Craig,

I am in the UK and would like to copy your message to some of our
customers. May I have your permission to do so provided I ensure
that they are all aware of its origins ?

Michel.

=============== Original message follows ==================

>The following is an email I got from my father-in-law. Senator Bennett is heading up the Senate committee on Y2K, so he has quite a bit of knowledge on this. The Church refers to the Mormon church, of which Senator Bennett is a member. I have done some minor editing to the email to make it more understandable to everyone. Things I have added are in [ ].
>
>Senator Bennet and Y2K
>
>I thought people might be interested in what Senator Bennett said about the year 2,000 computer problem. He spoke at a church meeting in McLean, Virginia in October. The following are notes taken at the fireside:
>
>Notes taken by Steve Nichols, a church member in Arlington, Virginia in October 1998.
>
>On Sunday, our stake [a church geographic area] had a family preparedness meeting on the year 2000 (Y2K). The speaker was Senator Bennett of Utah who is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Y2K.
>I went to the meeting thinking that it would be interesting, but also thinking that Y2K was not a big deal. Senator Bennett convinced me otherwise.
>
>The Y2K problem will be an unbelievably widespread problem that we each need to start preparing for right now. Anything that is controlled by a computer or a computer chip may malfunction in dangerous and unpredictable ways at the beginning of the year 2000. Unfortunately, everything is controlled by a computer these days. To illustrate the problem, Senator Bennett told the following stories:
>
>To test a water treatment plant, the plant management rolled the clocks ahead to 2000 to see how the computer systems of the plant would react. The computer responded by immediately dumping all the chemicals it had into the water supply instead of slowing dispensing the chemicals as it was supposed to do. The water was then poison and unusable.
>
>At a General Motors factory, the management also rolled the clocks ahead to see what would happen. The result was that none of the robots on the assembly line would work. The factory was useless. Moreover, when the inspectors tried to leave, the security system refused to let them out of the building.
>
>Elevators have to be inspected regularly by law. When the year 2000 hits, elevators may think they have not been inspected for 99 years. When an inspection is missed, most elevators are programmed to go immediately to the basement and close their doors until the inspector comes. Don't get in an elevator New Year's Eve 1999.
>
>In January 2000, Senator Bennett does not think that the national power grid will fail, but thinks that some areas will inevitably experience extended brown and black-cuts. Supplies of natural gas and telephone communications could also be interrupted. Long distance telephone communications will almost certainly be interrupted.
>
>The FAA has been unable to guarantee that its airtraffic control system will not fail in January 2000. This may reduce domestic flight by 40% and make it necessary to ration air travel. International travel will be worse.
>
>The Federal Reserve thinks that it will be able to continue to clear
>checks and other bank transactions for the country, but each individual bank or brokerage may be unable to continue to do business. Chairman Greenspan informed Senator Bennett that the Fed is printing an extra ten billion in paper money to handle the run on the banks that is expected as people convert their money into cash before Y2K.
>
>Senator Bennett told of warning one of his daughters about these problems. His daughter asked if he has spoken to the Church. He thought that was good idea, so he contacted an employee at Church headquarters responsible for worrying about these kinds of problems. That employee assured Senator Bennett that the Church has, or is, upgrading all of its computer systems to deal with the problem.
>
>Senator Bennett then asked if he could question this Church employee.
>The senator wanted to know how the Church is going to contact issions,
>temples and members around the world when the international and national phone systems won't work; how the Church is going to transfer funds around the world with the banking systems not working; how the Church will respond to members who are out of work for three months or more because the equipment at the factory or office where they are employed is malfunctioning. The Church employee had to admit that while the Church has fixed its own systems, they had never considered how they would be affected by other systems that had not been fixed.
>
>Senator Bennett was then invited to a meeting with the First Presidency, Council of the Twelve, Presiding Bishopric, [World leaders for the Church] etc. to brief them on the Y2K problem. Senator Bennett told the Brethren that he had been asked by someone in government when the Mormons were going to start warning their
>people to get ready for the year 2000. President Faust [one of the world leaders for the church] immediately
>responded, "We've been warning them for thirty years."
>
>A major complication of the Y2K problem is that it will be a problem
>world-wide. While all the problems I have described above will happen in the U.S., we will be relatively well off. Senator Bennett said only five countries in the world including the U.S. are doing anything significant to address the Y2K problem (Japan is NOT one of the five. The five are the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Singapore and one other).
>
>This will cause huge economic upheaval in many countries. Senator Bennett was informed that the New York Stock Exchange has been refitting and testing its computers and thinks it will be able to continue trading in the year 2000. However, the Senator expects most exchanges in foreign countries to be shut down. For this reason, he cautioned us about investing in foreign stocks. It is anticipated that the economies of some countries will be devastated for decades by the Y2K problem. This anticipated turmoil around the globe will inevitably cause a deep recession, at least, in the United States.
>
>You may wonder why we don't just fix this problem before it's too late. The answer is, it isn't possible. Senator Bennett has been informed that here are 160 billion lines of computer code around the world that have the Y2K problem. For every four lines that are fixed another error in the program is created. Therefore, everything has to be fixed, tested and then re-fixed. There simply are not enough skilled people or time left to do the job. Moreover, that does not include checking all the embedded computer chips that run everything from your car's transmission to your thermostat to your elevators to your children's toys.
>
>Anyway, that's the problem, the question is what should you do about it.
>Here are Senator Bennett's suggestions.
>
>(1) Check with all your banks, brokerages, and other financial
>institutions as to their preparedness for the year 2000. If they can't assure you that they will be able to continue to do business as usual, move your assets to a place that can.
>
>(2) Keep hard copies of your financial records and get up-to-date hard
>copies near the end of December 1999.
>
>(3) Have everything you need on hand for at least three months by December 1999 (food, water and fuel (January is cold)).
>
>(4) Expect a recession in 2000 and plan your finances accordingly. Keep some cash on hand.