Category: News

The speaker lineup for SEMMantics 40 is set, and we think it’s really XL-ent! When you attend SEMMantics, from April 26 through April 28, there will be a parade of talks on a wide range of topics across the entire event, all included in your registration. 

It’s your choice. You can attend as many lectures as you wish. We understand there are so many other fascinating things going on too. But we are certain there will not be a better lineup to choose from at any Michigan Mensa event in 2019.

1. Billie Lee: “Should I put Mensa on my Resume?”
2. Tom Carr: “MI Bad:  Robbers, Cutthroats and Thieves in Michigan’s Past and Present”
3. Harry Ringermacher:  “The Ringing Universe, Confirmed and Revisited”
4. Peggi J. Tabor:  “The Science of Happiness”
5. James Marcinkowski:  “Making Sense of Terrorism and the Changing Middle East”
6. Rob Rayer:  “Fraud Awareness”
7. Simon Ren:  “Coming Home”
8. Caleb Collier  “Common Sense Strategies to Wealth Accumulation”
9. Detroit Institute of Art:  “Behind the Seen” slideshow “In the Garden”
10. Debbie Jackson:  “Monarchs-Missing from your Garden?”
11. Elaine Donnelly:  “”Social Change in the Military – Where Are We Going With This?”

Check out our SEMMantics site to register or to get more details.

On April 12 the price of SEMMantics 40, our regional gathering, goes up. This is your last chance to register at a discounted rate.

Elaine Donnelly is president of the Center for Military Readiness, an independent, nonpartisan public policy organization that reports on and analyzes military/social issues. President George H. W. Bush appointed Mrs. Donnelly to the 1992 Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces, which studied all aspects of the women in combat issue, and she also served on thePentagon’s Defense Advisory Committee for Women in the Services (DACOWITS) for a three-yearterm. In 2002 she was the recipient of the American Conservative Union’s Ronald Reagan Award.She attended Schoolcraft College and the University of Detroit and resides in Livonia, Michigan.

Ms. Donnelly will join us at SEMMantics 40 to speak on Social Change in the Military – Where arewe going with this? She says, “Under civilian control, America’s armed forces have been ordered to accept and implement certain social theories and mandates that are unprecedented in military history.” Ms. Donnelly will provide an overview of what has been happening in the All-Volunteer Force, and why, and invites listeners to decide whether controversial social changes are weakening mission readiness or strengthening it.

Join us for all this and so much more! Register at our SEMMantics site.

The SEMMantics team endeavors to present a wide range of speakers during the weekend of the Regional Gathering.  This year, you can enjoy excellent speakers who will take you from warm and cozy to terrifying, all included in your SEMMantics registration.

Simon Ren is a Renaissance man, Energy Engineer by trade, philosopher who ponders deep and interesting questions as an avocation. He will welcome us with an uplifting message on the challenges and rewards of finding/making/coming “home”.

Lest you get too comfortable, however, well known author Tom Carr will tell stories, with a slide show, of murder, robbery, and mayhem in the Great Lakes state.  He is a reporter who has told stories of true crimes in all corners of both peninsulas, and has been heard on NPR and published in the Detroit Free Press and New York Daily News.  

Mr. Carr is the author of Blood on the Mittenand MI Bad:  Robbers, Cutthroats and Thieves in Michigan’s Past and Present.  He will have copies of his books to autograph after his talk.

Check out our SEMMantics site to register or to get more details.

You may have heard Rob Rayer when he presented at a monthly gathering several years ago about the Michigan State Police Crime Lab.   He was such a good speaker we were delighted he will return to tell us about Fraud Awareness.

His presentation will provide a brief synopsis of current fraud crimes that citizens should be aware of and how to protect yourself, including Identity Theft, Insurance/Health Care Fraud, Credit Card Fraud. Internet Fraud, and other scams that have been hitting Michigan’s citizens. 

Detective Sgt. Rayer is now a Trooper assigned the Fraud Investigative Section of the Michigan State Police.  He has a varied background that includes over 32 years of Law Enforcement.

Check out our SEMMantics site to register or to get more details.