X-Message-Number: 31101
Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2008 09:55:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: david pizer <>
Subject: Venturist Director problems.


FD pointed out that the Venturists position is similar to Alcor - on how 
Directors are elected.  here is a little history.


Both organizations started out with the members having more say in how the 
directors are elected and then changed that for reason of lack of interest.


Both reached points where there was so little member interest in this process 
that a temporary change was made so that directors elected directors with the 
thinking that as the organizations grew they would change back to members doing 
the electing someday.  (There is some lingering question of whether that initial
change was made according to laws governing California nonprofits in the case 
of Alcor).


Alcor grew and now there are enough members and enough interest that the Alcor 
members can elect the directors but the directors won't let them.



Venturism did not grow that large yet.  We are trying to get more people to 
volunteer to apply to be Directors and then do more work to grow the 
organization so that we have more active members so that we can also change back
to members electing directors.  We need a couple of volunteers to:
1.  Keep a current list of all the members.
2.  Send out an electronic magazine to them every month.

3.  Bill them and track the money every year, say $10 a year for dues to pay for
the out of pocket expenses of this.

4. Come up with new ideas for things that The Society of Venturism can do for 
the cryonics movement to make membership in our organization more needed.

At present we do:
1.  Fund raising to help needy cryonics supporters.

2. Supply an "Objection to Autopsy" membership care (Mike Perry's wonderful 
work) which might prevent a cryoncists from having to undergo an autopsy, since 
the objection is a religious one and since our organization is really recognized
under our 501c3 as being scientific, educational and RELIGIOUS in purposes.
3.  We used to put out a magazine on cryonics topics.
4.  We used to have annual get-togethers that were a lot of fun.
5.  We have a website and discussion email site.



On O'Rights campaign, it is growing slowly.  Robert Ettinger's offer to finance 
donations for those who need to make them over time was a wonderful plan that 
has helped get more money in.  What we need now is a re-burst of enthusiasm to 
get some more contributions in.  We are at $10,000 total now.  What we need now 
is some more help getting the word out and more people wanting to help Bill get 
funded.

Please send in a contribution if you support this idea.

please tell others about this, and write you thoughts and ideas up and share 
them on Cryonet or elsewhere.

Please send your donation to:
The Venturists
Care of Creekside Lodge
11255 State Route 69
Mayer Az 86333


or go to our website and use the new Google (better then Paypal) option to send 
in your donation.

Thanks to all who have helped so far.

David

FD had said:

Without at the time pointing out the obvious, that David Pizer's position on
the self-perpetuating Venturist Board is a bit incompatible with his
previously stated desire to change the very same thing about Alcor's
self-perpetuating Board, in an earlier post (CryoNet 31088) I challenged Mr.
Pizer to fix this glaring problem.

He answered the same way Alcor has answered about their glaring problem.
With silence.

This doesn't give me a lot of confidence in, or reason to join, the
Venturists.  However, I did want to say one thing, regarding the donations
some folks have sent to the Venturists for William O'Rights'
cryopreservation.  I view that as a rather separate issue from how their
Board is elected, and want to state here that I have no reason to believe
that donations earmarked for O'Rights will not be properly handled as
intended.

The Venturists is the place to go to help Bill O'Rights.  Heck, I'd even say
send money to Alcor if they were collecting it for O'Rights.  Just because
an organization leaves a lot to be desired in how it is structured, does not
mean the people in it won't do things right the best they can.

Help Bill out now while you can.  Maybe the Ettinger plan (Cryonet 30949)
will appeal to you.  The Pavlica plan (CryoNet 30952) I guess expired on
Sept 30.  Both of them say they will send the money to the Venturists for
O'Rights, if you meet their stipulated conditions.  Or send a check directly
to the Venturists.  (The Venturists, C/O Creekside Lodge, 11255 State Route
69, Mayer Arizona, 86333)

Cheers,

FD

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