EAST TEXAS MENSA

ARTICLES

LOCSEC

Mensa Essay Contest - 1st Round Complete
With 40 entries from all over East Texas, it was a good year. When national judging is over in a couple of months, we hope it will be a GREAT year! We forwarded six of our entries on February 20 for the second round of judging. At least one of these will win $200. Three of the six are competing for regular and special endowed awards. Congratulations on your coming graduation, and best wishes for achieving your goals! (see p.2)

ETX Mensa Web Page
East Texas Mensa will soon have a web site, thanks to the hard work of Terry McFadden, Glenn Smith, Sean Healy, and Bill Hendricks.
Many of your e-dresses from American Mensa bounced. If you haven't heard from us yet and want to be a part of ETX E-Mensa, then e-mail crdixon@etbu.edu to get on our ETX list.

Lawyers, Dog Fight?
The Tyler paper reported on a raid on a Smith County dog fight. They said 7 dogs found in the yard were hauled in to the pound in a trailer in which the dogs were separated with "petitions." Sounds like those dogs know their rights! (They do have rights not to be mistreated or starved or abandoned. Our child protection laws are modeled after animal protection laws.) Thanks to Ben Wiseman in Mineola for this one.

Ben also reminded me that we need to man a Mensa Booth from time to time at fairs and festivals. Ben said when he was in Ft Worth they gave the mini-test at their booth and had lots of visitors. I have posters and mini-tests, and can get more. Our only problem is 23 towns of 5000+ population with great events, and many smaller ones (like Jefferson's Mardi Gras as I'm writing this).

Letter from Amy Roberts:
I looked for you at Shogun's at Tyler last month but didn't see anyone I knew and the reservation wasn't in the name of ETM, so Rachel and I hit the Chic-fil-A and went home. Maybe we can catch you next time!
Did I send you the e-mail address of Jeremy Cowdery? He e-mailed me during our winter storm. He had gotten my info from National. He recently (since December) moved here (Redwater) from England. I told him I would see that he got the next e-mail issue of the SpectruM. If not, here it is: tcc5000@gte.net. I'll try to remember to remind him before April 15th.
Amy

Amy, we apologize! We didn't have reservations at Shogun's, and were facing a very long wait. We went across the street after 30 minutes, probably just before you got there.
Charles

Mensa Essay Contest
The essay contest was lots of fun, with high school counselors passing along most of the applications that came back.
Area HS's sent to Apps back
751 Canton 6 0
754-5 Greenville 23 19
Texarkana
756-7 Longview, Tyler 30 15 (all 756)
758-9 Palestine, Lufkin 15 4
Colleges We mail to 14 colleges and jr colleges in our area. We got 7 from folks in college (5 in community or junior colleges). 2 used college addresses outside of our 754-759 region, which is OK.

The applications don't ask where you plan to go to college, but you must be accepted somewhere to get your money. So most of the time we know. But this year 18 didn't put that in their essays, which is OK. Of those that did, 9 said Texas A&M, 2 each for TCU, SFA, and UNT in Denton. One each for Louisiana Tech, Baylor, UT Austin, U Dallas, Wiley, Mary Hardin Baylor, and Austin College.

Continuing, the cities and towns included 754 Greenville (2), Clarksville, Emory (3), Mt Pleasant, Howe (2), Paris, Point, Sulphur Springs (2), Trenton, and Winnsboro. 755 Texarkana, DeKalb, and New Boston (2). 756 Longview (3), Gilmer, Hallsville (2), Henderson, Hughes Springs, Kilgore (2), Marshall, New London, and Pittsburg (3). 758 Oakwood. 759 Lufkin, Huntington, and Nacogdoches.

The Mensa Essay Contest is one of our best projects, and touches a lot of folks. Publicity promoted "$200 for every local group," (140 groups) which seems to have been a turn-off for many who might have worked for lower odds of "$1000 for every region" (9 regions). Our group produced $250 and $500 winners in the past. Mensa still offers some $600 and $1000 prizes, just fewer bigger ones and lots more smaller ones.

Regional and National judging take place in March and April, respectively. The winners and local groups will get the results in late May, which is usually NOT quick enough to make our June newsletter deadline. Lists will be on the National Web Page. We hope our web page will be running by then, so check www.etx-mensa.org for our local winner/winners. Applicants will get a copy of our June or July newsletter with our winners.

Happy Birthday to these ETX Mensans!

Jeffrey Mark Mohon, Sulphur Springs, March 16
Sarah Jane Peeples, Whitewright, March 16
Dr. Don Riddle, Paris, March 21
Larry Tyler, Carthage, March 25
David Rodgers, Tyler, March 26
Sherry Willet, Jacksonville, March 27
Joe Collins, Palestine, March 28
Lois McDonald, Kirbyville, March 28
Sean Patrick Healy, Tyler, April 4
Charles Dixon, Marshall, April 10
Clyde Neely, Longview, April 22

Humor

Financial Statement Send an email to the LOCSEC to receive this information.

RVC Ramblings #31

E-mail: rvc6@us.mensa.org
Phone: 817-292-6477 (before 10 PM)

I feel a little stressed tonight. Last weekend I ran a Leadership Development Workshop (LDW) in San Antonio, and I came home to a weekend of unfulfilled tasks and about 159 emails. That will teach me about going away for the weekend!
The LDW was a good one. One of the best sessions was on Mediation and Dispute Resolution, presented by Kelly Wagner of Lonestar Mensa. Kelly is working on her Ph.D. in the field of mediation, and she presented tips I had not heard before. This was in addition to the presentations given by:

Marie Mayer, the national Communications Officer, Cat Sterrett, the national Membership Officer, Dave Mann, the Past RVC 5 and Past 2nd Vice Chairman, Pam Donahoo, the Executive Director, Julia Lilly, the National Groups Coordinator, and Paige Faulkner, the Administrative Manager (the last three from our national office). Quite a weekend of good information is my quick summary. I want to thank everyone who had a hand in making this such a success, presenters and attendees as well.

This was also the last LDW put together by my Regional Training Officer, Carol Hilson. She has stepped aside to focus her attention on the 2001 Annual Gathering in Dallas, which she will co-chair. So now I must post a . . . .HELP WANTED!

I need a new Training Officer. The most probable site for the next training session is New Orleans -- late this spring or early summer. If you think you would like to help put together a session, contact me for more details.

This year a Nominating Committee will be formed to drum up candidates for the election next year. In a major change of practice, this year every local group is authorized to appoint one member to the Nominating Committee. If you have some interest in serving on this committee, contact your LocSec so he or she knows this when the time comes to make the appointment.

Along a similar line, I will not be running for RVC again next year. I have enjoyed the three years I have served so far, and look forward to the next year. But I feel it is time to turn over the reins to someone else. If you are interested in running for RVC, do not volunteer to serve on the Nominating Committee ~ members are prohibited from running for office if they serve. However, if you really DON'T want to be nominated for RVC . . . .

Wrapping this up is one more plug for Culture Quest XI. It will be held on Sunday, April 16. Deadline for entries is March 20, so get a team of 5 or less (or several teams) together and get registered.

And now the RG notices for our region:

Memorial Day weekend, May 26-29, 2000 - Gulf Coast Mensa's "SynRG 2000" (Houston). Registration $40 to 3/31; $45 to 4/30; $50 after. Child rate. MP (3) $TBA. Checks payable to Gulf Coast Mensa RG. Contact: Michael McMillin, POB 25267, Houston, TX 77265 281/998-1733.

October 6-8, 2000 - Lonestar Mensa's "Crime and PUNishment" RG II (Austin). Registration $30 to 3/31; $35 to 7/17; $40 to 8/14; $45 to 9/11; $50 after. Child rate. Registration contact: Andrew York (wandrew@compuserve.com), or PO Box 201117, Austin, TX 78720. Reserve rooms at the Holiday Inn Northwest, phone 512-343-0888, ask for the Mensa rate of $69.00 per night S/D/T/Q.

Thanksgiving Day weekend, 2000 - North Texas Mensa's RG (Dallas). No details available yet.

Thank you,

Rik Hess

Region 6 Website: http://www. geocities.com/Athens/Atrium/2413/
Region 6 Email List (Mensa business): region6-talk@lists.us.mensa.org ("subscribe" in the message)
Region 6 Email Chat List (for member fun): region6-chat@lists.us.mensa.org ("subscribe" in the message)
Region 6 Club (the "Bunkhouse" for social on-line contact): Send a request to join to LoriCrews@t-three.com (Include your membership number)
American Mensa's Home Page: www.us.mensa.org (Includes links to many US groups, such as the great web page for the Houston area's Gulf Coast Mensa.)

ARTICLE

JOSE THE BURGLAR
By Prof. Harry Cloud

An interesting case I've been working on involves Jose the Burglar. His wife's car was taken by party unknown. A burglary was seen some miles away, and chase was given to the auto that the burglar drove away from the house. The driver of the car stopped and ran into a house 10 miles away from Jose's house. A short time later, the police ID'd the auto, and had the dispatcher call the home of the registered owner.

Jose answered the phone and discussed the stolen car issue with the dispatcher. A recording of the call exists! Finger prints were taken from an alleged stolen TV that was tossed out during the chase, and recovered by a state witness. They were NOT Jose's fingerprints. The existence of the recording and the fingerprints were kept from both the grand jury and the trial jury, which convicted Jose of the burglary. A photo line-up was presented to the witnesses. It consisted of 6 photos, more than one of which was of Jose!

Prior to Jose's arrest, during "discovery" in a personal injury case, he had obtained evidence of a conspiracy. Numerous law enforcement officers in his county and a politician/millionaire were falsifying shoplifting reports to insure conviction of hundreds of unsuspecting individuals. That information would surely have caused hundreds of civil action lawsuits against the officers and the politician, and subsequently get convictions under federal conspiracy charges.

But Jose was convicted of the burglary. And sentenced to a term of 35 years TDCJ-ID. He has been endeavoring to appeal his conviction for more than 7 years, so far, while the officers and politician continue to carry out their dastardly deeds, and enjoy the luxury of freedom.