X-Message-Number: 1047
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Date: Tue, 21 Jul 92 14:18:29 PDT
Business Meeting Report
by Ralph Whelan
The July Board of Directors meeting, occurring at Virginia Jacobs'
house in Rolling Hills Estates, was as eventful as any I've seen (and I've
seen the last 24). And while I would venture to say that it was a bit
more tame than the last one, certainly more was accomplished.
For starters, Carlos Mondragon made an almost immediate motion that
Paul Genteman replace him as Chairman of the Board. Carlos has served as
Chairman for four-and-a-half years, and no one will begrudge his taking a
break from that demanding and exhausting task. Paul, who has been
secretary for fifteen years, graciously accepted and took on his duties
immediately. The first order of business taken on by him was to step down
as secretary in favor of Ralph Whelan, who still isn't sure that this
wasn't just a very intricate plot. . . .
The first topic under new Chairmanship was the recent onslaught of
suspensions. There were three suspensions in the month of June, and one
demanding remote standby. Michael Friedman was reported on last issue.
"Jack," an Alcor Suspension Member of about four years, deanimated at 5:30
a.m. on June 19, after three days of remote standby performed primarily by
Mike Darwin, Tanya Jones, Naomi Reynolds, and Carlos Mondragon. Jack
lived in Vista, which is about an hour's drive from Riverside. Jack's
transfer from dry ice temperature storage to final cooldown and liquid
nitrogen storage took place on July 8, 18 days after his deanimation. The
inordinate delay was the result of a lack of storage pods (not dewars),
Michael Friedman having recently used the last. Mike Darwin (previously,
by phone) made the important point that with the higher levels of glycerol
concentration we're now reaching, there is more biological activity at
this temperature and we must be prepared to shorten the stays of our
patients at dry ice temperature.
Also occurring in June was the suspension of Jim Glennie, an Alcor
Suspension Member who deanimated as a result of a brain tumor. (The acute
cause of death was viral pneumonia.) Jim's suspension began in Fort
Collins, Colorado. The transport was performed primarily by Tanya Jones,
Mike Darwin, Keith Henson, and Carlos Mondragon, with the presence and
assistance of Mary Margaret Glennie, Jim's wife.
During the course of Jim's suspension, a potential fourth suspension
for the month of June was brewing in Massachusetts. The Alcor New York
Transport Team Members Gerry Arthus, Curtis Henderson, and Stanley Gerber
were deployed from New York on the evening that Jim's suspension was
beginning. They were soon joined by Arel Lucas, and later by Mike Darwin
and Tanya Jones, who by necessity left for Massachusetts before we'd even
finished with Jim Glennie in Riverside. It's possible that "Bill," the
Massachusetts member still in distress, will be flying to Riverside with
his mother and fiancee to enter a home hospice nearby.
Alcor has had some difficulties of late with an individual who was a
member for a couple of months but withdrew his membership a few weeks ago.
The difficulties culminated in his actions affecting the remote standby
in Massachusetts. Apparently, a hospital situation that was already
delicate was made very nearly disastrous by this member's attempt to get
Alcor some press. Despite admonishments from various members that this
was inappropriate, the member FAXed his "CryoNews" publicity sheet to
various members of the media, inviting and indeed encouraging them to go
to the hospital in Massachusetts where an Alcor member was on the verge of
deanimation. The hospital, which had been cautious but cooperative up
until that point, became (understandably) paranoid and bureaucratic, and
the member's family became outright hostile. Keith Henson read a cryonet
posting by Mike Darwin explaining the extreme difficulties caused by this.
It was generally agreed that the best remedy in situations such as this is
to limit and if possible completely cut off all communication of
information to the person.
The subject of a mission statement for Alcor came up again, and Ralph
Whelan circulated a memo proposing a detailed mission statement with an
accompanying goal statement. Courtney Smith expressed concern that a
misworded mission statement could affect our 501c-3 (tax-exempt) status,
and Carlos agreed to look into this by the next meeting. All Directors
will be prepared to discuss this and if appropriate vote on it at the next
meeting. I include the text of the proposed mission statement below, so
that concerned members can contact us with any concerns. Please keep in
mind that the wording of this will have to altered somewhat to reflect our
priorities as a non-profit, tax-exempt organization.
The Alcor Life Extension Foundation is a non-profit tax-exempt
scientific and educational organization. The mission of Alcor is:
1) To maintain the patients in suspension.
a. To seek a secure location for patient storage.
b. To seek secure locations for placement of P.C.T.F. funds
with adequate return on investment.
c. To anticipate and prepare for potential legal attack on
patients.
d. To continually upgrade storage alarms and other safety
features.
2) To suspend members as the need arises.
a. To maintain a state-of-the-art Emergency Response capability.
b. To train Suspension Members in transport and suspension
techniques.
c. To improve relations with state and medical authorities
involved with transports and suspensions.
d. To provide Suspension Members with the best possible
(reasonably priced) emergency alert mechanisms.
3) To conduct research in pursuit of 1 and 2
a. To monitor existing medical technologies for improvements
relevant to transport, washout, and bypass techniques.
b. To conduct in-house research toward improved transport,
washout, and bypass techniques.
c. To subsidize basic and applied biological and mechanical
research applicable to perfecting cryonic suspension,
cooldown without cracking, storage, and eventually reanimation.
4) To increase membership in support of 1, 2, and 3
a. To seek low-cost marketing techniques.
b. To facilitate and encourage "grassroots" recruitment and
localized Emergency Response Teams.
c. To establish cordial relationships with other cryonics
organizations.
The next topic was that of "One Million AD," which was left to Alcor
by Dick Jones before he went into suspension, and represents the future
income stream from the show Mama's Family, which Dick created. The
present assets of One Million AD amount to $170,000. Its prospects for
the future are unknown, but not especially promising. Since certain
family members of Dick's are still insisting on half of "all future
income" from Dick's estate, and insisting that One Million AD represents
future income, it is not at this point clear that Alcor can win its claim
to the entire $170,000, rather than just $85,000 (one half). The question
is, should Alcor pursue the entire amount, and win or lose at some
indeterminate future date, or settle now and receive $85,000 within about
forty days? The issue is significant now for cash flow reasons.
After prolonged discussion, it was decided that we would use the
services of attorney Jack Zinn to check into this. After doing so, Jack
will report to Carlos his opinion of whether it is worth pursuing the
entire amount. In the meantime, Carlos is authorized by unanimous vote to
list $85,000 as a receivable on our books.
Eric Klien circulated a memo detailing the suggestions resulting from
the most recent meeting of the PCTF Advisory Committee. Suggestion number
3 of that memo was adopted, as follows: "Accept the offer to receive one
share of TCW at par for every five shares that we have. We should accept
this offer based on the 9.51% premium that TCW currently sells at. This
will give us a bonus return for the past month of 9.51/5= 1.902% or
22.824% annually in addition to the average 9% return that this fund
returns."
There has been a lot of discussion recently about the feasibility of
Alcor owning its own suspension equipment, rather than renting the
equipment from Cryovita as it does right now. I covered some of the
various opinions about this in last month's Business Meeting Report.
Since that meeting, the management of Cryovita has apparently decided that
Cryovita should exit the suspension services business and concentrate
solely on research. To this end, Paul Wakfer (the president of Cryovita)
has asked Carlos Mondragon to prepare a list of the equipment and supplies
that Alcor would like to purchase, and make an offer.
Carlos made the following proposal regarding purchasing said
equipment: "The Executive Committee is authorized to compile a list of
Cryovita's suspension equipment and supplies and make Cryovita an offer
for the same. (Funding is to be amortized from the savings on rent [of
this equipment].) If the Executive Committee's offer is accepted, the
sales contract will be sent by FAX, Federal Express, or E-mail, whereupon
each Board member will FAX, Federal Express, or E-mail their decision to
approve or demur within 48 hours." After some discussion, the proposal
was approved by a vote of 6 in favor, with two abstentions. (Hugh Hixon
and Brenda Peters, being shareholders of Cryovita, could not participate
in the vote.)
A particularly hot topic at the meeting was Joe Hovey's recent memo
proposing that a new managerial position be created at Alcor and filled by
Alcor's Membership Administrator and Editor of Cryonics, Ralph Whelan. If
approved, Joe's proposal would have Ralph continuing as Editor of
Cryonics, but relinquishing his Membership Administrator duties. These
duties would then be taken on by someone prepared to work on them full
time, as a result of the increase in workload for this department. Joe
suggested Alcor Suspension Member Derek Ryan for this position.
There was at least an hour of discussion about this proposal. A few
members were concerned that a) it was not at all clear that Alcor could
afford such a move, b) even if it could we should consider raising
salaries before taking on more staff, and c) even if it was certain that
more staff was necessary, there should be an announcement put into
Cryonics inviting people to apply. The response to these concerns on the
part of many of the members and directors present was that a) it does seem
that Alcor can afford this right now, and if it works out well it will pay
for itself and then some by freeing up Ralph and Carlos to work on
fundraising and related issues (such as research), b) raising salaries
will not help the fact that there is more work than workers, and the
entire staff supports an additional employee over salary increases right
now, and c) announcing an employee opening is sometimes necessary and
appropriate, but when it appears that someone wonderfully suited for the
position is willing to start immediately, this is not necessary (and is in
fact counterproductive).
The issue beneath the issue, which reared its head from time to time
during the discussion, seemed (to me) to be that the persons opposing this
move felt that it was an attempt to "shore up" Carlos, who has come under
attack during recent months. The sentiment appeared to be that this
amounted to giving Carlos an assistant, which would serve only to obscure
the issue of his efficacy as President.
It's difficult for me to comment on that viewpoint objectively, since
I am so embroiled in the issue myself. And while normally I would shrug
and say that pure objectivity is impossible in situations such as this so
here's my subjective opinion, that would taint a report that I intend to
generate as "amorally" as I can each month. With this in mind, I'll make
the observation that it is not at all clear that having an additional
management person will make Carlos any less assailable, and that in fact
it's reasonable to suspect that he will feel more pressure to perform
under such an arrangement.
The debate on the two sides of the issue was showing no signs of
abating when a motion to accept the proposal was put forth, seconded, and
voted on. It passed with 7 in favor and 1 opposed. This motion was
immediately followed by a motion that Ralph's new position be that of Vice
President, which passed unanimously and without discussion. (Paul
Genteman is also a Vice President of Alcor.)
Dave Pizer circulated copies of a proposed Chapter Agreement and
Bylaws for an Arizona chapter. The wording is simple and preliminary, and
if anything will change in the future to be more favorable toward the
Arizona members. A motion to accept the Agreement passed unanimously.
Brenda Peters read a statement proposing that Alcor no longer perform
any research (with special emphasis on animal research) at the Alcor
facility, but instead contract for offsite research. This is an attempt
at further patient protection, on the basis that animal rights activists
or regulatory agents objecting to research activities could directly or
indirectly harm patients in suspension. Carlos agreed to look into the
ramifications of this proposal and circulate a memo regarding his findings
by the Sunday prior to the next meeting.
Recently it was brought to the attention of the Board of Directors
that Alcor's Bylaws require the board to "perpetuate itself" each
September by re-voting on each Directorial position. A motion was made
that since the September meeting is only two meetings away, it would be
remedied then instead of immediately, and repeated each September. The
motion passed with seven in favor and one abstention.
The meeting was adjourned.
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