Author: Kevin Williams

7:00 pm (ET) Saturday, September 19, 2026, Live and via Zoom

More than two centuries ago, the Founding Fathers drafted the Constitution to safeguard the fledgling republic against tyranny. Grounded in Enlightenment philosophy—specifically natural rights, the social contract, and especially the separation of powers—this foundational document and its amendments established one of history’s most enduring republics. In this program, Ryan Mondalek explores the Constitution, the philosophies that shaped it, and how its provisions have been interpreted (or ignored), leading to the balance (Some say imbalance) of power between the three branches of government that we see today. 

Ryan Mondalek is a graduate of Michigan State University with a bachelor’s degree in World Politics and a Master’s of Public Policy. Through these programs, Ryan has studied extensively in areas including political philosophy, international relations, history, economics, and political science. He possesses expertise in international policy (East Asia focus), open-source intelligence, AI prompt engineering, and has developed strong analytical skills for complex geopolitical issues. Ryan is the Chief Operating Officer of Huron ARC, based in Ann Arbor, MI. 

Virtual Presentation (Zoom)

The Zoom room opens at 6:30 P.M. (ET) for mingling. 

There is no charge for the Zoom presentation, but, due to rising costs (Meetup charges alone were up 70% during the past year!), your donation via PayPal is greatly appreciated.

• Click PayPal.com
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• Enter the e-mail address: treasurer@nullmensadetroit.com
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NEW!! If you prefer to donate using a credit or debit card, scan this QR code to make your donation: 

Please remember that all Zoom attendees need to pre-register:

• Click tinyurl.com/SEMM-Gathering
• Choose “September 19, 2026 6:30 pm” from the drop-down box
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7:00 pm (ET) Saturday, August 15, 2026, Live and via Zoom

You have probably heard about the growing controversy surrounding data centers, which have increased in both size and prevalence across the world. With the growth of artificial intelligence, data center construction has exploded, along with potentially devastating environmental and financial consequences. As communities and environmental organizations fight to keep these centers from being built, will AI development be slowed? Will we all have to pay more for utilities, and by doing so, subsidize giant tech companies? Come and learn about data centers and how they impact all of us. The discussion will be led by John Richter, who serves on the Board of Directors and as Policy Analyst of The Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association (GLREA).

Virtual Presentation (Zoom)

The Zoom room opens at 6:30 P.M. (ET) for mingling. 

There is no charge for the Zoom presentation, but, due to rising costs (Meetup charges alone were up 70% during the past year!), your donation via PayPal is greatly appreciated.

• Click PayPal.com
• Log in (or sign up)
• Click the “Send/Request” button
• Enter the e-mail address: treasurer@nullmensadetroit.com
• Click the “Next” button
• Enter payment amount ($5 is recommended, but feel free to send any amount)
• Fill “What’s this for” with “SEMM Zoom Presentations”
• Click the “Next” button
• Select your payment method
• Click “Send”

NEW!! If you prefer to donate using a credit or debit card, scan this QR code to make your donation: 

Please remember that all Zoom attendees need to pre-register:

• Click tinyurl.com/SEMM-Gathering
• Choose “August 15, 2026 6:30 pm” from the drop-down box
• Fill in your name and email address
• Click the “Register” button

7:00 pm (ET) Saturday, June 20, 2026, now via Zoom only

Tracking the developmental milestones toward Artificial General Intelligence, this presentation introduces AI as computer intelligence that learns, makes decisions, and solves problems, emphasizing its rapid advancement due to the abundance of data, powerful computers (GPUs), and smarter algorithms like deep learning. It highlights AI’s presence in daily life through smartphones, social media, online shopping, healthcare, and self-driving cars. We will discuss “the Singularity”: the point where AI surpasses human intelligence and can rapidly improve itself, leading to unpredictable changes. 

Gus J. Mondalek is a Chief Information Officer & Chief Technology Officer at OmniResponse. Descended from a family of secular religious scholars, our speaker’s personal history is a conduit between East and West. Born in Kuwait to an expatriate family, he spent his formative years in Lebanon during that country’s civil war. He is a graduate of the American University in Beirut, and holds multiple advanced degrees from Lawrence Technological University. 

Mondalek has been instrumental in establishing and leading technology initiatives across diverse industries, focusing on the strategic application of software development, artificial intelligence, and IT management for government agencies and Fortune 500 enterprises.

Virtual Presentation (Zoom)

The Zoom room opens at 6:30 P.M. (ET) for mingling. 

There is no charge for the Zoom presentation, but, due to rising costs (Meetup charges alone were up 70% during the past year!), your donation via PayPal is greatly appreciated.

• Click PayPal.com
• Log in (or sign up)
• Click the “Send/Request” button
• Enter the e-mail address: treasurer@nullmensadetroit.com
• Click the “Next” button
• Enter payment amount ($5 is recommended, but feel free to send any amount)
• Fill “What’s this for” with “SEMM Zoom Presentations”
• Click the “Next” button
• Select your payment method
• Click “Send”

NEW!! If you prefer to donate using a credit or debit card, scan this QR code to make your donation: 

Please remember that all Zoom attendees need to pre-register:

• Click tinyurl.com/SEMM-Gathering
• Choose “June 20, 2026 6:30 pm” from the drop-down box
• Fill in your name and email address
• Click the “Register” button

7:00 pm (ET) Saturday, May 16, 2026 Live and via Zoom

People often associate fairy tales with Disney films, and with the male authors from whom Disney often drew inspiration – notably Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen. In these portrayals, the princess is a passive, compliant figure. By contrast, in her book The Lost Princess, author Dr. Anne E. Duggan shows that classic fairy tales such as ‘Cinderella’, ‘Rapunzel’, and ‘Beauty and the Beast’ have a much richer, more complex history than Disney’s saccharine depictions. Dr. Duggan recovers the voices of women writers, who penned popular tales about ogre-killing, pregnant, cross-dressing, dynamic heroines who saved the day. This new history will appeal to anyone who wants to know more about the lost, plucky heroines of historic fairy tales.

Dr. Anne E. Duggan is a professor of French Studies and a member of the Academy of Scholars at Wayne State University. She is the author of three monographs, two of which have been translated into French and Chinese, and she has edited numerous volumes on fairy-tale cultures. Professor Duggan served as associate and co-editor of the journal Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies, for 25 years, and she currently edits the Donald Haase Series in Fairy-Tale Studies at Wayne State University. She is currently working on a book about politically committed animated tales.

Live Presentation

If you are able to attend the live presentation, you have the opportunity to mingle with your fellow Mensans and guests at our usual location:
Northwest Unitarian Universalist Church in Southfield
23925 Northwestern Highway
Southfield, MI 48075

Doors open at 6:30 pm (ET). The program begins at 7:00 pm (ET).

Ticket prices for the in-person program:

• Adult Members – $5 or buy a strip of 4 tickets for $15
• Guests – $7
• Children 12 & under: $2
• Members receive free admission in the month of their birthday

Following the presentation, please join us for dinner at:
Buddy’s Pizza
31646 Northwestern Highway
Farmington Hills, MI 38334

(Just northeast of Middlebelt Rd)

Virtual Presentation (Zoom)

If you can’t join us in person, the Zoom room opens at 6:30 P.M. (ET) for mingling. 

There is no charge for the Zoom presentation, but, due to rising costs (Meetup charges alone were up 70% during the past year!), your donation via PayPal is greatly appreciated.

• Click PayPal.com
• Log in (or sign up)
• Click the “Send/Request” button
• Enter the e-mail address: treasurer@nullmensadetroit.com
• Click the “Next” button
• Enter payment amount ($5 is recommended, but feel free to send any amount)
• Fill “What’s this for” with “SEMM Zoom Presentations”
• Click the “Next” button
• Select your payment method
• Click “Send”

NEW!! If you prefer to donate using a credit or debit card, scan this QR code to make your donation: 

Please remember that all Zoom attendees need to pre-register:

• Click tinyurl.com/SEMM-Gathering
• Choose “May 16, 2026 6:30 pm” from the drop-down box
• Fill in your name and email address
• Click the “Register” button

7:00 pm (ET) Saturday, April 18, 2026 Live and via Zoom

The Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. 

A series of Supreme Court decisions and other legal developments since 2017 have dramatically chipped away at the “wall of separation” between church and state.  Government funding for religious institutions has been approved; churches have been given autonomy from government regulation in their relations with religious employees and in church governance; broad religious exemptions from regulatory laws have privileged religious over secular objections to infringements of liberty; and secular laws have increasingly been aligned with religious doctrines. In this decade, our traditional notions of secularism in government and in the commercial marketplace are increasingly being thrown into question. Growing sentiment to define the United States as a “Christian nation” is reflected in many of these developments. 

Join us at 7:00 P.M. (EDT), on Saturday, April 18, when law professor Howard Friedman will lead us in a discussion of recent events affecting the independence of religion and the religious neutrality of the state. 

Howard M. Friedman is University of Toledo (Ohio) Professor of Law Emeritus. He taught at Toledo’s law school for over 30 years, focusing on the areas of constitutional law as well as corporate and securities law. He has published 4 books and over 25 articles and book chapters. He has also taught at the University of North Dakota, Notre Dame University, Case Western Reserve University and St. John’s University Law Schools. While at the University of Toledo, he was active in Ohio State Bar Association Committees and served in leadership positions in many secular and religious nonprofit organizations. He often spoke at continuing legal education conferences and testified before legislative committees.

Since retiring, Professor Friedman continues to publish Religion Clause blog, an award-winning source for current legal developments on religious liberty and church-state separation. It can be accessed at https://religionclause.blogspot.com/.  Since 2014, he has resided in suburban Detroit, where he often speaks to audiences of interested adult learners.

Live Presentation

If you are able to attend the live presentation, you have the opportunity to mingle with your fellow Mensans and guests at our usual location:
Northwest Unitarian Universalist Church in Southfield
23925 Northwestern Highway
Southfield, MI 48075

Doors open at 6:30 pm (ET). The program begins at 7:00 pm (ET).

Ticket prices for the in-person program:

• Adult Members – $5 or buy a strip of 4 tickets for $15
• Guests – $7
• Children 12 & under: $2
• Members receive free admission in the month of their birthday

Following the presentation, please join us for dinner at:
Buddy’s Pizza
31646 Northwestern Highway
Farmington Hills, MI 38334

(Just northeast of Middlebelt Rd)

Virtual Presentation (Zoom)

If you can’t join us in person, the Zoom room opens at 6:30 P.M. (ET) for mingling. 

There is no charge for the Zoom presentation, but, due to rising costs (Meetup charges alone were up 70% during the past year!), your donation via PayPal is greatly appreciated.

• Click PayPal.com
• Log in (or sign up)
• Click the “Send/Request” button
• Enter the e-mail address: treasurer@nullmensadetroit.com
• Click the “Next” button
• Enter payment amount ($5 is recommended, but feel free to send any amount)
• Fill “What’s this for” with “SEMM Zoom Presentations”
• Click the “Next” button
• Select your payment method
• Click “Send”

Please remember that all Zoom attendees need to pre-register:

• Click tinyurl.com/SEMM-Gathering
• Choose “April 18, 2026 6:30 pm” from the drop-down box
• Fill in your name and email address
• Click the “Register” button