X-Message-Number: 4368
Date: 07 May 95 23:41:55 EDT
From: Jim Davidson <>
Subject: Houston group forms

The first meeting of life extension enthusiasts at the home of Jim Davidson and
Tara Horrigan went well.  In attendance were hosts Jim and Tara and guests Dr.
Steve Price, MD; Clifford Carley; Rupert Hazel; Anthony Garcia and Laura

Coker-Garcia.  At least six other people have indicated an interest in attending
future meetings.

Three important developments arose from this meeting:

1. The group agreed to meet again on Sunday 18 June 1995.  This meeting will
probably start around 3 pm for the benefit of the hosts, who will again be Jim
and Tara.

2. The group agreed to investigate the economics of forming a Houston-based

response team to provide service to suspension members of cryonics organizations
who live in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma.

3. The group agreed to host a conference on future-oriented subjects in October
1995, with the intention of having the conference on an annual basis.

As a result of some printouts from Cryonet, Dr. Price indicated a strong
interest in getting an email account and subscribing to Cryonet.

A few words about those who attended might be appropriate:
All the attendees are professional people, most use computers, ages ranged from
mid-twenties to early forties.  Dr. Price practices internal medicine, Clifford
Carley is a professional video and still camera operator, Rupert Hazel is an
engineer for Rockwell at the NASA Johnson Space Center, Anthony Garcia is a
programmer for a documentation scanning company, his wife Laura teaches middle
school, Jim is a training specialist for BusinessWare Learning Centers, and his
fiancee Tara owns a small business.

For the next meeting, agenda items include:

Naming the group
Regular meeting schedule for the coming 12 months
Response team discussion
Conference discussion
General discussion
Barbecue
If the weather is clear, we can try setting up the 6-inch reflector telescope
after sundown.

In terms of forming a Houston-based response team, the group is interested in
sources for training.  Anyone with information is welcome to post it to Cryonet
(Anthony and Jim each subscribe) or to one of us individually.  We are also
interested in acquiring equipment.  We agreed that an investigation into the
local laws which are relevant would be essential as a next step.  Any Texas
lawyers on Cryonet?  


Most of all, we want to investigate the market for response team services in the
region.  If any of the major cryonics organizations would care to share the raw
number of suspension members they have in the TX, LA, OK, AR, and MS states,
that would be very helpful.  We intend to charge annual fees for response team
readiness, charge direct fees for response team services, plan and operate the
response team as a business, and pursue the activity only if it can be operated
on a break-even basis. (I can see the smiles now.)


We did discuss the possibility that our conference might operate on a profitable
basis, and that the conference could function to subsidize the response team
activity.  No decision has been made on that.

In terms of the conference, we discussed several topics we would like to have
discussed.  These include anti-aging medicine, cryonics, nanotechnology, space,
science fiction becoming fact, and fundamental physics.  Among the discussion
areas we envisioned, legal, political, and technical issues regarding these

different fields were considered important.  In addition to local talent at Rice
University, the Houston Area Research Center, Texas A&M, the Texas Medical

Center, and the University of Houston, the conference organizers hope to attract
several nationally known authors, scientists, and professionals.  Names that
were batted about include Dr. Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven, Greg Benford,
Charles Platt, David Brin, H. Jackson Zinn, Ralph Merkle, Saul Kent, Mike
Darwin, and others.  We hope to contact these folks (more formally) as soon as
we have a definite date and hotel arranged.

The conference is tentatively being planned for the Columbus Day weekend.  Dr.
Price is investigating conference facilities in The Woodlands and hotel
facilities near Houston Intercontinental Airport will be evaluated.

We are very interested in identifying co-sponsor organizations interested in
working with us to make the conference successful.  We would like co-sponsor
groups to provide at least one speaker at their expense and publicize the event

to their membership and press contacts.  In exchange, the co-sponsor groups will
each get a free exhibit hall booth, admission for about 5 of their key
personnel, and other benefits.  We plan to charge admission of around $70 for
the 3-day event and obtain discounted airfare and hotel accommodations.  We are
considering a meal function included as part of the basic program price.

We look forward to meeting again in the near future.  If anyone on Cryonet is
planning a trip to Houston, let me know.  We'd love to get together with you or
perhaps plan one of our meetings around your trip.

Jim


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