Brent Fox requested a Membership report that gave details of when Members joined to help with estimating and projecting growth rates. This was a project I had been intending to do, and a yearend is a very apt time to do it. I will summarize both the chronology of Membership and the chronology of patient population growth.

The Option Two Membership program began in 1999. It was a marketing program idea created by David Pascal. Members prior to 1999 were all what is now called Option One. Listing Members by both join date and Option Type produces the following table (ALL = ONE + TWO):

JOINED..ALL..ONE..TWO

1976....2....2

1977....7....7

1978....4....4

1979....2....2

1982....1....1

1986....3....3

1987....2....2

1988....8....8

1989....8....8

1990....7....7

1991....8....8

1992....8....8

1993....7....7

1994...10...10

1995...13...13

1996....5....5

1997....5....5

1998...19...19

1999...41...32....9

2000...42...29...13

2001...64...51...13

2002...64...41...23

2003...78...36...42

2004...68...53...15 .........

TOTAL.476..361..115

The Cryonics Institute was incorporated in April, 1976. The three founding Members were Robert Ettinger, Walt Runkel and Richard Davis. Others joined in 1976, including Mae Junod (who later married Robert Ettinger) but only Robert and Richard are still listed as Members. Walt and Mae are Patients.

The above numbers refer only to living Members for whom we have current contact information and who have not terminated their Membership. Thus, many people who were living Members at one time are not shown in the above counts and this is especially true for the early years. (Although most cryopreserved Patients are technically Members they are not counted as such in our database.)

The many years of slow growth prior to 1998 compared to the years thereafter are most reasonably explained by the advent of the World Wide Web. Most of our new Members currently come from our Website, or learn about us primarily from our Website. Previously, Members were gained primarily through personal contact and word of mouth.

Many people who might have been interested had little idea of how to find us. It is difficult to say how much the Option Two program has contributed to Membership growth, but it is likely that many if not most of our Option Two Members would not be Members at all were it not for the Option Two option.

Trying to explain the growth pattern for the years 2002 to 2004 is a challenge to the imagination. Speculating wildly, I'd say that the Ted Williams media circus may well have accounted for the growth spurt of 78 new Members.

For about the last four months of 2003 CI was under a Cease and Desist Order from the State of Michigan. CI gained 37 new Members in the July to September period, but only 12 in October to December. (There were 13 in October to December of 2004.) The fact that such a high number of the new Members were Option Two may have been due to the uncertainty. That does not explain why there were more Option Two Members in 2003 than in 2004. Perhaps 2003 was a time of greater financial stress for many people, forcing them to choose Option Two.

The table of the patient population given below differs only slightly from that of the table given in my January 2004 report on the first 50 patients.

I listed one Patient as having an unknown death date because a death certificate is lacking, but the year of deanimation was 1997. The reason we have a patient who deanimated in 1974 three years before CI began is that the patient was acquired from Trans Time in the mid 1990s. We had 7 patients in 2004 the most for any year in addition to the ten patients we acquired from CryoSpan who are ACS Members.

Year of deanimation (pronouncement of death):

LEGAL DEATH

1974 1

1977 1

1980 1

1987 1

1990 2

1991 2

1992 5

1994 3

1995 2

1996 4

1997 3

1998 5

1999 1

2000 5

2001 4

2002 5

2003 6

2004 7

58 plus 10 ACS patients in 2004 = 68

A table of large bequests (excluding Members who only over funded slightly) from the above patient population includes only four Members:

PATIENT.AMOUNT.DEATH JOINED

Fred Sherrill....$500,000..Mar/91..Jan/91

Jack Erfurt......$300,000..Sep/92..

1978 Andrea Foote.....$300,000..Oct/95..

1978 Hugh Hart.......$250,000..Dec/02..Feb/91

None of the four who left large bequests joined after 1991. Of course, it is to be expected that Members who are older and are more likely to deanimate would have joined earlier.

But another reason is probably a change in psychology the earlier Members would have felt more of a sense of participation in the small, struggling organization. All were activists. Hugh Hart is the only one who did not live in Michigan, but Hugh regularly attended the Annual General Meetings.

Newer Members are more inclined to act like consumers than like participating Members. They tend to fund at the minimums and leave the rest of their insurance proceeds to others or search for ways to have their money upon reanimation.

This does not strengthen the organization as much as having Members who want to contribute for the benefit of themselves and of fellow Members. The prospects of reanimation are greatly improved by having a strong organization which is actively supported by its Members.

Several current Members have, however, arranged for the Cryonics Institute to be the recipient of insurance overfunding and other forms of bequest. Suggestions as to how to encourage this practice are very welcome.

Ben Best