X-Message-Number: 2590 Subject: CRYONICS Update re CryoCare From: (Charles Platt) Date: Mon, 07 Feb 94 15:46:15 EST News of CryoCare In response to David Cosenza and several others who have been inquiring about CryoCare: We made our initial announcement, and held several preliminary regional meetings, late in 1993 at a time when our plans were not entirely finalized. We wanted to get feedback from prospective members before we wrote our bylaws and the contractual agreements linking CryoCare with its service providers. (As most of you may already know, under our plan, CryoCare hires cryopreservation, storage, and fund management services from separate providers, since we feel this gives our members many advantages.) Subsequently we held a couple of regional meetings at which people were invited to join CryoCare. A pleasing number did so. I'm not being coy about the exact number; it's not possible to give an accurate figure at a time when most people have not fully completed the sign-up process and some who expressed sincere interest are still "hesitating on the brink." We should have meaningful data about signups within the next three to four weeks. In the past, when a new cryonics organization has been set up, the main task has been to buy equipment and find personnel who are qualified in the relevant medical procedures. Oddly enough, this time around, the equipment and personnel were already available. It's been the bylaws, the contractual arrangements, and the other paperwork that have taken all the time, mainly because we wanted to re-think everything from scratch. To take just one example: it took a couple of attempts, and a lot of amiable negotiation, before I was able to draft an agreement for any members of Alcor who want to switch their paperwork and their insurance to CryoCare without risk of being unprotected along the way. Brenda Peters is now sending out a brief progress report to all the people who have expressed serious interest in signing with us. This will be followed by personal phone calls or letters from Brenda. She took a well-earned three-month rest after quitting from the Alcor board last year, but she's now working very actively on behalf of CryoCare, and she'll be dealing with signups for the foreseeable future. I've produced four separate information booklets which have just been printed. One of these booklets describes the cryopreservation services offered by BioPreservation, and the text was written by Mike Darwin. The second booklet describes long-term storage capabilities of CryoSpan, and was written by Paul Wakfer, founder of CryoSpan. I served only as editor and designer on these two items. The third booklet is a comprehensive overview of CryoCare, and the fourth booklet is a history of cryonics which leads to our conclusion that "unbundling" cryonics into separate service providers provides the best guarantee of long-term stability, efficiency, and service, in addition to giving our members freedom of choice when more service providers enter cryonics. Those of you who have previously requested information about CryoCare from me via e-mail should receive a plain-text version of these four booklets by e-mail within the next seven days. If nothing turns up in your electronic mailbox by Valentine's Day, notify me at If you have not requested information from me before, but you would like some now, send your request to And if you want the actual booklets in ink on paper version, let me know. (The BioPreservation and CryoCare booklets are illustrated; the other two are not.) In about four weeks from now, I hope to produce the first issue of our regular newsletter. Naturally, it will be sent out online as well as in the form of hardcopy. My e-mail provider has kindly agreed to set up a list server for CryoCare, free. I don't know when this will occur, and since they're doing me a favor, I can't be pushy about it. When it happens, though, you'll be able to use our e-mail address as a library, taking only those items which you want. I realize that for the past couple of months, it might have seemed as if CryoCare was dormant, especially if you were one of the pioneers who decided to sign with us very early on. Well, we decided it was best to get everything right before we went looking for more members. You will note that if you wrote us a check, we did not deposit it during this period. We now feel that we have things the way we want them, and we are ready to proceed. Please note, however, this is just an informal letter for people on CryoNet. For the record, the officers in CryoCare are as follows: Brenda Peters Charles Platt Bill Seidel Judy Norman Sharp Kevin Q. Brown Additional assistance from Saul Kent, Courtney Smith, Bob Krueger, Steve Harris, Eric Klien, Curtis Henderson, and others. Directors: Brenda Peters, Peter Crowley MD, Brian Wowk Our cryopreservation services are currently provided by Michael Darwin and Steve Harris, MD, at BioPreservation. Our long-term care (patient storage) is provided by CryoSpan, under supervision of Paul Wakfer. In due course, as cryonics grows bigger, we hope that there will be more service providers competing for a share of our business. At that time, we'll be ready to offer our members a choice among the different services available. We think that this is the direction that cryonics should take, and we're proud to be the first cryonics organization that has been designed with this in mind, right from the start. --Charles Platt Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=2590