weekend (2 nights and all meals) is R 2 000.00 pps.
 
Bookings close 31 August 2014.
 
We only have 60 spots, which will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.
 
You can book here..
 
If you have any issues with the online form, or for more details or any questions, please contact us at mensaza_committee@googlegroups.com
 
We hope we can all meet and have a great time at this year's annual gathering!

We are happy to announce the first meeting of our new Wine Tasting SIG and hope that there will be many more to follow.
 
The SIG Kick-Off will be presented by the friendly folk from “Time for Wine”  on Saturday 13 September, at the Restaurant at the Pretoria High School Old Boys Club (our regular venue for the Speaker Evenings).  Time is set 18:00 for 19:00, and the dress code is casual.  Snacks will also be served.
 
The costs are R100.00 per person, which includes the tasting of 6 wines, as well as the snacks.  Please note that there are limited spaces available, so kindly contact Schalkwyk van der Merwe on schalkwykvdm@hotmail.com to book.

Mensans, apologies for the absence - our Blogger has been away but has now returned and will soon post an aside with wonderful photos of new adventures had.

Now for catching up!

In February we had a very interesting evening filled with fun debate afterward. Our guest speaker, Yoke, spoke about Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and it's applications in relationships whether they be professional or personal.

We had a very good turnout and around 40 Mensans made new friends, met old friends and shared a beer in good spirit.

For feedback on our March event, where we had a guest speaker regal us on the in's and out's of Air Traffic Control - I'd like to invite a fellow Mensan to email me a paragraph or two on your experience at the event. If we haven't had any volunteers by end of April, I'll ask one of the other committee members to jump in with a review.

You are free to email me at simi.deyzel@gmail.com if you would like to submit something. Also please feel free to submit any stories of note or even just write-ups of interest to the greater group. We'd be happy to publish your articles here.

On to the T-Shirts, the following two slogans were chosen:

“If I agreed with you we will both be wrong”.

“I’m not stupid – I’ve been tested”.

We are currently having a test batch be printed and will open up orders soon. Please remember that you can order Jackets, Beanies, Cooler Bags and Shirts locally and also remember that you have the international online shop at your disposal as well. Schalkwyk van der Merwe can be contacted regarding merchandise: schalkwykvdm@hotmail.com

Lastly, due to circumstances beyond our control, we had to move up the bi-annual games
evening to April, as our scheduled Speaker couldn't make it.

Everyone had an awesome time and if Beverley's comments are anything to go by, you
should try your best to make it to the next one:

"Let's just say that Nesquick, 94.7, Jan van Riebeeck and Ground Zero will never be the

same again..."

 

Our very own Kevin Mulligan managed to outsmart the Muggles to take top prize in the recently launched Toshiba Tablet Race.

I'll include a shamelessly copied excerpt from the game's website for you here:

At one stage or another we have all dreamed about living the life of a spy. Living a life of mystery, traveling to exotic locations to meet contacts and lets not forget the love interest. As a company with a long history of firsts in the technology industry, the spy genre is pretty close to the heart. Spies and technology have travelled hand in hand over the decades, gracing the silver screen and beyond.

Well, we’ve taken everything you love about the spy genre and we’ve developed an action packed adventure just for you. Now you can be a part of the “movie” by making a 30 second pitch video. We want to know who you are and why you should be chosen as the Toshiba Tablet Race spy. If we like you and think you’ve got what it takes, you’ll be selected as one of the 8 contestants. If you’re one of the lucky 8 you’re already a winner, because we’re giving you a Toshiba Tablet just for participating in the race.

If you’re in it for the grand prize, you’ll need to beat the other teams through a process of time elimination. In the end only one team will remain and that team will win an island holiday, R10 000 in cash and a Toshiba Tablet.

 

If all of this sounds like too much for you, there is always the option to enter our weekly competition. For the first 8 weeks, we’re giving away a Toshiba Satellite Pro and then another 4 weeks of tablet giveaways. So join the Facebook page or follow on Twitter This adventure is for everyone.

Sounds great right? What are the challenges? Well... a spy never knows...

Perhaps if enough of us ask Kevin nicely enough he'll share his 30 sec pitch video with us - let us know on the Facebook page or leave a comment.

Below is a link to the playlist of the entire season's episodes. Now that you've all read the spoiler, you might as well watch it to see if you'd have made the cut.

Happy hunting bunnies...

Mensans! What a wonderful year kick-off event we had at the Smuts-Huis museum on the 26th of January. This year we chose a venue which we hoped our members would find central as well as child-friendly, and looking at the turnout, we certainly believe this paid off. We had about 75 members and partners confirmed to attend and it certainly was a full house when we got the presentation.

We had a presenter from the South African Defence Force who has made it his life's work to uncover every but of information available that tells the story of the late Jan Christiaan Smuts. We were regaled with war-stories and political insight from the time during which Smuts was a Prime Minister, military officer and scholar. Unfortunately we are not able to share the presentation we were shown as the presenter has been approached by a documentary channel to discuss the possibility of turning his work into a filmed series. All the more reason why you should join us when possible! You never know what you will be exposed to.

Everyone had a wonderful time and we certainly set the tone for an involved 2014 yet to come. We would like to thank everyone who helped to make this day possible, to all the committee members, the Smuts-family for allowing us to host the function and to everyone who attended. Thank you all for helping us to launch 2014 in the spirit of renewed friendship.

Please feel free to view the slideshow below - a free Mensa cooler bag to the one who spots Waldo first.

Mensa Pretoria 2014 Kick-Off

After a jam-packed testing session on Saturday the 25th of Jan, the Mensa Pretoria welcoming committee found itself outnumbered by those who managed to score high enough to be invited into Mensa.

This month we held our welcoming event at Ed's Diner again, and we were very glad to see many new faces. Not only from those who were present on Saturday's testing date, but also a new face from Mensa Canada! Everyone had a really good time and a lot of new friendships were formed.

It's great to see our numbers continue to swell and we look forward to all the new faces joining us at next week's Speaker evening too.

To all of our Pretoria Mensans, I hope we will see you all at the 2014 Year Kick-Off function that's about to start later this morning. 

To all our other friends, here's something you can start with today: the committee has decided to open up this year's PTA Mensa t-shirt designs to our members. If you have a pun-intended, tongue-in-cheek, innuendo-laden snarky comment that will have the other 98% stuck in a permanent double-take, please do forward them to the email address at the end of this post.

Last year we featured 2x shirts with slogans reading: "the other 98% can be wrong" and the timeless yet classy "I'm with stupid (graphic of arrows pointing everywhere but up".

Winners will win a complementary set of PTA Mensa awesomeness in the form of a merchandise set. 1x t-shirt, 1x beanie and 1x cooler bag, all branded (of course), is up for grabs for the sharpest display of literary wit.

Let the games begin...

You can send ideas to our Marketing-Guru, Schalkwyk van der Merwe at schalkwykvdm@hotmail.com

*note that other merchandise options will become available at the end of March, however you are still able to buy some old merchandise at every speaker evening (1st Wednesday of every month) or other Mensa PTA events.

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.