Executive Committee: Leadership of Manasota Mensa
The Executive Committee are those grassroots leaders tasked with direction and impetus. These create the vibrant organization you see here.
Contact each of these individuals at the button below, selecting “Executive Committee.”
Ray Rodebaugh
Local Secretary
The Local Secretary (LocSec) is Mensa’s version of President. Ray comes to this position as previous Treasurer and brings some incredible new ideas to the group. He is a Medical Nuclear Physicist, and spends his days scattering protons..
Max Banach
Deputy Local Secretary
Deputy LocSec performs all the duties in the absence of the LocSec.
Don Chinnici
Treasurer
The Mensa local Treasurer (often a nonprofessional) carries the important duty of maintaining the bookkeeping, record keeping, financial reporting and budgeting. Don had a brief career as Public Accountant in his youth, and has also been LocSec of the Manasota group for the past few years.
Ruth Danielle
At Large
Linda Mason
At Large
Linda returns as At-Large member. She has served in any number of Executive positions over the years, including LocSec. And she hosts the best get-togethers.
Thomas Thomas
Region 10 Vice Chairman
Regional Vice Chairmen act as liaison between Local Groups in their respective regions and the Board. They also carry out the policies and programs formulated by the Board for their regions.
Program Coordinators
The various Program Coordinators are those members who have taken on an essential specific area focus.
Contact each of these individuals at the button below, selecting “Area Coordinators”.
Ken LeBlanc
Charlotte County Area
The Charlotte County Coordinator helps members in that immediate area get more from their membership by providing them with more opportunities for face-to-face interaction with other Mensans.
Linda Mason
Culture Quest
CultureQuest® promotes and tests cultural literacy from film to politics, music, literature, history, etc. Every spring, teams from across the US and Canada gather in their neighborhoods and for 90 minutes to compete for cash prizes and cultural literacy bragging rights.
Pete Cohoon
DeSoto County Area
The DeSoto County Coordinator helps members in that immediate area get more from their membership by providing them with more opportunities for face-to-face interaction with other Mensans.
(Vacant)
Gen X/Y
Manasota Mensa values the unique interests of different age-related groups, from Youth to Mature. As to the others as well, Gen X and Gen Y age members have a unique, and often, different set of interests and perspectives. And we desire to see this more completely expressed.
Don Chinnici
Gifted Youth
Mensa is not an adults-only organization. Highly intelligent children need friendship and support, and yet meeting intellectual peers is more challenging for children due to limited contacts and mobility. Don is passionate about seeing young people develop into all that their natural talents enable, and welcomes assisting in this process.
Pete Cohoon
Manatee County Area
The Manatee County Coordinator helps members in that immediate area get more from their membership by providing them with more opportunities for face-to-face interaction with other Mensans.
(Vacant)
Membership
The Local Membership Officer’s role in the health of the group is vital: this individual is on the front line in meeting, greeting and involving new members.
(Vacant)
Ombudsman
When potential conflicts between members arise, the local Ombudsman (some groups use the term Mediator) can become the most important officer in the entire organization.
Nancy Heinrich
Program
The diverse nature of Mensa offers a special challenge to develop a variety of interesting programs and opportunities for interaction between members. We strive for both variety and quality, yet we are very much aware that routine events draw people in for the long term.
Nancy Heinrich
Editor
The Editor pulls together the newsletter proper, which is essential for local membership growth.
Vacant
Publicity
Good local publicity increases pride of membership to your local members and membership inquiries from potential members.
Chris Quintanilla
Scholarship
The Scholarship Program is a popular volunteer activity for Mensans. Foundation scholarships, especially if coupled with additional local scholarships, can create much publicity and good will for the Local Group.
Ruth Danielle
S.I.G.H.T.
The S.I.G.H.T. acronym stands for “Service of Information, Guidance and Hospitality to Travelers” and is a world-wide Mensa program which makes it easier for Mensa members to enjoy the company and hospitality of other Mensans across the United States and throughout more than 40 other countries. It commonly hosts travelers for luncheon, dinner, an evening visiting, or to share local sights and landmarks. Any local members willing to host, please contact Ruth.
Ken LeBlanc, Interim; Don Chinnici, in Training
Testing
One of the most important elements of American Mensa is the Proctor system and our Proctors perform a valuable service on behalf of Mensa. Our Proctor Network consists of several hundred proctors who administer the supervised tests to qualify prospects for Mensa membership. Each month, many prospective Mensans are given proctored tests by one of these approved administrators who, quite often, are the first Mensa contact these prospects may make.
Don Chinnici
Webmaster
Don is the creator of much of what you find at this URL. He is most directly responsible for the punctuation and spelling errors you see. In a different life, he’d have done bobsledding.