X-Message-Number: 22492
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2003 01:57:52 -0400 (EDT)
From: 
Subject: Bill Seidel and the art of compromise

I see this is getting a bit personal. I'll try to be brief.

Bill Seidel's unexpected praise is very kind. Bill recently
completed a volunteer project, numbering and cataloguing
Alcor's entire tape library. This kind of work tends to be
unappreciated, because it is less visible than, for instance,
field work during cryonics cases. But maintenance of the
infrastructure is of obvious value, and I have a lot of
respect for a nice guy who says "I'll help" and does the job,
as promised, without expecting any reward (tangible or
otherwise).

Bill and I were forced into collaboration 10 years ago by
circumstances at the beginning of CryoCare. We had some
disagreements, as Bill says; but we worked through them. I
have also worked through disagreements in noncryonics
situations, e.g. where editors have wanted to change my
writing, sometimes substantially. This can be a very highly
charged situation, yet some of my best friends are former
editors. Why isn't the ability to compromise more common in
cryonics? Probably because of factors that I described in my
previous Cryonet post. I hope it was clear that I was
including myself among those personality types.


I should add however, it is the task of management to
overcome such problems. Jerry Lemler did a fine job of
encouraging disparate people to get along when he took over
as CEO a year ago, but Jerry was partly absent from Alcor
during the past month (while Carlos Mondragon was visiting)
and will be quitting as CEO at the end of this year. It's
anybody's guess who the next CEO will be. If he has formal
management training and/or experience, that will be an
obvious advantage.

A mechanism for conflict resolution is also desirable. Alcor
has such a system, but I have no personal experience of it.


As for Alcor membership, if I am a member of an organization,
I always want to participate actively. Unfortunately that is
problematic right now, so it's best for me to take a break.

--CP

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