The twenty-seventh in a series of 48

I am sitting on the beach. A slight breeze is blowing just a touch of sand about. There are no clouds in the sky and the sun is beating down as if I am a morsel of food in a solar oven. When I get too warm, I head out into the Atlantic Ocean to swim and body surf and pretend I am a child again. There are sailboats and motorboats pounding across the waves and teens skimming the water on boogie boards. If you look from just the right angle, at just the right time, you can see dolphins hunting for their dinner.

Some months ago, I was reviewing the Proteus archive and discovered that 1984 was a memorable year for Delaware Valley Mensa. That January, DVM had been serving the greater Philadelphia metropolitan area for twenty years. Even I can do this math in my head and come to the realization that this coming January will be DVM’s 40th birthday.

Starting this month, one of the items on the Executive Committee’s agenda will be to come up with ways to celebrate our 40th anniversary throughout the course of the year. I welcome suggestions: how would you like to celebrate our 40th birthday?

This is quite a milestone to have reached -- old enough to know better but still too young to resist. I for one do not believe that thirty-nine is the top and forty is over the hill. I am over fifty and I am just getting started. We have quite a few members who have participated for the majority of those years, and I would like to hear from you. Do you have stories, photographs, memorabilia, anything that can bring our wonderful past to life? I have copies of Proteus for most of our existence; I would like to add to that collection anything that can help us know our past. I do not intend to keep YOUR memorabilia; I just want to know about it and publicize it.

I hope you attended the annual picnic. Every year it gets better, and this year was no exception. I want to thank Bob and Sue Mazzi, Arlyn Bell, Dave Brown, Ernie Mercer, Jere Lull, and Steve and Leslie Slepner for once again planning this wonderful event. The annual picnic requires an incredible amount of work and they have done an incredible job year after year after year.

In October, DVM will be holding its 24th Regional Gathering, M’s Just Wanna Have More Fun. Last year was an unprecedented success and this year the planners are capitalizing on their knowledge to make the event even better than before.

DVM has lost land mass over the years but our membership continues to increase. It is you, the members, who have made this group what it has been and what it is today. We have no plans to stop. But it is only proper and fitting to take a moment to reflect on where we have been and what we have experienced so that we have a better idea as to where we are headed. Come out and participate in your group’s activities and help celebrate the 40th birthday of the best group in America Mensa Ltd., DELAWARE VALLEY MENSA.