Mensa society
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| Formation | 1 October 1946 |
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| Legal status | Non-profit company |
| Purpose | High IQ society |
| Headquarters | Slate Barn, Church Lane, Caythorpe, Lincolnshire, England, U.K. |
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Membership
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134,000 |
| Website | mensa |
Mensa is the largest and oldest high IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organization open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardized, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test. Mensa formally comprises national groups and the umbrella organization Mensa International, with a registered office in Caythorpe, Lincolnshire, England (which is separate from the British Mensa office in Wolverhampton). The word mensa (/ˈmɛnsə/; Latin: [ˈmensa]) means "table" in Latin, as is symbolized in the organization's logo, and was chosen to demonstrate the round-table nature of the organization; the coming together of equals.
Roland Berrill, an Australian barrister, and Dr. Lancelot Ware, a British scientist and lawyer, founded Mensa at Lincoln College, in Oxford, England, in 1946. They had the idea of forming a society for very intelligent people, the only qualification for membership being a high IQ. It was to be non-political and free from all other social distinctions (racial, religious, etc.).
American Mensa was the second major branch of Mensa. Its success has been linked to the efforts of its early and longstanding organizer, Margot Seitelman.
Berrill and Ware were both disappointed with the resulting society. Berrill had intended Mensa as "an aristocracy of the intellect", and was unhappy that a majority of Mensans came from humble homes, while Ware said, "I do get disappointed that so many members spend so much time solving puzzles".
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