Forward, Four
By Matt Crawford, RVC4
I write to you from the recent past, a time when I was just RVC-Elect. Jon had turned in his June column and tagged me in for July. In the future I'll be bringing you news I hope you can use about the doings of American Mensa and your North Central neighbors, but this month I offer an introduction. My bio and other materials are still available through the Election Portal on the web site, so I'll skip that stuff and go to plans and philosophy.
I'm setting myself a target of visiting each local group more than once a year, on average. For the statistically pedantic, that average is to be taken for each group separately, not all of them lumped together. Call it nine goals, if you wish. I'll be looking for the best occasions for each group, like the CornBelters game, the OMG, or a First Friday.
I believe that part of the purpose of working in groups is to correct errors. No one is free from errors, and no process will utterly eliminate them, but if everyone performs their duty of listening and speaking in proportion, applying and receiving oversight, the whole performs better than any part. To avoid the well-known problem of the few loud voices, it helps when the many speak, even if—especially if—they are satisfied. Please take a few minutes every once in a while and tell your local volunteers and leaders what you think is going well. And of course, I'm sure you'll be liberal and constructive with your suggestions for improvement.
There has been perennial grumbling in some quarters that the AMC is a self-perpetuating groupthink society. Now that the election results are in, we can see that eight of the fifteen voting members (or eight of fourteen, allowing for the fact that the Chair seldom votes) will have never been on the AMC before. I hope that this particular mistrust can be put aside now. That being said, I must add that members of any board of directors have a fiduciary duty to support decisions made by the board. You will find, sometimes, that I and other AMC members must support actions that we had previously spoken in opposition to. I'll do my best to mitigate this by working to prevent such actions.
Finally, I have put in the usual Region 4 Meet & Greet for the AG. Come on down to KC and let's generate some ideas together. And if my wish above for the quieter voices to make themselves heard strikes a chord for you, consider turning up for the Annual Business Meeting. Sure, some of it is like watching paint dry, but the rest of it could stand to have some balance from sensible midwestern people like us.