EDITORIAL

Jeff Ward, who publishes the Mega Society newsletter, and I have been talking with each other and with Ron Hoeflin and Chris Cole. We are going to attempt the merger of the Mega Society with the Noetic Society. A combined society could have a dozen or so more members than the unmerged Noetic Society. After some negotiation, we have decided on the following provisions (about which we want your feedback):

The name of the new, combined organization will be the Mega Society. Jeff Ward feels strongly about keeping the name, and I feel it's short and snappy. The name of this journal might change to something like the Megarian or the Mega Society Journal. Let us know your suggestions and preferences for the name of this publication.

All members who qualified through their score on the Mega or the Titan Test will be protected against future changes in qualifying scores based on renormings of those tests. That is, if the minimum one-in-a-million score would rise from 43 to 45, as it has in the past, people who score 43 or 44 would still be eligible for membership. Jeff Ward feels strongly about this, and I agree. Anyone who is currently a member on the basis of his or her score on a Hoeflin-written test can always continue to be a member.

Chris Cole would like to see membership limited to those who have qualified through a Hoeflin test. He feels the Mega, the Titan, the Ultra and their prototypes are different from any other IQ test. A few Mega members qualified through scores on other tests--the LAIT, childhood Stanford-Binets. We might ask those members to rrqualify by taking an abridged, non-time-consuniing version of a Hoeflin test. People who qualified through non-Hoeflin tests would be welcome to remain contributing subscribers. Or the issue might not come up, if those people, most of whom aren't active, remain dormant. But hey, please don't remain dormant, dammit! The main reason we're merging is to revitalize the combined membership.

Let us know your thoughts on the merger.

Some other semi-related stuff:

We have two new members from Britain, Michael Clive Price (I think--I returned the score report containing his full name, and the rest of his mail says only M. C. Price.) and Peter A. Pomfrit. Both got whopping scores on the Titan. M. C. Price included these biographical details:

age 31, software engineer, physics B.Sc, quantum field theory M.Sc, atheist.

Interests:  life extension/immortality, science especially QFT, history, money, mythology.

Dr. Pomfrit says: I am 48 in December, single and my Ph.D was in chemistry. Since an injury to my back I have been a private maths tutor. He also says: When I return from holiday I will send you some verbal analogies which might prove entertaining to the membership.

His letters also bear very attractive postage stamps.

Welcome aboard this somewhat silly vessel.

I think it was Jeff Ward who mentioned that in the past, second attempts were not accepted for Mega membership. I would find it reasonable to accept second attempts (though not third or subsequent attempts) submitted within a reasonable amount of time (and which are not tainted by evidence of cheating). Some people, myself included, would have worked harder on a Hoeflin test to make a good score better had they only known that they were in the right ball park. Of course, two, and soon, three different Hoeflin tests might reduce the need for second attempts. We might have to have a membership officer or committee to determine the eligibility of people who didn't qualify in their first attempt. Again, please let us know what you think!