X-Message-Number: 836
From:
Subject: Alcor Nevada Minutes
Date: Mon, 18 May 92 23:10:19 PDT
ALCOR NEVADA MINUTES
SUNDAY MAY 10TH 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Ron Feuerstein Sterling Johnson Eric Klien
Don Laughlin Ron Piturka Dave Pizer
Jerry Searcy Frank Ujlaki
Audi Flambe'
Along the way to Don Laughlin's casino, my temperature light went on
so I pulled over. I opened my hood to be met by flames! Luckily,
coolant was being sprayed all over the place so the fire put itself
out quickly. Unfortunately, the other person in our convoy, Jim
Burns, became seperated from us and didn't know about the fire. So
when he reached the Riverside Casino no one met him there and he
eventually went home. Otherwise we would have had nine people at the
meeting. To make a long story short, before the tow truck towed away
my car out of the middle of the desert, Don's nearly brand new van
had arrived to rescue us. We eventually arrived at our destination
two hours late. The damage to the car was only $60, just the coolant
hoses had to be replaced.
EMTs
Don will bring some of his employees to our next meeting so we can
answer their questions before they begin their EMT training.
Mercy Ambulance had a bigger backlog of students than was originally
thought. Jerry and I won't be able to begin our training until
October 20th. The training will end November 26th. We could start
our training a month earlier at a community college but we would
prefer to work with Mercy Ambulance since they do most of the EMT
work in Nevada. The Fire Department does the rest of the EMT work.
Clark County Fire Dept.
The Acting Paramedic Coordinator also ignored the certified letter
that Don Laughlin's lawyer set him. It looks like Carlos Mondragon's
and Austin Tupler's advice didn't work. I will now try Sterling
Johnson's advice of making an appointment to see this government
official. Sterling says that using lawyers and certified letters is
not the best way to establish relationships with public officials.
[ Note: The following section is presented FYI only. As noted in
previous messages, the cryonics mailing list cannot endorse any
particular investment method, so any investments or large donations
mentioned are not to be interpreted as solicitations. - KQB ]
New Building
We are going to buy the first building discussed for the sum of
$435,000. The new owner of the building has agreed to sell it for
that price.
Ron Feuerstein, Don Laughlin's tax attorney, had some comments on the
best way to buy the new building. He had the following to say about
giving money as donations to Alcor instead of as an investment
through a corporation:
Advantages
1) Tax credit would be given to individual that year.
2) Unfriendly relatives couldn't get part ownership of building if
Alcor member died.
3) Alcor may receive reduced property taxes if it owns the building.
Disadvantages
1) Increased value of property in the future would not be credited
to donor.
2) The Patient Care Fund (which would own this property) would be
unable to sell the property in a hurry if the government was trying
to seize its assets.
Neutral
1) No yearly depreciation would be passed through donors/investors in
either case since papers would be drawn up after the 1986 tax law
changes.
Based on these factors, Alcor is currently asking for donations
instead of investments. If you are interested please contact Dave
Pizer ASAP.
Doctors
Frank Ujlaki suggested that I contact a doctor who is a customer of
his bookstore. This doctor showed some interest in cryonics. I'll
contact him before the next meeting.
Charlie Hartman recommends that when speaking to doctors that you use
the words "experiment" and "volunteer" as in the following: "I'm in
this experiment, I've volunteered -would you consider helping me?"
Hydergine
Steve Harris submitted the following after he read our last minutes
on cryonet. Suffice it to say that after reading this I don't think
adding Hydergine to our suspension protocol would be a good idea!
[ Text of message #762 deleted to avoid duplication - KQB ]
Recruiting Members
The Las Vegas Review-Journal ran my free ad for a second time. It
again failed but I will run it again next month.
I expect a lot of Libertarians to show up at a meeting in the near
future. We almost had quite a few attend this meeting but the
lawsuit of Nevadans for Lower Taxes against various public and
private agencys and officials was moved up by the courts. This anti-
tax group is led by the Nevada Libertarian Chair and so the lawsuit
stopped quite a few Libertarians from showing up. Jim Burns, one of
the more active Libertarians in the state, almost did show up but my
car fire ended his efforts at being at our meeting.
Don Laughlin will have a few of his employees show up at our next
meeting so we can answer their questions related to EMT training.
This will probably give us an attendance record at the next meeting.
I am open to suggestions on ways to recruit members. If anyone calls
in any ideas, I will try to implement them before our next meeting.
Patient Care Fund
The Patient Care Trust Fund Advisory Committee met via telephone and
recommended the following actions:
1) Close the Pacific Horizon bank account and the First Interstate
Bank account to simplify matters. Transfer this money to the Charles
Schwab account. 2) Close the Capital Preservation Fund account due
to its market under performance. Transfer this money to the Charles
Schwab account. 3) Invest the money in the Charles Schwab account
into the Scudder Short Term Global fund. This is a fund that invests
in the foreign equivalent of money market funds and then hedges to
take care of currency fluctuations. This will be an investment of
approximately $235,000. 4) Transfer $50,000 from the Benham Adj Rate
Govt Sec Fund into the Charles Schwab account. This money will be
invested in a convertible bond fund for increased performance. 5)
Invest this $50,000 into the TCW Convertible Fund using Schwab. This
will leave the Patient Care Fund with $400,000 left in the Benham Adj
Rate Govt Sec Fund plus approximately $300,000 in non liquid assets.
The actions were basically approved at the last board meeting. I'll
report the exact actions taken by Alcor in our next minutes. I
believe that the two actions that Alcor did differently were that the
First Interstate Bank account was kept open because it contained
prepaid suspension money and that the Scudder Short Term Global fund
was bought directly to save $250 in commission costs. (We wanted to
buy it directly to save Joe Hovey some work. $250 is only 1/10 of 1%
of the amount involved and this transaction will increase Alcor's
rate of return by 6%.)
In the last minutes, Charlie Hartman asked if there was some way that
members can put money into the patient care fund individually before
they enter suspension. It seems that based on the money that we have
in the First Interstate Bank account that the answer is YES. So
people like Charlie should contact Alcor if they wish to make
arrangements to prepay their suspension into the patient care fund.
Certificates of Religious Belief
Jerry Searcy and I had people witness our wallet sized certificates
of religous belief. We will get them laminated before we use them.
Other Alcor members can get them from The Venturists.
Checkfree Corporation
I have found this corporation could be used to make automatic monthly
withdrawals from checking accounts and credit cards. I have spoken
to Ralph Whelan and hope to soon work out the details in promoting
this new way that Alcor members can donate money. This corporation
is a little cheaper than the service offered by 1st Interstate Bank
which is Alcor's bank. (They charge $250 to get such a service
started, 1st Interstate charges $800.) Basically, this service would
only be useful if we could get at least $1000/month in donations.
The Seed Of The Woman
Charlie Hartman recommend that we use this book for religious groups.
If anyone's interested, I could ask Charlie for the publisher's and
author's name. Tanya said she's interested, so I'll request the info
from Charlie.
Petition
I passed around the petition that I received from Saul Kent. It asks
for 1) An Executive search committee. 2) Permanent procedures for an
ongoing evaluation of the CEO. 3) An official liason between Alcor's
management and its membership. 4) The right for official chapters to
choose a member of the Alcor board (one per chapter). 5) Returning a
portion of membership dues to official Alcor chapters.
Next Meeting
Our next meeting will be on the second Sunday of next month, June
14th, at 5:00 PM at the Riverside casino in Laughlin, Nevada. Take
95 south from Las Vegas, through Henderson, where it forks between 95
and 93. Bear right at the fork and stay on 95 past Searchlight until
you reach the intersection with 163 a little before the border with
California. Go left on 163 and stay on it until you see signs for
Laughlin. You can't miss the Riverside Casino in Laughlin, Nevada.
For more information, call Eric Klien at (702) 255-1355. I'll be
car-pooling there with other Las Vegans.
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