X-Message-Number: 26709 From: Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 23:54:37 EDT Subject: Growth The Cryonics Institute was incorporated in 1976. At the end of June, 2000 we had 240 members and 34 patients. We now have over 520 members and 68 patients. In five years we have doubled our patient population and more than doubled our membership. Compared to the previous 24 years, that is considerable improvement in growth rate. Qualitative improvements have also accelerated in recent years, notably Dr. Pichugin's research program with vitrification advances, Ben's administrative changes, and Andy Zawacki's oversight of our new cryostats and associated systems. Naturally, nobody is satisfied, but again it is a question of perspective. We have not come near our long-term goals, but I think we have done respectably considering the novelty and magnitude of the task. The main discipline is for each individual to do what he can, to try to do it more or better but above all to keep on doing it. In particular, if you're still dithering, make the commitment. If you're already a member with all arrangements in place, recruit your relatives and friends--patiently but persistently, over months or years if necessary. The commercial advertisers know the need for persistence. Magazines keep sending free issues to former subscribers for years. Members' relatives sometimes also take years to come around. Robert Ettinger Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=26709