15/Tuesday
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Zoom Lunch 1 PM. Perhaps the longest running Mensa event anywhere, Chicago’s Zoom Lunch (formerly known as the Downtown Lunch) is held every week, alternating between Tuesday and Thursday. Join us for conversation, laughs, and attempts to define words you’ll never use again. The Zoom id is 836 1178 6315 and the passcode is 190710; it is also included as part of your host Jon G.’s contact information if you prefer a link. Questions? Contact Jon via email or call/text him. You may also RSVP via Meetup. We’d love to have you join us!
Virtual Event!!
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Gifted Youth Lunch in Downtown Noon. This is another lunch meetup in downtown Chicago focused on gifted youth-related matters for members living or working in the city. I would like to take this opportunity to openly discuss what’s on your mind and share potential ideas to help stimulate the minds of our young gifted members. We will meet at Catalog in the Willis Tower located at 233 S Wacker Dr. in Chicago. RSVP to Ilhwa L. via email by 4 PM on Monday, January 20th.
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Federal Tax Deadline.
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CAM Election. The candidates’ statements are available on our website as well as in the April issue of ChiMe. The Election Notice can be found in Appendix B.
If you’re not attending April’s Monthly Gathering on Saturday, April 19th, please cast your vote electronically using this fool-proof online ballot at or before 8 PM on Saturday, April 19th. If you prefer a paper ballot, mail it so it is received by Friday, April 18th or give it to a trusted messenger who can drop it into the ballot box at the Monthly Gathering. Visit our Voting Info webpage for all the details.
In the case multiple ballots are received from a member, only the most recently received ballot will count. For mailed ballots, the postmark will be used as the date of submittal.
The results will be announced sometime after in-person voting closes at the April Monthly Gathering. The results will be available on the website a few days later and in the June issue of ChiMe. Our Officers webpage will reflect the new ExComm members as of May 1st, the first day of their term. If you have questions, please contact Deb Johnston, our Election Procedures Committee Chair.
16/Wednesday
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GOBS Request Deadline Noon. Today is the last day to submit a request for GOBS funds to be approved at this Saturday’s Business Meeting for any planned, eligible event, activity, or class taking place after Saturday, April 19th and through Saturday, May 17th or later; to be eligible, events involving CAM members must be published in the issue of ChiMe corresponding to the month in which they occur. For CAM events, it’s recommended you submit the GOBS request and get it approved before submitting your event information for publication in ChiMe — so no later than today for events planned for June. June events need to be submitted by the 1st of May to the activities editor to be included in the June ChiMe. An article must be featured in the June ChiMe for GOBS-subsidized July events with an RSVP deadline in June (same 1st of May deadline but article emailed to the editor; see editorial deadline).
If you’ve registered for CultureQuest® XXXVI (get all the details), but have not submitted your request for GOBS funds, you still have time before the April monthly Business Meeting. The entire registration fee (and only the registration fee) will be covered and, after the event, reimbursed for approved GOBS requests when you submit your expense form.
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Dinner Out West: Japanese 6:30 PM. Join us as we return to the Toyko Steakhouse II, located at 800 S. IL Route 59 in Bartlett, for an evening at the hibachi grill. This is a GOBS-subsidized event. GOBS will cover ½ of your meal cost, including tax and tip (rounded up to the nearest dollar), up to a maximum subsidy of $15, for each CAM member and their guest. Cash, Zelle, or PayPal for your portion. Limit 18 people. Reservations are required so Beth knows how big of a table to reserve. RSVP via Meetup (strongly preferred) or directly to Beth W. no later than Monday, April 14th.
17/Thursday

18/Friday
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CAM Election Mail-In Ballot Deadline midnight.
19/Saturday

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Conservatives Lunch 11:30 AM. Join other members of the Mensan cell of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy for lunch and civilized un-PC conversation. No forbidden questions, no unchallengeable answers. This lunch happens on the third Saturday every month. The venue will be The Patio, 2780 S. Highland Ave. in Lombard (NW corner of Butterfield and Highland, but you can enter only from Highland). RSVP by emailing Jim Z. the event coördinator. You may also RSVP via Meetup. Open to non-Mensans; bring a curious friend.

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Beverly Area Saturday Salon (B.A.S.S.) ~Noon. Spontaneous conversation in far SSW Chicago, approximate vicinity of 107th St. & Western Ave. Please contact Rick E. the Beverly Area Coördinator, for this month’s location and the exact time as well as more information; if emailing, put “BASS” in the subject line. This event usually recurs midday on the 3rd Saturday of the month.
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SEMM: Supernatural History: Exploring the Strange and Unusual in Our Past 6 PM CDT. Enigmatic mediums, murders, monsters, and more are all part of our mysterious and sometimes supernatural history. For example, the will of Detroit’s first millionaire, Eber B. Ward, was hotly contested because he took the financial advice of “spirits”. Marian Spore Bush, Bay City’s first female dentist, moved to New York City, where she became a psychic wonder—and a secret philanthropist. And according to Amberrose Hammond our speaker this month, old witchcraft superstitions drove a Midwest family insane and caused another man to murder his godmother. Her presentation will include all this and other notable occurrences that took the headlines throughout the U.S. Ms. Hammond will bring to light strange and unusual tales from our colorful and exciting past.
For more than two decades, Amberrose Hammond has been delving deep into our eerie and unconventional past. As a passionate lover of history and cemeteries, she has traveled across Michigan to spread the word about the state’s weirdest and most off-beat tales. Through compelling lectures and historical cemetery tours, Amberrose has captured the imaginations of thousands with her infectious enthusiasm for our spooky side. With her expertise and deep knowledge of the paranormal, she has authored "Ghosts & Legends of Michigan’s West Coast and Mysterious Michigan as well as two true crime books, Wicked Ottawa County and Wicked Grand Rapids. For those who want to explore the strange and unusual even further, Amberrose invites you to check out her website “Mysterious Michigan” and subscribe to “Ghostly Talk”, the podcast she cohosts.
See the full write-up and find contact info on the American Mensa Events website. All attendees must preregister by visiting the SEMM Monthly Gathering page and choosing "April 19, 2025 5:30 pm" from the dropdown. Due to rising Zoom costs, SEMM asks for a $5 donation, if you can afford it.
Virtual Event!!
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Monthly Gathering
The location of our April Monthly Gathering is the Rolling Meadows Community Center
3705 Pheasant Dr. in Rolling Meadows.Games and hospitality are in the spacious auditorium, with overflow space in the lobby. The speaker event is in the Card Room. Park in the NW lot behind the building and use Entrance K (near inner corner). Please note that we have this venue only until midnight, so plan accordingly. This gathering is open to the public. So if you’re interested in learning more about Chicago Mensa, come join us. There is an admissions fee to help cover costs (major credit cards accepted); the April MG is free to all CAM members. Members, RSVP via Meetup to let your friends know you’re going to be there.
Test:5 PM.Business Meeting:5 PM.Game room opens:6 PM.Voting opens:6:30 PM.Program:7:30 PM.Voting closes:8 PM.Refreshments:8:30 PM - Midnight.Time to vote for your Chicago Area Mensa ExComm Members!! See the candidate statements here or in the April ChiMe. If you can’t attend today’s gathering, please use either the online electronic form or the paper version of the ballot and follow all the instructions. You may print out the pdf version of the ballot from our website or from the April ChiMe. Your mail-in ballot must be received at or before midnight on Friday, April 18th. Make sure you mail it at least 5 business days prior to the mail-in deadline. Your electronic ballot must be submitted at or before 8 PM on Saturday, April 19th. If you have questions, please visit our election information webpage or contact Deb Johnston, our Election Procedures Committee Chair.
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The CAM Executive Committee has allocated GOBS funds to be used for the reimbursement of either or Uber ridesharing services from/to the Arlington Park METRA station. Details are on our Monthly Gathering page.
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Volunteer
Get involved! Hone your leadership, organizational, or web skills. We’re looking for volunteers to fill some of the open positions listed both near the back of ChiMe or on the List of Officers. Try your hand as a co-Program Officer, a website designer, web content creator, or a MG Hospitality Volunteer. You can view the job descriptions and the required qualifications for all the open positions and ones you may be interested in. Or consider supervising the children at the MG for some extra cash.
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Express Yourself
Write an article, submit a photo, or create a puzzle for ChiMe; see our Submission Guidelines for contact information and deadlines. Host your own event or your own virtual event using Discord!Program Topic: The Fantastical Workings of The Brothers Grimm
Many children have grown up spellbound by adaptations of the enchanting children’s stories of Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Snow White, and Rumpelstiltskin. Called “fairy tales,” these will become children’s classics written by two brothers named Grimm. However, growing up in poverty and devastation after the death of their father in 1796, brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s early lives were anything but magical. But pushing forward, the brothers later attended the University of Marburg where fantasy became reality. With a strong interest in German folklore, the brothers collected and revised over 200 German and Scandinavian folk tales which eventually were re-adapted into famous movies, books, and theater performances available in over 100 languages today.
Historian Jim Gibbons will discuss the lives and works of The Brothers Grimm. Gibbons will explain how two brothers’ 19th Century fairy tales still live years after their lifetime, setting a precedent for the fairy tales of today.
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CAM Election Electronic Ballot Deadline 8 PM.
20/Sunday

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SFRM: Meet the Beatles You Thought You Knew 4:30 PM. The Beatles were a cultural tsunami that forever changed fashion, manners, humor, media, values, and style, while influencing musical genres and future musicians long after the group’s demise. Kansas University’s professor of rock and lifelong educator Steve Lopes will lead us in a review of their origin story and Beatlemania, and study how they became so fabulous. Participants will engage in trivia quizzes and discussions of the Fab Four’s legacy.
Steve Lopes was a technology educator for 15 years before becoming a union organizer. After 30 years with the Kansas National Education Association, he returned to teaching, this time leading history of rock classes for lifelong learners at the University of Kansas, University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Washburn University. Steve enjoys researching rock ’n’ roll history and sharing it with his students. He also donates his organizing skills in support of progressive causes and candidates.
For more details, visit the SFRM Zoom RSVPs FB Group or the SFRM List of Presentations. To register, visit San Francisco Regional Mensa (SFRM)’s registration signup for this event.
Virtual Event!!
21/Monday
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Best Night for Lyrids Meteor Shower . Viewing. The meteor shower will be hitting its peaks with as many as 18 meteors per hour late evening until dawn. The moonlight may be an issue. See the viewing tips at In-The-Sky.org.
Public Event!!
22/Tuesday

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Breakfast in Mount Prospect 10 AM. Breakfast or lunch and conversation at Jelly Café located at 1784 W. Golf Rd. in Mount Prospect (northwest corner of Golf Rd. and Busse Hwy.), featuring a large and diverse menu. Dining might be indoors or outdoors, depending on conditions. Separate checks are available. Use Meetup, but if not on Meetup, RSVP to Ken L. via email. If you RSVP by email, your reservation is not confirmed until you receive a confirmation email.

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MEANS (North Suburbs) Dinner 6:30 PM. Join Mensans Eating Around North Suburbs (MEANS) at Hackney’s on Lake located at 1514 E. Lake Ave. in Glenview. Free parking. Separate checks available. Limit 12. Please RSVP via Meetup (preferred) or email Brent B. Recurs on the 4th Tuesday of the month.
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Earth Day
24/Thursday
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Conversation with London Mensans 8 AM. See Thursday, April 17th.
Virtual Event!!
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Zoom Lunch 1 PM. See Tuesday, April 15th.


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Mind Games® 2025 starts today. The event is being held today through Sunday, April 27th, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Portland located at 1000 NE Multnomah St. in Portland, OR. Visit the website for all the details. The registration cap has been met and the waitlist is full.
25/Friday
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Arbor Day
26/Saturday
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Rainbow SIG 6 PM. Enjoys a potluck at two members’ home on the northside of Chicago. Please contact the Rainbow SIG Coördinator Jim C. for the address and for the list of desired items the hosts are asking the attendees to bring. (You only need to bring one item on the list, not all of them.) There is generally plenty of parking in the neighborhood.
27/Sunday
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Inquiring Minds: Global Deception 1 PM CDT. In 1941, the British army was short of men, equipment and ideas. Whenever they fought the Germans, they lost. But out in Egypt, one man had a plan to turn things around. Lt Colonel Dudley Clarke, a soldier, spy and writer, realized he could use the stage magic principles he’d learned as a boy to mislead the enemy about British strength and intentions. By 1944 he had built a global deception operation that saw the Allies surprise Hitler at D-Day.
Along the way he would name the SAS, oversee the longest-running double agent operation of the war, and stage the largest magic show the world has ever seen. But the very boldness and eccentricity that made him a genius would see him risk destroying everything he’d built — and himself.
See the full write-up and find contact info on the American Mensa Events website.
Virtual Event!!

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Theodore Talk: When the World Came to Chicago: The World’s Columbian Exposition 2:30 PM. In 2003, Eric Larson’s book, The Devil in the White City, sparked widespread popular interest in the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, 1890s Chicago, and world’s fairs, generally. While readers were enthralled with the grisly details of the murderous H.H. Holmes, the world’s fair was more than just a setting for a true crime tale (and was not, in fact, the location of the murders); it was an important moment in Chicago’s history that set a trend for subsequent fairs for decades.
In this lavishly illustrated talk, Dr. Nicholas McCormack will examine a brief history of world’s fairs and the context for Chicago playing host to the first one in the United States. You’ll learn how the fair was designed, what its intended purpose was, and its impact on Chicago and the future of world’s fairs, especially Chicago’s second world’s fair in 1933-34. There is a vibrant scholarship — a historiography — of world’s fairs that highlights serious issues such as colonialism, classism, and racism, which many popular tellings of the Columbian Exposition and other world’s fairs either ignore or distort. This talk will engage with those debates and issues as well.
To register for this Theodore Talk, visit the American Mensa Events website or, on or after Friday, April 25th, tap/click on the Zoom link that will be available here on our website. See a list of all the Theodore talks on the American Mensa Events website. Even if you can’t attend the live talk, provided you register, you will receive a link to a recording of the event. Closed captioning enabled.
Virtual Event!!
29/Tuesday
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Zoom Lunch 1 PM. See Tuesday, April 15th.
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1 May/Thursday
RSVP for Trivia in Willow Springs held on Saturday, May 3rd no later than Thursday, May 1st. Do NOT RSVP via Meetup since the event coördinator is not on Meetup.

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ChiMe Activity Bulletin and Advertising Deadlines. Last day for these submissions to the June ChiMe. Interested in organizing and hosting a virtual or in-person event? There’s bound to be an activity or a restaurant you want to try, but you just want some other people to experience it with you. So invite your fellow Mensans. Find out how by visiting our guide to hosting events.
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ChiMe Editorial Deadline. Last day for editorial submissions to the June ChiMe. Please submit original articles, insights, puzzles, brain teasers, photographs, or short poems. Your fellow Chicago Area Mensa members would love to hear from you.
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Conversation with London Mensans 8 AM. See Thursday, April 17th.
Virtual Event!!
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54th Chicago Annual Pride Parade Registration Reminder. The Parade will be held Sunday, June 29th, the last Sunday of the month. The CAM contingent is sponsored by the Rainbow SIG. The Rainbow SIG will be marching and riding on their float again this year in the Chicago Annual Pride parade. There will also be a GOBS-subsidized meal nearby after the parade. For all details, visit the Parade Info webpage or see the articles in the April ChiMe or May ChiMe (when it becomes available). Register by Thursday, May 29th.

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Annual Gathering (AG): All Fired Up Online Registration! Register for the AG, held Wednesday, July 2nd through Sunday, July 6th in Chicago, Illinois, in the Hilton Chicago on south Michigan Avenue. Due to all the 4th of July and weekend festivities in the area, it may be best to book a room. The link to the hotel block will be provided in your registration confirmation email.
Activities Bulletin
April 2025
RSVPs - Always contact the CAM event host as specified in the event details — email , phone , text , or Meetup .
Meetup
Chicago Mensa Meetup - All our events are listed; see who signed up, get notifications, and add the event(s) to your personal calendar. Check out the April calendar
Chicago Mensa Meetup - All our events are listed; see who signed up, get notifications, and add the event(s) to your personal calendar. Check out the April calendar