X-Message-Number: 1817
From:  (Thomas Donaldson)
Subject: Re: cryonics: #1799-#1809 (2/2)
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 93 19:17:59 PST



Comments to Keith Henson:

You are right that I did not word my requirements well, particucularly the
one about "no money should be taken from the patient care fund". Obviously
the PCF is there to pay for care of the patients. OK, I'll reword that:
no more money should be taken than can be shown to be needed for patient
care.

The fate of the "Endowment Fund", I agree, is a tough issue. I may turn out to
be wrong. However one major factor influenced me in what I was saying: the
hope of future growth is something that is very easy to have. Too easy. Just
where will we be if next year and the year after not nearly so many people 
decide to sign up? When I originally pointed out Alcor's history of a high
percentage rate of growth, I meant it not as a prediction but as a way members
might consider their situation as members of an organization which was then,
and is now, tiny tiny compared to most of the organizations we deal with in
everyday life. I think it would be unwise to make our suspensions and thus
our whole life depend on CONTINUED growth at that level. Using the Endowment
Fund for EMERGENCIES, however, would make a lot of sense... though we shouldn't
be too easy in just what we consider to be an emergency.

After all, there was a time when Dick Jones had not been suspended and no
endowment fund existed. And Alcor was growing then, too --- perhaps members 
were more willing to donate money to an organization perceived as poor than
to one perceived as rich.

As for just what is an "emergency", I'd consider something like all the law
cases that started with Dora Kent's suspension and led on to the State of
California trying to declare cryonics illegal to be an emergency. Believe
it or not, I don't feel that the law case I was myself involved in really
qualified as an "emergency" --- and hope that donations helped that, rather
than the Endowment fund. But some things are clearly NOT emergencies: like
normal operating expenses, clearly predictable  in advance.

Finally I'd want to point out that I also suggested a number of other avenues
to better economics. My problem with them is that they are uncertain... but
that's not a problem with TRYING them, it's a problem with DEPENDING on
them. It's clear that Alcor needs to exercise some economies, and time for us
all to carefully think out just what they should be.

			Best and long life,
				Thomas

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