The Lottery Council- Chapter I: Seminar

The morning of the seminar, Jim spent fussing over what to wear and with a little help from Ann he decided on a blazer, slacks and a striped tie. With a kiss for his wife and kids, he was off on the three hour drive to Dreighton U.

The seminar was entitled "A Healthy Population is a Stable Population: Sustaining an Equitable Balance." It was mostly stuff Jim had learned in school. Three experts had talked about maintaining a manageable balance between growing cancer rates and population growth. How we must defeat cancer in our lifetime while keeping the population level balanced. There were refreshments during the break and a short questionnaire at the end. It was mostly high school stuff, Jim thought. In the questionnaire there was a short essay asking for recommendations to keep population growth manageable. Jim wrote that due to education and the efforts of groups like Planned Parenthood's family planning, the real concern wasn't really in the US, but the third world. When it was all done the directors thanked everyone politely and Jim left for home wondering what it was all about. he supposed they'd contact him by letter like before.

When he got to work on Monday, Jim headed to his cubicle as usual after refilling his coffee cup. Nora, the section manager stopped by and asked, "What did you do?"

Jim looked up. "What do you mean?" He asked.

"The Big Boss wants you upstairs ASAP," you must have done something. Jim grabbed his sport coat and headed to the elevators. When he got to the top floor, the receptionist told him, "go on in, Mr. Masters is expecting you."

Leyland Masters was a man in his 50's, a prototypical executive, steely grey hair very well cut and a suit that probably cost as much as Jim made in a month. "Take a walk with me, my boy," Mr. Masters said with his hand outstretched. Jim shook hands and followed the boss to the elevators. They went down one floor and walked in silence past private offices until Masters stopped at one and went in.

"Well, what do you think?" he asked.

"Sir?" Jim was puzzled

"Of your new office, my boy. We've had our eye on you for awhile now and we've decided to give you a promotion, both for your performance and this." He had the copy of Jim's questionnaire in his folder.

"I don't know quite what to say, sir." Jim was perplexed, trying to figure what one had to do with the other.

"Leyland, my friends call me Leyland, my boy. We are friends aren't we? Let me explain: We here at Met Fidelity & Life always have our eyes open for new talent, new blood if you will. But, we want the right sort of people... people who share our values... people like you Jim."

"I don't quite know what to say," Jim was feeling elated. He was sick and tired of that cubicle.

"Say yes, Jim, say yes. There are people that answer questions right and there are those that don't. You're one of the ones that do."

"I don't see how they're related, the seminar and the job, you know."

"Let me explain. Not only am I the senior officer of the company, I'm also the regional director of the Lottery Council as well." An opening came up at the firm here, we need a new senior VP of marketing... an opening at the local level of the council came up as well and I thought you'd be perfect for both. Especially after reading this." He waved the questionnaire. "Well, is it a yes?"

"Oh yes, it's most definitely a yes, sir...I mean Leyland." They shook hands again.

"Let me tell you a little bit about the Council." Leyland was serious now. "You'll be working at the local level, that's to say the county. What we do is fairly simple, it's set up much like a company. We have a local, state, regional and national council that works in concert with the government, that is the Dept. of Human Services, the National Institute of Health and Center for Disease Control. We also work closely with private organizations such as Planned Parenthood, who are instrumental in the fight against breast and uterine cancer. Also the American Cancer Society and other organizations dedicated to eradicating cancer in our lifetime. At the local level we work with the County Health Dept. and local chapters of private organizations. Are you with me so far?"

Jim shook his head in assent. "But how does it work? What do I have to do?"

"I'm glad you asked. We operate on the same principle as the organ transplant selection process. Are you familiar?'

Jim admitted that he wasn't. "Ok. There are new drugs coming out almost daily that show great promise for defeating cancer. The testing on non-human subjects has gone as far as it can and the FDA ok's human testing all the time. Naturally, you have to test it on people with cancer. The problem is which ones, without looking like you're playing favorites. That's where the council comes in. Naturally there are more patients wanting to get the drugs than there are drugs at this point... and, they're very expensive, as you can well imagine. If we sell them, only rich people can get them and that's not fair. The government has agreed to underwrite the expense if we could come up with an impartial selection process, understand?"

Jim thought he did- so far. "What about the organ transplant aspect?"

"Ok. To select recipients for organ transplants they have an impartial apparatus. Ours is modeled after that. Let me explain how it works. Let's say there are 100 people who will die in 3 months without a liver, but there are only 10 livers available... who gets them? The way it works is like this: Each individual has 4 numbers at the end of their Social Security number. We take four bags containing balls numbered 0-9. Your job would be to select a numbered ball from your bag at random, without looking you know. Let's say you pick a 5- we match it up with the Social Security numbers and ones with 5 are picked out. Now locally, most numbers start with a 4, but not necessarily. so the first bags balls were selected with a statistical probability for all the first numbers available...you understand?"

"Of course," Jim said. Statistical probability was something with which Jim was infinitely familiar.

"So," Leyland went on," the process is repeated until the 10 recipients are selected. What do you think?"

"I think it's great, fair and equitable. I think it's wonderful and a great chance to help out the community. I'd be honored." Jim was almost beside himself with excitement.

"Of course you get a substantial raise, a secretary, and quite a few perks in your new job. There's also a stipend for participating in the Council as well. Take the rest of the day and go tell Ann, that's your wife's name isn't it?"

"Yes, yes it is...and thank you, thank you so much," Jim stammered.

"Don't mention it, my boy. You earned it... welcome aboard. jim practically ran out of the building he was so excited. He couldn't wait to get home and tell Ann. Now he would be able to get her the new car she so desperately needed... now he could get them both so many things.