The Creative Mischief SIG

Updated 30 June 1996.

You are the person to visit this page.

Our Charter

The Creative Mischief SIG was founded on the premise that Mensa is taking itself far too seriously. It was time we let down our hair and had some fun. And so it is. Our primary vehicle is hoaxes, which are posted as signs at Mensa gatherings and meetings. Invariably, these note the cancellation or addition of some non-existent event, promulgate some whimsical warning, or offer some sort of silly service through a non-existent phone number. All of our actual hoaxes carry a disclaimer in fine print at the bottom, since Mensans actually believe this stuff.


Our Leader

Hutch as the Energizer Bunny

Mark Hutchenreuther (Hutch) has been in Mensa since 1982. They let him in based on his GRE scores. He was Local Secretary (President) of the Channel Islands Mensa group of Sourthern California from 1991 through 1995. When he lost his bid for Regional Vice Chairman of Region 9, his last act as LocSec was to appoint himself to the open position of Editor of Channel M, the newsletter of Channel Islands Mensa. He has also been appointed to the position of Mensa International Boutique Coordinator.

He earned BSME from Michigan Tech in 1970, and an MSEE from CalState Northridge in 1985, and is actually licensed as a Mechical Engineer by the poor state of California. He recently took an early retirement after working for 25 years for the Navy as a civilian, most recently as a Computer Software Engineer. Mensa keeps him from going crazy, or so he claims.


A Brief History

It all began at the San Francisco AG in 1992. In only a few short years we have grown and expanded, and now have a SIG history.


An Example of a Sign

Schroedinger's

Cat Sitting Service

Going out of town for an extended period of time? Tired of your neighbor or coworker forgetting to feed Fluffy as promised? Don't trust the local pet-sitting services?

Try our national chain of over-qualified trained pet sitters, many world-reknowned physicists. Our rates are reasonable and our service is absolutely the best around.

Call today! 1 (800) NOT-SURE


A List of Available Signs

I have uploaded a substantial collection of the Creative Mischief SIG signs (even the newest ones) and several of my hoax articles in Rich Text Format to my public_html subdirectory in my home directory. I had hoped to be able to set this up so you could FTP to RAIN and get the files, but it appears that is not as simple as I had hoped. If you are using either Mosaic or Netscape to get here (and you must be) you have the ability to save these files off onto a disk, and that is all you need.

The list of files available also includes some links to software that reads RTF format files if your software cannot read that format.


Important Disclaimer

The Creative Mischief SIG is a special interest group (SIG) of American Mensa, Ltd. Opinions expressed herein are the opinions of the authors, and not of American Mensa, Ltd., which has no opinions.


Basic Rules

Even mischief has to have rules.


How to Join the SIG

So you want to join this merry band of anarchists.


About Mensa

Mensa is an international society in which the sole requirement for qualification for membership is a score at or above the 98th percentile on any of a number of standard IQ tests. Mensa is a not-for-profit organization whose main purpose is to serve as a means of communication and assembly for its members. Qualifications for membership may be determined by tests administered by Mensa, or by submission of properly certified prior evidence of qualification.

To receive a brochure on Mensa, including qualifying test scores, contact:

American Mensa, Ltd.
201 Main Street, Suite 1101
Fort Worth, TX 76102

(817) 332-2600
(817) 332-7299 FAX
(800) 66-MENSA to leave a message to get a brochure

Compuserve: 70107,2242
Internet: 70107.2242@compuserve.com


How I Did This

The documents were done with Word for Windows 6.0, then converted using the Ant converter. I had hoped to use photos scanned by Seattle Film Works and converted to .GIF using their software, but it did not give me the resolution and color I wanted, so I ended up scanning them myself as Windows bitmap files and then converted them to .GIF files.


Hutch is Mark S. Hutchenreuther in real life, and in cyberspace he is:

hutch@rain.org on the Internet,
http://www.rain.org/~hutch/ on the World Wide Web,
and 71117,2107 on CompuServe.

Go to my home page.

Send me your comments.