'Tis the season! We may finally be getting some rain (and snow!) but the Kinder Garden is brown and grey. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season this year, and is staying warm and dry. By the time you receive this, the Solstice will have passed and the days will start getting longer. I can hardly wait.

Our region had a great turnout for Mensa Testing Day this year. I even had a radio interview on a station out of Ocean City, MD the day before MTD to help promote the event. That interview was a result of a press release sent out by our National Office staff. You might be surprised at how much they can help you with, when it comes to services for your local group. Check www.us.mensa.org/materials for some of the publicity materials they can send you.

On the same weekend as Mensa Testing Day, Delaware Valley Mensa hosted Liberty Bell Regional Gathering (RG). They had a good turnout of attendees, and lots of great programs with a James Bond theme in common. There was even a casino on Saturday night, where I quickly lost every last one of my poker chips, and shortly afterward, all the poker chips that the other players donated to me. Thank goodness for fake money!

The Leadership Development Workshop went off without a hitch, thanks to the efforts of several volunteers. We began with dinner and programs on Friday evening, had more programs all day Saturday, and finished up on Sunday. There were many old hands and repeat attendees, as well as some new faces present. We're in the early stages of planning our next LDW, and I hope you'll consider attending. It's a great way to network, and to learn how to get more involved with your local group.

The AMC met in West Palm Beach, FL on December 1st. It was so hard to leave my jacket in the car when I departed from Philadelphia (29 degrees), but when I landed, it was in the mid-80s and humid. By the time you receive this column, I hope the minutes will have been released from that meeting. You can find minutes, agendas, and reports from AMC meetings on the website at www.us.mensa.org/meetingreports once you log into the site. Our next meeting will be in San Francisco, CA in March 2008.

I'll be attending Winter Solstice RG hosted by Central Pennsylvania Mensa in mid-December, so look for my report from that in my next column. The next RG in our region after that is Central New Jersey's Snowball RG, which is the largest in our region. Shortly after that will be Metropolitan Washington Mensa and Maryland Mensa hosting an Early Cinco de Mayo RG, and before you know it, there will be another Annual Gathering, this year in Denver, CO. If you've never attended a Regional or National event, maybe you should think about it!

Last but not least, our Web Services team has rolled out the new American Mensa, Ltd. Community on the AML website at www.us.mensa.org/community. The best part of that is the new Forum interface. You can visit the site and set up your user profile, and interact with other members online. There are currently nearly 6000 members registered, and new members are joining every day.
 

Leah Kinder
RVC2