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What is Party SIG?

Andy writes:
Party SIG exists solely to promote and facilitate the social side of Mensa, mainly through giving, advertising and attending parties (funnily enough), which are mainly (though not always) in members homes. Like many good ideas, it is very simple - it had to be!

Party SIG came into being as the result of one exceedingly good party in Manchester (well, Stockport, actually) when we were all sitting around, getting our second wind. A certain cynical wag from Yorkshire observed that parties really were good fun and wondered why, with all the boring SIGs (his view) about, no-one had started a SIG for those people who liked to go to parties. Thus the idea took shape, the necessary names & signatures were collected on a paper plate (the only thing that could be found to write on!) and Party SIG was born.

This was just prior to Christmas 1995 and we haven't looked back since. Party SIG currently has about 250 members from all over the UK and Eire (as well as from Europe and the US) and we receive more applications all the time. We believe we are the fastest growing SIG in British Mensa. Party SIG functions on its members actually getting out there and DOING things - and because they choose to do them with each other, Party SIG members are a very friendly, tight-knit bunch who generally know each other quite well - as a result of attending parties (although we manage to avoid becoming cliquey, since there is nothing a Party Sigger likes better than to meet new people!). At any given party, there is likely to be as many people from the far end of the country as there are locals (not to mention the odd foreign interloper). As well as parties, there are the occasional mini holidays (e.g. a four day cheapie cruise to Bergen, Norway, earlier this year), the Party SIG Annual Gathering and the Party SIG International Gathering, as well as jaunts to other countries to meet local members and PARTY (e.g. last years overnight visit by car to the Dutch A.G.).

We cannot give you a life if you don't already have one, and we cannot make you more attractive to the opposite sex, but we can introduce you to a wide range of the most interesting and lively people (of all ages and interests) and offer you a fast track into the Mensa social scene by enabling you to mix with people you might never meet otherwise. And if we manage the odd drink or two along the way . . .

Finally, if you do decide that Party SIG is for you, two pieces of advice:

  • Do take it as one of your free SIGs (you are entitled to your first two SIGs for free) as the very frequent mailings (at least every 4 to 6 weeks) tend to eat up subscriptions much faster than you might think.

  • Relax - its all about having fun and socialising. There are no pressures to do anything, and the only taboo is spoiling other peoples fun - so just get stuck in and start figuring out how on earth you are going to fit any work into your (newly?) busy social diary!

We look forward to welcoming you as a member Party SIG and to meeting you at a party very soon. If you wish, you can join Party SIG via an On-Line Form, or alternatively you can write/fax/phone Mensa House for more details.

Andy Farrell provides a little bit of history:

Some people have claimed credit for thinking of Party Sig on the grounds that they were there and somehow had the idea by association. <g>

Anyway, my version of it is as follows:

30th December 1995, at Derek Trillo's house in Stockport. A post Christmas party was happening and many people from around the country were attending, in part because it made a great stepping stone to Ian Richards' Hogmanay party at the fabulous Dallars House in Ayrshire.

There'd been the usual fun and games of people phoning up "we're lost - where are you?", and I had the idea that we should stop swapping party directions on the backs of envelopes, let's allow Mensa to do it for us.

We could even let them pay for it - very few of us socially active members seemed to be using our two free sigs, let's form it as a Party Sig and our newsletter can include all the party directions.

We needed ten members to form a sig, otherwise we'd have to go through the ignominity of being a Proposed Sig. :( I found the silliest surface available - a styrofoam plate - and scribbled a proposal for the sig on the front, and sought signatures. These were quickly forthcoming, whereupon we needed to choose someone to boss it. I proposed Hairy Bob, someone else proposed me, and I won. Happily this hasn't adversely effected my close relationship with Bob. <bg>

The following night we headed up to the Hogmanay party, and Ginny was right, I met Stewart Kennedy and he leapt on board, other people got involved and we had a wild year or two of it. :)

Over the past four years the emphasis has changed sometimes. The inclusion of party directions seems to have fallen a little into disuse; it's become common practise for weekend organisers to distribute booking forms via Party Sig, thereby saving themselves a lot of stamps and time. (An idea which I had one August whilst descending from Beinn Na Lapp on Rannoch Moor!) It even got Clive Sinclair to phone up the office and ask how one joins a sig. <g>

Anyone care to regale us with the birth of GinSig? In the pub below the hotel one Manchester Weekend, IIRC?

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