X-Message-Number: 17516 Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 21:52:33 -0500 From: david pizer <> Subject: Alcor's safety Below are some thoughts for the Alcor membership to consider. I tried to copy others who have expressed thoughts about this in the past and the Alcor officers and board members. I do not have the new board members and officers e-mail addresses and would appreciate someone passing this on to them and sending me an updated list. ============================================================================ ===== Now is the time to consider the safety of Alcor's patients; over the next hundred years - we are probably going to be those patients! Probably most of you will not remember that just a couple of months ago, I wrote a post to Crynet saying that I was of the impression that terrorist attacks would become the number one safety issue for Alcor in the coming years. Then a few weeks ago, I posted against moving Alcor to Florida citing possible terrorist attacks (perhaps when Castro dies), along with other reasons. Now, just a short time after that prediction(s) we have the terrorist attacks that occured today. Again, I will state that I think these attacks are just the tip of the icebergs of future attacks that our country will experience. I say this after 60 years of observing human nature in the world - I believe these attacks are not going to go away - I think most of you reading this post will agree with this position. So what can we do to protect ourselves? Here are some initial ideas. I am sure that many of you will have additional thoughts and now is a good time to discuss this. I believe that Alcor needs to plan for these future attacks on the U.S., and the best way to do this is for Alcor to begin planning to move from Scottsdale to a more rural site. A site that has very little stategic value for terrorists. (Another way to protect ourselves besides being in a safer location will be to construct a brand new building with terrorists attacks in mind). A year or so ago, I did a search of potential cryonics storage facility sites in Arizona rural areas for a group of cryonicists. I found that the area 50 miles or so north of Phoenix had the potential benefits that I thought were the best for our purposes. I knew about the safety of this area for a long time because I was raised in this state and know it well. I consider this area so safe that I had recently bought a parcel of land in this area to build a retirement community for my self, my wife and my friends to live in. I think that speaks for itself as far as how well I value this area. The reasons I am so high on Arizona is that there is little earthquake or flood danger, and we now know the political climate is good for cryonics. The reasons I am so high on this part of Arizona is that is protected by slight mountain ranges from fallout and there is not a large population center real close by. Yet it less than an hour drive to Mayo Hospital in Phoenix, and less than half hour to other services in Prescott, and a couple of miles from two rural fire stations - one in each direction. When someone makes suggestion in this forum, one of the first questions we ask is does he/she have a track record in the area he/she is suggestion. Has this person predicted possible solutions for problems in the past? Were they successful? I believe that I have a reliable record of predicting/suggestion successful solutions in the cryonics movement in areas limited to my expertise and admit not so good in areas outside that (like the South Africa mess). I mention the following record where I took stands on controversial issues not to brag in any way but just to give newcomers some idea of the success record to predict possible solutions in limited areas. (based on business considerations - I have my expertise in business). I predicted that Alcor's legal problems with the government would go away if we moved out of California and into Arizona, they did. I picked out the present building for Alcor and predicted that the investors would make a lot of money on it - they have. I screwed up in the area of research when I supported Alcor paying $25,000 for pie-in-the-sky technology from Africa. In my 11 years on Alcor's board and as their VP and Treasurer I never became very expert in the technology end. If I have your attention so far, if you are saying Pizer may have a good head about certain things and I think he is right on his concerns about terrorism growing as a threat to Alcor patients in the future, you might be asking what steps should be next and what can you do. I think Alcor should appoint a committee to see how its members feel about this and if there is support, start to search for locations and means to move some time soon. I think that Alcor, through Cryonics Property LLC has the financial strengh (with some new capital investments from some new players) to buy a large chunk of land (10 to 50 acres) and build a safer building in a safer location. The type of building I would hope for is not the fancy type that has been kicked around recently but one that looks more like a conventional medical facility. In Arizona there are three world-class medical buildings: Mayo Clinc, Mayo Hospital and Barrow Neurological clinic. I have been in both Mayo buildings as a patient and have worked in Barrow Neurological. I think the impression we want to give people who see the cryonics building should be one of a medical presence and not a building that trys to make a complicated statement about the beauty of life or some other hard-to-understand premise. We do NOT want a building that might be misunderstood to say that we think we are better than others or richer than others, or more powerful in any other way, but only that inside this building are helpless sick persons waiting to get well - just like any other hospital! I believe Alcor has the resources to do all this now in the equity in Cryonics Property LLC and with the support from some new members. When I selected the present building in Scottsdale Arizona to submit to the Alcor board, I made sure that the building I helped them acquire would appreciate so that it would someday have enough equity for Alcor to construct a custom made facility just for their needs. That day is here now. Alcor and its investors have well over a million dollars equity in that present building. Here is one way that I might suggest that Alcor proceed in this task: 1. See if there is support on the present board for a plan like this, and see if the membership would support it. While doing this, get a preliminary site selection committee to search for acceptable sites. It makes it easier to come to a conclusion if you have some potential sites in mind. The site selection can investigate sites without any obligation to Alcor. 2. While a potential site is being searched for, ask for pledges from Alcor members to invest in a new company that will buy that land, construct and own a building similar to the company that now owns the present company (Cryonics Property LLC), if an acceptable site is found. There would be two phases; purchase the land, then later construct the building. 3. When the potential site is selected, it would be tied up in an escrow while certain contingencies were checked out, mainly to receive confirmation that cryonics is ok in the present zoning. 4. During this contingency period, the people who pledged the money for the purpose of buying the land (but not for the construction phase, that will be later), would send it in so that if all contingencies were approved we could close on the property. The land would have to be purchased at a price that if the rest of the plan did not materialize, the odds were that the land could be re-sold at a profit for the initial investors. 5. After we purchased the land, an engineer and architect would be hired to submit preliminary plans for Alcor to approve. When the preliminary plans were approved by Alcor, the final plans would be drawn and submitted to the bureaucrats for their approval and a building permit. 6. While waiting for the building permit or shortly thereafter, bids would be gathered from contractors. 7. When the bids were in, Alcor, or Cryonics Property LLC could see if it had enough cash (perhaps from potential new investors) and equity in the present building to cover the cost of the new construction. I would suggest forming a new company to build this new building and let Cryonics Property LLC own a part of the new company (by contributing their equity in the present building) and combining that with investments from Alcor members who want to help Alcor and, perhaps, themselves. 8. There are several ways the equity in the present building could be transferred to the new building. A construction loan could be secured. After the building was completed and Alcor was to move in, a temporary loan could be set in place for a couple of years while Cryonics Property LLC put the present building up for sale. When the present building was sold, the proceeds could be used to pay off the loan on the new building. 9. There is also the possibility that there are new and old Alcor members that would put up all the money and eliminate all this. All of the above are just suggestions to think about. I think what is really the very first step would be if you the readers think that Alcor should be investigating the concept of moving to a more rural area, and construction a safer building, you might want to voice that opinion in this forum or contact Alcor directly or both. Respectfully submitted for consideration Dave Pizer Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17516