This month, Marie Mayer takes over as President of the Mensa Education & Research Foundation, succeeding Dave Remine, who held the position for five years. Mayer, of Central Iowa Mensa, has been a member since 1978 and served as Foundation Vice President since 2011. Remine, of Central New Jersey Mensa, has been an active member of American Mensa since Dec. 1969 and is the only Mensan to have been elected as American Chairman, International Chairman and Foundation President.
The Foundation has doubled the amount of its Karen Cooper and Diana Mossip scholarships, from $300 to $600 each, beginning with the 2016-17 program year. These scholarships, awarded on behalf of participating Local Groups with funds provided by the Mensa Foundation, accounted for $28,000 of the Foundation’s $91,000 distributed for the 2015-16 year.
The Foundation also added new scholarships this year, including the Bob and Mary Ann Cox Scholarship for a student who has been out of formal education for six or more years ($500); the Don and Virginia Prince Scholarship for a military veteran or spouse of a veteran ($600); and the Mark J. Glancey and John G. Gray LGBT Scholarship for applicants who openly identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender ($1,000).
Next year, the Foundation adds a $2,000 STEM scholarship for students in the applied sciences, mathematics or engineering fields, funded by a group of Foundation trustees, and the $2,500 Carol Martinez Scholarship for students in information technology, created as a way to recognize her generous bequest to the Foundation. And two Mensa Member Scholarships, each $2,500, were named in honor of longtime scholarship coordinator Jane Gmur and longtime trustee Phyllis Miller.
The Foundation Board of Trustees submitted and the American Mensa Committee adopted new bylaws that limit trustee terms to four consecutive terms of three years each and officer terms to two consecutive terms of two years each in any office. Both were previously unlimited.