2007 Annual Gathering of American Mensa/Porters' Letter, June 21

The actual text of the Porters' e-mail of June 21, 2007 is as follows:

It is Wednesday, 20 June, and since Friday, 15 June, we have done the following things:

1. We (Steve and LeAnne) have each worked 9-1/2 hours every working day at our real-world jobs. An AG can be done by volunteers working full time jobs; it cannot be done with the additional time demands by staff/AMC interference or stonewalling.

2. Finalized information for the printed program for delivery to the printer, and conducted the various communications and processes that were necessary to complete this.

3. Finalized games tournament winner counts and ordered trophies for prizes.

4. Communicated with the company in charge of tours to get details and dates for cancellation/go-ahead dates on the tours.

5. Monitored the AG Message list.

6. Interfaced with numerous volunteers regarding their questions pertaining to scheduling, hotel space, handicapped accommodations, AV availability and accessibility, interfaced with GenX about various GenX last-minute matters, clarified some Boutique matters with Joe Zanca, finalized Bazaar matters with Donna Jadis, dealt with questions from the AG Volunteer Coordinator, and answered numerous e-mails from AG attendees. Today, 20 June, we have participated in five AG-related meetings and have hopes that a solution is in sight.

7. We have spent 45 minutes writing this.

You wrote “Given your long and dedicated service to Mensa, I am leaning over backwards to buy you the necessary time, but I also need to stress that we are at critical mass here.” Even now, under adverse conditions, we are working very, very hard to maintain the enthusiasm of ourselves and over 400 volunteers – and all the while in limbo about your intentions. Our dedication to Mensa does go back a long way and has been consistent over the years. When the volunteer who was supposed to produce the program for the World Gathering quit at the last minute, we answered the committee’s request for help and got the program completed and ready to be printed. We spent five weeks producing an issue a week of InterLoc when Mensa’s postal permit was in jeopardy because no InterLoc had been produced by AMC’s appointee for about four months, and thus saved Mensa’s mailing permit. When AMC failed to get a 1997 AG bid, we encouraged Central Alabama Mensa to submit a bid, and the 1997 Birmingham AG was the second most profitable AG in AML’s history.

We did not create this situation, and many volunteers would have simply walked away when it developed. We asked for help. We haven’t gotten it. Instead, our efforts have been diluted by Pam and yourself, and we have had to spend extra hours undoing the ‘help’ you’re giving us. Standard business practice requires that a single voice carry out negotiations. Russ, either we are in charge of implementing this AG, or you are. If you are going to take over responsibility for this AG, please do it openly. You have two options: fire us or return full charge of this AG to us. We must know by noon central time Friday, 22 June. It is not fair to the members to let this situation continue.

LeAnne and Steve Porter