2004 meetings

A.G.M. Election of Officers & Quarterly Meeting.
Saturday May 8th. starting at 10.00am.
Continuing to late afternoon. Sunday May 9th. starting at 9am.

At the home of Alan and Sylvia Sinclair - 4 Mount Caburn Crescent, Peacehaven, E.Sussex, BN10 8DW. Tel.01273-587660 (Maps and Directions available if you haven't been before-just E-Mail Mark Walker or click here for the map.) or email Alan Sinclair at cryoservices@yahoo.co.uk.

Chrissie de Rivaz in the Chair.

Chrissie welcomed everyone, especially those here for the first time and thanked Alan and Sylvia for once more providing a venue and excellent hospitality.

Chairman's Report

The main business of the day was the election of officers but as is customary, outgoing officers will make their reports first.

She stated the following:

It seems to have been a quieter year than last year, after the New Scientist promotion. Membership enquiries have continued and some have progressed further. More will come from the Secretary. Updated full list of members is being processed with potential for contacting people local to you. List will not of course be published, as confidentiality suggests, but contacts can be made available, with individual agreement.

Congratulations to Alan on being voted on to Board Member of CI. His work and expertise are greatly appreciated by us all here and also in US.

A personal highlight for John and I was the meeting in Cornwall in September. It was good to meet new people who were interested as well as meeting friends. We felt very grateful that everyone felt it worth travelling so far and we shall be delighted to host another meeting whenever required. Other meetings held during the year.

One major event of the year which has affected all of our futures, is the 'cemetery situation' which threatened major implications for CI and subsequently for Alcor. Full document is available for those wishing to read it. Briefly, the outcome is that:

• patients will be perfused at a licensed funeral establishment by a licensed mortician
• CI will contract with patient for full process including perfusion which they will pay and organise (in US)
• CI shall require funeral directors shall follow CI protocol and use chemical directed by CI
• CI shall set aside Endowment Care Trust Fund equal to $4,000 per patient (for maintenance etc) This does not affect the cost to the patient.

Other points within the statement suggest that processes and decisions pertinent to this will continue as previously and allow for future progress to be incorporated without needing new legislation. It should be made clear that this does not affect people in UK nor does it change the procedures to be carried out by the standby team.

The recent sudden death of a UK CI member resulted in failure to suspend. Ultimately, the person appointed as his trustee forced a cremation as he thought it impossible to preserve the patient after an autopsy. At CI, the belief is that it is always worth trying to carry out patients's wishes as the future may have capabilities as yet unknown, which could allow revival even in extreme circumstances. It is therefore important to endure the wording of your agreement allows for this. The trustee was also in that case, a beneficiary if the suspension was not carried out. Choose carefully! It was suggested that we should ask CI to notify us of any UK members who 'go down'

in case we have not been informed. There may be something we can do to help prevent such incidents as this loss, from occurring again.

There was to be opportunity to discuss any topics raised in this report, informally later in the weekend.

Secretary's Report

Mark Walker reported that there are now 18 regular subscribers to Cryonics Europe, with three more electing to pay standby fees on their death from over-funding of life insurance. Although this is no longer the method which we shall accept for new members, the agreement will stand for these three.

There have been a number of enquiries for membership of CI but there is not yet any confirmation that they have signed up. Forms and information packs have been sent out and a list of essential documents for UK members has been made. Not all the forms available for downloading are necessary, Mark has this information available.

The database is constantly being updated and any changes of address, phone numbers etc need to be given to Mark as soon as possible. He is also planning to provide a secure web version for access by selected officers and stand-by team members.

Mark is anxious that people should complete their video will and showed a wallet card with CD capabilities. It was suggested that part of the September meeting might be used to assist members with this.

As CE contact numbers are provided by Mark, it seems necessary that another direct link should be provided as he is currently living in Ireland and therefore not easily available. He agreed to contact Ian Thomas to ask if it is possible to have some sort of forwarding system if one is not answered so another can be called. All 0800 currently are sent to Mark.

He suggested we also need to have proper procedures for access to Alan's facilities if he is not there.

He concluded by suggesting that members should contact their own local funeral directors in case of sudden need and to ensure they have someone who is familiar with the basic requirements. It was also suggested that we should enquire whether Barry Albin is still willing and able to provide necessary expertise when needed and whether he is willing to work alongside the standby team. Chrissie to email Ben Best to ask him to make contact.

Mark was thanked for his continuing efforts and support.

Treasurer's Report

Graham Hipkiss provided a statement of accounts. We have a healthy balance and reimbursement of moneys for surgical equipment provided by Alan to Alcor in the past enabled us to purchase a new perfusion pump at minimal cost.

Thanks were given to Graham for his help and expertise over the year.

H.O.P.R.T. Financial Report 17.04.03 - 16.04.04

Technical Manager's Report

Alan said that most things are now in place. The new perfusion pump allowing closed circuit perfusion, will be a great asset. He stressed the need for members of the team to familiarise themselves with using the equipment and practise sessions would be needed to keep everyone familiar with processes required. He asked for some more support and urged members to try to attend training sessions whenever possible. He also hopes new members will come forward to allow a full team to be available if called upon.

He feels that vitrification should be available soon and everyone will need to be familiar with any changes in procedure.

Media Report

Chrissie said:

Enquiries have continued to come in for making TV documentaries. There were at least five last Autumn, from various companies who wanted to make an 'in depth' documentary. Several progressed to proposal stage but seem to have been declined.

Students have done some interviews for a college project and hope to progress this further when they leave University and hopefully work in the industry.

Several radio/magazine and newspaper pieces. Danish Radio interview. Was asked to contribute to live Radio 2 with Jeremy Vine but among others, Barry Albin's piece took too long!

There are some TV documentaries including cryonics, scheduled for later in the year.

Chrissie did an interview with TVNZ (New Zealand) interview ... available on website.

She did contact some NZ members but met no-one.

Chrissie is writing a 'Beginner's Guide to Cryonics' book: no publisher so far, but proposal is with her agent. Members thought this was a very worthwhile project for introducing the subject to the layman. Most books currently available are too technical and many are biassed towards one organisation. She is to look into alternative methods of publishing. This could also generate extra publicity as some TV and radio programmes might do interviews.

Much recent discussion on Yahoo group abut the importance of advertising/media presence etc.

Chrissie did over twenty TV appearances during the past two years ... a few new members may have resulted. There are still many who did not see anything and it proves the futility of taking out expensive advertising. Web presence (despite adverse comments by a member of the yahoo group) is positive and brings results ... perhaps people accessing the web is helped by media coverage by bringing awareness.

Webmaster's Report

The web site has had a consistently good rate of "hits" and a combined search, such as http://www.copernic.com, suggests that it is available to a number of search engines. A search on <"Cryonics" and "Europe"> produced over 100 listings using Copernic Agent Professional (limited to 20 per search engine, 16 enabled). A Google search produced 6570 entries for Cryonics and Europe, with http://www.cryonics-europe.org being the head of the list.

I have resisted and will continue to resist the idea of a flashy web site using Dreamweaver or something similar, as such sites are often not readable on some browsers and takes ages to download. Our web site has most of the pages in hand coded html and this is the most efficient way to do it from the point of view of those reading the site. The only pages that are slow to download are the videos and audios, and there is nothing that can be done about these.

Our thanks must go to Ian Thomas who has kindly provided the web space so that high quality videos can be available to those with a broadband connection. In addition his web space enables a more professional looking site without using web forwarding and pop-up advertisements. Cloaked or not, a web site that uses forwarding is obvious for what it is to most except for the seriously net-illiterate.

There were few changes to the site over the year as the formula looks right in terms of providing people with a good overall impression of cryonics and what is available this side of the Atlantic. Some more European countries were added to the links page, and a few more links to public broadcasts and additional ones were posted for downloading. Again thanks are due to Ian Thomas for using his broadband connection and computer expertise to get us a good copy of Chrissie's New Zealand TV broadcast in March. Media people use these libraries to see that cryonics makes good television. Although there is little new that can be said in further broadcasting, when there is another broadcast new people see it and log on to the web site. Even if only one or two become involved, that is more chance for cryonics to save lives.

The Yahoo group continues to flourish despite not being moderated although there have been occasional flame wars. These usually end with the miscreants leaving in a huff. There is also one exclusively for people who have joined the Cryonics Institute. This has also been successful and anyone qualified is urged to email cihq@aol.com to join this Yahoo group.

Elections:

Officers were re-elected unopposed.

Chair and Media Manager: Chrissie de Rivaz

Secretary and New Members Manager: Mark Walker

Treasurer: Graham Hipkiss

Facility/Technical Manager: Alan Sinclair

Webmaster: John de Rivaz

There was a great deal of informal discussion following the business covering topics trivial and intense. Advertising, possible sites for a UK facility, procedures, training and involvement of Funeral Directors ... just a small selection of the topics under discussion. As usual, it provided the opportunity for us to share ideas, views and to socialise with others who share the same hopes and ideals for the future.

Cornwall 2004

Minutes of Cryonics Europe Meeting 14^th & 15^th August 2004

Meeting held at the home of John & Chrissie de Rivaz, Cornwall.

As this was convened as an opportunity for a group of cryonicists to spend time together, most of the discussion was on an informal level and covered a very wide range of topics. This report will be equally informal and in some cases, give only the conclusions to what amounted to several hours debate. Items reported are not necessarily in the order in which they were discussed.

Several people are currently making arrangements with insurance companies for their cryonic preservation and there seems to be confusion about the explicit meanings of the legal terms involved. Graham Hipkiss gave us explanations of the various terms and the implications of them. As there is a wider debate taking place between CI and in particular, Skandia, it was decided that we needed to await the outcome of this. Meantime, Graham was asked if he would write a simplified explanation of the various terms used in the policies. This will be put on the website for everyone to read. It is also hoped to clarify the role of trustees, beneficiaries and to ensure that we are getting the correct policies to achieve our intentions.

Other points raised were:

Are members of CI required to make an annual statement to the effect that their insurance is still up to date and being paid?

If payment is not made to a policy through illness, unemployment etc. how long is the policy valid? [Graham said it is 3 months]

For some time, there has been discussion about the possibility of obtaining a storage facility in the UK, for many reasons, not least the difficulties of transport. People reading the Cryonics Europe Yahoo Group will have seen the recent postings about finding suitable premises. Alan Sinclair has been looking for ‘bunkers’, of which there have been several for sale around the country. His suggestion were:

• a bunker with 50 or 60 thousand square feet would cost little more than a conventional building of 2,000 ft²., and the surplus could be rented out in order to make the project self supporting.

• if the group as a whole could raise enough money to pay him £120/week to replace the income he would lose by buying the bunker then he could buy the bunker and rent it to the group, who could then sub let it and eventually make a profit.

John suggested that it would only need to supplement this "rent" until tenants could be found for the additional space that would raise the £120/week, which would probably take 2 or 3 years. However the demands of tax, insurance and maintenance utilities could inflate the £120/week substantially. Also a site manager would be needed and there is no suitable group member living anywhere near the bunker currently for sale in Lancashire.

Alan then commented that at his age managing such a project himself would not be a good idea. [Is there anyone in the group really able and willing?]

Some conclusions were:

• The cost of purchase of a building is beyond our current ability to finance.

• Fitting out the building would cost an indeterminate amount, again, un-affordable at this time.

• The only available buildings are geographically distant for most of us and would necessitate a manager to operate them.

• Though the spare capacity of space could be let to provide an income, this would also require managing and none of the group is either willing or most of all, able to re-locate to carry out this task. (Possibly unpaid)

The conclusion was that we could not at this point afford such a facility, however desirable.

This led on to the need to have a facility to use for the process of vitrification, which is said to be a vastly superior process to current methods of freezing. There are greater problems of transport using this method. Alan has done considerable research into the viability of producing a method of transporting a patient at the vitrification temperature of -134 degrees Celsius. He has contacted a company who have put together proposals and offered to carry out a feasability study at the cost of £600. Although there has been much discussion between Alan and experts by telephone and email, it was felt that this may be too confused to be a sound basis for spending the group's limited funds on commissioning a commercial report, at this stage.

Though we do have money in our account, the general feeling was that we should avoid expenditure on feasability studies about equipment, until there were some published results about vitrification. This will enable us to be sure of exactly what the equipment is required to do. Though this may be necessary in future, it seemed to the majority that we would be jumping the gun at this stage.

It was felt that more information needs to be available on the vitrification process. It did not seem clear whether the advantages of vitrification are maintained if samples are stored at -196^oC rather than -134^oC.

Further debate ensued on the possible production of equipment using liquid nitrogen and another refrigerant in a two stage process to maintain -134^oC without any electronic or mechanical equipment to go wrong. A member offered to obtain a CRC Handbook which gives physical constants of various chemicals which might possibly be used. The subject will doubtless be further debated at length!

We agreed that we should wait until we can be clear as to what professional study we actually want to commission. The money can only be spent once, and maybe the best use for it would be a professional report on suggestions made for equipment.

Meds Kit:

It was suggested that the group had previously decided not to replace a meds kit that is date expired. The members present did not agree that this decision had been made before. It was then decided that a meds kit could be purchased from the sum accumulated from the members' subscriptions already received and Alan agreed to investigate further the purchase of a kit. He did suggest however that as it was unsuitable for vitrification, it may not be a good idea. He also said that none were available at the present time. Its shelf life would have been 2 years. He does however, have the approval of the group to purchase a meds kit from C.E. funds, if he deems it necessary.

1. Concern was expressed once more about the length of time currently taken to process new memberships from UK. Chrissie agreed to write to CI and ask again what can be done to expedite this process in a reasonable time. One problem is that people, who believe themselves to be fully signed up members and several months after sending off paperwork, are asked some question which suggests their membership has not been completed.

2. Trustees for policies also needs clarification. This is also dependent on the insurance questions outstanding. We understand that CI directors can sign trust documents on behalf of CI where necessary. One member asked if it could be made possible for the Chair of Cryonics Europe (the position not the person, to avoid difficulties should the current Chair be replaced) to sign the documents. As there are currently two CE members who are also directors of CI, this may not be necessary.

Between debates, discussions and the occasional disagreement, a pleasant social time was enjoyed. The weather was kind to us and most of the meeting was held outside in warm sunshine, driven inside only when the wind demolished the sun shades. The barbeque on Saturday evening took place in pleasant conditions, overlooking the sea, when the wind had dropped again.

Our best wishes are sent to a member and his fiancee for their forthcoming marriage in Singapore, in December.

We hope to welcome everyone to Cornwall again, in the future.

Christmas meeting 2004

The Christmas meeting was held on 4th and 5th December at the home of Alan and Sylvia Sinclair

The agenda of the meeting was a training session and discussion about procedures.