As we close the chapter on the first month of 2020, it is nice to look back and remind us of how far we have come and how far yet we have to go. From the October 2014 issue of the Triple-M , this article by Jason Yeoh does exactly that.
BEING A 30-YEAR OLD ORGANIZATION
Text by Jason Yeoh
We have all seen it happen before. Organizations that brought innovative ideas to light, grew over the years, and finally came crashing down into nothing but a pile of dust. It happened for all kinds of reasons.
In some cases, those organizations just got replaced by something better. I still remember how I used to join group chats and even downloaded files from peers using mlRC chat scripts, and also chatted to friends using the ICQ program. Those were during my college years. Some time after that, those died off and then everyone on the Internet was using chat programs like Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger because they simply had more features. Then these great programs were replaced by more mobile chat programs like WhatsApp, Facebook chat and WeChat. It would be worth mentioning that many of the old time software backed up by software giants like Google’s Gtalk and Microsoft’s MSN Messenger tried very hard to bring their chat programs into the mobile world, but these initiatives seems to me to be only as promising as Google+ trying to share some of Facebook’s success in the social world.
Of course, these are just examples of organizations that fight to retain their position in a changing world. Organizations can very easily change for the worse. Take for example, my favorite hawker stall down the road in my hometown, Island Glades that used to sell amazing wonton noodles. Earlier this year when I went back, it isn’t so amazing anymore. Something has clearly changed and I don’t like it.
Although organizations can falter in different ways, it does not mean that there are no similarities in the problems that they faced during their final days. In fact, in many of the cases, there is a single reason why these organizations failed, the same reason why so many organizations fail to maintain their relevance. These organizations for various reasons, has lost its purpose. And losing this purpose means that the organization is no longer focused on whom they are trying to relate to, and most importantly why.
As for Mensa Malaysia, we are finally turning thirty! The big 3-0 is an amazingly big achievement. l can only imagine how much effort has been put in during the early years by the founders and first-generation members of Malaysian Mensa. I do not know much about our tenth anniversary nor our twentieth. But what I do know is that this big thirty just might be one of our biggest challenges yet. We don’t have a task that is more difficult than what we have had, we also aren’t having financial problems, but in the next 10 years, Mensa as an organization will need to cross the bridge across generations.
Let us break down the generations. First of all, we had the founding members of Mensa with some of the international members that were also around at that time to provide their support. This group of pioneers organized several big hit activities, particularly the Star Mind Competition which sparked the interest of many new members in the society. Energy levels were high and positive , and there was a clear entrepreneurial spirit in the air to execute meaningful initiatives. All these initiatives were highly successful to the. general public, as can be seen from membership spikes during those initial years of Mensa. There are also newspaper clippings that you will see in this particular copy of the Triple-M for the initiatives during this period.
This popularity gave Mensa Malaysia its first boost of membership, and the group of members that joined during this period is what I would call the second-generation Mensans. There are many factors that sparked the second-generation Mensan to join the society. It would be rather sound speculation to say that the second—generation are attracted to the activities and the energy that was present during the big hit events organized by the founding generation of Mensa. That aside, Mensa did introduce itself as the largest and oldest high IQ society in the world, which did give a highly valued stamp of recognition on one’s self esteem.
Then there is the third-generation Mensans. This group of third-generation Mensans are the fresh members of Mensa Malaysia who joined the society via IQ testing programs that are either organized for the mass public or educational institutions. The key difference between second- and third-generation Mensans is that the third -generation has never had any meaningful contact with the founding members of Malaysian Mensa. This means that they have never felt the sense of purpose that underlies the founding of the society. Mensans can learn really fast and written words make an amazing tool for learning, but people in general simply do not wage war based on the contents of a book. People take actions based on their personaI values and beliefs, and unfortunately values and beliefs cannot be shared via three lines of text regardless of how technically accurate they may be.
The same purpose that drove the efforts on making the big hit founding events successful have to continue to drive the next generation of events. It cannot be allowed to degrade into an obligation of continuity where members organize events merely because it has been running for multiple consecutive years. In order to stay relevant to the purpose, passions can change and it should be allowed to. For example, we had a Scrabble competition for many years. It is an intellectually stimulating activity that helps to bring all of us together, which is very good while it lasted. But there should not be any obligation to continue doing it if the new members are no longer interested in Scrabble. In place of the Scrabble competition, we now have the aMaze puzzle design competition which attempts Lo achieve the same purpose of providing intellectually stimulating activity tor Mensans.
Bringing Malaysian Mensa from our 30th anniversary to our 40th would not be very straightforward of a task, but it shall be fun, It may not be automatic and systematic, but when the time is right, sound plans will be made, and deliberate actions will follow. Especially for new members, the most important thing to remember would be to join us in our next event, share our purpose, and last of all, do not forgot to find your own passions to share and embrace. Because in the end, as a wise man once aid, it is not where you go or what you do, but who you do it with.
Feature photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash