However, Berrill and Ware were both disappointed with the resulting society. The society was ostensibly to be non-political in its aims and free from all other social distinctions, such as race and religion. History Īustralian Roland Berrill, and Lancelot Ware, a British scientist and lawyer, founded Mensa at Lincoln College, in Oxford, England in 1946, with the intention of forming a society for the most intelligent, with the only qualification being a high IQ. The word mensa ( / ˈ m ɛ n s ə/, Latin: ) is Latin for ' table', as is symbolised in the organisation's logo, and was chosen to demonstrate the round-table nature of the organisation the coming together of equals. Mensa formally comprises national groups and the umbrella organisation Mensa International, with a registered office in Caythorpe, Lincolnshire, England, which is separate from the British Mensa office in Wolverhampton. It is a non-profit organisation open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardised, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test. Mensa is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world.
