2 December 2021:

Maryland Mensa Beginnings

History of Maryland Mensa Officers

History of Maryland Mensa Meeting Places

About Maryland Mensa

Maryland Mensa is a local group of American Mensa, which in turn is the largest national Mensa organization operating today under Mensa International, Limited: The International High IQ Society.

Maryland Mensa Today

These paragraphs are in the process of being update, August 2025.

American Mensa is divided into ten regions across the U.S., which collectively contain 130-plus local groups.  Maryland Mensa is local group number 210 and is part of region 2—the Middle Atlantic.  Region 2 contains eight other local groups:

  1. Central New Jersey Mensa (local group 070);
  2. Delaware Valley Mensa (080);
  3. Central Pennsylvania Mensa (170);
  4. Lehigh Pocono Mensa (181);
  5. Delaware Mensa (197);
  6. Metropolitan Washington Mensa (200);
  7. Richmond Area Mensa (224); and
  8. Tidewater Mensa (233). 

Maryland Mensa (MM) is defined by geography:  It contains all of Maryland except for Montgomery County and Prince Georges County, which are part of Metropolitan Washington Mensa (MWM).  MM is bordered on the south by MWM, Tidewater Mensa, and Richmond Area Mensa; on the east by Delaware Mensa; on the north by Delaware Valley Mensa and Central Pennsylvania Mensa; and on the west by Vandalia Mensa (part of region 3:  Great Lakes and Ohio Valley).

As of late July 2025, Maryland Mensa’s membership total was 537, which ranked the group ?? in order of size in American Mensa (tied with Mensa of Wisconsin, just above Central Texas Mensa, and just behind Connecticut/Western Massachusetts Mensa).  MWM is the largest local group in region 2, with a little over 1800 members; and Delaware Mensa is the smallest, at just over 160. The largest group in American Mensa is currently Greater Los Angeles Mensa, with not quite 1900 members. The smallest group is currently South Mississippi Mensa, with just under 60.

The gender mix of Maryland’s Mensans is two-thirds male/one-third female, which is nearly identical to the national mix of men and women in Mensa.  The gender mix of the 15 voting members on the American Mensa Committee today is just the opposite:  ten women and five men. Maryland Mensa’s current leadership also skews female: seven of the eight current voting members of its Executive Committee are women, with the remaining one a man.

About 10% of Maryland Mensans are from the Silent generation (born 1928-1945); nearly 40% are Baby Boomers (1946-1964); 23% are Gen-Xers (1965-1980); 12% are Millennials (1981-1996); close to 10% are from Generation Z (1997-2012); and under 5% are from Generation Alpha (2013-current).   Only one Maryland Mensan is from the Greatest Generation (1901-1927).

Nearly 15 percent of Maryland Mensans are life members of Mensa—that is, they’ve paid lump sums currently ranging from $1604 for a nine-year-old through $153 for a centenarian to secure membership in American Mensa for the remainder of their lives.

Maryland Mensa’s calendar listings ordinarily range from six to 10 events per month, with another 30 or so activities sponsored by Metropolitan Washington Mensans in each consolidated MM-MWM calendar. All of the members of both groups are invited to attend all of each other’s events.

Typical activities include a monthly meeting of Maryland Mensa (usually with a speaker), dinners, discussion groups, house parties, games (including bridge), visits to local institutions (e.g., art galleries, museums, the Supreme Court), concerts, lectures, theater (live and film), target shooting, lunches, book swaps, hikes, gifted youth programs, and so forth.

MM’s members are distributed across the state as shown below, with the largest single concentration in the greater Baltimore area.

Of the nine voting members on Maryland Mensa’s governing Executive Committee (ExComm), eight are elected officers: President and Local Secretary, First Vice President (Membership), Second Vice President (Programs), Treasurer, Newsletter Editor, Recording Secretary, and two At-large Members; with the ninth a formerly elected officer: the Immediate Past President and Local Secretary.

The ExComm also includes several non-voting, appointed positions, including  a scholarship chair; a website director; a regional gathering chair; geographic subgroup coordinators for the eastern shore, western Maryland, northern Maryland, southern Maryland, and Annapolis; a social media coordinator; a S.I.G.H.T. coordinator (Service of Information, Guidance, and Hospitality to Travelers); a proctor (testing) coordinator; a gifted youth coordinator; a parliamentary advisor; a Mensa license plate coordinator for Maryland automotive tags; a newsletter circulation manager; and a mediator. The responsibilities of all these positions are described in either Article III (Officers and Duties) of MM’s bylaws or in paragraph 13 of MM’s special and standing rules.