X-Message-Number: 13970
Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 09:23:50 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: what if there are many reasons?

Hi everyone!

It seems that lots of people are interested in finding the ONE reason
why Alcor's growth rate has slowed down (though I note that it is
still respectable). 

Frankly, from the multitude of reasons people give for being interested
but not yet signed up, it seems to me that the logical conclusion is
that there are several reasons why growth rate has slowed. If there is
a MAJOR reason, as distinct from many, then anyone who wants to argue
for their proposed reason as accounting for MOST of those who do not
sign up needs not only to show that it is A reason, but also to show
that it accounts for the majority of those who are interested but don't
sign up. That is LOGIC. They must argue that at least 51% of those who
do not sign up (or 50.1%, or something in that line) haven't done
so for their proposed reason. 

If no one does this, then we just have a bunch of people politely talking 
past one another. Yes, the discussion is important, but you all need
to argue that your reason is the MAJOR one. I haven't noticed such
an argument in the postings which have occurred so far.

I myself would say that we should look at the reasons for not signing 
up and think what can be done with each of them. And if we do not have
the resources to deal with each one at once, then the one to work upon
isn't necessarily the majority reason, either: we need to think too
about just how HARD some of these reasons are to work with, not just
how MAJOR they are. This is logic, too.

Finally, one simple observation: it seems to me that one thing that
Alcor can do which will help recruiting is to work on simplifying the
Alcor forms. Sure, some people may need special treatment, but if
for instance a high proportion of new members pay for their signup
with life insurance, then it makes sense to devise a form specifically
for such people. I'm hardly a fan of IRS Federal tax forms, but they
do provide an instance of just this kind of approach: everyone doesn't
have to fill out the complex forms. Instead there are also easy forms
for people with only one source of income, etc... so it makes sense
to think about using multiple forms depending on just what someone
wants to do. This does not excuse us, of course, from making each
of those forms as simple as possible, too.

Some of this work has already been done, even though it came after
I had joined years ago. I doubt that it is finished, though, and
it's time to look at these issues once more. And the idea of providing
many of these forms already filled out for someone is a very good
one... given that no one makes a mistake. This is a good idea which
(I understand) Alcor has already implemented.

I am already a member and if I understand the problems here, I could
actually work on this myself, by email. (Yes, I'm volunteering). If
you insist that I be in Arizona to work on it, sorry no.

		Best and long long life to all,

			Thomas Donaldson

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