The End of the CRM

[admin]

Elaine Douglass, the founder and main driving force behind the Committee to Reform MUFON recently passed away. The CRM had pretty much ceased to exist long before that when MUFON refused to allow the members a chance to vote for the leaders of their organization. It was pretty obvious at that point that MUFON was unreformable and the problems that they had would continue on until eternity. That took a lot of wind out of the sails and the Committee pretty much came to a grinding halt after that.

That's not to say that they totally failed at their quest. A few of the things that they were advocating for actually did come to pass, like their desire to free the MUFON forum so that people would not have to pay to use it. The pay-to-play MUFON forum actually was changed so that anybody could take part in it. This was done not so much to shut the Committee up but because MUFON discovered that nobody wanted to pay for something that they should have been getting for free. That plus the fact that most of the former members of the old MUFON forum had started their own forum and no longer needed MUFON pretty much put an end to their attempt to their ill-advised money-making scheme. Freeing the forum was a bittersweet victory for the CRM however as the MUFON forum was later shut down permanently due to a lack of interest from the Board of Directors. It wasn't that nobody wanted to take part in it but rather that nobody wanted to take the time to administrate it. That is too bad (for MUFON) because they don't seem to have any idea what a valuable recruiting tool the forum could be if used properly. That's their problem though.

I was originally asked to create and administrate this forum by Elaine because she wanted to use it as a tool to help get the Committee's message out and to answer any questions that people may have had about what was going on with MUFON or the CRM. Since the Committee no longer exists there is really no reason for this forum to continue to exist either. That's why I haven't been actively participating in it lately. I am the administrator of another UFO/paranormal forum that I had long before this one so I have other things to keep me busy. I have even thought about deleting this one since there is no longer any reason for it to be here...especially since Elaine is no longer here with us. Every time I start to do it though I hesitate. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because I think this forum should stay here, if for no other reason than the historical perspective that it has to offer. Even if nobody is actively taking part in it it still offers a glimpse inside a unique time in MUFON's history when they almost destroyed themselves from within. Perhaps some future UFO historian will read about what happened and find a few interesting anecdotes to share with future UFO enthusiasts. Or maybe I just don't have the heart to delete something that is a part of something that so many people put so much time and effort into.

I really enjoyed being a part of the CRM. I'm not normally an activist but the fact that I was taking a part in something bigger than me and trying to make a difference felt good. I also really enjoyed being privy to all of the inside information I was getting about MUFON and the people who run it. It was an interesting experience...and I learned a lot from it. I have since moved on to other things though.

I still think that MUFON needs to be reformed, although they have made progress under the new leadership they have had since Clifford Clift resigned as International Director. I think they are moving in the right direction at least. They are better now than they used to be and I think the CRM had something to do with that. MUFON is just a small part of the ufological community though. In the greater scheme of things it's not really going to matter what they do. There are other UFO investigative organizations and other UFO investigators, many of whom used to belong to MUFON and were driven away by their heavy-handed tactics. The UFOs will continue to fly and they will continue to be investigated...by people both within and without MUFON...and one day maybe we will finally figure out the truth about what is really going on.

Elaine already knows the answers. The rest of us will have to keep searching.

[Jeff]

I think MUFON is pretty much dead now. It's nothing but a commercial money making entertainment & disinfo agency now, complete with book & DVD sales, a UFO celebrity speaking circuit, various internet media outlets, and now it's own TV ENTERTAINMENT show on the History channel.  The board of directors is the only real MUFON membership.  The lowly $35 per year journal subscribers have no say in MUFON matters.  This "join MUFON" link is nothing but a JOKE!

www.mufon.com/join-mufon.html

This makes me laugh.  On that page, it says "Join MUFON and receive all of the benefits"  and "The electronic version of the journal, known as the e-Journal, comes free with your membership in MUFON".  And THAT'S IT!!!  Well, there you go!  As a "member" of MUFON, you get the monthly e-Journal, FREE!  Well then, I guess this makes me a MUFON member.  issuu.com/mufon  hahahahahaha

I wonder if anyone has kept a record on how MUFON's mission statement and goals have changed over the past 40+ years. I'll bet most of the changes have happened only recently. Unfortunately, I haven't kept track, but I do know the mission statement and goals on their page today are NOT the same as what I read just a few years ago. www.mufon.com/mission-statement--goals.html  Does MUFON even keep track of these changes?  If they do, they're not displaying it to the public on this page.  I don't like the new mission statement and goals.  They seem to be implying that UFOs are beneficial to humanity.  I think the original statements were a lot more skeptical.  It also says the MUFON database is for researchers, and not the general public.  So how do I get "researcher" status in order to do my own analysis or compile summary statistics?  It doesn't say, but I'll bet it costs a pretty penny and a lot of red tape.  So much being open, transparent, and a benefit to humanity.  They guard their UFO data the same as the government they used to criticize.

And that's another thing I never liked about MUFON.  Let's say you see a UFO and it really disturbs you.  So you go to the MUFON website to find out if anyone else saw the same thing.   Can you do it?  In the past you couldn't, because the closest location MUFON released was the state.  Well surprise surprise, the MUFON database now returns the city in the list of UFO reports, so there's one improvement they've made.

mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/report_handler.pl?req=search_page

You still can't narrow the search by city though, only county, but since there aren't that many UFO reports on a daily basis, that's good enough.   But you still can't get in contact with the other people who saw what you saw, and they can't contact you.  And if you try putting your name, phone, email, or other contact information in your report, some MUFON jerk will edit it out, thus preventing you from being able to connect with other people to discuss your sighting.  So why does MUFON not allow you the option of getting in contact with others to discuss your sighting?  You would think that a "membership" based UFO organization would want to facilitate that type of discussion.  But heck, they don't even do that at the MUFON meetings.  I've been to several, and not once did they ever allow "members" to get up and discuss their recent local sightings with the group!  The only people who could speak were the organizers of the meeting, and the UFO celebrities who were there to sell their books and DVDs.  And you even have to PAY to get into that meeting, whether you're a member or not.  (As a non-member, I had to pay an extra $5)

Well, I could go on and on, but the bottom line is I think MUFON is only there for the benefit of its board of directors now and the old MUFON is dead and gone.  "Joining" MUFON is completely pointless now.

[admin]

You got no argument from me. Everything you just said is pretty much true.

[Stephen]

Well that sucks. Seems MUFON has been irrevocably co-opted by outside influence and has thus become the enemy of truth.





Any links to other organizations that are still carrying the flame? I am interested in those that are member-managed while also being financially independant. A tough task I know, but really its the only way to ensure long term commitment to the goal of seeking truth.

[admin]

I don't know of any off-hand. There was a website called Sightings Report that was attempting to have investigators work cases voluntarily but it was shut down due to lack of interest among investigators. It seems that nowadays everybody is either a member of one of the established and tightly controlled groups (and therefor not able to share info with the public) or they are promoting themselves on their own websites (in which case they still refuse to share info with the public). It looks like the truth is determined to remain hidden.

[Jeff]

May 29, 2014 13:46:06 GMT -6 Stephen said:

Any links to other organizations that are still carrying the flame? I am interested in those that are member-managed while also being financially independant. A tough task I know, but really its the only way to ensure long term commitment to the goal of seeking truth.

Some of the former MUFON state directors and investigators who were targeted in the MUFON purge a few years ago started a club of their own called EPIC Voyagers.  I don't know if it's any good or not but here it is.  www.epicvoyagers.com/

By the way, have you seen this page?  elainedouglassfiles.com/  There's some VERY interesting reading in those files. For example, take a look at the bottom of this page and read the NASTY email from "Marie Malzahn". She says to Elaine "You have made it clear that your group wishes to destroy MUFON". HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!  Anybody who knows Elaine would instantly know what an outrageously false accusation that is. Well, that's the kind of leadership you have running MUFON now. Anybody want to join? HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Hell ya, keep this forum going.  That way when anybody asks "Should I join MUFON?" you can send them to this forum to help them make their decision.

[Jeff]

Feb 22, 2015 19:35:56 GMT -6 Jeff said:

OOPS.  Here's that link  elainedouglassfiles.com/MALZAN.html

[William McNeff]

Hello. I happen to be one of the founders of the Committee to Reform MUFON. I was then and still am a Life Member of MUFON! It certainly was never our intention to destroy MUFON, which was and is the premier civilian UFO research organization. If we had wanted to destroy MUFON, we would have sued it. We considered it and decided against suing. We simply wanted to make MUFON more democratic. Our effort failed, but in the process I learned a couple of things about MUFON which shed a somewhat different light on the matter. MUFON was kept alive through that period by sizable personal donations from all or most of the Board members. MUFON is, IMHO, doing its best to get UFO information out to the public by means of the website, TV programs, the annual Symposium and a number of publications. Summaries of the information, photos,etc. submitted by witnesses of unidentified phenomena are available on the MUFON web page. For example, check out the photos attached to a Minnesota report submitted May 30, 2016. MUFON rightfully protects the anonymity of witnesses unless we have written permission to do otherwise. MUFON is slowly chipping away at the secrecy that surrounds the subject. Disclosure is happening, and confirmation is bound to follow, someday.

[Jeff]

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[Mark]

I know this is a VERY old post I'm replying to, but this issue is again rearing it's head, from what I can gather (it'll fit in a very small box. I have a question for the current life member who disclosed donations submitted bu the board members. The question is this - Were those donations larger than their received sala disparity in the amounts reported, buries from MUFON? If not, then it's just virtue signaling. I have been researching MUFON director's salaries- there is a WIDE disparity on income reported, but no one is reporting under $100k per year, and the highest was $5 million for the top slot. So much for this being an "all volunteer" organization. No one REALLY knows, because it looks like the last time they disclosed ANYTHING was 2011. I was checking out joining as an FI - frankly, I wouldn't paste a MUFON sticker on my car now, let alone give them money FOR ANY REASON...

[Mark]

Wow, that wasn't even close to what I submitted- that post is a mess. The question I would like answered is "Did the amounts the directors "donated" surpass the amount of their yearly salary at the time? Does anyone KNOW their yearly salary, then or now?? The rest can go to the waste bin, don't bother with it...sorry that was 2 questions...