"Aquilino, Jason A." wrote:
>
> Dear Mr. Heigl:
>
>              I assure you that no mistake has been made in the complaint
> against you.

I'm sure you do -- everybody please note that I predicted this response
in a previous e-mail.

> American Mensa, the US trademark owner of the MENSA mark,
> would like the unauthorized domain name, MINNESOTAMENSA.ORG, transferred
> to American Mensa.

No, it wouldn't. Try reading American Mensa's letter to me dated
December 27, 2004. American Mensa would like the domain name
transferred to Minnesota Mensa. This has been done.

Furthermore, it *is* an authorized domain name. Minnesota Mensa and I
are parties to a signed written agreement naming me as Webmaster for
Minnesota Mensa. As Webmaster, I authorized that domain name.

> American Mensa does not recognize MINNESOTAMENSA.ORG
> as the official web site for the Minnesota chapter.

Well, it's high time it did, because minnesotamensa.org IS the official
website for the Minnesota Chapter, because its Webmaster says it is, and
that's all it takes.

> American Mensa has
> only authorized Minnesota Mensa to register and operate MNMENSA.org.

I am calling this a blatant lie, although I concede it may arise more
out of ignorance than deliberate mendacity. American Mensa did no such
thing.

You are forgetting that I also was the original Webmaster for Minnesota
Mensa. I made the proposal, had it accepted, was appointed Webmaster,
proposed the domain name, had it registered, and designed and published
the website.

(Actually, the original choice for domain name was indeed
minnesotamensa.org, but back then I believe there was a length limit,
since lifted, so we went with mnmensa.org because it was short enough.)

What I did *not* do was submit the domain name to American Mensa for its
"authorization" because American Mensa does not authorize Local Group
domain names.

I am willing to consider evidence to the contrary, if you can provide
it, and in that case will publicly apologize.

Please provide all of us with a copy of the purported document whereby
American Mensa authorized the domain name for Minnesota Mensa. Bear in
mind that to support your assertion, this document needs to be dated
between March 14, 1998 (when I began my inquiries as to whether
Minnesota Mensa would like me to do their website), and April 30, 1998
(when the site was up and running under its original domain name at that
time).

If you can provide us with a copy of the American Mensa document
authorizing Minnesota Mensa's domain name (or a copy of any American
Mensa document authorizing *any* Local Group's domain name), fine, do
so. If you can't (and I don't think you can), then you're well advised
to zip the lip on that argumentation approach, because nobody will be
buying it.

Besides, let's take a look at what's at mnmensa.org -- what you're
claiming is the website that should represent Minnesota Mensa.

EVERYBODY: Here's a good representative example: browse to
http://www.mnmensa.org/archives/puzzles/ -- please note the quality
(meaning the lack thereof).

This is a page archiving puzzles that have appeared in the Minnesota
Mensa monthly magazine (Mensagenda) and reprinted on the website.

1. Note that it is incomplete and out of date. Nothing before 2002 or
since October 2004.

2. Note that some are listed as "unavailable".

3. Note especially the entries for May, June, July, August, and November
2003, where there links to the answers but NO LINKS TO THEIR PUZZLES!

4. Note that the links to those answers without puzzles are all bad.
And, while the archive page shows "March Links" at the upper left, the
custom File Not Found page says "September Links".

(I strongly recommend that readers of this e-mail do something to
preserve this evidence, since the WWW is very transient, and it's likely
that someone will be dispatched to fix this page or remove it. Use File
| Save to save a copy, or print it out, or at least take a screen shot
of it.)

This page was created by what I still consider an inept, incompetent,
webmaster wannabe, Jason Schmitz. As far as I know, this page has been
in this deplorable condition for over two years.

(There's lots more where this came from. I have multiple copies over
time of this website. Currently there are 41 broken internal links.
That's not counting a lot of typos, misspellings, etc.)

This page makes Minnesota Mensa look like a bunch of morons.

Now, for contrast, let's look at the same thing at the real website,
minnesotamensa.org. Here is the link:
http://www.minnesotamensa.org/puzzles.htm.

Note here that all months in which the puzzle was put on the website are
covered. The answers are each linked from it puzzle. All the links are
good.

Conclusion? Anybody who would look at both pages and then advocate that
mnmensa.org represent Minnesota Mensa is an enemy of Mensa, a person who
*wants* Mensa's image and reputation to suffer.

How about it, Jason? If you take your job seriously to act in the best
interests of your client, you'd be on my side on this issue.

>            Yes, you were initially asked to transfer your registration to
> Minnesota Mensa. However, after you chose to ignore Ms. Donahoo's
> request and after I became involved as an authorized agent of American
> Mensa, that request was changed.

Baloney. As I said above, I predicted that you would try to weasel out
of your mistake in the paperwork.

(You had no way of knowing at the time, but I hadn't "chosen" to ignore
Ms. Donahoo's request. What I *had* done was to set her envelope aside
for a couple of weeks, unopened, because it hadn't been mailed from her
office and it physically looked like a grade school crafts project.
Browse to http://www.millcityrecords.com/mndensa/pld-env.htm and you'll
see what I mean.)

After you were involved, I started noticing malformed e-mails, typos,
and other evidence of your lack of attention to detail. (Did you ever
hear back from Camille Ede that MINNESOTAMENSA.COM had been unlocked?)

"... that request was changed." Why? What you thought was my "choice
to ignore" was certainly no justification for changing the parameters.
After you were involved, your job was to pursue Ms. Donahoo's request,
not change it.

I still say that "that request was changed" because you weren't paying
attention to detail when you were typing the stuff up, and now you're
trying to justify your error, but you've provided no justification.

> The new request, made clear from the
> complaint and from my many emails to you, is that the name be
> transferred to American Mensa.

As I've noted in at least one previous e-mail, go to
http://www.millcityrecords.com/mndensa/domains/, click the links, and
show me even *one* Mensa Local Group with its own domain name that has
that name registered to American Mensa. You can't; American Mensa
doesn't operate that way.

Your pursuing this "request" is a violation of Mensa bylaws.

>            I would also kindly ask that you discontinue your childish
> insults

Request denied, primarily because if they were truly "childish insults",
you wouldn't even bother addressing the issue.

> and the defamatory accusations

Today's lesson: although they both start with "de" and end with "atory"
and have ten letters, the words "defamatory" and "derogatory" are two
different words, with significantly different meanings. No doubt, since
precision of words are crucial to lawyering, you have a dictionary to
hand. Your assignment is to look up these two words and contemplate
their different meanings. Compare and contrast.

> that I am a liar,

All I can say is that there's a phrase I came across a few years back,
when I was (successfully) representing myself in a child custody case,
that goes "... tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth." You may have heard of it.

When you write that I failed to transfer the domain name to American
Mensa, while conveniently omitting the fact that American Mensa asked me
to transfer it to Minnesota Mensa, that is not telling the whole truth,
and our American justice system equates that with lying.

Face it, Jason, anytime you tell a half-truth, or put something in a
document that isn't so, I will call you on it. Every time.

> that I am not
> an authorized agent of American Mensa,

Well, I think that's a lie. Show me where I said or even implied
anything of the sort. I fully acknowledge that you are an authorized
agent of American Mensa (to its detriment), and I've never written
anything to the contrary.

(Since you are an "authorized agent" of American Mensa, your job was to
assist in your client's request that the domain name be transferred to
Minnesota Mensa, and once that was done, your function is discharged and
you should stop, rather than try to run up the meter.)

What I *did* mention is that, based on what I've seen so far, I have my
doubts whether you are a plain old dues-paying member of Mensa, or would
even qualify.

I can easily be set straight on this. Pam Donahoo could certainly
advise me if you are indeed a paid-up member of Mensa. Or you could
scan your membership card and send it to me.

If you are in fact *not* a member of Mensa, you could still provide
evidence that you would qualify for membership. I would assume that you
took the LSAT; what I don't know is whether that implies that you would
not have taken the GRE. In either case, your score would be definitive.

Or just browse to http://www.us.mensa.org/join_mensa/testscores.php3,
and provide a copy of the results of one of those tests you've taken.

> that I have made a material
> mistake

Well, when American Mensa requests that a domain name be transferred to
Minnesota Mensa, and you type it up as requesting the transferal be to
American Mensa, yes, I'd call that a "material" mistake.

> or that I have tried to cover up the alleged material mistakes.

When you give us all a load of hooey trying to justify that you typed
"American Mensa" instead of "Minnesota Mensa", yeah, that's an attempted
cover-up. I still say that you weren't paying attention to detail.

Jason, I think part of your problem is that you expect me to treat you
like an invited guest. You are not an invited guest around here.
You're not even an uninvited guest. You are an intruder, and your
intentions are malicious. I've seen no evidence that you've made even
the slightest attempt to research the basic underlying issues regarding
this case. Your actions so far make it quite clear that you mean harm
to Minnesota Mensa, its website, and its Webmaster. I'm going to resist
that in every legal way I can dream up.

So I suppose it's best that you're spending your time worrying about
"childish insults" because then you won't be pondering things like
whether I'm preparing a special page on my own website devoted to
documenting all the dumb mistakes you've made in this case (so far), or
that I'm simultaneously setting up an e-mail list of perhaps one to two
or three dozen selected faculty and administration members at Wake
Forest, GWU, and also the DC and Maryland Bar Associations that I can
invite to inspect your handiwork and form their own opinions as to what
kind of lawyer you turned out to be.

Before you contemplate a reply, I can't resist asking, again, did you
ever hear back from Camille Ede that MINNESOTAMENSA.COM had been
unlocked?

Al Heigl
Webmaster,
Minnesota Mensa

--

Alan Heigl
Mill City Records
P.O. Box 177
Northfield Minnesota 55057-0177
507-663-6090
(Professional Proofreading,
Web Site Work using FrontPage 2003)
http://www.millcityrecords.com/webwork/