X-Message-Number: 708
From: 
Subject: Re: cryonics: #700 - #705
Date: Wed,  8 Apr 92 01:23:51 PDT

I feel I must respond to at least one point of Michael Paulle's 
previous posting: 

>  If we do move to Arizona will we get to change the by-laws to "one member, 
>one vote" (the one issue most near and dear to my hard heart)? 

Michael, I signed up with Alcor 7 years ago after ten years of being a 
founder and deeply involved with the L5 Society.  This gave me a lot of 
insight into the operation of a non profit organization with a (more 
or less) democratically elected board.  I very, very much doubt that 
you have similar experience with non profits, but if you have had, it 
must have been *very* different from mine.  As a result of that 
experience, I found one of the most attractive aspects about Alcor is 
that they have a self perpetuating board, i.e., a vacancy is replaced 
by the board.  By the way, I had a choice in this matter, ACS *has* a 
"one member, one vote" policy. 

In non profits, democratic form and power shifts very often results in 
instability--for the simple reason that people rise to power based on 
their political skills rather than their ability to get the job done.  
This is a feature a cryonics outfit does not need.  Self perpetuating 
boards have their own problems, but they tend to have relatively 
stable policies, especially when criteria for board membership is many 
years of being active in the organization.  In Alcor's case, that 
includes (in most but not all cases), membership on the suspension team. 

My case is fairly typical for (non staff) people on the board.  I 
wrote for the magazine but was not very involved until the Dora Kent 
crisis.  During the next two years I worked roughly half time for 
Alcor on the legal and political issues arising from that crisis.  I 
became one of the more influential members simply by doing a lot of 
work for Alcor.  (Carlos became president as a result of this crisis.)  
Along with my wife Arel, I got deeply into the "wet work" of 
suspensions and transport, starting by mopping the operating room floor.  

I can assure you that the staff, leadership, and board members are 
people *deeply* concerned about Alcor, its future, and its members. 
All of us take the concerns of members very seriously.  The first 
thing I did on being elected to the board was to publish my phone 
number (408-978-7616) and invite any member to call and talk to me 
about their concerns. 

The meeting Sunday was atypically raucous.  I must agree that many of 
your concerns about style were on the mark.  The subject of moving has 
been hashed over internally for years, but it was sprung on the 
members.  This is a very poor idea for an organization which needs to 
project long term stability.  It came on the heels of the second most 
serious crisis in the history of Alcor (losing the majority of our 
medically trained people in about half a year) and the previous 
subject (the prospect of being forced by the courts to take someone 
out of suspension) was as unpleasant as you could ask for. 

To make additional excuses, Carlos had had little or no sleep the 
night before, and that makes a lot of us snippy.  There are rewards 
for being president of Alcor such as getting to present cryonics on 
TV, but I doubt many people have ever expressed their appreciation for 
the grinding, everyday work he does.  I have done just enough 
interacting with hostile government bureaucracies (one of his main 
burdens) to know how much that can ware you down in four years.  
Dealing with *our* lawyers can be almost as much of a pain. 

I can fault Dave Pizer for style as well.  He moved to Wrightwood to 
be near Alcor, but business has drawn him back to Arizona.  He wants 
to continue to do work for Alcor.  The distance is a handicap; a nice 
big building at a reasonable price might draw Alcor nearer.  I agree 
with them that the building (with most of the interior buildout that 
we need) is a heck of a bargain.   The way it was put to a vote, the 
money had to be available, and a long laundry list of things done 
before moving, made it difficult for reasonable people to turn down. 

I wouldn't get too excited, the chance of this coming off are not 
high, but we are going to have to do something relatively soon.  
Perhaps an article in the magazine laying out the rational for 
moving/problems-with-staying would be a good place to start next time.  

Keith Henson

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