Founding Fathers of Mensa

Mensa is an organization whose members engage in social activities and worthy causes. It is not much different from any other social organization, except for its requirement for membership: a person can only become a member if his/her IQ is in the 98th percentile or top 2% of the population. Yes, the foundation Mensa was built upon was on the basis of gathering the gifted people and geniuses of the world.

Why the name Mensa? No, it wasn't named after the founder. There was no Dr. Hugo Van Mensa or Emperor Mensarius. Mensa is Latin for "table", a round table perhaps, symbolizing equality among its members.

I didn't want to research on how Mensa came about, so I just made up a story.

Mensa was probably thought of by Masons during the 19th century. They were probably drinking lavish wine around a table and were plotting ways to further distinguish themselves from the masses. A short, stout guy with a tall hat and a moustache suddenly bursts out an idea of having intelligence as a basis. Everyone agreed that, in addition to wealth, intelligence should be a barometer. Because IQ hasn't been researched yet, they coined the term QI (Quantitative Inquisitiveness) for measuring one's intelligence.

An old man with a pipe sticking out of his mouth suggested that they call this organization "Round Table", because they were sitting around one at that moment. They all agreed, but opted for its foreign translation, so that they wouldn't be mistaken for the "Knights of the Round Table". They looked it up and it turned out that the Latin word for round is "wo", and the word for table is "mensa". Being the male chauvinists that they were, they decided to drop the word "round".

And that is how Mensa was formed.