I went to a Mensa Regional Gathering that lasted for a 3-day weekend, and I did various things throughout the weekend. So, I almost counted this as #51 and #52.
After all, even though it was the same organization, it was over different days and it involved different activities. Couldn’t that count? Well, I didn’t want to do anything on a fine line. So, I’m gonna put kind of the leftovers from the weekend here, and we’ll do “real #51” (an activity from the weekend I hadn’t yet done) next. Sound good? Great. Let’s do it!
I’m so happy I finally made my way around to volunteering at a Mensa event. I’ve been on the board for over a year and a half, and I had yet to really get involved in any meaningful way. So, this was pretty lovely.
Some of the extra things I did over the weekend included:
– Helping serve food at dinner.
(I’d done that for a previous volunteer activity – which actually kinda helped me learn how not to spill bean juice (when I ended up on beans again). So, that was pretty cool. Learning, baby!)
I got to stand next to some fun silly people also helping to serve food. And we got to serve some fun people as well. I forget how it came up, but I mentioned I went to Berklee. And one person said, “Whoa. Berklee?! That’s like the MIT of music schools!” And I was all, “Oh, thank you so much.” Then he said his wife went to MIT and he went to Harvard, so we were all kind of Boston buddies. And I just thought, “Yep. This is a Mensa convention all right.”
Speaking of the food, I’d heard this was the first year that they had someone in charge of vegan and vegetarian options, and I just want to say bravo! We got Veggie Grill one day and Native Foods (my favorite!) the next. There was so much! And I never like to let any Native Foods go to waste. So, my stomach was practically bursting by the end of the weekend. (Sorry, stomach.)
– Speaker shepherding
Basically, we just needed to make sure speakers got to their rooms and had everything they needed. And sometimes we gave a little intro. My speakers were so on top of everything. They had their set-ups down to a science, and they were in their rooms early. So, conceivably I “helped” by being there, but I didn’t do much.
– Working with the kids.
Yet again, I felt there wasn’t a ton I needed to do here. There were plenty of other adults in the room watching the kids and helping them with various activities. I did get to answer a few questions here and there for parents. So, again, I kind of sort of did stuff. I mean, I did give my time. So, I guess that was something. But, ultimately, I basically just played with the leftover frosting in the kids’ cookie decorating class.
And we’ll get to my real 51st volunteer activity next!