Although you say they're not human, you are clearly assuming that they have some form of what we'd call "higher intelligence" because you are assuming they have language and you are going to bring them back for "meetings" rather than to study them. So you're assuming these are alien "humans" rather than alien "dolphins."
I think it would be easier if they were dolphins...
I don't think "intelligence" does exist, at least not in any way that can be differentiated from opportunity and drive. In other words, I don't know that the people we think of as "smart" are anything other than people who had the chance and the desire to become that way.
I'm going to cop out. I think you'd have to just try to figure out who was most important in a variety of ways and take them home with you. You would have to assume that the "people" who had managed to achieve had something on the ball.
But wait, what if they have a hereditary hierarchy? Or what if they're all subsistence farmers. Now how do we figure out who's smartest?
What if you gave them puzzles to put together? That should get one kind of "intelligence." Maybe try to put them through mazes? Have them identify patterns and predict the next thing in the pattern? Give them a musical instrument and see how quickly they can make music with it (assuming they've got the right anatomy)? Maybe if you got some the people who were good at each of those you'd come close to getting the most "intelligent..."
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