X-Message-Number: 4420 Date: 19 May 95 13:52:02 EDT From: "Kent, Saul" <> Subject: Recruitment Bob Ettinger says that, although cryonicists are different psychologically, they do not appear to be different in any visible and useful way. I agree that there doesn't appear to be anything special about the backgrounds of cryonicists. However, since cryonicists appear to be different *psychologically*, it might be possible to pick out likely prospects through psychological testing, *if* we could develop such a test, *if* we could get people to take it, and *if* we had access to the results. Obviously, a lot of ifs. As far as my comment about there being a good many interested people out there, my purpose in making it was to suggest that I think it's a mistake to spend time trying to persuade people who are clearly *not* interested in cryonics, and that, perhaps, we should spend rela- tively little time on people who are only *slightly* interested in the idea. I think there are quite a few people out there who are strongly interested in cryonics, but who have not, for one reason or another, signed up yet. These are the people who we should spend most of our time with. I think this time should be focused on the specific reasons they have not signed up yet, which are, in most cases, I believe, identifiable. As for follow-up on interested people, I believe this follow-up should be rapid and frequent (at least several times), that each attempt at follow-up should be different in approach, that one purpose of each attempted follow-up should be to try to identify those strongly interested in cryonics, and that, after such attempts are made, cryonics organizations should pass on their leads to other cryonics organizations who might have better luck with them. It is important to respond to leads promptly because you want to try to influence people as close in time as possible to the height of their interest. It also is important to do follow-up mailings within a year of the time the prospect contacts you because people (especially in the U.S.) move around a great deal, often do *not* leave forwarding addresses, and if they *do* leave a forwarding address, the post office usually only forwards mail for a year. I agree with Bob that the average cost of successful recruitment in cryonics is very high, but the upside is that the dropout rate in cryonics is very low. Signing up for cryonics is a major decision that people often put off for years, but once they make up their mind, they are usually in there for the duration. The reason I have been focusing so much on improving cryonics methods through research as a means of improving the credibility of the idea is that it is the only way I can envision the kind of super growth in cryonics that will improve our chances of survival in a major way. Remember, the benefits of research are several-fold: it will improve our chances of survival by improving the means by which we are preserved and by improving the credibility of cryonics which will, in turn, lead to larger, wealthier, more stable cryonics organizations, greater acceptance of the idea in society, and greater funding for the achievement of full-fledged suspended animation and the development of methods to control the aging process. ---Saul Kent Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4420