X-Message-Number: 10280 Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 11:51:14 -0400 (EDT) From: Charles Platt <> Subject: Volunteer Help Chris Fideli wrote: > In cryonet post #10121, I made what I considered to be a reasonable > argument for the wisdom of retaining representation for congressional > lobbying. My argument was neither dismissed nor refuted, but just left > to hang there, sort of twisting in the wind. Possibly because someone else had made the same suggestion relatively recently, on sci.cryonics, where it was debated for a while. Opinions ranged from "Good idea, we should do it, but we don't have any money for this purpose" to "Bad idea, cryonics is safer if it maintains a low profile; the last thing we want is to bring cryonics to the attention of legislators who may try to regulate it or outlaw it completely, once they understand what it's about." I tend to sympathize with the second statement, because politicians generally do favors only for special-interest groups that have some clout (i.e. money and members). Why should any politician bother with a minority as tiny as the cryonics movement (fewer than 1000 people worldwide)? Also, bear in mind the possibility that a legislator might feel it would be politically popular to come out AGAINST cryonics. Lastly, you'd better be very clear regarding the political favors you are seeking. What do we really need right now, from federal or state legislators? I can't think of anything. But I'm open to suggestions. > And this is a question I've asked a couple of the members of cryonics > organizations that I've come in contact with: "Anything I can do to > help? No one seemed to have any ideas for me. Here I am, a 24 year > old kid willing to work for free! I've never been involved in an > organization in my life that didn't jump all over an offer for > volunteer work. I don't think you made your offer to me, or anyone else at CryoCare. If you did, and you didn't get a satisfactory response, please remind me of the details. I apologize if we were unresponsive. Personally I am a bit cautious about relative newcomers promoting cryonics. You need to be able to answer fairly technical questions about cryobiology, procedures used by transport teams, perfusion, insurance, corporate bylaws, and trust funds, to pick a few topics at random. I'm not saying that volunteers can't do this; just that it is nontrivial. Of course there are simpler tasks too--but they may require the volunteer to be at a specific location. (I don't know where you are located.) I am not trying to be discouraging, because I'm usually able to find an application for some special skill in any volunteer who presents him/herself. I'm merely suggesting some reasons why your offer may not have been taken up eagerly by organizations that you approached, if you expressed the specific intention to "sell" cryonics. Please email me if you have any further interest. In particular I would be very happy to find any volunteer who can deal reliably with billing, electronics hardware, or computer programming. But, that may not be what you want to do. --Charles Platt () CryoCare Foundation PS. You mention that other organizations usually leap at the opportunity to use volunteer help. Actually this has not been my experience when dealing with the ACLU, Libertarian Party, and a few other nonprofit groups. Usually the group is skeptical and requires the volunteer to prove himself in some way (maybe just by hanging around for a while). Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10280