Category: News

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.

Southeast Michigan Mensa’s Winter Bash is coming Saturday, January 11, 2019. Food, Games, Socializing, Fun for the Whole Family! Early bird pricing ends on January 9th Visit the Winter Bash page for ticket information.

Southeast Michigan Mensa’s Winter Bash is coming Saturday, January 11, 2020.

Featuring: A chance to mingle with Mensans and guests who will actually get your jokes! All you can eat: pizza, salad, soft drinks, beer, wine, dessert, and munchies! Stuff to do: eat, socialize, games– bring your favorites!

Visit the Winter Bash page for ticket information.
Early bird pricing ends on January 9th.

Detainee Defenders Attorney Nora Hanna calls it “that day.” It was Sunday, June 11, 2017, the day she received frantic telephone calls from people in the Iraqi Christian community. Early that morning, officers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had begun arresting people born in Iraq who had lived in the Detroit area for decades. These were longtime Michigan residents who had old — often very old —deportation orders. Nearly all legal immigrants, they’d run afoul of immigration law sometime in the past several decades. But they’d never been deported and lived in their communities, raising families, working and reporting periodically to ICE. Now everything was changed: Detainees expected to be on airplanes to Iraq within days, despite life threatening issues facing Christian deportees in Iraq. 

You may well have heard of this situation. One recent Iraqi-American deportee, Jimmy Aldaoud, lived his whole life in Detroit. A diabetic, he died in Baghdad, 2 ½ months after his deportation, due to a lack of insulin.

Attorney Nora Hanna, our guest speaker, will discuss the response of the legal community to “that day.”  She will also discuss the Chaldean, Assyrian, and Syriac people’s migration to the U.S., the religious element, deportation and its aftermath. 

Nora Hanna is an attorney with Fieger Law, where she does trial work for personal injury cases. She attended Wayne State University for both undergrad and law school. She earned a bachelors in Speech Communication and Rhetoric and obtained her JD in 2015. She is an immigrant who came to the US at the age of 4. So, the deportation really hit home for her. Ms. Hanna co-founded CODE Legal Aid a non-profit legal aid geared towards refugees and immigrants. 

Join us for the opportunity to gain a more informed understanding of the very complex issues confronting immigrants who are facing deportation, as well as the moral and humanitarian considerations sometimes arising from the enforcement of immigration laws. 

The program takes place on Saturday, November 16th, at
Northwest Unitarian Universalist Church in Southfield.
23925 Northwestern Hwy
Southfield, MI 48075

Doors open at 6:30pm. The program begins at 7:00pm. Please note the new starting time! Admission: $5, (Mensa Members $4)
Following the presentation, join us for dinner at Buddy’s Pizza, located at 31646 Northwestern Hwy., in Farmington Hills, Just East of Middlebelt Rd.