Speakers

Today, we see more differences in views, opinions, and decisions accompanied by strong emotion, incivility, and polarizing results. In this talk, Steve will teach, inspire, and empower listeners with key skills, powerful insights, and ready-to-use techniques that improve confidence and outcomes when faced with challenging conversations and interactions.

Steve Ambrose is a sought out speaker who brings warmth, credibility, and delivers with a powerful sense of purpose. He co-founded a company whose mission is to teach, empower, and grow more civility and inclusion for individuals and company teams. His developed 2020 online learning program ‘WALKING THE RIDGE’ is growing in viewership and implementation. He is a prior healthcare provider, software entrepreneur, podcast host, and author.

Stand Up Comedienne/ Empowerment Speaker, Published Author and Red Carpet Reporter. Comic/Relationship Expert” On FOX’s Bethenny, NBC News & The Morning Show, Writer for JOAN RIVERS, Reporter on MTV Celeb Interviews, Host/Attitude Instructor on Style Network’s Anything But Plastic. She continues to sell out audiences in major clubs & theaters and consistently stuns at Fortune 500 companies with her high energy, disarmingly lethal jokes-per-second, CLEAN stand up act and inspiring advice!

If you have never done yoga before, here is your chance! This will be a beginner level yoga class, but more advanced yogis are certainly welcome! Mats will be provided.

Cryptoquip Contest
Cryptoquips are cryptograms with a witty saying. Come join in the contest to see how many you can complete in the time allotted. No prior cryptogram solving experience is necessary.

Susan is a certified yoga instructor registered with the Yoga Alliance. She first became a Mensa member in 1988, and after a long hiatus she rejoined Mensa again last year. Susan has been teaching yoga since 2017, primarily to beginners new to yoga. She welcomes all to her class, and looks forward to sharing yoga with you.

To help celebrate the one hundred year anniversary of women obtaining the right to vote, Jana Bickel will be give a presentation highlighting key moments in women’s suffrage movement in America from Seneca Falls to the ratification of the 19th amendment.

Pictorial Trivia
“Jana Bickel will be repeating her successful Pictorial Trivia from last year with a list of new images and questions. Teams of six will compete by identifying the images shown on a screen and answering a series of questions about them.
Images will include people from a variety of walks of life: like politics, arts and entertainment, sports, buildings and structures from around the world, and natural history. Start getting your team together now.”

Bitcoin introduced the idea of a very secure data storage and processing system outside the control of any single individual or group. But, while Bitcoin has kept attention on this technology’s use as a currency, a whole movementis exploring how to use “blockchain” to challenge conventional mechanisms for electricity, medical records, gaming, and even the very concept of identity itself. In this lecture, we’ll cover bitcoin, blockchain, some of these new uses, and tales of rags-to-riches-to-rags-again from a professional in the crypto-space.

Jason Civalleri, Esq. is an expert in data privacy and blockchain who has been working in them decentralized space for nearly five years. As an attorney, he represents some of the most renowned exchanges, organizations, and start-ups working to bring us closer to a decentralized future. He is also the Chief Compliance Officer of MyCrypto, a prominent “wallet” serving the Ethereum blockchain community. Jason is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of New Hampshire, where he teaches law students and practicing attorneys about the intersection of blockchain and data privacy regulation. Jason was a Co-Founder of the Splytcore Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to using blockchain technology to take down Amazon with easier, safer, more private, and cheaper online retail e-commerce experiences.

The 1040 Tour Guide will take you on a trip around John and Jane Doe’s tax return covering types of income deductions, tax credits, and audit preparation. The new tax law, good, bad, or ugly, will be explained before it is amended with technical corrections. See how John and Jane Doe are affected by the new law. The lecture will discuss wage earner income and expenses and self-employment issues including office in the home, depreciation of assets, and self-employment tax. Education credits and adjustments will be explained. If you want a better understanding of what you file under penalty of perjury with the government each year, this session is for you.

Linda Dorfmont has been doing other peoples taxes for over 40 years. She has taught taxation for the Small Business Development Centers, the IRS TCE/VITA Program, the College for Financial Planning, local colleges, and private education providers. She is a frequent speaker at Mensa events, and, as of a few months ago, is now a full-fledged member of Mensa.

We’re using the same format as last year, because it has been a big hit at the national convention: Instead of eliminating contestants after a certain number of misses, we keep everybody in the contest all the way to the end, and then whoever has the most correct responses is the winner. As before, don’t rely too heavily on the presenter’s pronunciation, because it will not always be ‘correct’. Words are presented in the five categories of Standard, Derivative, Chemical, Geographic, and Individual.

By night, werewolves kill off villagers. By day, enraged villagers kill off suspected werewolves. (But sometimes they mistakenly kill off “innocent villagers”—oops.) “Werewolf” requires observation, deduction, and a lot of bold-faced lying. Who will prevail: the werewolves or the villagers? One fun-filled game takes 25-40 minutes, and then repeats. Newbies are always welcomed. (Werewolf is similar to, but better than, “Mafia.”) The village includes: 2-4 Werewolves, ordinary Villagers, and an assortment of special villagers with special abilities.

Carnelli is the classic Mensa word-association game consisting of movies, music, books, and whatever else the capricious and arbitrary host will allow. More details are on Wikipedia’s Carnelli page.

Amber Sheikh Ginsberg is a nonprofit/social sector consultant with Thurlow/Associates, Harbor Area Planning Commissioner, and a tenacious homeless/housing advocate. She also serves on Mayor Garcetti’s Harbor-area Homelessness Organizing Committee and coordinates the Council District 15 Working Group on Homelessness. Amber is a board member of Social Venture Partners LA and the Los Angeles Bicycle Coalition. In 2019 Amber was chosen as LA City Council District 15’s Pioneer Woman of the Year for her work on homelessness and gender equity. She is also the 2019 recipient of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce Leadership Award.

This picture show by Gordon Glattenberg shows scenes from Los Angeles and the surrounding areas dating from the late 1950s, with emphasis on scenes that are no longer there.

Gordon was born in Los Angeles and has lived all his life in Southern California, the last 52 years in Santa Clarita. He attended Hollywood High School and Caltech and is a Registered Professional Engineer. His photography hobby has led to extensive travel, including 45 countries and all 50 states. Despite the travel, he’s never been tempted to move away from here!

Curiosity unites humans across both space and time. All cultures have looked up at the universe and wondered. It is one of the most fundamental experiences of being alive. We’ll journey though these curiosities: From Isaac Newton’s falling apple to black holes and string theory, we’ll weave a fabric of the most human experiences through physics.

Mark Greenberg has been a member of Mensa since 2005. For the past ten years he has taught AP Physics at a local high school in the South Bay. Mark has been recognized for exceptional physics teaching by Stanford, MIT, The US Air Force, UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine. In 2019, Mark Greenberg was selected by the Department of Education as a U.S. Presidential Scholar Distinguished Teacher in Washington D.C.

Have you been thinking you’d like to write your memoirs? Feeling stuck? Join us! Ina has a wealth of proven techniques to help writers open up to new ways of thinking and writing. Whether you’re a first time writer or published author new to the memoir form, her tools will help ignite your creativity, improve your writing form and structure, and help you shape your life history into a book that people — even if they are not your mother — will want to read.

Ina Hillebrandt is a nationally known writer, speaker, writing coach and editor/publisher with 20+ years of experience in memoir, fiction, mystery, comedy and self-help. Her own books include How to Write Your Memoirs…Fun Prompts To Make Reading…And Writing…Your Life Stories A Pleasure!; Pawprints; The Student Prints — Pawprints curriculum companion, and her latest, You Are Who You Eat, The Revolutionary New Cannibal Diet, now in the Billy Ireland Library and Museum. Writers she’s coached, individually and in classes, include new and published authors, Fortune 500 clients, and educators. More info

When you make a speech – – have a conversation with the audience!!! Everyone loves stories.

Stan has been a professional speaker for many years. He has spoken to audiences consisting of hundreds around the world. He sharpened his skills in the political area – winning and losing public office. Dr. Jones was Treasurer and active member of the National Speakers Association.

“Well, you dangerous already!”

–Bo Diddley once said of Sarah Kramer’s trumpet playing after performing together at the House of Blues.

Raised in West Orange, New Jersey, Sarah Kramer began playing trumpet at the tender age of nine. At sixteen Kramer picked up the guitar and started writing her own songs. Soon she was taking the train to New York City to busk in Washington Square Park. While an undergrad at Bard on a Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz scholarship awarded by trumpeter/composer Wadada Leo Smith, she frequently crossed the mighty Hudson River to play Woodstock’s renowned Tinker St. Cafe.

After college Kramer headed south to New Orleans, where she spent eight years exploring and honing her craft within a wide variety of musical styles: Blues, Jazz, Latin, Brass Band, Reggae, Klezmer, Alternative Rock, etc. While sitting in with legends like Levon Helm, Eddie Bo, Cyril Neville, Snooks Eaglin, Walter “Wolfman” Washington (and many more) she also developed her own sound while performing original songs with her band, The Sarah Kramer Project. She played trumpet on the title track of Leonard Cohen’s Dear Heather.

Sarah Kramer continues to perform her own material and to work as a studio musician. She can also be heard regularly sitting in with Jacksh*t at McCabe’s Guitar Shop and The Baked Potato. She currently resides in Hollywood, CA.

Come look at historical photos from 1881 through to the present with projections of what may happen in the future. We will touch on how the movie Chinatown isn’t real history and how the public transit system, the Red Cars, weren’t really taken out by conspiracy.

Darrell Kunitomi is a 42-veteran of The Times, working in Archives, Circulation and now Communications. He is The Times historian, and well remembers Jack Smith, Jim Murray, Art Seidenbaum and Charles Champlin. He is also one of the few employees to have met Dorothy and Otis Chandler.

The 1960s were the greatest decade of popular music. Groups featured in this program include the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Who, Kinks, Cream, Led Zeppelin and Yardbirds. The program may even feature some popular music by American groups.

A Day in the Life: American (and British) Popular Music 1960–69
This second of two programs about popular music of the 1960s focuses on rock, which was born in the 1950s and was reintroduced, reimagined and revolutionized in the 1960s. The songs you will hear in this program can be described as the Very Best of 1960s Rock.

This year Craig continues his relentless assault on the history of American popular music. For those who may be new to these programs (where have you been?), these are his 10th and 11th music programs in a series that started in 2015. You are warned that Craig has no musical talent whatsoever, as he amply demonstrated in an embarrassing Karaoke performance at last year’s RG. This year he focuses on the music of the 1960s. Showing no reluctance to expand his musical horizons, he will include British popular music, which some people might consider relevant to American popular music of the 1960s.

In order to understand possible future earthquakes in California, we need to understand the physics of past earthquakes. This is more difficult for events that happened before the invention of the seismometer, but physics-based computer models still allow us to study the processes behind these historic earthquakes. Here, I will talk about using computer models and geologic data to better understand several 19th century California earthquakes.

Julian Lozos is a seismologist whose work focuses on using computer models to understand how fault complexity and interaction affects the physics of the earthquake process. He is particularly interested in earthquakes within the San Andreas Fault system, and in using a combination of geologic data, historic accounts, and physics-based modeling to investigate old earthquakes. He got his PhD from UC Riverside in 2013, and did postdoctoral research at the U.S. Geological Survey and Stanford University under a NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship. He is currently an assistant professor of geophysics at California State University, Northridge.

Of course insects are not actually doing math, but there are some unique patterns seen in nature that can be modeled through mathematics. These patterns are not always simple math either, for example the dance of honeybees is modeled using vectors. Some of these patterns can be quite bizarre too, such as the multi-year cicada which only emerges in prime-numbered years. Why is this the case? Well, humans can use math to make some guesses!

Angela is a masters student in entomology and ecology at CSU Bakersfield. She has worked with butterflies in the past, and now studies ant foraging behavior as well as flying insect behavior around solar farms. She was a mathematics minor and now a budding statistician. This year she graduates from school and is off to be a real adult in the real world.

The latest facts about earthquakes, fires and other disasters will be presented and how to best prepare your home and work for any disaster including Exit Drills, use of free emergency apps, and valuable checklists. Some information will be available in Spanish. Prepare now… Survive during… Be safe after.

Sue received FEMA intensive training as a result of the Northridge Earthquake representing LAUSD. She is a Community Emergency Response Team member and represents the Neighborhood Council -Woodland Hills/Warner Center for Public Safety. She makes free specialized presentations to students, teachers, parents and to community groups.

Erik Passoja is an explosive, off-the-wall comic whose smart material, insane characters, and boundless energy have captivated audiences all over the country.
Recent comedy credits include “Gotham Comedy Live”, Byron Allen’s “Comics Unleashed”, Comedy Central, and a standup comedy concert film entitled, “Spiritually Incorrect Comedy”. A lifetime member of the world famous Actors Studio, recent TV acting credits include NCIS, Criminal Minds, a recurring role on “True Blood” on HBO, “Hawaii Five-0” on CBS, “Reconstruction” on NBC, and CSI. He has also performed overseas for our troops in Japan and Korea.

Stay-At-Home-Mom (SAHM) life is often fraught with struggles such as loneliness, depression, and feeling un-productive to society. But when you’ve got an overactive mind as well? The daily ins and outs of life with little kids can be downright mind numbing. Mensa member Ronni Peck, a SAHM of 3 young kids, will share her experiences and discuss ways to foster mental stimulation for other stay-at-home parents.

Ronni Peck lives in the Burbank area with her husband and three children, ages 8, 5, and 2. She homeschools, gardens, raises chickens, DIYs, overthinks, teaches math online, has a blog, and writes scripts.

Learn the common goal that unites all charitable organizations, constitutional watchdogs, rights activists, etc. who are attempting societal improvements. Provide a named concept which unifies their individual concerns and makes them all teammates for future good. Including you, I hope.

A Prosperous Future Depends on Women
An improved future depends on women being empowered far beyond suffrage and other basic ‘rights’. Learn what greatly increased responsibility and authority they must obtain to fulfill their essential role in society. Understand why no one else may contest a woman’s exercise of her increased role.

Born in Santa Monica, Mr. Quill graduated from San Fernando High School, and attended ‘some’ Junior College classes but has no additional certificates or degrees. He spent about half of his career as a woodworker, and then as a computer programmer, now retired. This makes him obviously unqualified to promote any suggestions for meaningful social change. Nevertheless he invites you to consider some exceptional ideas and concepts in a short time.

On my journeys I discovered that when I chased my dream, I learned a lot about myself, my capabilities, my limitations and the value of hard work, persistence, dedication, passion, family and love. “A Knights Tale” takes you on a life’s Journey of a young boy raised in a traditional Italian Catholic family tripping into the wild world of classic rock ‘n’ roll with bands such as Fleetwood Mac, The Beach Boys, Neil Young, Billy Idol and many more.

“A Knights Tale” takes you on a once in a lifetime extraordinary journey giving the ultimate backstage pass of life on the road with these mega stars.

It’s about a very young boy growing up and reconciling life with legendary artists of the day and sustaining a career for over 4 decades. The entertaining “A Knights Tale” empowers people of all ages with its core message of turning negatives into positives through determination, sacrifice, fate and destiny along with the value of dedication, love and passion.

Who were the two young men who served as Lincoln’s secretaries throughout the Civil War, and what were their responsibilities? How did they deal with Mary Lincoln and squabbles with Congress? And how did they shape Lincoln’s legacy after the war?

Dr Dave Schrader has been a long-standing member of the Los Angeles Civil War Roundtable and has presented 13 talks on the Civil War. He focuses on “the rest of the story” (cue Paul Harvey), picking topics other than the battles, and digging into details of people you might not know much about but who played subsidiary roles behind the main historical characters.

Songmakers was created in the 1950s to promote folk music and group singing. It even predates our own Mensa Folksong SIG. Steve Berman, the President of this dynamic group, will present a history of this group and the wide scope of its current activities. After that, Steve and GLAAM folksong SIG leader, Alan Stillson, will present a brief sampling of songs on guitar and harmonica.

A Fictitious History of Hit Songs of the 1950s-1980s
This is an interactive humor piece written by Alan Stillson, combining groaners with an homage to the pop music industry. Attendees will compete to try to figure out the title of the song. Here’s an example:

A few months before the start of 1964, the Beatles and a few friends were playing 5-card draw poker to relax before their big plans to become music sensations in the United States. Paul was getting nervous. He bet with a pair of queens. George and Ringo folded. John called the bet. Paul and John each drew 3 cards. Paul didn’t improve his pair but, knowing that the odds were still good, made a small bet. John followed with a large raise.

Paul knew, from previous experience, that John rarely bluffs. Reluctantly, Paul folded and blurted out, “I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND.”
Alan Stillson has been a Mensa member since 1987. He’s the puzzle editor of LAMentary and Oracle. He leads two SIGs, folk singing and the writers group. Alan recently retired as an adjunct mathematics professor and actively works as an author. He has eleven published puzzle books, has two produced musical shows and is working on the production of a peace concert.

Name That Tune
This long-standing RG tradition is back again this year. How’s your long-term memory in the area of recognizing melodies? The host is Alan Stillson, leader of the GLAAM Folksong SIG.

Author Alan Stillson and other members of the Mensa Writers Group will read excerpts of finished works and works in process. Questions and answers will follow.

In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth (August 25, 1918), symphony orchestras, opera companies, musical theaters, and arts organizations around the world have been performing and celebrating the works of this 20th Century titan of music. This talk presents both biographical information and excerpts from several of his compositions, including his most well-known staged musical works: ‘The Mass,” “On the Town,” “Wonderful Town,” “Candide,” and “West Side Story.”

” With “The Music Always Comes First!” as his lifelong motto, Ron Streicher earned a BA in Music from UCLA and a MA in Communications Arts from Loyola University. His love for opera was kindled while playing tympani in the pit orchestra of the UCLA Opera Theatre and rapidly grew to an overwhelming passion.

His interest in audio production evolved into a career that now spans more than five decades as an independent audio consultant and recording engineer specializing in live performances. Ron has had the pleasure of working with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Bolshoi, and the Philadelphia Orchestras; the touring companies of the New York City Opera and Metropolitan Opera; and during his eighteen summers with the Aspen Music Festival and School, he served as the recording engineer and sound designer for more than fifty opera productions.

His book, The New Stereo Soundbook is now in its third edition and has gained worldwide recognition as a standard reference on the subject of stereophonic perception, recording, and reproduction techniques.

A former member of Mensa (GLAAM), Ron also is a Fellow and Life Member of the Audio Engineering Society, and served on its Board of Governors for more than 25 years and as AES President in 2003/4. He continues to be actively involved with its educational activities and has given numerous presentations to AES meetings throughout the world. In recognition of his long-term service to the Society, Ron was awarded the AES Bronze Medal in 1995 and the Distinguished Service Medal in 2010.”

Bernie Unger is a child of the holocaust. Both of his parents immigrated independently from Germany to the United States in a modern day Exodus that is full of peril, impossible plot twists and serendipity. This talk honors a promise to his father to keep these Exodus stories alive after the original holocaust generation dies. World economic and political backdrop will be covered to show how decisions made in Washington, London, Berlin and elsewhere translated into actual events in the narratives.

Bernie joined Mensa in 1966. He’s a Caltech and UCSB graduate, now retired with his wife Judy in Discovery Bay, CA after a career in Chemical Engineering. He now spends his time trying hard to keep the boat docked in his backyard running and sea-worthy, all made possible because of events described in this presentation.

As ordered by the U.S. Constitution, the Decennial Census has been conducted every 10 years since 1790. $675 billion in government funding to local communities is at stake every year. All respondent information is protected by Title 13 of the U.S. Code that mandates all Census information to be kept confidential. The 2020 Census is upon us. Come learn more about it.

Gregory is a filmmaker and has been a member of Mensa since 2006 when he was living in Oregon and studying Creative Writing at Portland State University. In 2007 he moved to Prague, Czech Republic where he studied filmmaking at The Film & Television School of the Academy of Performing Arts. In 2008 he moved to Los Angeles where he joined Greater Los Angeles Area Mensa and began the program where he would eventually receive a Master of Fine Arts in Film & Television Production from the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. Currently Gregory is doing community engagement work with the U.S. Census Bureau, specializing in entertainment industry and LGBTQIA organizations.

Israel is the only true democracy in all the Mideast. It has shown the world that a tiny patch of desert, with no natural resources, can provide a free,vigorous, modern, productive home to a diverse, multi-religion population. As such, it appears a threat to the militant autocracies that surround it. Belligerent governments sponsor State-sponsored terrorism against Israel in order to keep their peoples trapped in their centuries-old “prisons.”

About Jack Winnick:
Engineering Professor, 40 years, Georgia Institute of Technology; intermittent with employment in the U.S. government at The Atomic Energy Commission, NASA, and State Dept. Also in private Aerospace, Power, Chemical and Petroleum Industries.
Author of multiple technical books and articles based on thermodynamics and electro-chemical engineering.
Seven U.S. Patents involved with industrial waste clean-up.
Author of four published novels on middle-east conflict and terrorism.

Family Feud will be played as much like the TV show as possible, given that kids WILL play, everyone is allowed to replay in another team, and “fun” will be the focus.

Big Bang Trivia
Test your knowledge on this TV series, which features a cluster of Mensa type characters. Challenges in the game are resolved with an extended rochambeau of “rock, paper, scizzors, LIZARD, SPOCK.

Werewolves
Each player picks a card to find out their character. Everyone tries to find out who is the werewolf, but sometimes a villager gets kicked out instead. Watch out for a werewolf pretending to be a villager. The group can usually play 3 rounds in an hour.

43rd Annual DooDah Parade Discussion
Join us in Hospitality on Sunday morning at 10:00 AM, or catch Ed You anytime at the RG, to discuss IF, and HOW, we should march in this parade, which is a parody of The Rose Parade. We need to know how many Mensas want to march, what we’ll wear, will we perform, and any other brainstorming ideas that you want to discuss. The parade “marches” for a 6-8 block distance, and takes place in Pasadena, in November of 2020, in a yet to be determined date.

Ed You is a lifetime member, with his incredible wife, Viki. They have 3 adorable cats, Pixie, Cassie and Buffy. As a retired clinical pharmacist, game entrepreneur, and actor, you might know him as “Mr. Mensa 2014,” the “Palabra Pimp,” the “Alpha Wolf” when playing Werewolf, “Sister Mary Ignatius,” and the overworked, and NOT incompetent, “Inspector You” from the Mensa Murder Mystery series.