X-Message-Number: 18463 Date: Fri, 01 Feb 2002 15:24:54 -0700 From: Jessica Lemler Sikes <> Subject: This Week at Alcor Week of January 28 through February 2, 2002 The following can also be viewed on our website at <http://www.alcor.org/>http://www.alcor.org Joe Hovey, Accounting Manager Finished preparing and mailing all the donation/dues tax forms for 2001! Got it done just under the wire yesterday afternoon, just in time to make the last mail delivery of the day. What a relief! I don t have to do this again for another year. Now I can turn my attention to more normal activities like balancing the bank accounts and preparing the financial statements. More immediately, I have to prepare the February billings. They are nowhere near as large as the January ones. Mathew Sullivan, Facility Operations Manager Facility Operations: With some assistance from Hugh Hixon and an other Alcor member I completed the installation of our new network cards, bringing the total up to nine, plus I recycled an older network card because one of the computers did not have any more PCI slots left open. Part of our problem with the network was due to several computers being unable to download Windows or Norton's patches, making them more vulnerable to outside threats. The computers in question would get partially through the download then grind to a halt. Thankfully, replacing the network cards did solve the problem, but there were complications with the installation that perplexed both Hugh and me. Oddly, the computers that were using the older cat. 4 cables were more likely to work than those that were using cat. 5 or 5e. The resolution to this issue turned out to be spending the extra money to get some 100ft cat. 5e with the RJ-45 connectors already attached. As you might have expected, I was in an out of the stores to get what I needed. I wiped out a shelf or two and I had to find other stores that had what I needed in stock, only to return that material because I did not need it in the end. I'm now in the process of tiding everything up and downloading data that I was not able to previously. I have been doing a little research on getting Alcor a faster internet connection. Initially, I was just thinking about increasing the DSL speed, but I am also gathering information which would allow us to package our various communication and internet providers under one company to help minimize any increase in internet costs. I started to move 150+ cases of ALEFI which is the replacement for Cryonics Reaching for Tomorrow (CRFT). Four pallets of the books (10,000) were placed in the cooldown bay sometime ago and would likely interfere with our ability to perform a whole body suspension. The only difficulty other than time is finding a place to put them that meets everyone's satisfaction. Our pager Rep stopped by and dropped off our new pagers, and I either made arrangements to have them picked up or I sent them out in the mail. Updated Alcor's membership stats file and added the data to the graphs. I've started my Facility Operations Report in preparation for the upcoming Board meeting. Hugh Hixon, Facilities Engineer Friday, administrative stuff. With Mathew Sullivan and Leonard Zubkoff, troubleshoot new network connection. Saturday, more troubleshooting. Pull new Cat 5e cable. Back on line. Sunday, troubleshoot someone else. Pull another 5e cable, and they're up. Leave the hard ones for Mathew. Monday, hear sales pitch for an information research service. Button up ceiling after cable pulls. Bank run. Deal with e-mail. Tuesday, staff meeting. Assorted administrative stuff. Computer maintenance and hard drive swap. Wednesday, visit with member. Bank run. To-do list for a member that likes to be prepared. Thursday, with Mathew Sullivan look at some computer and communications problems. Talk to Dr. Lemler about our floor space problem. Science reading. Fiddle with new pagers. Work on high-temperature storage proposal. With Jeff Benjamin, sort out some problems in the OR data collection system programming he's working on. Jessica Lemler Sikes, Administrative Associate/Webmaster It was exactly one year ago today I boarded a plane in Knoxville, Tennessee, headed for Phoenix. I had never been to Arizona before, and had no idea how much my life would change over the course of the next year. Over the course of that week, I visited Alcor Central for the very first time. What an amazing feeling it was to be in the same room with the dewars that first day-- indescribable. For anyone who has not visited us here at Alcor Central, I highly suggest you do so. What an incredible year it has been, and how many Alcor people I am indebted to for making it possible for me. We are busy preparing for Sunday's Board meeting. There are many issues to be discussed at this month's meeting, so I have my typing fingers ready to take the minutes (thank goodness for that laptop!) I have also spent this week doing some work in Front Page and familiarizing myself with some html codes. I am learning-- slowly but surely! Mike Perry, PhD., Patient Care Assistant This week I continued writing the "For the Record" column on Robert Prehoda and his book, *Suspended Animation*. The book is read (the first step) and the article is about half done. Another project I was involved in is to prepare a text-only electronic version of ALEFI, Alcor's new replacement of Cryonics: Reaching for Tomorrow. This is for a member who is blind, but others will probably be interested. I am waiting to hear back from the member (or anyone else) before proceeding further. At my instigation and with management approval, future issues of our magazine should carry an automatic granting of permission for authors of articles to use their own work in other publications. Dr. Jerry Lemler, President, CEO We've got another Board of Directors meeting this Sunday, February 3, and my week was somewhat consumed in preparations. Our token concession to the Super Bowl is to conduct the meeting one hour earlier than customary in deference to the impending kickoff time. For anyone who cares, I'll predict Rams 30, Patriots 17. Once again, I've met with several prospective members, giving tours of our Scottsdale facility again this week. I've also been contacted by a Hollywood producer who wishes to use our services for a national network television program, shooting an episode on cryonics. Jennifer Chapman, Membership Administrator MEMBERSHIP GROWTH Jerry Searcy, a local volunteer, is deserving of my appreciation for assisting me with various projects this week, including processing four membership applications. His efforts significantly reduce the amount of time I must spend copying, stapling, and mailing. This leaves me with more time to focus upon boosting membership growth, which was achieved this week by approving three memberships. CONTRACTS A significant amount of time and effort has been devoted to editing Alcor s legal contracts to accommodate memberships for minors. After undergoing multiple legal reviews, the revised documents were recently approved and forwarded to various parents who had previously submitted an application on the behalf of their child or children. According to general contract law, a minor cannot enter into a legal contract. With this in mind, our membership documents were altered to name the legal guardians, not the minor member, as the individuals responsible for upholding the membership duties. VISITORS In addition to meeting with Dr. Lemler and Hugh Hixon to tour the facility and discuss technical inquiries, a group of prospective clients joined me in Alcor s conference room to review the specifics of Alcor s membership program. Such visits are recommended for all individuals interested in furthering their knowledge of cryonics, Alcor Foundation, and the life extension community. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18463