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More than 60 men and women have joined the renaissance taking place among the members of the Somerset chapter of the Brandeis National Committee.

Its first meeting was held Oct. 26 at 1 p.m. in the community room at the Franklin Township Library on DeMott Lane in Somerset. Former CIA covert officer Margaret Henoch spoke to the group about her experiences in the CIA for more than 20 years. Henoch also is Jewish and has been interviewed on television's "60 Minutes" for her role assessing information regarding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

The group's membership has changed, its meeting space has changed, and there's a new list of speakers and activities on the calendar, said Iris Kislin, one of several women involved in reorganizing the group. She said the group has many different types of people as members with varied interests, which keeps things interesting.

"People have said 'Oh I've been looking for a group like this for years'," Kislin said.

Upcoming activities include a Nov. 10 speaker on moral, ethical, and legal dilemmas, a Nov. 13 trip to see an exhibit of New Jersey sculptor George Segal's work in Montclair, a Nov. 16 travelogue on Kenya and Tanzania, and weekly Torah study. December activities include a trip to the American Hungarian Museum in New Brunswick to see an exhibit of paintings by Gyuri Hollosy, chess lessons, discussion and showing of the film "Of Stars and Shamrocks," chronicling the relationship between Boston's Irish and Jewish communities, a workshop about interfaith marriages, and belly dancing lessons.

The Brandeis National Committee promotes Brandeis University and organizes activities that reflect values on which the university was founded - social justice, non-sectarianism, and service to the community. Over the years the group (which originally was called the Brandeis University National Women's Committee but changed its name in 2008 to reflect its current unisex membership) has raised $113 million for the university and its library.

"I thought she was phenomenal," Kislin said of Henoch. "What she had to say were things that were alluded to in the newspapers, but no one ever came out and said the specifics. She says how it was, what was going on at the CIA."

Henoch retired after serving as chief of station in a CIA office in a first-world country with responsibility for oversight and review of all intelligence activities in that country. She joked that her career resembled the role played by Goldie Hawn in the film "Private Benjamin".

During her speech, Henoch talked about how she was asked to determine whether the source providing information on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was reliable. She explained how her group decided the source was not reliable. She said she was involved in trying to make a case against going to war and that she was included in the Silbermann-Robb report on the accuracy of the intelligence, Kislin said of Henoch.

Kislin also found other aspects of Henoch's life fascinating and somewhat ironic. For example, Henoch was born in Los Alamos, as her father was a scientist there working on the Manhattan Project.

In an email note to Kislin, Henoch said she likes to discuss government service and "the odd relationship that Americans have with the concept of government" and the "disapproval that Americans have for an intelligence service."

For more information about the Somerset chapter of the Brandeis National committee contact Kislin at iriskislin@aol.com