X-Message-Number: 1231
From: 
Subject: CRYONICS A response to Ralph
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 22:16:30 PDT

A response to Ralph:

"     All of that aside, I also want to point out that this was a
BUSINESS MEETING report, and is thus intended to describe the business
that was dealt with."

My corrections had to do with financial matters discussed at the
meeting.  Financial matters should definitely fall under the category
of business.  To say that the Alcor board's response to the Investment
Committees recommendations isn't business material isn't right.  While
you can argue about which financial details should be included in the
report, you left out so many that anyone reading your report would have
little idea of what financial matters were really discussed.

"The purpose of the minutes is not to report how every member feels
about every subject (on and off the agenda) to the level of detail
acceptable to each member.  The purpose is to describe the business at
hand, the salient points, and the final resolution."

I agree.  And the level of detail that you provided about financial
matters was way too low.  You think that the fact that everyone on
the Investment Committees resigned is not an important detail?

"That you would seriously request that I, as an objectively impartial
minutes-taker, put a statement like that IN THE MINUTES, I can barely
fathom."

While you have a point, let me quote what you actually wrote:

"     Dave Pizer then went to great trouble to explain that when Carlos 
stated that Alcor is running at a surplus, he is referring to how our 
finances compare with our _projected_ finances for this period."

A naive person reading this would take your underlining of the word
_projected_ to indicate that you agree with Dave Pizer that a surplus
and a deficit have the same meaning.  What you have managed to do in
your report is allow people to think that you endorse such a
statement.  If you hadn't gone to the trouble of underlining the word
then such a conclusion about your understanding of the matter would
not be made.  Most importantly, it is far from explicit in your report 
that Alcor DID run an $100,000 operating deficit for the first seven 
months.

"Are you trying to help Alcor, or vindicate Eric?  "

What I am trying to do here is very simple.  I am trying to change the
accounts that have been printed in Cryonics to be truthful.  By omitting
most of the important stuff that goes on, Alcor is greatly misleading its
members.  If you don't believe me read Paul and Saul's second edition
and compare it to the latest issue of Cryonics.  You would think that the
two sources of material are from completely different worlds.  Imagine
how shocked members are when they find out what is really going on compared
to what is in Alcor's official literature.  They immediately think that 
Alcor is trying to coverup the truth.

I know that you are trying to avoid confrontation with the official
material that you publish.  Unfortunately, in your efforts to achieve
this goal you have published material that is lacking so much
information that you have given Alcor members two choices: 1) attend the
meetings in person or buy a video tape of the meeting 2) listen to
hearsay about what happened at the meetings because the official
documents published leave out most of the important stuff.  When Bob
Krueger asked you to publish in Cryonics the fact that our committees
resigned in Cryonics, you said it would be too political to do it
before the Alcor Business Meeting occurred.  But then you also failed
to mention it after the Alcor Business Meeting occured.  What can I
think except that you don't want to publish such information because it
will be too confrontational?

I hear again and again from Alcor members that they don't think that
Cryonics magazine gives them the straight scoop about what is happening
at Alcor.  It's time to change this.  We just changed three members
of the board, now let's change how open our official reports are.

Eric Klien 

[ Just curious.  Is this a CRYONICS.POLITICS discussion now? - KQB ]

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