X-Message-Number: 2288
Date: 29 May 93 12:56:31 EDT
From: Brenda Peters <>
Subject: Alcor Chicago Newsletter

Dear Brian (Ralph, (for mag.) and Kevin (for cryonet)),

Here's Courtney's piece regarding the last meeting. 

Alcor MidWest Ends Hibernation

Alcor MidWest held its latest meeting in April at the home of Brenda Peters 
and Courtney Smith. There was the usual good discussion and food. However, the
group also made strides to moving to a higher level of activism.

The first decision was to define "our territory". We noticed on the map in 
Cryonics magazine that there is a contiguous strip of states with no 
cryonicists in it starting with the Dakotas and swooping around the midwest. 
This band surrounded the states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, 
Wisconsin, Kentucky, Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri. This then became "our 
territory".

There are 26 signed up members in the midwest region with 5 signing up. The 
bad news is that we only know about half of the people in our region. The good
news is that we therefore can make some quick strides in networking with the 
others.

We then focused our discussions on several key issues:
        1. Stabilization Team
        2. Newsletter
        3. Dues

Clearly, our biggest priority is to staff a complete stabilization team. This 
led to a discussion of our current status and where we would like to be.

Currently, Alcor MW has a full transport kit that is being paid for by several
members from Indianopolis though there is still $4,000 left to be paid. We 
have one member that is Alcor Certified, Bob Schwartz. We have boundless 
enthusiasm, charming personalities, and stunning good looks. But there is much
more that we can and must do before we can truly stabilize members in the 
Midwest.

Bob has taken the responsibility to construct a shipping box, which is the one
piece of necessary equipment that we don't have. In addition, Bob will get 
copies of the training tapes.

Brian Shock, Matt Swanson, and perhaps one other member volunteered to become 
our next members to receive Alcor certification, when that training is next 
available.

In addition, Matt and Jim Cunningham were interested in taking training to 
become certified Emergency Medical Technicians. 

The group also decided to get pagers for its Team members and to develop an 
Emergency Action Plan that Team members and volunteers could use in the case 
of an emergency.

Indianopolis members already have a relationship with a mortician in 
Indianopolis but it was decided to also set up a relationship with a mortician
in Chicago because Chicago also represents a nucleus of members. Fortunately, 
we have a member in the Chicago area who is a part-time mortician. 
Unfortunately, that member was not at the meeting so we couldn't resolve this 
issue right away.

Another decision of the group was to find some way to help the Indianopolis 
members pay off the $4,000 debt on the state-of-the-(he)art Michigan 
Instruments HLR.

This led to a discussion of the other critical factor necessary for success in
the Midwest: money. 

We tentatively decided to charge dues of $100 per year for members of the 
Midwest group. In addition, we would charge $25-50 per year for "associate" 
members who are people who are not yet signed up.

This money would go to paying for training of Team members, adding new 
equipment, and helping to pay for the HLR.

We will look into getting a bank account to hold the vast wealth of Alcor MW.

We are also considering having special identification cards made for Alcor MW 
members.

The group will also strive to hold a conference in the Fall with guest 
speakers.

The next meeting of Alcor MW will be June 13 at the house of Bob and Margaret 
Schwartz in Indianopolis. For information on how to get there, call them at 
(Brian, please fill in 999 999 9999).

We look forward to seeing you at our meeting to help us move Alcor MW forward 
into the next century!

Best, Bren

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