X-Message-Number: 18054
Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2001 14:57:51 -0700
From: Jessica Lemler <>
Subject: This Week at Alcor

The following can be viewed on our website at:  
<http://www.alcor.org/>http://www.alcor.org
Week of November 25 through December 2, 2001
Paula Lemler, Volunteer 
This week I folded letters and stuffed envelopes to help Joe with a mailing. I
also did my usual jobs of writing checks, filing receipts, and filling out
spread sheets. Additionally, I finished entering dues deposits from October
into the data base. It sure will be good to top this week off with a feast
prepared by Judy, who I hear is a fabulous cook.


Dr. Jerry Lemler, President, CEO
Intense is how I would describe this past week, and (fortunately) there's no
break in the action upcoming. This past week I coordinated a Standby for
one of
our prominent Southern California members, which fortunately went quite well.
My thanks to Southern California Project Future Bound coordinator Russell
Cheney and Project Future Bound member Bobby June, along with Hugh Hixon from
Alcor Central, who participated in the event. Our member came through the
angiography procedure quite well, but bought himself a quadruple bypass
operation next Friday. Obviously, Alcor will deploy its Standby team to
provide
the same, and in fact, augment services to our member surrounding the time of
his surgery.
I am leaving early Friday morning and flying to Philadelphia, where I will
participate in the inaugural East Coast Cryofeast on Saturday evening,
December
1, at the home of Lisa Lock & Michael Seidl. I am looking forward to meeting
many Alcor members and their guests in what promises to be a fun event, as we
launch a major East Coast membership drive. I'll be flying back to Phoenix in
the early morning hours on Sunday in order to accompany my bride (Paula) and
several Alcor staffers to the Arizona Cryofeast, held this year in Tucson, on
Sunday evening, at the home of Judy and Mark Muhelstein. I am certainly
looking
forward to the eating part, but not the traveling near as much.
This has been an intense media week, as I appeared on the David Bach radio
show
here in Phoenix on Wednesday, and granted an interview to Arizona State
University Television on Thursday. Also appearing in the current edition of
City Arizona Magazine is a nice spread on Alcor featuring yours truly,
prominently displayed in front of our dewars in the Patient Care Bay.
I'd like to bring everybody up to date on Alcor publications. If you haven't
already seen the Alcor Forum, our new monthly newsletter, you can access it by
selecting "Newsletter" from our homepage. Charles Platt and Hugh Hixon are
joining forces to produce this long awaited, much needed monthly interactive
publication. I've had a sneak peek at the second edition, and it promises
to be
even better than the first. My major project over the last year and a half,
beginning even before I actually became an Alcor member, has been a re-writing
of the Cryonics: Reaching for Tomorrow (CRFT), our primary introductory
publication. Working with Lisa Lock in Delaware, the new book is entitled
Alcor
Foundation: An Introduction, and has already gone to press. All Alcor members
should be receiving their copies (we hope) within the next two weeks. I think
you will find it to be an exciting re-write, full of quotes from several of
you, with a general updating of information since CRFT was published over
eight
years ago. Alcor Foundation: An Introduction will be sent out in place of the
third quarter edition of our quarterly magazine formerly known as Cryonics
Magazine, having been recently renamed Alcor: Reaching for Tomorrow. The
fourth
quarter edition of this magazine, unfortunately, due to the massive amount of
writing and editing it took to put the introductory manual together, will
likely not be printed and sent to our membership until January. We do
apologize
sincerely for this delay, but we hope the contents of the issue itself will
make up for what it is lacking in alacrity.
The highlight of my week, however, was the announcement of my daughter
Jessica's engagement to Mr. James Sikes. James is attending a local
university,
and has been working part time at Alcor, helping Hugh and Mathew with various
projects. Everyone here (including myself) thinks quite highly of James.
He's a
likeable fellow from Louisiana, who has earned our good will and respect with
his steady hand and easy affability, tempered with a maturity well beyond his
years. I'm not sure who's getting the better of the bargain here-- they're
both
great kids!


Jessica Lemler, Administrative Associate/Webmaster
This week I worked on some correspondence, including contacting a newspaper we
were considering advertising with. Their format was not compatible with ours,
as they are on Macintosh, and they kept giving us the "run around," so we have
decided to advertise with a different newspaper, and Dr. Lemler and I will be
taking care of that next week.
I also took care of having my notary bond and application notarized, so it
should not be much longer before my own notary commission arrives, and I am
able to do notarizations. 
The Thanksgiving holiday was a nice break, and as the weather gets cooler here
in Scottsdale, (it's all the way down to the 60's during the day!), I'm
starting to enjoy the holiday season. Looking forward to the Cryofeast this
weekend at Judy and Mark Muhlestein home in Tucson. Hope to see some of you
there!


Jennifer Chapman, Membership Administrator
MEMBERS
A recently approved Member contacted me to discuss the Buy-Back Agreement.
This
Member expressed concern that he would not be able to take a loan against the
policy with Alcor as the owner. I assured him that Alcor would authorize any
loan amount requested by the Member within 30 days of receiving such a
request,
provided that the death benefit amount remains sufficient to fund the Member s
suspension. At the Member s request, the Buy-Back Agreement was revised to
include this provision. 
This Member previously requested similar changes, which reasonably limit
Alcor s rights as the owner. For instance, a provision was included stating
that Alcor revokes its right to cancel the policy. Also, this contract now
states that Alcor will release its rights as the owner within 30 days of
receiving such a written request from the Member, whereas a specific time
frame
had not previously been indicated. 
Alcor performed a Standby for one Member undergoing various medical tests this
week. Prior to the testing, this Member requested changes to his membership
paperwork. Several hours were spent composing this paperwork and performing a
complete review of his file to ensure that Alcor was fully informed of his
suspension decisions and funding status. 
One paperwork change recently requested by numerous Members indicates that any
additional funds available in the suspension policy are to first be used for
ensuring the Member receives an optimal suspension. Even a Member who has a
whole life or universal policy with a face amount equivalent to the amount
required by Alcor should consider making this arrangement because the death
benefit may increase over time due to dividend growth. 
As previously announced, Alcor is requesting that all Members comply with
updated membership requirements by transferring ownership of any insurance
policy being used to fund the Member s suspension. The preferred deadline was
set at January 2002. With this date rapidly approaching, Alcor has been
processing more transfer of ownership forms than usual. 
One membership cancellation was processed this week for a member who
terminated
his suspension policy before applying for a replacement policy. Without
ownership rights, Alcor did not receive notification of this cancellation from
the insurance provider. Instead, the member notified Alcor of his
circumstances
and was disappointed to learn that his honesty resulted in a temporary
lapse in
suspension coverage. 
Finally, one member desiring to comply with updated membership requirements
requested a complete review of his file. Alcor will recommend that he review
and submit our updated membership documents, as his current paperwork was
executed almost 15 years ago. 
APPLICANTS 
I was pleased to meet with an individual who visited Alcor from New York for
the purpose of submitting his application and meeting with the staff. He
indicated that his suspension policy has been in force for 3 years, but he has
procrastinated about submitting his application until now. 
I also composed samples of all membership paperwork for an applicant who has
been paying Life Membership fees for quite some time and is now motivated to
finalize suspension arrangements for himself and his entire family. This
applicant has given me permission to discuss his arrangements with his various
representatives, who are composing a proposal for the Board of Directors.
Apparently, this member would prefer to establish his own committee to oversee
his long-term care, rather than relying upon the Patient Care Board. 
This being the holiday season, correspondence with most current applicants has
significantly decreased. Although the membership growth rate may also decrease
due to this, I plan to use this lull in activity to organize my membership
files and update my notes in preparation for the new year. 
PROJECTS 
Some time was spent discussing the database revisions being composed by a
local
volunteer. We briefly reviewed the contract, which specifies the improvements
he will make to our database, which enabled me to better understand the scope
of the project. 
Updated wallet cards are now available and being sent to various members who
previously requested them. These will also be sent to some recent applicants
who became members before the cards were available. When time permits, Alcor
may coordinate a mailing that will provide all members with these improved
cards. 

 
Mathew Sullivan, Facility Operations Manager &Patient Care Manager
Cryotransport: 
Spent a little more time discussing issues associated with our protocols on
email. 
Project Future Bound UK and Canada continues as follows: 
1. Metal brackets were made and installed on three ATP Pelican cases for 
the pump plate. 
2. I've added the necessary supplies to a couple of training perfusate
cases and
both of them are ready to go. 
3. Since the Florida project appears to have stalled indefinitely, I'm
transferring most of the supplies to the UK equipment to help reduce
production
time and costs. 
4. One of our Reps stopped by to drop off a few cannulae that were missing
from
the last order. 
Facility Operations: 
1. Shopped for and stocked office supplies. 
2. Assisted Dr. Lemler with a tour. 
3. Submitted my receipts for reimbursement and stopped at the bank to deposit
the checks. 
4. Joe Hovey and myself will be getting cell phones here in the near
future. I'm
in the process of researching the subject matter and doing some
window-shopping.
After looking over Alcor's current cell phone bills, I expanded Dr. Lemler's
cell phone plan to include more minutes, which will easily save Alcor more
than
several hundred dollars per year. 


Joe Hovey, Accounting Manager 
Monday: Finished September financial statements over weekend. Completed
mail-out
of notices of dues increases on Monday (400). Does not affect Life Members.
Paula and James helped. 
Tues.: Worked on October financial statements. Should finish by tomorrow. 
Wed: Finished the October financial statements. Should now be able to
concentrate on refining the numbers in different accounts next month.
Submitted
the final credit card batch of the month for Wells Fargo. 
Thurs.: Completed four new accounts for new entrants into the membership
signup
process. Did the final bank deposit of the month. Did a lot of data entry. 
Fri.: Completed the accounting for November, closed out the month and
submitted
the bi-weekly employee payroll. 


Mike Perry, PhD., Patient Care Assistant 
This week I worked on an SOP (standard operating procedure) for using a
temperature logging device ("Dualogger") during suspensions, then brushed
up on
Frontpage so I could do editing of Alcor's web site. I did more collecting
information for a future Tech News article, especially in view of the human
embryo cloning. There is work going on in the patient care bay to put one
of our
currently unused bigfoots in service, and I helped a little with that. Last
time
I said ADT was finishing their work, but they were here this week, too;
Aido has
learned to get along. I had a conversation with one of the workers on
cryonics,
as well as another one by phone from a university student who is doing a
report
and sounded personally interested. 

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