X-Message-Number: 17750 From: Alcor <> Subject: This Week at Alcor Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 15:38:47 -0700 (PST) The following can also be found on our website at http://www.alcor.org/this_week_at_alcor.html Joe Hovey, Accounting Manager Monday: Concentrated on analyzing member accounts and mailing 4th quarter dues billings. Tues.: Went with Hugh Hixon to deliver package of requested backup material to bank in order to change signatory authority for our operating accounts. This has become a major chore in recent years. The banks are more and more careful when it comes to adding or deleting signatory rights on corporate accounts. Mailed income and expense reports for all the standby's and suspensions performed this year, (6) to all directors and advisors, (19). Contacted our liability insurance agent to discuss purchase of Director's/Officers insurance. Will conclude the purchase when we are assured that it covers everything we require. He will send me a sample policy. Emailed first notice of dues increase for 1/02. Must follow up later in the month with general mailing to all members. Increase does NOT apply to Life Members. Wed. Still plowing through the 4th qtr. Billing. Thurs.: Finished mailing out the 4th qtr. Billing (289), except for those who are behind on their dues payments. Must send dunning letters with the remainder. Six members to receive "pay or die" letters. Interviewed potential new marketing manager. Very impressive man. Not sure we can pay him until verification of large donation heading in our direction is confirmed. Conferred with Dr. Lemler and Hugh Hixon on new security system for patient care bay and rest of facility. Looks pretty good so far. A few wrinkles to be ironed out. Fri.: Finish mailing dunning letters to those members behind on their dues, (29). Send requested info to member doing a study on former members. Must make bank deposit and do accounting data entry. Will work on next monthly financial statement on weekend, in between other things. ˜ ˜ Mike Perry, PhD., Patient Care Assistant This week I finished the data entry from the last suspension (A-1894, which started Aug. 22). The result is an Excel file giving a timeline of events, which can then be used in preparing a more finished report. I also worked on writing projects, mainly a "For the Record" column dealing with Alcor events 25 and 10 years ago. Some modifications to the automated phone answering system are being considered, and I have given input to that. With Mathew's help I have spruced up my computer system and am working to make further upgrades to be better prepared for data access in emergencies. ˜ ˜ Hugh Hixon, Facilities Engineer Friday, got tangled in administrative stuff, and I *still* don't know where the day went. Worked a bit on the instrument tray list. Breadboarded the 12v power supply that I'll need for other projects. Sunday, Alcor Board meeting. Monday, Administrative stuff. Got a volunteer started on a necessary and long-standing equipment duplication project. Worked on breadboard for a clatter-valve LN2 controller. Tuesday, staff meeting. Talked with 21st Century Medicine people on several things. Ordered several solid state relays for projects. Pointed out equipment for use outside the US (the rest of the world is substantially 230v, 50Hz, with an assortment of weird plugs (i.e., not the ones we're used to seeing. :-)). Bank run with Joe. More work on breadboard clatter-valve controller. Ran a smoke test; some lights lit, and some didn't. Make an overlooked connection; better, but needs tweaking. Wednesday, solid-state relays came in. Hooked the controller to an LN2 solenoid valve, and yup, it works. Sort of. It needs more range of its "on" times. Got a replacement for the broken belt clip for my cell phone. Ah; why isn't *this* going to *that*? Screwup on my wiring diagram; put the capacitors in the right places, and it works! Timing overlap problems as expected, but it'll do for a test of principles. Rebooted computer and ran diagnostics. For Windows, the answer to the Halting Problem is "every day or two". Work on instrument tray list for Mathew. Thursday, tidy up some stuff in the Patient Care Bay. Got in Luer check valves and vascular tourniquets. Work on instrument tray list. Bank run for Joe. Confer with Dr. Lemler, Joe Hovey, and the ADT rep on an electronic security system (that we can afford). ADT is not well equipped to monitor LN2 levels, whatever else they are able to do. Talked with, and gave a tour to, a possible member. Back to the instrument tray list; to Mathew for better or worse. ˜ ˜ Paula Lemler, Volunteer Because of jury duty and a sick dog, I was not at Alcor this week. I will be going in on Saturday to do my work. ˜ ˜ Mathew Sullivan, Facility Operations Manager & Patient Care Manager Cryotransport--Purchased approximately $12k worth of equipment for Canada and UK future bound project, plus a couple extra supplies. And started constructing eight ATP tubing plates. For those who do not know what an ATP plate is, the plate holds the tubing array used during the initial field washout. The framework fixes the tubing in a desired fashion and is sterilized as a complete unit, then plugged into the ATP case. The plate and most of its parts are constructed out of aluminum and is custom built in-house. The construction is somewhat labor intensive, but we recycle the plates. Just give the plate a quick wash and it is ready to go again. Facility Operations--Installed a cat 5 communication line between my computer and Inter-Tel's hardware, and installed their software package on my computer, so the phone system can be reprogrammed in-house. And of course, I did a little programming as well. Considering it has been almost one year since I took the training class for programming the phone system, I'm thankful the system did not crash. Installed Norton's System Works on one computer, and assisted a little with a second installation. Plus I helped a few staff members resolve some computer issues. ˜ ˜ Dr. Jerry Lemler, President, CEO Congratulations are in order to Russell Cheney and Peter Voss. At our Alcor Life Extension Foundation Board of Directors Meeting last Sunday (October 7, 2001), both these outstanding gentlemen were unanimously elected as Advisors to the Alcor Board. We look forward to working with both Russell and Peter in the years to come, and are grateful to them for their desire to serve in their new capacity. I have begun discussions with Grant Dahmer, Chairman of the Willed Body Program at the University of Arizona in Tucson, regarding obtaining an appropriate anatomical specimen for a Surgical Workshop Training Session to likely be conducted in Buena Park in mid- November for the Southern California Project Future Bound team. I have also been in touch with our magazine editor, Lisa Lock in Delaware, with respect to not only the Fourth Quarter Alcor: Reaching for Tomorrow (formerly Cryonics Magazine), but in regard to an introductory Alcor meeting announcing the re- emergence of our presence on the East Coast. Specifically, we are attempting to increase and secure our membership in the Northeast corridor. Lisa and Michael Seidl have agreed to host a gathering in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, December 1. I am looking forward to attending this meeting, where we are inviting all of our current and prospective members from the New York City Metropolitan area on down to Washington, D.C. Our efforts may well culminate in a Project Future Bound site location somewhere in the Delaware Valley; i.e. centrally located to serve our members along this corridor of activity. Further details will follow as they emerge. As has been previously announced, this Sunday, October 14, I will be traveling to Sunnyvale, California, to attend the monthly meeting of the Northern California Alcor Cryonics Group. Naturally, I look forward to meeting and talking to this most vibrant of all Alcor organizations. Preparations are also under way for our upcoming Alcor Anatomical Donor Recovery Team training session in Laughlin, Nevada. Instructors for this course include Joe Tennant, Hugh Hixon, and myself. We will conduct three days of intensive rescue training at the Riverside Resort from Sunday, October 21 through Tuesday, October 23. Alcor looks forward to welcoming back Dr. Bob Newport, renowned retired psychiatrist and Alcor Advisor. Several months ago, Dr. Bob was chosen to be Alcor's ombudsman, and in that capacity, he is coming to Scottsdale this weekend to conduct the first of three Sensitivity Training Sessions with our Alcor Central staff, beginning Monday, October 15. Finally, I am assiduously working on a major announcement regarding our United Kingdom situation, and plans to rectify the chasm that currently exists between us and that group. I plan to release Alcor's response to the situation by the middle of next week. I hope everyone has a safe and productive week, and as usual, I further hope everyone stays vertical! ˜ ˜ Jennifer Chapman, Membership Administrator Currently, there are approximately 90 individuals applying for membership and each applicant needs assistance with satisfying various requirements. Due to the large number of clients requiring personal attention from a limited number of Alcor personnel, it is important to evaluate how the efficiency of the overall signup process can be improved. For instance, once the application is received and processed, several legal documents must be signed by the applicant in the presence of two witnesses. Upon receiving these documents, most clients either immediately execute them or experience a prolonged delay in doing so. Scheduling difficulties, procrastination due to the amount of documents to be executed, and uncertainty regarding how to properly execute the documents seem to be the primary causes of such delays. One possible improvement suggested by a Board Advisor who recently underwent the signup process is to consolidate the paperwork. To explain, there are five basic contracts that must be signed and witnessed in triplicate, making a total of fifteen separate documents. Currently, all fifteen documents must be completed individually. However, it would be much simpler to compile all five basic contracts into one set, with triplicate sets to be executed. This diminishes the number of signatures from fifteen to three, a significant reduction in the amount of effort required. Certainly, this would be mutually beneficial to both Alcor and its clients. However, more research and discussion must be conducted before such an arrangement can be established. ˜ ˜ Jessica Lemler, Administrative Associate/Webmaster This week started for me with the Board Meeting. On Monday, I had several things to do to tidy up from the meeting, including adding the newly elected Advisors to the letterhead and the email lists. (Congratulations, by the way!) Additionally, I worked on the minutes and sent those out to Board Members and Advisors. I am still working on coordinating the suggestions and comments that are steadily rolling in from everyone! I anticipate having a revised edition of the minutes ready to send out sometime by the middle of next week. For the most part, this week has consisted mostly of typing and correspondence. I had the day off on Wednesday to take care of some things with my yard. I was having a problem with my downloading email yesterday, but was able to fix it by emptying my temporary internet files. I was quite pleased with myself in my problem-solving ability, and even more pleased that in solving the problem I did not require the assistance of Mathew. He is great at helping to fix computer problems, but it is also nice to know I was able to fix it BY MYSELF! =) I have also been working with the digital camera. I plan to take some newer pictures for our photo tour. In the meanwhile, if you click the link just below, you can see some of our staff in action! http://www.alcor.org/this_week_pictures.htm Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17750