East Texas Mensa History
   The Early Years, by Ginny Long Hamilton
   The Later Years, by Charles Dixon

     The first attempt at to organize an East Texas Mensa group resulted in a meeting in Texarkana at the Howard Johnson Motel Restaurant in the fall of 1974 with 8 in attendance: Betty Zulch (who became the first Loc Sec), C. B. Nall, Johnny Reed, George Barnum, Betty and Joe Brown, Ronny Johnston, and Audrey Mae Andrew. Joe Brown (age 15) attended many meetings with his mother the first few years, usually the only young Mensan present.

     At the second organizational meeting, on April 5, 1975 in Mt. Pleasant, Betty Zulch acted as hostess and the group elected her Loc Sec. Frank Harrison presented a program on the stock market, setting a precedent for future meetings - a speaker, question and answer period, followed by a social hour. Special guests Joan Kollar and Anita Raskin visited from the parent North Texas Mensa group. Two-year terms for officers were patterned after national officers rather that the one year terms many groups use.

     Several helped edit the first few newsletters, starting in May, 1975 with the "M-bryo". 49 members of NTM became East Texas Mensans, including 11 from Tyler, 9 from Longview, 4 from Nacogdoches, and 2 each from Diana, Jacksonville, Maud, Paris and Texarkana. The Mensa population "Center of Gravity" centered between Longview and Hawkins (calculated by "population-distance product moment").

     Betty Zulch served as Loc Sec from 1975-1977, hosting a number of well-attended meetings with the "Speaker, Q&A, Social" format. Mary Lee Baird of Gilmer was also a frequent hostess. Her husband "Spot" Baird frequently spoke in various Texas sites as the "Professor of Possumology." (See ETM History web page 1998 and Before section.)

     Virginia Long, the lead editor for the first three issues, became editor from November 1975 to September, 1980. "M-bryo" matured to "SpectruM" in November, 1975. In July 1979, Gabe Werba, AMC Chairman appointed Virginia the National Membership Officer. In May 1980 he appointed her to the position of national Publications Officer. "Ginny" Long moved to San Antonio in the summer of 1981 to further her writing career. In spring, 1985 national elections, Ginny was elected Region 6 Regional Vice Chairman. She started writing monthly RVC columns in February, 1986, a tradition that continues with "RIK's Ramblings" in present newsletters. Virginia married Jack Hamilton, and they moved to Galveston in 1989. She lived there 8 years before moving to Austin, where she's lived for the last 3 years. She would love to hear from old friends at 512-292-7245 or ginrosetat@aol.com. (Articles by Ginny at our ETM History web page 1998 and Before section.)

1982-1999 - "Economics and DUI"

     Bazil "Baz" Barbee from Nacogdoches served as beloved Loc Sec from May, 1979 to April, 1985, and entertained with his band, the "Formaldehyde Five" jazz band. Baz also served as proctor, bringing in new members such as Dave Reichert, who anchored the Nacogdoches Lunch Bunch with his Mensa wife Patsy. (Patsy was a member before the 1975 establishment of E TX Mensa). Baz was a self-educated man who worked as SFASU's Electronics Dept Supervisor in the period just before computers came in. He was an active computer nut who kept trying to get a patent on his lightning arrester for computers. He not only played many instruments, he arranged music as well. With his love for people, he was a Mr. Fixit for psychological as well as mechanical and electronic problems. Toward the end of his term attendance at meetings began to fall off, even though he recruited proctors like crazy. When he started, Ron Johnston, Betty Zulch and Alice Grant were proctoring. He recruited Proctors Paula Raynar, Eva Bready, Virginia Wagner, Janet Steineman, Judith Murray, Dave Reichert, and Charles Dixon during his three terms. (More on Baz at our Website under Spectrum Online Archives, and in the Memorials section, and articles in the ETM History web page 1998 and Before section.)

     Janet Stineman served as SpectruM editor from October, 1980 to June, 1985. She also faithfully held testing sessions at the Tyler City Library most months for years. This helped Tyler maintain its lead in members, in meeting locations, and in group leadership. Janet married Mensan Mark Kres about 1984 after meeting him at an RG. Mark had been an active Mensan in El Paso before moving to Tyler and marrying Janet. Mark served as Loc Sec from June 1988 to November 1989 before he and Janet moved to Austin for new jobs. They are still members of Austin's "Lonestar Mensa" group. (See articles by Janet and Mark at our ETM History web page 1998 and Before section.)

     Eric Sepulveda took over the SpectruM editorship briefly, but gave up when transferring the postal permit proved to be a bureaucratic hassle. He edited 4 issues and included lots of interesting science stuff, like the rock collecting meeting program and the petrified wood collecting expedition he led. He also introduced us to Cosmology. (Which you can read at our ETM History web page Mathematics section. Eric also appears with a large iguana in the Photos section.)

     Charles Dixon took over after Eric as editor, and would you believe it, we have just about every issue in our files, all the way back to Vol 1, No 1 in May, 1975. Some of the good stuff is on our web-site, and more of it (turned up in preparing this history) will appear in Spectrum as reprints soon.

     The Loc Sec position became the jumping-off place for ETX Mensans, as four different and distinctly unique individual Loc Secs all left East Texas for better or any paying job. Membership totals, participation and hosts also dropped precipitously. The first to go was Ann Lorenz, of Winnsboro. It's a long way from Winnsboro to Nacogdoches. Membership was down before Ann took over, and she thought to get two Assistant Loc Secs, one for the north and one for the south. Charles Dixon and Dave Reichert served as north and south, doing what national Mensa soon titled "Area Coordinators". They proctored, made meetings she couldn't, and were on the masthead. They were too spread out for executive meetings or planning meetings or even to all three make the same meeting.

     When Ann Lorenz moved to Florida, we persuaded Mark Kres to serve as Loc Sec in the spring of 1988, getting the leadership back to the geographic and population center of our district. A great idea, but Texas was cracking down on DUI's. The old "Social" part of the group began to fade. The hosts who loved to hang out in the kitchen and share a few drinks with friends during the program stopped volunteering their homes. It got harder to find programs. Baz used to say "Anybody smart enough to be in Mensa is smart enough to put on a program." But we steadily drifted toward restaurant eating-meetings for most of our get-togethers. And toward the "Non-Smoking" section of the restaurant. Very different from just a few years before.

     Gretchen Cole served as Loc Sec from 12-89 to 8-90 and lived in Greenville. After serving in the Navy in Japan and other areas and getting a BA in Asian Studies, she moved to Greenville to work for E-systems. In her spare time she led a Girl Scout troop, worked as a docent at the Dallas Museum of Natural History, and started work on a MS in Earth Science at ETSU. She was a good friend of Glenn Smith, also of Greenville, who had persuaded her to be Loc Sec. When Gretchen had to resign, Glenn was a natural to finish out her term. Except that Uncle Sam called Glenn in December, leaving us without a Loc Sec after our fourth loss. Gretchen is still working for E-Systems, but transferred from Greenville. She spent several years with E-Systems in Australia, and currently works and lives in Britain.

     Glenn Smith served as Loc Sec from 9-90 to 11-90, when his application for the US Department of State Foreign Service was approved. He went first to Washington DC, then Ethiopia, then Taiwan, then to the Fiji Islands, yet he never really left his friends here. He always checked with us on leave, wrote at Christmas, maintained ties in Grand Saline, and "virtually" moved back when some of us around here finally got Email. Glenn has worked hard helping our team prepare our ETX-Mensa web-site. He leaves Fiji August 12 for some ETX R&R through September, before finally reporting to the American Embassy in Accra, Guana in October 2000.

     Some of the real bright spots in the last few years resulted from more emphasis on gifted children, which is what we all once were. Both Amy Roberts and Jennifer Murphy in Texarkana have MS degrees in teaching gifted children. Amy served as GC Coordinator for about 5 years, handling the Essay contest and inquiries forwarded from American Mensa. Debi Crawford, mother of Ricky and Charley Frank was teaching gifted science classes in Tyler when Ricky and Charlie first joined. Debi planned a number of great family meetings in the Tyler area, as well as bringing in at least a half-dozen more young people and their families. We have gone to the planetarium, the zoo, and had a lot more interest in young people. This will pay off down the line as our older group participates less. Thanks Debi and Brad Crawford, and Ricky and Charlie Frank! (See web page articles by Ricky and Debi in the Gifted Children section.)

     Charles Dixon claims to be on his last year as Loc Sec, having presided from the eastern end of the group in Marshall. First elected in 1991, Charles has considered the Editor's job (1985 to date) the most important of the two, and has at times neglected appeals from headquarters for some form or other to be filled out. If the newsletter wasn't finished, the form had to wait. Ditto for every other task. Tyler banks weren't kind to our bank account during Sid Cochran's terms as Treasurer, and we didn't fare any better with Marshall's banks under Treasurers Stephen Jones and John Swart. Finally the Red River Employees Federal Credit Union recognized East Texas Mensa as a group worthy of membership. As we understand it, any of us, you, you, you over there, and even some of your family members are now eligible to join RREFCU and use their credit union services. The Congress keeps changing the laws on this, but our group now gets paid interest instead of paying service charges. Vote for Treasurer Jennifer Murphy to keep up the good work!

2000+ -The Internet Years

     More on the SpectruM: Contents have varied from 2-4 pages front and back most of the time since 1975. This has to do with printing costs and our small press run. While the lawyers were negotiating the cigarette settlement in Texarkana for several years, we mailed the Spectrum master to Texarkana for 4 cent per side copying rates. "Let a hundred flowers bloom" as Chairman Mao said. We put out 4-pagers fairly regularly. Then prices rose to 7 cents per side, and it was back to 2 pages. Marshall now has digital copy machines and a price quote of 4.5 cents for TWO sides at Office Depot, one of the two new office supply stores in tiny Marshall. We could do 5 pages front and back with no postal increase. But you wouldn't have time to read that much. Most of you haven't read this far. Have to... Have not. Hey, this is starting to sound like a Mensa meeting. (Articles by Charles Dixon are scattered throughout the Spectrum Online and ETM history archives.)

     SpectruM costs dropped to zero for folks preferring to receive it on the Internet during 1999. We send it pasted into several Emails, rather than as an Email attachment, because there are too many word processors, and even those can't do graphics. And the editor is blessed (in the sense that suffering builds character) with a computer that is somewhat socially challenged in communication skills. Our group sends SpectruM to all the other Region 6 Mensa groups - by Email - free. Some members, prospects, members who have moved away, and contributors also get ETX Mensa E-newsletters.

     Almost all new members have Email. Logically, we need to move this direction. ETX Mensa members 300 miles apart can talk about their common interests by Email. The ETX Mensa web page can be another tie that binds us together and to the rest of Mensa.

     We are not abandoning the "Social" part of our history and Mensa's purposes for existence. Recent Tyler meetings have been animated and well attended. More and more officers, hosts and proctors are available to build the social ties that make Mensa fun for its "social" members, who ultimately get the most out of their membership! Check the latest issues of "Spectrum Online" and see for yourself what's happening.