This is the first blog entry - a look at the inner workings of the group as I saw it over the last few days.
Friday, at State Directors Meeting - general turn-the-crank business meeting where the business of MUFON gets done. First thing in the morning, the State Direcro's meeting began with has had nitial panel meeting with MUFON board. Focus is about the upcoming plans for MUFON operation. Some interesting things in the works.
An update: the show Hangar 1 is a big hit. Hangar 1 is starting its second season. Been responsible for growth in MUFON so far, as well as a lot of new interest in UFOs in general public. Show
Shows MUFON investigations and shows both the mystery of UFOs and those cases where UFO sightings turn out to have ordinary explanations (IFOs).
Beginning to focus on lesser known cases.
Not sure if/when they will begin to look at abduction cases. Currently lookng at historical cases, and then at some lesser known but classic CE1 and CE2 events from MUFON case files.
Tony Cataldo is the latest addition to the board. A hollywood producer, brings lots of media experience, plus large corporate boardroom experience as well. In short, this guy knows how to grow companies and auidiences. Stated goal, he wants to grow MUFON from current 3500 members to about 50,000 members in the next year or so. And based upon what I've seen so far, I think he just might do it.
MUFON.com is a work in progress - which is good. Especially on the web, nothing is ever done. But the biggest plan is to leverage social media much more extensively. Plans are to expand the demographics form the middle-aged to senior population present to more young adult population. Againl, based upon what I've seen, I think they will do it.
Several high-level contacts between MUFON and various research organizations - such as GEPAN, the French UFO investigative agency, taking shape. In short, sInce the French government can't form a relationship with the US Govt, GEPAN, andseveral other governmental and quasi-governmental agencies are forming a relationship with MUFON - we are doing the government's job.
Sunday, I went to a planning and focus meeting on future upgrades to the MUFON.com website, and IT strategy for MUFON. We looked at where we need to go to attract a wider range of ages to MUFON. what can we offer that will provide value to peope of allages. Lots of good stuff in the works, beginning with a whole new website that is fully responsive, coordination between reporting, membership, MUFON store. etc. Look for some impressive things to happen in the next few months.
Also, it looks like several other research initiaves are just beginning to take shape. One is a UFO monitoring system UFOTOG2. It is modeled after the UFOTOG project, created a few years ago, which provided automated monitoring of the sky for UFOs. UFOTOG was a beginning, although it was huge and expensive - mounted as part of a Hummer that was driven to key hotspot areas and left in observer mode for days toweeks on end. The biggest thingwas that there was only one of it, so it was not able to get triangulation of any objects it detected.
UFOTOG2 plans to focus on making small, inexpensive versions of a similar monitoring set. It would have no moving parts, and would contain a multispectral camera, EM monitor, radiation monitor, etc. These would be deployedin threes in areas of high UFO activity, to try and automatically capture UFO activity on film, and with physics data that might be able to help us undestand the reality of the phenomenon(a) better. Look for this to take shape in the next year or two...
Other endeavors include objective research on abduction and contact. This includes further building our network of MUFON therapists and abduction researchers. One key will be to better connect the experiencer with the help he/she needs. Lookfor more on this as well in the near future.
So, all in all, the picture that came out of the State Directors meeting and various working groups, appears to be very positive indeed. It was a forward looking and enthusiastic gathering and told me that the MUFON organization appears to have found its footing.
