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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=708