From September Financial & Accounting Report

As of mid-July, invoices over 90 days past due tallied nearly $73,000. This is believed to be primarily the result of having changed to email-only invoices about a year ago. After a mailing explaining the billing difficulties, the past due amount was reduced to around $50,000 by late-August. Incoming payments dropped off at that point, so collection calls were made to the remaining members with a balance over 90 days past due.

Alcor’s 2006 taxes have been completed. Interviews of several local firms have concluded and are final proposals and references are being collected for presentation to the board of directors, who will select the firm to conduct Alcor’s annual review and/or audit.

Probate Matters
The A-2309 last-minute case is in a state of limbo because of the lack of an executor for the estate. There is no one to carry out the decedent’s wishes. Several strategies are being discussed with our attorneys.

The A-1097 probate also continues. Renovations on the property bequeathed to Alcor are complete and the house is listed for sale at a competitive price. Our realtors recently held the first open house. Alcor was informed this month that it is the beneficiary listed on this patient’s IRA account and the funds can be distributed independent of the probate proceedings.

From September Research & Development Report

The whole body vitrification system is in the final stretches. This project has turned out to be more complex than anticipated, but the end result is expected to be truly extraordinary. The new system will be the most advance human cryopreservation system in the world, with complete integration and control of the relevant cryopreservation parameters, cooling, operator feedback, safety systems, and graceful failure modes. Testing will be just beginning in early October, but an excellent demonstration will be offered during the 7th Alcor Conference open house.

Additional progress is being made in the custom fabrication of a heat exchanger for use with perflurocarbon cooling and the evaluation of a new integrated cardiopulmonary bypass system for the air transportable perfusion (ATP), which has the promise of significantly reducing the size and weight of the system for stabilization and transport.

Clinical Update
Bigfoot 12 is now ready to accept patients. The filling manifold has been extended to include the new dewar and the fill gauge built and installed. This dewar may be sent back to the manufacturer for re-wrapping of the insulation. The Bigfoot-1 repair continues. Hugh Hixon has pumped down the vacuum in the dewar for over 1,500 hours, reaching the temperature of 210 degrees C, in an attempt to remove the water collected in the system. Vacuum pressure has been reduced to 6 microns and is holding steady. It will continue to be pumped down until it is stable for two weeks, and then it will be tested with nitrogen.

Meet Cryonics Members & Supporters in Chicago, IL Area!

Paul Battista would to start a cryonics group to meet on a regular basis in the Chicago, IL area.

The primary purpose for these meetings would be to provide opportunities for like-minded people to discuss topics of interest pertaining to cryonics and related fields.

If you are interested in building a sustainable cryonics community in the Chicago, IL area please email Paul at: .

Alcor Board of Directors Panel at Conference

Representatives of the Alcor Board of Directors will participate in a panel discussion at the 7th Alcor conference to address questions from the audience. Alcor members and cryonics enthusiasts, whether attending the conference or not, are encouraged to submit questions in advance.

Email:

September Operations Update

We cryopreserved a member’s dog that died last week. The member knew his dog was ill and has been making pre-payments toward the preservation for some time. The dog was shipped to us on dry ice and has been cooled. Alcor now has 32 pets in its care.

As mentioned briefly last month, I held a training session in western Canada. Ben Best was also on hand to discuss Cryonics Institute policies with regard to stabilizations. There were eight students and a couple family members dropped in for short periods. I had some interesting customs issues when crossing the border, which require additional investigation. We may wish to have the Cryonics Society of Canada formally request our presence prior to any future training sessions.

Renovations to the lab spaces continue. I’ve completed a design for renovations to our dry lab, cardiopulmonary bypass lab and old operating room. Subsequent to the renovation, we will be going through our surgical and cryopreservation supplies inventory and replacing expired items. We intend to continue our reorganization efforts until the entire facility is both tidy and functional, in the process clearing out thirteen years worth of clutter.

We are continuing our search for a new accounting firm. A meeting with Ernst and Young led to a few more leads on potential firms. We have another meeting set up for next week, and hope to have three suitable candidates soon. Our 2006 taxes have been completed by one of the candidate firms, Woods and Dwyer. We are pleased with the timeliness of their preparation, providing a significant contrast to our former firm.

Alcor Board Meeting in San Francisco, California

If you are curious about what happens at an Alcor board meeting we encourage you to attend this event on Friday, September 7, 2007, 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm. This a great opportunity to meet Alcor Board Members and staff who are in the area to attend the Singularity Summit. Coffee, tea, water and hors d’oeuvres will be available during the meeting.

This meeting will take place at:
The Metropolitan Club
640 Sutter Street
San Francisco CA 94102
415/673.0600
see map

If you are interested in attending this meeting, please RSVP no later than Tuesday, September 4 as seating is very limited.

For more information or to ask questions, please contact D’Bora Tarrant, Alcor Front Office Administrator, at 877/462-5267 ext. 101.

From the August Administrative Reports

With assistance from several staff members (mainly Randal Fry & Regina Pancake), the facility was prepared for a visit from a Modern Marvels film crew, which took place on 07/30. Tanya Jones did the main interview and demonstration, with demo assistance from Chana de Wolf. The patient in cooldown happened to be scheduled for transfer to long-term care on that very day, and the film crew obtained footage from the hatch on the roof. The show focuses on “cold science” and includes a dry ice manufacturer, a plant where nitrogen and oxygen are liquefied, a national seed bank, and more. The skeptic interview selected pertaining to cryonics was Dr. Philip Keen, the former medical examiner for Maricopa County and the current medical examiner for Yavapai County.

The World Transhumanist Association conference in Chicago was a useful event for Alcor to attend. Throughout the 4-day conference, an Alcor member handed out Alcor literature and spoke with an estimated 50-75 people. Alcor waived the $150 application fee for those who applied during the conference or within 30 days following the conference.

Although no applications have been received yet, indications are good that several people will apply as a result of Alcor’s presence. Tanya Jones did a formal presentation (along with Ralph Merkle and Shannon Vyff) and networked with the crowd, accompanied by Steve Van Sickle. At least one positive blog post has resulted, which is a highly credible means of third-party advertising: http://sentientdevelopments.blogspot.com/

On July 31, 2007, Alcor had 825 members on its Emergency Responsibility List. Two memberships were approved during this month, no memberships were reinstated, three memberships were cancelled and one member was cryopreserved. Overall, there was a net loss of two members this month.

We have had a very good response to our Alcor Member Directory letter. We have had over 300 Members send their information in to be put in the Directory. It is scheduled to be completed before the October conference.

Reports submitted by Jennifer Chapman and Diane Cremeens

From the August Operations Report

In July, a last minute case was accepted, with the patient being a Canadian individual with a will stating he wished to be cryopreserved by Alcor and directing his estate to pay the bill. The Board chose to accept this case because of the clear statement of the individual’s wishes and because the funding was available. The estate’s executor prepared legal documentation, and he attempted to arrange the funds transfer while we concentrated on the preservation.

The patient, A-2309, was straight-frozen, because his unexpected death and the time delays in getting his body to Arizona from Canada, which placed him beyond the point where vitrification was possible. We instrumented the patient for acoustic monitoring and collected fracturing data on this case. The first fractures appeared, naturally, at higher than normal temperatures and will become interesting as we collect more information on any future, similar cases.

On the aspect of being paid for the case, the executor resigned his post in frustration after attempting to deal with the bank, and we have retained counsel to advise us on how to proceed.

During the past month, we also cryopreserved a member’s cat that died suddenly. We had been making arrangements to cryoprotect the animal, but those plans failed when the kitty died suddenly.

The Bigfoot-1 repair continues. This dewar was once was our bulk storage reservoir before it failed, and the repair was not entirely up to our standards, due to water being trapped inside the shell. Hugh Hixon has pumped down the vacuum in the dewar for more than 1,500 hours, reaching the temperature of 210 degrees C, in our attempt to remove the water collected in the system. Vacuum pressure was at 7 microns, as of Wednesday; and the plan is to see if the dewar will now hold a vacuum. We’ll disconnect the vacuum pump once the pressure has been stable for at least two weeks and then perform another fill test to see if the problem has been resolved.

Further organizing of the facility is also in progress. Regina Pancake and Randal Fry have been taking the initiative on this, and we look forward to greater order in the near future.

During the past month, I distributed copies of the wealth preservation trust to select members. We were most interested in sending it to members with relevant legal experience or those who have worked personally with attorneys to set up trusts of their own. I’ve received no comments on the draft yet, either from those members, their lawyers, or the attorney assisting us with the trust development. I will follow up on this shortly as well.

We are continuing to assist with the probate proceedings for patient A-1097. Renovations of the property bequeathed to Alcor are complete, and we have sent the paperwork necessary to listing the property for sale to the executor of the estate. We will be invoicing the estate for the renovations, with the expectation that these costs will be reimbursed early in the probate process.

The first of the reimbursement checks for the Reeves theft has arrived, the amount matching what the judge required. Initially, these checks will be split between operations and the endowment, until the operations portion is completely reimbursed, and then the full amount will be periodically transferred to the endowment.

Recently, I gave a presentation at the World Transhumanist Association conference in Chicago. Though this event was more sparsely attended than we’d hoped, the audience is certainly one of the more educated ones on cryonics. My talk was primarily on the engineering development we’ve done lately, which is a slight departure from my usual talk; but many of those folks had contributed to our whole-body vitrification matching grant. I felt updating them on our progress was important to maintaining the support of that community. I received more compliments on that talk than I ever have before, so I’m going to remember that blunt speak occasionally works. We anticipate several members and more conference attendees will result from our participation.

We filmed an episode of Modern Marvels, a History Channel program, which is focusing on innovative uses of cold. Overall, it went fairly well. The crew was excited to be able to film the transfer of patient A-2309 from the cool-down dewar to the long-term care dewar. It was a rainy day, so there was much fog to be seen. This episode is expected to air on September 25, 2007, but we will keep people posted if the date changes.
Report submitted by Tanya Jones.

Annual Board Meeting in September

Annual elections will be held at the September 7, 2007 Board meeting. This meeting will be held in the Northern California area. All Alcor Board meetings are open to the public and we encourage everyone to attend. Please revisit this blog later in the week for more details about time and location.

Special Note: Alcor representatives will be attending the Singularity Summitt in San Francisco on September 8 & 9.

Online Hotel Reservations for Alcor Conference

We’ve received some feedback that attendees of the 7th Alcor conference are occasionally receiving an error message when attempting to reserve a hotel room at the Hilton Resort.

If you are experiencing difficulty reserving your hotel room online, please contact Alcor’s conference planner:
Connie Gutierrez
480-990-1887

Or Alcor:
Jennifer Chapman
877-462-5267 x 113

You can also select “no preference” when asked what room type you prefer (king or double bed), as this is based on availability. If you have a strong room type preference, contact us.

And remember, the deadline for reserving your hotel room at the group rate of $152 per night is September 15th . Alcor currently has only 40 room nights left in its guaranteed room block (each night’s stay is 1 room night), so make your reservations today.