I mention this because the trip allowed me to reconnect with several people in cryonics who I had not seen in quite some time – all people who were recruited during my tenure as President, or Research Director of Alcor. In a couple cases, I hadn’t been in touch with these folks in well over a decade. Two of them were livid at one of the most recent communications from Alcor asking for more money. The monthly expenditure for Alcor coverage has become astronomical, and two of these folks are on unemployment, with no clear job prospects (one is retraining). All were considering dropping their Alcor membership and retaining their insurance. One of these people has been trying to get financial statements from Alcor for over a year – apparently there have been no financials done (reported) in 4 years (!) and he was angry beyond words at that situation, and at the hiring of yet another person to deal with finances and accounting issues. When I told him Alcor had TEN paid employees, he almost exploded. As he pointed out to me (something I had long forgotten), financial reports were MONTHLY, and done virtually without fail, from the early 1980s until at least 1991 (when I left). I have most of those monthly reports (they were in Jerry Leaf’s files, which I inherited). Ironically, when I was visiting Alcor, I asked their financial person if she could copy me on the Annual Financial Reports for 1984-1987. This request was met with some suspicion, but she did indicate she would “see if she could find them for me.” THAT sent chills down my spine. I mean, what organization wouldn’t have its Annual Reports from, if not day one, then certainly from the time they became a regular and formal part of the operation?

Needless to say, I never got them, and while I did subsequently find the Annual Report ending on 31 December, 1985 in my own files, I’m still waiting (methinks in vain) for the other two years. There was nothing ominous in my request, and in fact, I explained my purpose, which was to try and create a picture of the resource utilization during the period where Alcor transitioned from being in Fullerton and heavily subsidized by Jerry Leaf/Cryovita, to “owning” its own facility and basically being a completely self-sufficient enterprise. I have just finished scanning in pictures of the Riverside facility, the limited partnership offering for the building, and have put together the inventory/assets and a fairly comprehensive picture of the level of services and the scope of Alcor’s operations at that time. It will thus be possible for anyone to examine the bulk of the visible work product from that time and get an idea of the dollar adjusted cost of generating it. [Scans of literature, Cryonics magazine, and other relevant documents from that interval are are also completed.]

I now have a much better idea of what ten employees do there most of the time (plus volunteers) and I don’t really know what to say about it, let alone do about it. I do share your frustration, but for the time being I can only urge you to focus on spending your time and money on local preparations to protect yourself. I have a number of suggestions to offer you regarding locating a mortician to work with you, but those are best offered, if you are interested, in personal correspondence. — Mike Darwin