That's why I'm writing this column about what I'm calling the Lonestar Mensa Spring Challenge. If you're an inactive member, try to find two or three local events that seem interesting to you over the next couple months. If you can, come out to them. Find me, or drop me a note telling me you were there if I wasn't at the event you attended, and tell me what you think -- did we do well? Is there something we can improve on? If you can't find anything to go to, let me know that too -- tell me what we're missing that would get you to come out. Maybe you'd be interested in hosting such an event? We'd be happy to help. If not, I can at least pass the idea on to others. Or, if you wish, make your participation electronic -- join the chat list, or post a few messages there introducing yourself and getting involved in one of the ongoing discussions. There are plenty of ways to participate -- the main thing is get out, get involved, and let me know that you've done it, both so I can feel good about my challenge and so that I can in turn challenge the group to improve on whatever needs improvement.

Often I run through the month's events, but this time I'll just point you to the calendar at the end of the issue. There are lots of interesting events -- most don't cost anything, and they're all a good time. One event I will put in a plug for -- the Meet the RVC Candidates picnic. This is your change to meet both the candidates for Regional Vice Chair, the member of the AMC (American Mensa Committee, the national governing body) who oversees our region of Mensa (Region 6, encompassing Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and New Mexico). Both of them are good folks, and I think you'll have a good time, whether the elections interest you or not.

Towards the end of the month, one more event you might want to try is Gulf Coast Mensa's SynRG Regional Gathering, which will be held in Houston over Memorial Day weekend (May 23-26). SynRG is a great time every year, and I'm really looking forward to it. Gatherings are my favorite part of Mensa -- they're like no other convention you've ever been to, and I hope you can attend. I hope even more that you'll attend our own LonestaRG, which will be over Labor Day weekend, August 29 - Sep 1. You should find an advertisement for both RG's in this issue of the 'Dillo.

I'm hoping to see a lot of new faces over the next two months. Come out, join us, get involved, and have a great time doing it! The more the merrier!

April 2003

First of all -- if your membership expired in 2003, you should've already renewed. If you haven't, this will be your last Armadillo Literary Gazette, at least until you do renew. If you contact National quickly, you'll still receive a May 'Dillo; otherwise, you'll miss at least one issue. Also, if you haven't renewed by the end of March, you won't be eligible to vote in the American Mensa elections -- but if you have, I hope you'll take the time to vote. We have a contested race for Regional Vice Chair (RVC) in our region; there are also many contested national offices. There is an award to the scholarship fund of the group with the highest percentage of members voting -- I'd love to see LSM win!

If you're not going to Mind Games (sign-up deadline was March 31st, so if you're reading this, it's probably too late), the Monthly Meeting is the 12th -- and I'm regretting being unable to attend myself, as the topic is very interesting. I enjoyed model rocketry when I was growing up, and I'd hate to see it become a thing of the past.

Besides the Monthly Meeting (or Mind Games), we've got a busy month. Our first LSM picnic of the year will be on the 5th, and should be lots of fun. Games Night will be the 26th, and Geri and I will of course be bringing a few games from Mind Games. There's also Waco Area Mensa, and of course TGIT is a lot of fun every week. Hopefully we'll see you at a few of these events!

We're still looking for Program Committee volunteers. The Program Committee finds speakers for Monthly Meetings, and works with the speaker on meeting arrangements. If you're interested, please let me know. It's also not too early at all to think about the LSM elections -- several ExComm offices will be open next year (including President), and we'll need people to take on these responsibilities.

We'll have even more going on in May -- and besides LSM events, please consider going to Gulf Coast Mensa's Regional Gathering, SynRG, which will be in Houston over Memorial Day weekend (see the ad in this issue). We'll be there, and previous SynRG's have been lots of fun. Of course, it's also not to early to start making plans for our own Regional Gathering, LonestaRG V, which will be held in Austin over Labor Day weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing you this month, or sometime soon. Come join us and spring forward with Lonestar Mensa!

March 2003

We do have another busy month. I'll let the calendar speak for itself, mostly, but we've got something nearly every weekend -- Movie Night, the Monthly Meeting, the Oscar Party, and Games Night, plus TGIT and the Waco group. I hope you'll come to at least one of these events, if you can -- we'd really like to see you there. Mensa, especially at the local level, is really all about meeting other Mensans, and the best way to do that is to come out to events.

There is another way to meet Mensans at the local level, though -- our chat email list. If the National Office has your accurate email address, you've probably already had a chance to join the chat list. However, if it doesn't, we probably don't have you on either the chat list or our low-traffic announcement and reminder list. The easiest way to fix this is send me an email (at neemidge@usa.net) and let me know if you want to be on the lists (or just the announcement list, if you're not a fan of chat lists). You can (and should) also update your email address with the national office -- and make sure it's not withheld from local groups. We'd really like to get each and every one of you on the announcement list -- that way we can remind you of what's coming up, and also announce changes to events (such as the speaker change we had in February).

Our February speaker, Barbara ten Brink of the Austin Area ScienceFest, gave a great presentation on the ScienceFest. She also talked to us about volunteering to judge ScienceFest projects. We're looking at volunteering, and we hope other Lonestar Mensans will volunteer as well. If you'd like more information about the ScienceFest and volunteering, see their web site at http://www.sciencefest.org or call Barbara at 512-464-5077.

Speaking of speakers, we're still looking for people interested in joining the program committee. We need people to contact potential Monthly Meeting speakers and coordinate with the rest of the program committee to continue bringing great speakers to our Monthly Meeting. It's not a big time commitment and we'd really appreciate the help.

There are lots of other ways you can help out -- host an event, write for the newsletter, volunteer at one of our volunteer events, take an office in the group -- but the easiest is just come to events. Like I said before, Mensa at the local level is really all about meeting and enjoying the company of other Mensans. We can't meet people who don't come to events -- I hope you'll come out and join the fun!

February 2003

First off, we've got Movie Night. Our theme is weddings (seems appropriate for this most romantic month). If you've never been to Movie Night, consider joining us. We usually watch a couple movies, picked from all the ones people bring. It's a lot of fun, and a good way to see a couple interesting movies with your fellow Mensans. Details are in the calendar. I hope we'll see you there!

A week later, it'll be our Monthly Meeting. As I write this, I don't have information about our speaker (and see below for more about speakers!), but I know it'll be someone interesting. January's Monthly Meeting showed that the new second Saturday format will work well, both for many members and with the library (in terms of parking, etc). Come join us for the meeting!

Next off, Geri and I are hosting a combined Valentine's Party and Wedding Reception for Kartik Jayanarayanan and his new bride Usha Ramachandran. We've had Valentine's parties in previous years and they've all been fun. This one, with Kartik and Usha's reception, should be extra-special. It'll be a great time!

Later in the month, Kelly and Steve will be hosting Games Night and Potluck. Games played vary

with the crowd, but we tend towards word games (Scattergories, Outburst, Apples To Apples, Taboo, etc) or card games (Dilbert Corporate Shuffle being the favorite). We're usually open to new games, particularly ones that lots of people can play and socialize during.

Finally, some time in February (date unavailable as I write this) we'll have scholarship essay judging. This is really a lot of fun and useful as well. We get together and go through all the scholarship essays, deciding on the best one, whose author will receive LSM's scholarship for 2003. I encourage everyone to come out and help us find the winner!

In addition to all of that, we're currently looking for volunteers to help as members of our Program Committee. What we need are people who are willing to come up with ideas for Monthly Meeting speakers, work together with the rest of the Program Committee on scheduling and planning, and invite speakers and serve as contacts for them. It can be a fun position -- if you're interested, please contact Geri Neemidge (gneemidge@usa.net) and she'll tell you more about it.

It'll be another busy month in Lonestar Mensa -- I didn't even mention our regular events, such as TGIT or the Waco Area meeting. We'd love to have you join us -- and we'd also love to have more volunteers to help out and make this a better group for everyone. See y'all soon!

January 2003

One big change this year, both for me personally and for the group as a whole, is that this is my last term as LSM President after holding that office for four out of six years. It's time to pass the job onto someone else. I've very much enjoyed it, and I hope my successors will too. The group is in great shape going forward, and there are many great people involved both as officers and as active members. Of course I intend to be one of them -- just because I'm not group president doesn't mean I'll be less active, it just means I'll be active in other ways.

We're starting to get busy planning this year's LSM Regional Gathering, LonestaRG V. Very few groups can match the success we've had with starting and building LonestaRG. LonestaRG V will be both a time to look back (the theme is Five Year Reunion) and a time to look forward as well. When we first started planning LonestaRG I -- during my first term as LSM President -- the idea that we'd reach LonestaRG V at all was controversial. Today, with the interest we have every year, the number of active members and volunteers, and the way the group is growing, I can look forward to LonestaRG X and beyond and feel like that's a reasonable idea. if you'd like to be one of the group who'll put together LonestaRG V -- or VI, or VII, or... -- talk to me or send me a note and let's talk about it.

Combining the themes I've just been talking about, one thing that always changes is our mix of group activities. We'd love to see people add events to the calendar. There are so many possibilities for events -- parties, of course, but also movie outings, lunch or dinner groups, book groups... whatever you can think up that you think other Mensans might enjoy. We'd be happy to help get you started, if we can. Again, if you've got an idea for an event, talk to me or send me a note -- I'd like to hear about it.

One particular change of note is with our Monthly Meeting schedule. Starting in January we're trying to move to second Saturdays. We hope this'll make it more convenient to many members who have trouble with evening meetings on work nights or otherwise don't like night events. We're also combining the Monthly Meeting with the ExComm meeting; all members are welcome to come participate in the business of the group before hearing the speaker. We'll still looking for a permanent venue for Monthly Meetings; in January we'll be at the place where we've been for the past year, the University Hills Branch Library.

Since many of you will receive this (and hopefully read it!) before New Year's Day, make sure to join Geri and I, and Paige and David, for our New Year's Eve Slumber Party. We've had a great time at previous New Year's Eve parties, and I think this one will be a blast. For details see your December 'Dillo, watch the lsm-announce email list, or give me a call or send a note. Any which way, we hope you can be here -- even for just an hour or two.