Manasota Mensa

First Thursday Monthly Gathering at O’Leary's
2025-10-02 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | O’Leary’s Tiki Pub, 5 Bayfront Drive, Sarasota, FL, 34236, United States
October 2 – Thursday – 6:00 PM – First Thursday Monthly Gathering at O’Leary’s – FREE – This is an informal gathering of Mensa members. You can purchase drinks and snacks at the open-air restaurant with beach seating. We encourage drop-ins. Look for a sign or balloon on our table. O’Leary’s Tiki Bar, 5 Bayfront Drive, Contact: Don Chinnici: don@manasotamensa.com) or Leslie Carroll: leslie.e.carroll@gmail.com

September Theodore Talk
2025-09-28 15:30 - 17:00
September 28 – Sunday – 3:30 PM – September Theodore Talk – Antisemitism: Evolution and Escalation – Antisemitism has a long history, well beyond the 20th century. Dr. Shelly Cline, Historian and Director of Education at the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, will examine the evolution of antisemitism from religiously motivated antipathy in early modern times to the economic and pseudo-scientific antisemitism of the 19th and 20th centuries, and finally to the politically driven antisemitism of today. This talk will also provide the tools to identify antisemitic tropes and dog whistles that pervade our social media landscape. Register: https://tinyurl.com/23r8kc7a.

Last Thursdays @ Mission BBQ
2025-09-25 18:00 - 20:00 | Mission BBQ, 5231 University Parkway, Suite 109, Sarasota, United States
September 25 – Thursday – 6:00 PM – Last Thursdays @ Mission BBQ, 5231 University Parkway (just west of Honore). Good food, good friends, good conversation! Look for a copy of 4M, or a bunch of happy people. Contact: Don Chinnici at don@manasotamensa.com or Leslie Carroll at leslie.e.carroll@gmail.com

Restaurant Rovers
2025-09-18 18:00 - 20:00 | Maharaja indian Kitchen, 6290 Lockwood Ridge Rd, Sarasota, FL, United States
September 18 – Thursday – 6:00 PM – $$ – us- Let’s find new places to eat on the 3rd Thursday of each month. This month it’s Maharaja Indian Cuisine, 6290 Lockwood Ridge Rd, Sarasota. Authentic Indian curries, tandoori, biryani, vegetarian favorites. https://maharajaindiancuisine.us/menu/ Drop-ins welcome. Contact: Leslie Carroll: leslie.e.carroll@gmail.com

South Sarasota Second Saturday Social Soiree (SSSSSS)
2025-09-13 11:00 - 13:00 | Original Word of Mouth, 1740 East Venice Avenue, Venice, FL, United States
September 13 – Saturday – 11:00 AM – $$ – SSSSSS – South Sarasota Second Saturday Social Soiree once again heads to the Word of Mouth at 1740 East Venice Avenue in Venice. Hope to see you there! This restaurant is very popular with the locals with plenty of indoor and outdoor seating. Their food is amazing and puts intriguing twists on old favorites. If you are planning to attend, please arrive a few minutes early. Please RSVP to Linda Hathaway: lchathaway336@gmail.com, 407-765-8797

ExComm Meeting
2025-09-09 19:00 - 19:40
September 9 – Tuesday – 7:00 PM – ExComm Meeting via Zoom. All are welcome. Zoom link to be provided by email on the day of the meeting.

First Thursday Monthly Gathering at O’Leary's
2025-09-04 18:00 - 20:00 | O’Leary’s Tiki Pub, 5 Bayfront Drive, Sarasota, FL, 34236, United States
September 4 – Thursday – 6:00 PM – First Thursday Monthly Gathering at O’Leary’s – FREE – This is an informal gathering of Mensa members. You can purchase drinks and snacks at the open-air restaurant with beach seating. We encourage drop-ins. Look for a sign or balloon on our table. O’Leary’s Tiki Bar, 5 Bayfront Drive, Contact: Don Chinnici: don@manasotamensa.com) or Leslie Carroll: leslie.e.carroll@gmail.com

Labor Day
2025-09-01

Last Thursdays @ Mission BBQ
2025-08-28 18:00 - 20:00 | Mission BBQ, 5231 University Parkway, Suite 109, Sarasota, United States
August 28 – Thursday – 6:00 PM – Last Thursdays @ Mission BBQ, 5231 University Parkway (just west of Honore). Good food, good friends, good conversation! Look for a copy of 4M, or a bunch of happy people. Contact: Don Chinnici at don@manasotamensa.com or Leslie Carroll at leslie.e.carroll@gmail.com

August Theodore Talk
2025-08-24 15:30 - 17:00 | Zoom, Virtual
August 24 – Sunday – 3:30 PM – August Theodore Talk – Spotting the Signs & Preventing Child Sex Trafficking. Attendees will identify the dangers of technology, including strategies used by child predators, discover how to identify a child in trouble and learn some best practices on how to be a child’s trusted adult or a trusted child advocate. Susan Burkholder, from Ransomed Life. Register for this presentation https://tinyurl.com/y5abfb9a

Restaurant Rovers @ Bella Vita Italian Kitchen
2025-08-21 18:00 - 20:00 | Bella Vita Italian Kitchen, 501 N Beneva Rd #250, Sarasota, FL, 34232, United States
August 21 – Thursday – 6:00 PM – $$ – Restaurant Rovers – Let’s find new places to eat on the 3rd Thursday of each month. This month it’s Bella Vita Italian Kitchen, 501 N Beneva #250. Great Italian food, and the portions are enormous! (no split charge for sharing) www.bellavitafamiglia.com Drop-ins welcome. Contact: Leslie Carroll: leslie.e.carroll@gmail.com

ExComm Meeting via Zoom
2025-08-12 19:00 - 20:00 | Zoom, Virtual
August 12 – Tuesday – 7:00 PM – ExComm Meeting via Zoom. All are welcome. Zoom link to be provided by email on the day of the meeting.

Sarasota Jungle Gardens
2025-08-09 12:00 - 14:00 | Sarasota Jungle Gardens, 3701 Bay Shore Rd, Sarasota, FL, 34234, United States
August 9 – Saturday – 12:00 noon – Sarasota Jungle Gardens – 3701 Bay Shore Rd, Sarasota, FL 34234. Admission $25. Lunch (if interested) is great fast food ($). Sarasota Jungle Gardens has been delighting visitors since 1939. We are an old Florida zoological garden where you can walk among or hand-feed our flock of free roaming flamingos, pose with a parrot, hold an alligator, see crocodiles, lemurs and many other rescued animals among our beautiful gardens. Attend our daily interactive and educational animal shows featuring parrots, reptiles and other animals. Personal interactions with animals also available. Admission sales support our animals. Please RSVP to Marianne Gill at 941-400-8843 or mariannegill@gmail.com

First Thursday Monthly Gathering at O’Leary's
2025-08-07 18:00 - 20:00 | O’Leary’s Tiki Pub, 5 Bayfront Drive, Sarasota, FL, 34236, United States
August 7 – Thursday – 6:00 PM – First Thursday Monthly Gathering at O’Leary’s – FREE – This is an informal gathering of Mensa members. You can purchase drinks and snacks at the open-air restaurant with beach seating. We encourage drop-ins. Look for a sign or balloon on our table. O’Leary’s Tiki Bar, 5 Bayfront Drive, Contact: Don Chinnici: don@manasotamensa.com) or Leslie Carroll: leslie.e.carroll@gmail.com

Last Thursdays @ Mission BBQ
2025-07-31 18:00 - 20:00
July 31 – Thursday – 6:00 PM – Last Thursdays @ Mission BBQ, 5231 University Parkway (just west of Honore). Good food, good friends, good conversation! Look for a copy of 4M, or a bunch of happy people. Contact: Don Chinnici at don@manasotamensa.com or Leslie Carroll at leslie.e.carroll@gmail.com

July Theodore Talk on Zoom
2025-07-27 15:30 - 17:00
July 27 – Sunday – 3:30 PM – July Theodore Talk – Free Speech Opportunist: Elon Musk’s Degradation of the Town Square. Professor Stephen Wolgast, professor of journalism at the University of Kansas, will demonstrate how the man who calls himself a free-speech absolutist places a higher value on the dollar than others’ ideas, and show how the notion that X is a town square fails on a number of counts. Register: https://tinyurl.com/3uecx4mv

Restaurant Rovers @ Florence and the Spice Boys
2025-07-17 18:00 - 20:00
July 17 – Thursday – 6:00 PM – $$ – Restaurant Rovers – Let’s find new places to eat on the 3rd Thursday of each month. This month it’s Florence and the Spice Boys, 257 N Cattlemen Rd at UTC West District. Drop-ins welcome! Contact: Leslie Carroll: leslie.e.carroll@gmail.com or Margie Meyer: margie@margiemeyer.com

4th of July
2025-07-04 00:00 - 12:00

First Thursday Monthly Gathering at O’Leary's
2025-07-03 18:00 - 20:00 | O’Leary’s Tiki Pub, 5 Bayfront Drive, Sarasota, FL, 34236, United States
July 3 – Thursday – 6:00 PM – FREE – First Thursday Monthly Gathering at O’Leary’s – This is an informal gathering of Mensa members. You can purchase drinks and snacks at the open air restaurant with beach seating. We encourage drop-ins. Look for a sign or a balloon on our table. O’Leary’s Tiki Bar, 5 Bayfront Drive, Sarasota. Contact: Don Chinnici at don@manasotamensa.com or Leslie Carroll at leslie.e.carroll@gmail.com

ExComm Meeting via Zoom
2025-07-01 19:00 - 19:40
July 1 – Tuesday – 7:00 PM – ExComm Meeting via Zoom. All are welcome. Zoom link to be provided by email on the day of the meeting.

LAST Thursdays at Mission BBQ
2025-06-26 18:00 - 20:00 | Mission BBQ, 5231 University Parkway, Suite 109, Sarasota, United States
June 26 – Thursday – 6:00 PM – NEW DAY – LAST Thursdays at Mission BBQ, 5231 University Parkway (just west of Honore). We’re moving our Mission BBQ event to the LAST Thursday of each month. Good food, good friends, good conversation! Look for an “M” table tent, or a bunch of happy people. Contact: Leslie Carroll at leslie.e.carroll@gmail.com or Don Chinnici at don@manasotamensa.com

June Theodore Talk
2025-06-22 15:30 - 17:00
June 22 – Sunday – 3:30 PM – June Theodore Talk: How Corn Changed Itself and Then Changed Everything Else: The Role Agriculture Played in the Early Days of Chicago. About 10,000 years ago, a weedy grass growing in Mexico possessed of a strange trait, known as a “jumping gene”, transformed itself into a larger and more useful grass — the cereal grass that we would come to know as maize and then corn. Thanks to corn, the Midwest was settled faster than any other region in history, and Chicago became immensely influential. Cynthia Clampitt, author of Midwest Maize: How Corn Shaped the U.S. Heartland, will present what may prove to be the corniest Theodore Talk ever!
Register: https://tinyurl.com/th68mxcv

1st Thursday Monthly Gathering @ O'Learys
2025-06-05 18:00 - 20:00
June 5 – Thursday – 6:00 PM – 1st Thursday Monthly Gathering @O’Learys – FREE – O’Leary’s has reopened after last year’s storm damage! Let’s go back there for the First Thursday Monthly Gatherings starting this month. This is an informal gathering of Mensa members. You can purchase drinks and snacks at the open-air restaurant with beach seating. We encourage drop-ins. Look for a sign or a balloon on our table. O’Leary’s Tiki Bar, 5 Bayfront Drive, Sarasota. Contact: Don Chinnici:don@manasotamensa.com, Leslie Carroll:leslie.e.carroll@gmail.com

New Day - Mission BBQ on LAST Thursdays
2025-05-29 18:00 - 20:00
May 29 – Thursday – 6:00 PM – NEW DAY – LAST Thursdays at Mission BBQ, 5231 University Parkway (just west of Honore). We’re moving our Mission BBQ event to the LAST Thursday of each month. Good food, good friends, good conversation! Look for an “M” table tent, or a bunch of happy people. Contact: Leslie Carroll at leslie.e.carroll@gmail.com or Don Chinnici at don@manasotamensa.com

May Theodore Talk
2025-05-25 15:30 - 17:00 | Zoom, Virtual
May 25 – Sunday – 3:30 PM – May Theodore Talk: Sweet Home: The Storied History of Chicago Blues. Journey through blues music’s rich history and evolution, tracing its origins from the deep Southern fields to the bustling streets of Chicago. Jacob Schulz, blues musician and historian, will discuss the current challenges facing the blues, including its fading mainstream presence and efforts to preserve its legacy for future generations. Register for this presentation: https://tinyurl.com/2663hn36

First Thursday Monthly Gathering at Mission BBQ
2025-05-01 18:00 - 20:00 | Mission BBQ, 5231 University Parkway, Suite 109, Sarasota, United States
May 1 – Thursday – 6:00 PM – FREE – First Thursday Monthly Gathering at Mission BBQ, 5231 University Parkway (just west of Honore). Good food, good friends, good conversation! Look for an “M” table tent, or a bunch of happy people. Contact: Don Chinnici at don@manasotamensa.com or Leslie Carroll at leslie.e.carroll@gmail.com

April Theodore Talk
2025-04-27 15:30 - 17:00
April 27 – Sunday – 3:30 PM – April Theodore Talk: When the World Came to Chicago: The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. In 2003, Eric Larson’s book The Devil in the White City sparked widespread popular interest in the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, 1890s Chicago, and world’s fairs generally. While readers were enthralled by the grisly details of the murderous H.H. Holmes, the fair was more than just a setting for a true crime tale (and was not, in fact, the location of the murders); it was an important moment in Chicago’s history that set the trend for subsequent fairs for decades.
In this lavishly illustrated Zoom presentation, Dr. Nicholas McCormack will examine a brief history of world’s fairs and the context for Chicago playing host to the first one in the U.S. You’ll learn how the fair was designed, what its intended purpose was, and its impact on Chicago and the future of world’s fairs, especially Chicago’s second world’s fair in 1933-34. There is a vibrant scholarship — a historiography — of world’s fairs that highlights serious issues such as colonialism, classism, and racism, which many popular tellings of the Columbian Exposition and other world’s fairs either ignore or distort. This talk will engage with those debates and issues as well. Registration: https://tinyurl.com/4n3sctsh.

First Thursday Monthly Gathering at Mission BBQ
2025-04-03 18:00 - 20:00
April 3 – Thursday – 6:00 PM – FREE – First Thursday Monthly Gathering at Mission BBQ, 5231 University Parkway, Suite 109 (just west of Honore). Good food, good friends, good conversation! Look for an “M” table tent, or a bunch of happy people. Contact: Don Chinnici at don@manasotamensa.com or Leslie Carroll at leslie.e.carroll@gmail.com

ExComm Meeting via Zoom
2025-03-11 19:00 - 20:00
March 4 – Tuesday – 7:00 PM – ExComm Meeting via Zoom. All are
welcome. Zoom link to be provided.

SSSSSS - (South Sarasota Second Saturday Social Soiree)
2025-03-08 10:30 - 12:30 | Skillets Restaurant, 4115 Tamiami Trail South, Venice, FL
March 8 – Saturday – 10:30 AM – $$ – SSSSSS – (South Sarasota SecondSaturday Social Soiree) Join us at Skillets Restaurant, 4115 Tamiami Trail South, in Venice for breakfast/brunch/lunch.
Please arrive a couple of minutes early so we can all be seated together. Restaurant policy is to not seat large groups until all of their complement have arrived. If weather permits, we may be seated on the patio. Please RSVP to Linda Hathaway 407-765-8797 so we can get a big enough table.
