X-Message-Number: 12385
Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 23:38:15 -0400
From: "Stephen W. Bridge" <>
Subject: Alcor Board/staff resignations

To CryoNet
From Steve Bridge
Chairman of the Board
Alcor Life Extension Foundation

September 6, 1999

There have been a couple of major personnel changes at Alcor over the past
several months that we need to announce.  David Pizer resigned as an Alcor
Director last May and Brian Shock resigned as Membership Administrator in
August.  These two changes are unrelated.  In fact, Dave Pizer's
resignation was supposed to be announced early in the summer; but I was
waiting for an article to be published in the Alcor Phoenix.  Due to some
shifting schedules for Alcor publications, that article hasn't been
published.  The following is what was intended.

DAVID PIZER RETIRES FROM ALCOR'S BOARD

After more than nine years as a Director, David Pizer resigned from Alcor's
Board of Directors in May of this year.  The number of volunteer hours that
Dave Pizer has put in is equal to that of anyone else in cryonics during
that time, and his work has led to many of the advantages Alcor now has. 
Dave brought a unique business toughness and knowledge to Alcor.  His
bluntness and bulldog persistence often rubbed people the wrong way; but he
always asked tough questions that no one else would, and backed up the
questions with hard work.  In those nine years, Dave Pizer almost
single-handedly shepherded the purchase of Alcor's current building in
Scottsdale, Arizona, was Alcor's major fund raiser, and was a working,
volunteer Vice-President for two of my years as Alcor's President.

Some of the highlights of Dave Pizer's years as an Alcor activist:

-- Dave was heavily involved in the 1988 lawsuits surrounding the Dora Kent
situation in Riverside, funding one successful suit for false arrest
against Riverside County.

-- He persuaded a communications company to increase its offer from $40.00
to $2,000 for a fiber optic cable easement through some property Alcor
owned in Arizona.

--  He negotiated much lower worker's compensation insurance for Alcor in
Arizona.

-- He was responsible for Alcor being able to contract with an experienced
veterinary surgeon to replace Jerry Leaf and for one of the top attorneys
in Arizona to help us with the move.  He found local CPA's, car repairmen,
insurance agents, even personal doctors for the staff.

-- He originally spotted the building that Alcor currently occupies, and
spent countless hours showing it to people, getting permits, doing repairs,
helping me contact city, county, and state officials, and showing us how
business was done in Arizona, all at no charge to Alcor and no profit to
himself.  He both invested in the building itself and donated a large chunk
of money to Alcor's building and moving fund.  The building turned out to
be a bargain, now worth 50-75% more than its purchase price.

-- He raised over $200,000 in donations from Alcor members for the building
fund and other projects.

-- As Alcor's Vice President for two and a half years, he volunteered at
least 20 hours per week in Alcor's offices, looking over every major legal
and business issue, constantly insisting that I get all the details right,
calling members, getting members who were late on their dues to catch up,
planning promotional ventures like Alcor's participation at several
conferences, and getting Alcor's team better organized to get work done.  

-- As co-manager (with me) of Cryonics Property, LLC, he collected the
rents, kept the books, oversaw the repairs, pushed legal action against the
company that tried to sneak out without paying the rent they owed, and
found solid new tenants to fill the part of the building that Alcor wasn't
using.  He did this for nothing for two years, and then accepted pay for it
for the next three years (but far than we would have paid for similar
services elsewhere).

I didn't always agree with Dave Pizer's ideas, and his long e-mail posts
and telephone conversations often frustrated me as much as they did other
Directors.  However, I always agreed that we needed his unique point of
view and his seemingly inexhaustible energy.  Even though we were friends,
he was never a yes-man and never failed to object when he thought I was
headed in the wrong direction.  That's a character trait that too few
people in this world have - and one which isn't nearly as appreciated as it
should be, I'm afraid.  But Alcor would be a lesser organization without
it.  

So it turns out that Dave's energy *is* exhaustible.  He is no longer
Vice-President, or fundraiser, or a Director, or LLC co-manager.  The
frustrations and the brick walls and the personality conflicts finally wore
him out.  I for one am very sorry to see him step back.  I can't imagine
he'll leave the cryonics arena for long.  Living forever is too important
to him.  But equally he will miss the fun and the sense of accomplishment
he had on those good days, and I hope those days will glow for him long
after the frustrations have faded away.

Thanks, Dave.

BRIAN SHOCK RESIGNS AS ALCOR MEMBERSHIP ADMINISTRATOR

After almost exactly four years as Alcor's Membership Administrator (from
August, 1995 to August, 1999), Brian Shock has resigned his position.  As
far as I can tell, that is longer than anyone else has been Membership
Administrator since that position became full time.  

In 1995, while I was President, Brian and his wife-to-be, Lisa, left a calm
situation in Indianapolis for Brian to take on a challenging, non-calm job
of keeping track of Alcor's current members and signing up new ones.  This
job demands several abilities which are hard to find in one person:
computer prowess, careful attention to paperwork details, creative writing,
legal writing, editing other people's work, being polite to the extremely
varied group of people calling and visiting Alcor (from reporters and
scientists to people who just like to argue to the truly mentally ill),
marketing Alcor, and giving interviews.

Brian didn't have experience in all of those areas when he took the job,
but he learned rapidly.  He became comfortable doing tours and handling the
press.  He traveled to meetings around the west to help with member
signups.  His editorial sense and knowledge of membership problems were
invaluable in setting up Alcor's policies for funding through Trusts and
Real Estate, for the Patient Care Trust, and nearly every other major
policy or document that came out of Alcor while he was there.  He also took
over as Alcor's Webmaster for a time, achieving a major overhaul of Alcor's
home page.

For the last two years he was editor of Alcor's quarterly magazine,
*Cryonics*.  In that time, he got the magazine back on schedule, and
increased the interest level for most of our members.

Brian was a major part of Alcor for four years, and to many people the true
voice of Alcor, since he was the person most members communicated with. 
We're very sorry to see Brian go.  He's moved on to another job in Arizona,
but he'll still be available to assist with suspensions.  We hope he'll do
more writing for Alcor in the future, too.  

For now, Linda Chamberlain is acting as Membership Administrator until
another staff member can be hired.  (The membership job may be rearranged,
and a new staff member might have a different combination of tasks than
Brian did.)

Steve Bridge

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