Category: News

If you enjoy the challenge of playing team trivia with questions ranging from film, politics, literature, geography, music, history, etc., this is for you! Get ready for this year’s CultureQuest® XXXI! Teams of American and Canadian Mensans will compete at the same time for 90 minutes for cash prizes and cultural literacy bragging rights. Each Mensan team will gather at one location and may have up to five members. CultureQuest XXXI was originally scheduled for Sunday, May 3, but due to the pandemic, has been tentatively rescheduled for Sunday, October 18. 

The cost to participate is $50 per team. SEMM will pay one-half of the entry fee for any team captained by a SEMM member. 

Deadline to enter is Monday, August 31. To register, go to https://www.us.mensa.org/attend/culturequest/.

Today, the SEMM Board and the RG planning team have made the decision to CANCEL SEMMantics 2020. As such, details on full registration refunds will be forthcoming. Please “Save the Date” for SEMMantics 42 – scheduled to take place April 16-18, 2021.

As a result of the proposals passed by Michigan voters in 2018, there are massive changes happening in how we can register to vote and how and where we can vote, with three important elections coming up in 2020. Michigan is also in the process of building a completely new way to create voting districts after the 2020 census.

Susan Smith, past president of the Michigan League of Women Voters, will explain all these changes in an educational, nonpartisan presentation you will not want to miss.

Registration is now officially open for this year’s RG, SEMMantics 2020, being held April 17 – 19, 2020.

John Zawiskie, the Curator in Residence and an educator at Cranbrook Institute of Science, whose talk is on “Astrobiology, Meteorites and the Early Earth”, will tell us how meteorites reveal early solar system history back to 4.568 billion years ago (bya). He will discuss how this information suggests a mechanism for the formation of the Earth, and potential sources for water and organic compounds. Evidence for the presence of life from 4.1 to 3.48 bya is reviewed, including subsequent evolutionary developments and Earth system history during the Precambrian.

Mr. Zawiskie specializes in Geology and Paleontology at the Cranbrook Institute and also teaches Earth History at Wayne State University. He has a wide range of interests in education, exhibits, and research, and has participated in ?eld studies in Antarctica, Australia, Argentina, Southwest USA, and the Great Lakes region.

Registration is now officially open for this year’s RG, SEMMantics 2020, being held April 17 – 19, 2020.

Greetings!  Registration is now officially open for this year’s RG, SEMMantics 2020, being held April 17 – 19, 2020.  Southeast Michigan Mensa and I are “Looking forward to seeing you!” at this great RG.

SEMMantics 2020 promises to be a wonderful experience.  Included in your registration fee are World-Renowned, Smoke-Free, 24-Hour Hospitality Rooms (from Friday afternoon through Sunday morning);  Friday evening Dinner; and Saturday’s Lunch and Dinner.  Hotel guests (up to two per room) will also enjoy a full hot breakfast buffet daily.  Non-guests will have a light continental breakfast available in Hospitality or can buy the hotel breakfast buffet.
For more information visit the SEMMantics page.

We have great news for those SEMM members have never attended SEMMantics before.  The SEMM ExComm has funded discounts to encourage attendance at SEMMantics for those have not experienced it yet.  We are pleased to offer a $20 discount to any current SEMM member who has never attended before.  A $50 discount is available, instead, to those who are still within their first year of membership. (Only one discount per member applies.)  Complete details on the discounts as well as how to register using them are available at this link.

Discount Hotel Rates and Early Bird pricing available. Visit the SEMMantics page for details.