Kevin Borchers, Minnesota Mensa Local Secretary

August 2024

 

In your American Mensa profile, you can designate many areas of interest, such as history or astronomy. Minnesota Mensa will be using this information to help notify you of selected new events that match your interest. (Note that nothing automated uses this information, so you will NOT suddenly start receiving a slew of messages. Using this information to notify members is a manual process, which is why it will be only for selected events in Minnesota.) The online member directory displays your interests, whereby other members might reach out to you based on a common interest. To get the most from this Mensa benefit, please spend a few minutes updating your profile by selecting interests. There are almost 400 interests listed, so I guarantee you will find many you like. Follow these instructions to designate your interests.

1)   Go to your profile on the American Mensa website.

2)   Click the “Log In” button in the upper right. Use the “Forgot your password?” link if you need that reset. The contact information for American Mensa is right below the Sign In box if you encounter difficulties.

3)   Click the “My Profile” link in the upper right.

4)   Find the My Account Links box on the upper right side of your profile page (figure to the right). Click the “My Demographics” link.

5)   Scroll down to the Personal Areas of Interest box. Click the “Edit” link to the right, next to the pencil icon.

6)   A web page window will pop up with 20 pages of interests listed. Simply check the box for each of your personal interests. Click on one of the page numbers above the list to move to that page. There isn’t forward/back/next page/previous page functionality, so click on page numbers and go through multiple (or all) pages before clicking the “OK” button.

MY PERSONAL ADVICE: Consider carefully before selecting some personally sensitive interests, particularly health-related ones. For example, you may not want to select “Depression.” Mensa has many national SIGs listed right there on the American Mensa website, including the “Bright & Blue Depression Support Group.” Connecting directly with that SIG may be better than selecting “Depression” here.

7)   Now, click the “Back to My Profile” button and then the “My Communication Preferences” link in the My Account Links box.

8)   In the Member Directory box is the preference “Display Demographics” (figure to the right). The green check box means that your interests will appear when a member displays your info in the Member Directory. (It’s under Connect in the menu bar.) To change your preference, click the “Edit” link to the right, next to the pencil icon.

That’s it for setting your Personal Areas of Interest. Getting the most from this benefit depends on members filling in their information. The more people who contribute, the more effective it will be with event notifications and for members to connect with others.

These profile settings are not the only ones you may want to update. See the articles “Communication Preferences Instructions” and “Opinion: Date of Birth Exposure” for further details and instructions.

If you have general questions about the content in this article, you may contact me by email to locsec@mnmensa.org. Reach out to American Mensafor technical support or questions about their website or your profile preferences.