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Subject: Alcor Laughlin Minutes
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 92 21:47:30 PDT
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ALCOR LAUGHLIN CHAPTER MINUTES
SUNDAY AUGUST 16TH 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Mary Beth Eric Klien H. Jackson Zinn
Art Gerstztyn Don Laughlin
Lila Guzm n Jerry Searcy
Change of Dates
The September Alcor Nevada meeting has been moved to the third
Sunday. After September, we will go back to meeting on the second
Sunday of the month.
Change of Time
Meeting time has been permanently changed from 5:00 PM to 1:00 PM.
Please arrive promptly at these meetings as Don must leave them by
3:00 PM.
Free Rooms
Don Laughlin has agreed to give a free hotel room on Sunday nights to
anyone who attends our Sunday meetings. You should call a week in
advance to confirm that the room is available.
Special Guest -- H. Jackson Zinn
H. Jackson Zinn attended this meeting. He is President of the
International Cryonics Foundation, was co-counsel on the Mitchell vs.
Roe case that Alcor recently won which made cryonics legal in
California, and has considerable experience in cryonics law.
At his suggestion, I am maintaining a database of lawyers sympathetic
to cryonics. If anyone would like to add lawyers to my database,
please send me information.
He also suggested that we do a mailing to people in Nevada asking
them if they would like to attend meetings and if they would be
interested in buying cryonics related literature. The idea is that
even if they don't attend our meeting, perhaps they will help pay for
the mailings by buying cryonics books, etc. This idea is being
pursued and Saul Kent has contributed 170 Nevada names on mailing
labels towards this cause. I am currently looking into costs of
preprinted envelopes and stationary as well as the costs of renting
the Nevada Longevity mailing list.
Jackson also suggested that Don advertise our meetings on the huge
electronic sign outside his casino. Preferably for a week before the
meeting.
He also suggested that Alcor Laughlin have a flag, a motto, and a
song. Our flag has a white background, the color Alcor logo, below
the logo is "Alcor - Laughlin" in gold block, and below the text is a
blue line representing the Laughlin river. Our motto is "Live and
Let Live" and our song is "Stand By Me".
Finally, he wrote the following article about his first attendance at
our meeting:
Laughlin
By H. Jackson Zinn
There was once a middle-eastern ruler who calculated that he had
experienced fourteen days of ecstatic happiness in his lifetime.
Well, I've already had three this month of July, and it isn't even
over yet! The first was when the California Court of Appeals changed
its mind and agreed to let its decision be published in the Mitchell
case. The other two were in Laughlin, Nevada.
The first thing that strikes you as you approach Laughlin, Nevada, at
night on the river road is a string of skyscrapers bathed in a
kaleidoscope of bright colors, doubled by their reflection in the
water.
Laughlin is a gambling town founded by cryonicist Don Laughlin, who
really rolled out the red carpet for me. The first business in the
town was a sleepy little motel operated by Mr. Laughlin, but things
only went up from there. Today there are ten casinos in Laughlin,
and Don Laughlin's Riverside Resort is expanding from 660 to 1400
rooms. You'd never know there's a recession in Laughlin, which
recently accrued 45.9 million in gaming revenues in one month. Signs
of construction abound. You don't develop an oasis in the desert
like this unless you do a lot of things right, and it became obvious
that a lot of attention has been paid to consumer needs, to life from
the customer's point of view.
I must confess I'm not much of a gambler. In the trade, I guess you
would call me a nickel-slot man, or a "low-roller". I've got nickel-
slot relatives even more conservative who count every payout, coin
for coin. However, when I hit Don Laughlin's Riverside Resort, I
decided to go big-time, to the quarter machine, where I dropped 180
straight quarters without a single "hit". When I later informed Mr.
Laughlin of this, he said "The machine's working properly, then", he
added," you get our grand prize... a concrete rowboat!"
Saturday night started out in the Loser's Lounge, which features
losers ranging from the H.M.S. Titanic to Spiro Agnew (perhaps we
could add Mr. Mitchell of California's Health Department!). The
action then moved to Don's Celebrity Room, where Freddy Fender was
performing. Fender is known for Mexican-style country music, such as
"I'll Be Three Before The Next Teardrop Falls." Mr. Laughlin
arranged for me to visit and be photographed with the singer after
the show. Other performers coming there regularly include Merle
Haggard, Roy Clark, and Willie Nelson.
There's a lot to do besides gambling in Laughlin. They've got hang
gliding, swimming, river boating, tours to nearby London Bridge and
Hoover Dam. You'll find lots of people jetskiing down the river as
well. Admirers of the female form will enjoy the "Best Chest in the
West" contest, with runoff matches lasting several weeks.
Cryonicists have long theorized that the growth of the movement would
be rapidly accelerated by the entrance of some "great man". Not a
messiah, but a person with the right blend of charisma, imagination,
common sense, wealth, and business acumen, combined with unyielding
commitment to the movement's success. The rocket scientist Robert
Truax used to say, "The people with imagination don't have any money,
and the people with the money don't have any imagination." Someday
cryonicists will get it together, and Don Laughlin may hold the key.
I fantasized about the future: Kenny Rogers comes to Don's Celebrity
Room to entertain the high-rollers. He sings "The Gambler".
However, at the point where he gets to the line "the most you can
hope for is to die in your sleep", he quickly adds "(and then get
frozen)"!
EMTS
At this point we are waiting for Don Laughlin's employees to begin
their training. It is expected than an equal amount of level one and
level two EMTs will be trained. Once their training is complete,
then the three local Alcor members with some EMT training plus Don's
employees will go through an Alcor certification course at one time.
After the course, we will buy two kits, one for the Las Vegas area
and one for the Laughlin area.
In the discussion about Don's training of EMTs it was noted that he
may be able to save on insurance as well as reduce nuisance lawsuits
by having EMTs. The possibility of making money by renting out the
trained medical teams was also discussed.
In the last minutes, I mentioned that I had contacted the Clark
County Health Department about the legality of storing drugs such as
Heparin and that they had failed to answer this question. Since then
I have also contacted the Attorney General, Frankie Sue Delpappa, and
the Nevada Health & Human Resources Legal Attorney General Division.
Neither government agency thought we were in their jurisdiction.
Well, at least no one was interested in prosecuting us.
Fire Department
I have followed up with the Acting Paramedic Coordinator at the Clark
County Fire Department and he has promised me that he will soon
distribute the memo about our bracelets. I hope to have evidence of
this by our next meeting. At the last meeting, I passed around
copies of the information that I sent him for inclusion in this memo.
I would be glad to send copies of this information to interested
parties.
Publicity
Our monthly ad in the Las Vegas Review-Journal failed to attract any
people to the latest meeting. But the editors at Nevada Senior World
read it and promised to run a free ad for us in their October issue.
The ad will mention the free rooms and bingo specials offered at the
Riverside Casino.
Information from Charles Hartman
Charlie mentioned that David Ross would be speaking about "Cryonics",
"Human Uploading" and "Mind Translation" at the summer Eris Society
meeting in Aspen.
Next Meeting
Our next meeting will be on the third Sunday of next month, September
20th, at 1:00 PM at the executive office in the Riverside casino in
Laughlin, Nevada. Take 95 south from Las Vegas, through Henderson,
where it forks between 95 and 93. Bear right at the fork and stay on
95 past Searchlight until you reach the intersection with 163 a
little before the border with California. Go left on 163 and stay on
it until you see signs for Laughlin. You can't miss the Riverside
Casino in Laughlin, Nevada. For more information, call Eric Klien at
(702) 255-1355. I'll be car pooling there with other Las Vegans.
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