Archive: Laurie Champion

Archive: Laurie Champion

This week we welcomed a veteran in the field with over 34 years of experience in paranormal investigations by the name of Laurie Champion. That’s Champion not Chapman as I had previously stated live and in the other blog. Luckily for me she doesn’t mind the mistake and didn’t take me to the wood shed for it.

This week we ventured into a landmine of live radio and played some EVP recordings that Laurie provided for us for the show. I say this because outside of our old shows where we played the entire EVP sessions on previous investigations with our friends at Carolina Hauntings Apparitions and Poltergeist Society , this was the first time we had a producer along for the ride to help us. Thank to Joe Montaldo for helping with the playing of the recordings the first hour, as he said we really made him work for his $1.95 this week :)

The EVP’s were followed by Laurie giving a rundown o the investigation that she got the EVP from and helped us to decipher what was said. As you may know the interpretation of EVP’s is wide open so take it with a grain of salt if you like, form your own opinion or just sit back and enjoy the ride. In a previous meet-up we did a great experimental on what people hear and how to formulate a consensus, check out archive of CHAPS shows on blogtalk radio if you want to dig up that episode.

Moving on… we got to have a great conversation about her own experiences that got her interested in the field of paranormal research that began when she was younger of course. She helped us define what a Hostile Haunt is and how most people think that there haunting is hostile but in hind sight most of them are anything but hostile just more along the lines of creepy and scary to the people going through it. Which was a good point she brought up about how fear drives the human animal into formulating how they perceive paranormal activity.  We got her view on if any hauntings are demonically based or just spirit based.  Laurie went on to talk about who most of the spirits are that visit you from the afterlife and what they want to do. She also believes them to be very intelligent and fully capable to knowing when and where they are at all times. Which flies int he face of most researchers and how they feel most spirits are “lost”.

Much, much more is inside this episode with Laurie Champion and is a must listen for paranormal researchers or just the interested bystander

Check out all of Laurie’s Links below:

Laurie Champion on Facebook 

Her investigative groups website full of documentation PinellasPascoParanormal.com

Laurie’s book Never Forever Dead

or just Google Hostile Haunts and you can find her that way as well

Show Archive Link at UFO Paranormal Radio Network HERE

Join us next Monday Night at 9pm eastern and keep making us one of the fastest growing shows on Monday night!

UFO Paranormal Radio Network

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Archive: CHAPS review and Paranormal News

 

Archive: CHAPS review and Paranormal News

In this months CHAPS meet-up there was an open mic night. Nicole and I shared a few paranormal experiences of our own. In the process of that conversation we had a full on belief structure showdown.  Finally, we get Nicole to admit she is not even a skeptic really, by classic definition. What we have here is a full blown denialist.  In the truest form of the word: Existential.

This episode the chat room was alive and kicking for sure, a lot of great questions given to your hosts this episode.  Thank You. Thanks to Trice and Stefanie for joining us tonight as well. They are hosts for 2 of the best shows on the UFO Paranormal Radio Network , A Global Focus Friday’s at 11pm eastern and Second Sight NYC .

We finally discussed on the air our Tweetfest with none other than Matt Moneymaker himself of the BFRO. take a listen and see what all the hoopla was about from Matt and why he didn’t like our interpretation of the Michigan tracker snubbing. Oh wait! That’s what all the hoopla was about, we called it a snubbing.  Over is over and on to the next one I guess because your two favorite ”paranormal idiots” sorted it out real nice and simple. If you ever have a chance to go Bigfoot Hunting then they are the people to see, one of the biggest organizations that help people hone the skills to find Bigfoot in there neck of the woods.

We talked about the new picture of what looks like a Monolith on Mars that was released. RC Hoaggie is just tickled that this was release because you know of course this is proof that cat people are living on Mars as remnants of an ancient mars civilization that once…. oh FUCK ME you get the point! :)

We talked about the Russian Plasma UFO that had people baffled in St. Petersburg. Needless to say the local authorities are no commenting on the video of an orb in the skies.

lastly, we even got to slip in a UFONUT.com comment or two. first we mentioned that Openminds.tv released a new video of Chuck talking about why he was forced to resign from the Sheriff’s Dept. as a volunteer. All over a cattle mutilation and how to charge an animal with cruelty to an animal all to close/ cover-up a case. earlier in the episode I referenced him in an answer on how to go about new techniques for investigating paranormal activity.

Catch us every Monday night LIVE! at 9pm eastern on the UFO Paranormal Radio Network

Get you archive HERE!

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Archive: Joe Montaldo Interview

 

Archive: Guest Joe Montaldo from 4-2-12

Better late then never!

Time slips away from us all at some point and finally I have the archive blog up on mindcemetery.net. Joe joined us for 2 and I think approx. 12 extra minutes so you got a little more bang for your buck this week. That is if you actually had to pay for this stuff. We hit on all the hot topics: Hypnosis, ICAR research, the Blood Type Study, abductions, voice stress analysis, facial recognition software, possible conference on the horizon in Atlanta, and what new shows may be coming to the network in the near future.  Great conversation with a great guy and researcher that is well known in the field and around the world.

Joe is the Co-Founder of ICAR (International Community for Alien Research) and the Founder of the UFO Paranormal Radio Network. He is an abductee, speaker at countless conferences, guest on the almighty Coast to Coast AM and host of his own show called UFO Undercover.

Follow Joe on Facebook  he has 5 pages so get on one of them!

You can catch the Mind Cemetery every Monday night LIVE at 9pm eastern for 2 hours

You can find the archive HERE and listen at your leisure

ENJOY!

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Guest: Joe Montaldo

 

Guest: Joe Montaldo

Who is Joe Montaldo anyway?  Well first off he is the man that gave us our shot on the UFO Paranormal Radio Network so he’s got that going for him.

Joe Montaldo is Co-Founder, International Director, and Spokesperson for I.C.A.R. (www.icar1.com)
Originally affiliated with MUFON as an Investigator, Mr. Montaldo became disenchanted with the lack of information being shared with the general public.
His first step in furthering public awareness was establishing a personal website in 1998.

Mr. Montaldo has been featured in newspaper articles, radio talk shows and speaks at area meetings as well as hosting his Wednesday night talk show.

“My future goal is to gain information for I.C.A.R. and share it with the Public. The public needs to understand what is going on with Alien Contact, and exactly what the Alien Agenda is.” -Joe Montaldo

Joe will be on to discuss, alien research, the network as a whole, hypnosis research, MiLabs and his time at MUFON and his own experiences.

Join us live tonight on the UFO Paranormal Radio Network at 9pm eastern and join the chat at Paltalk

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Latest Episode Archive is Up!

 

C.H.A.P.S. Wrap-up and Paranormal News Show Archive Blog

Well its Wednesday night and I finally got around to posting the blog with the link tot he archive, Better late than never huh? This week I did my best to try and explain to our new thousands and thousands of listeners just what the Carolina Hauntings, Apparitions and Poltergeist Society meet-up group actually was. We talked about the founder George Matthis and his presentation on 3-18-12 to the good people that joined us in beautiful Raleigh, NC. The meet-up group is the public side of an investigative group headed by George and assisted by Nikki, Demetria, Kerry, Dale and Tomie known as NSPIR. You got to hear why turned me on to the group to begin with and how the investigative techniques were vastly different from what you see coming out of the TV shows. This is a good thing of course because it’s Hollywood after all.  This weekend I will be joining NSPIR in an investigation of the Ferry Plantation house located in Virginia Beach, Va. The investigation will be featured in an episode to follow in the month of April so check it out and lets hope we get some great data int he way of audio, video or personal experiences. Notice I didn’t call it “evidence”? There’s a good reason for that folks. If you are in the Triangle area of North Carolina and would like to join us then please come on out for the meet-up’s on the second Thursday of every month and follow us through the links provided.

Then of course for our new listeners you got a healthy dose of me ranting. Whats this you say? A rant? It can’ be. I know I seem so un-opinionated during the show that its hard to believe I would shoot my mouth off about someone in the field of research that I don’t care for there latest rounds of shenanigans.  Well this week I tuned my wrath and lazer pointed it in on none other than Jim Penniston and John Burroughs the infamous experiencers of all things UFO and strange at the Bentwaters air base near the Rendelsham Forest in the U.K. Why did I get pissed off? Listen for yourselves its at about the half way mark of the show. To say the least its more complicated to explain here… just listen, its easier.

The rest of the show we managed to get into a discussion on one of the best guests i think that has been floating around the airwaves of various paranormal podcasts and radio shows: Thomas Fusco. I believe hi latest ideas about the manipulation of gravity are some of the best explanations for HOW the various anomalous events occur in the UFO and Paranormal world in general. Nicole of course thinks differently and we get into a great discussion and hilarities ensue.

The rest of the show we go back and forth about various news, nuggets and tidbits we found in our Google reader cue, arguing the relevance and so on. Of course we butted heads on a few stories and my favorite was the DC Demon Cat.

This is a great episode for any new listeners to get to know us better as hosts and a couple in general. We had a famous individual in the chat room as well giving us hell and laughing all the way by the name of Sasha Christie. You may remember her from earlier as a guest and she has a new show upcoming on The UFO Paranormal Radio Network called: Citizen Sane, check it out!

The Archive link can be found HERE! and thank you again for joining us!

Oh and check out the misspelled name of the show in the archive LOL!!!

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Paranormal News and C.H.A.P.S. Replay

 

 

G.S.I.

Ghost Scene Investigator with Carolina Haunings, Apparitions and Poltergeist Society member Regina R.

Tonight we speak for the first time about the fantastic future on the horizon for the show and for you as the listener!

I will be flying solo this week as Nicole will not be joining me for the first part of the podcast. During the Paranormal News section you can expect me to touch on the changing of the Director of MUFON, the latest Sacha Christie new in her quest for answers in the famous UFO case known as the Rendlesham Forest Incident, the untimely death of Whitney Houston, the Iceland sea serpent and much more!

With any luck we may even get to hear from Sacha Christie herself  after her interview onight on The Jerry Pippen show at 7pm eastern

The C.H.A.P.S Replay tonight will be about the gathering of information during a paranormal investigation by one of our very own talented members of Carolina Hauntings, Apparitions and Poltergeist Society.

Regina R. will be sharing some insight into similarities between  paranormal investigation and crime scene investigation by providing a look into some of the techniques used her field.  Regina’s background in the field of crime scene investigation started her career path in law enforcement at the Pearl Harbor Police Department. In 2003, she moved to the Midwest for graduate school and later received a MS degree in Forensic Science specializing in Investigation.

Currently, she is a Crime Scene Investigator for a law enforcement agency in North Carolina. Since the start of her employment, she has received additional training in crime scene processing, photography, documentation and statement analyses. Over the past three years, she has processed approximately 500 crime scenes. It is her job at every scene to analyze, document, collect and preserve all the evidence whether or not the evidence supports the original theories presented by the witnesses.

Her interest in the paranormal heightened when she lived in Hawaii. Hawaii is a very spiritual place and rich with both ancient Hawaiian and United States history. As an officer, she patrolled several of the areas on Oahu where many of the ghost stories are noted to have occurred. In some cases, she had the opportunity to experience some of them firsthand.

 

Join me LIVE at 11pm easter right here at Blogtalkradio.com/mindcemetery

Call in number is 1.760.283.0803

 

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Chip will be a guest on The Church of Mabus radio show 12-10-11

 

Saturday night at 11pm Eastern Chip will be a guest on The Church of Mabus radio show. This show is hosted by Guy Weddle and Jeffery Pritchett on the UFO Paranormal Radio Network, owned by Joe Montaldo.

I will be addressing the call-in appearance and subsequent attack that I came under during an episode of another podcast that I used to hold in high regard. That being said once you begin to question the ideas, methods and madness of the individuals that are the host of that show things go down hill quickly.

Again, I will be presenting an ever growing list of individuals that should get little to no credibility in the Ufology or paranormal community. To there credit they are a very charismatic group of  individuals and use their own outlets very well in rallying support to there own individual causes which I like to call at this point a product.

Anyway, Is this good for business? Well, only time will tell. Ultimately it is not in the best interest for me or The Church of Mabus to even address such things. But, as long as these individuals are out and about spreading nonsense then it does the entire field a disservice and even if we take a hit in the short term its well worth any popularity contest hit or exclusion from the “cool” kids club to get another opinion out there. Eventually, all will be fine and in the grand scheme of things none of this makes a speck of difference. But, it sure is good entertainment and great for finding out where your host stands on certain ideas and with certain people.

 

Tune in tonight at 11pm on the UFO Paranormal Network!

Call-in with any comments or questions

 

 

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Archive: Derrel Sims interview on 9-26-11

 

It took a little while but as with all things that take time it was well worth the wait! This was one of my more favorite interviews for a lot of reasons. Nicole was not able to make unfortunately…. NO that’s not a reason :) Derrel and I spoke about his 2 books and his upcoming book about the abduction phenomena. He shared with me a lot of his personal first hand knowledge of investigations he has participated in and that he is work on one at this very moment. He also went on to explain the many complex roles that an investigator must play when contacting abductees, researchers or even the media for that matter. We shared ideas on how to counter an ET abduction and how it may even be possible to make it stop al together.

 

Great show and a lot of great information that h has passed on to the listeners and all those interested in the field of abduction/UFO research. We will be happy to announce his next appearance as this was so good and there is so much to talk about with Derrel that he is a must have to come back on the show in the future.

 

Do not forget to contact Derrel Sims directly by email, yes he does answer his email, we are proof of that :) , if you are an abductee. He does run a support group and will be happy to have you join it online.

 

 

You can check out Derrel, his work, and even check out his 2 books at the links below:

Alien Hunter : His main site

Abduction Support Group

OperationAlienDNA.org : to Find his books and his background information

 

 

 Enjoy the Podcast!

Listen to internet radio with mindcemetery on Blog Talk Radio

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Tonight's Plan B: Mufon Redux

 

Tonight The Mind Cemetery overcame mother nature’s wrath and
in true showbiz style, went on with the show. We spent the first 45 minutes
talking about the new MUFON developments revolving around Clifford Clift and
his appearance on two fantastic networks while being interviewed LIVE on the
Jerry Pippin Show. In the first segment of the Jerry Pippin show yours truly
was able to call in and ask Clifford Clift about his plans for the board of
directors in the coming months.  The
first segment was hosted by Jerry and our good friends at the Inception Radio
Network
along with owner Jamie Havican. Jamie was great and let me on with
Clifford and Jerry before they had to sign off and play a recorded interview
with Chase Kloetzke.

The second part of the interview was hosted by The
UFOParanormal Network owned by Joe Montaldo.  This was the second part of the interview
where I really got to ask a lot of questions. I was able to ask Clifford about
most of the information put out there by former state director Elaine Douglass.  Clifford was much more straight forward with
his answers in this segment and for his sake I hope he was honest and told us
the truth. If not I have a feeling that Elaine will have a lot to say about his
responses. That’s the best part of my questions for the international director.
It wasn’t a hit piece or harsh questions but just ones that will lay to rest a
lot of “rumors” in the blogosphere.

Check out the podcast of The Jerry Pippin show to hear me
interview Clifford Clift. This week’s show we did a wrap of the days
revelations from the international director of MUFON and as a treat we replayed
in the last half of the show one of our early episodes that reviews the events
leading up to James Carrion leaving MUFON.

Listen to internet radio with mindcemetery on Blog Talk Radio

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The Committee to Reform MUFON: Comes out Swinging!

Here is the first shot that was fired by the committee, you can read the email for yourself here as i found it posted on Whitley Streibers Unknowncountry website.

Dear MUFON Colleague:

Last week, Leslie Varnicle, State Director of  Colorado and a 41-year-member of MUFON, was fired by CLIFFORD CLIFT. Many of you  have seen Leslie’s tireless work at the MUFON annual symposia. She was head of a  vibrant state chapter with more than 160 members and a $20,000 kitty. She was  the originator of the webinar concept in MUFON; she spent thousands of dollars  of her own money for equipment for her state; she is a MUFON “Benefactor.”

WHY did Clift and the MUFON Board fire Leslie Varnicle and demote this 41  year member to the status of “Journal subscriber”? No one knows! But we do know  this: a whole lot of people think it was WRONG.

And Leslie is NOT only SD  fired. This month the SD of Oklahoma, Marilyn Carlson, a 20-year member,  resigned rather than be fired. Christine Dickey, a 15-year member and SD of  Arizona, asked for a leave of absence and was fired instead. Elaine Douglass, a  25-year-member and SD of Utah, was also fired.

That makes FOUR (4)  high-performing, long time, highly experienced STATE DIRECTORS arbitrarily FIRED  or PUSHED OUT by the MUFON hierarchy for unknown or insufficient reasons.

In response to these, and many, many other disturbing events and trends in  MUFON, a handful of us have formed “The Committee to Reform MUFON.”

We  are writing to you now to let you know of these outrageous firings and most  important to send you the enclosed “Petition to the Board of Directors and the  International Director of MUFON.” We ask you to read the four points of the  Petition (below), consider them carefully, and sign and return the Petition to  this e-mail address in the next 3 days.

PETITION ITEM #1: Calls for a New  democratic corporate structure of MUFON in which the Board of Directors will be  voted upon by all members of MUFON with the rank of field investigator and  above. Under MUFON’s current structure, MUFON is a 501©3 non-profit  corporation with 12 members-the 12 members of the Board. These individuals  appoint themselves and no one in MUFON has any say about who is on the Board or  what policies they pursue. There is no accountability of the Board to the 2800  Members of MUFON.

Accordingly, Petition Item 1 calls for a new corporate  document andstructure in which individuals throughout MUFON would be eligible to  run for the Board, and Members of MUFON with the rank of field investigator and  up could vote for each person running. As for the current members of the MUFON  Board, they would be free to run for election along with everyone else.

PETITION ITEM #2: Calls for the ID to cease arbitrary personnel practices and  instead develop and use due process in all personnel matters. “Due process”  means procedures which are fair, thorough and transparent.

PETITION ITEM  #3: Without going into detail, we know of instances where “Benefactors” -  persons who contributed $1,000 to MUFON and were given Lifetime memberships -  were stripped that status. The granting of a Lifetime membership is a contract  which MUFON may not unilaterally renounce.

PETITION ITEM #4: Calls on the  MUFON Board to do high level fund raising. High level fund raising is the prime  activity of the board of any well-run non-profit. As far as we can see, the  MUFON Board engages in no high level fund raising and we don’t know why. We know  of three offers to help with fund raising which were turned down.

The  Committee to Reform MUFON knows there are many things wrong with MUFON not  captured in the Petition. For example, it has come to our attention MUFON  headquarters is now reaching down into the state chapters – without the  knowledge or approval of the SDs – and is investigating individuals, and  appointing and firing individuals to positions in the states.

Will all  the Members of MUFON sign the Petition? Probably not. However, not everyone in  MUFON has to sign it for the Petition to have a major impact. Our question to  you is: Will YOU sign the Petition?

Please do! Return the Petition with  your name and address by replying to this email address in the next three (3)  days. To sign the Petition, hit the reply button to this email and type in your  name and postal address on the front of the email. When you do this, you will be  adding your name to the Petition. Together let us take this step to save  MUFON.

Sincerely yours,

The Committee to Reform MUFON
Elaine  Douglass, Utah
Bill McNeff , Minnesota
Marilyn Carlson, Oklahoma
Marlee  Spendlove , Utah

Petition from: The Members of MUFON

To: The Board  of Directors of MUFON and The International Director:

1) WHEREAS the  Mission of MUFON is of the utmost importance to ALL humankind, whereas MUFON is  the largest and best known international ufological investigative organization,  whereas the duties of the Members of MUFON require a significant commitment, the  current undemocratic governance structure of MUFON is unsatisfactory as a  vehicle for the expression of the aspirations of the Members.

THEREFORE,  we the undersigned Members of MUFON call upon the 12 Members of the Board of  Directors of MUFON to terminate the current legal corporate structure of MUFON  (in which the Board is self-appointing) and replace the corporate structure with  a new legal incorporation in which the Members of the Board of Directors will be  chosen by vote of the Members of MUFON having the rank of Field Investigator and  above.

2) WHEREAS the arbitrary dismissal of MUFON officers by the  International Director is harmful to MUFON in many ways, THEREFORE we the  undersigned Members of MUFON call upon the International Director to institute,  publish and follow due process procedures in connection with the dismissal of  any officer of MUFON having the rank of Field Investigator and above.

3)  WHEREAS Life Membership in exchange for a financial contribution (Benefactor  status) represents a contract between MUFON and the Member, THEREFORE the  contract shall not be broken except in extremis.

4) WHEREAS MUFON cannot  fulfill its mission without adequate funding, THEREFORE we the undersigned  Members of MUFON call upon the Board of Directors of MUFON to pursue a program  of professional-level fund-raising to obtain sources of funding among  foundations, wealthy individuals and the like, with the stipulation that all  sources of funding to MUFON embrace MUFON’s mission of publication and  transparency of all data collected by the Members of MUFON.

Read the original source: http://www.unknowncountry.com/insight/trouble-mufon#ixzz1Rg2vz1j0

 

Now after reading that you can see that there is defiantly
some issues within the organization. But wait! There’s more….. brought to us form the website Ufodigest.com Elaine Douglass posted this soon after they sent out the email above.

The information in this communication has been obtained by the Committee to
Reform MUFON (CRM) through interviews with some of the parties involved. The
information is true to the best of CRM’s ability to determine.

Why was Colorado State Director Leslie Varnicle fired?

To the Members of Colorado MUFON-

The mystery of why Colorado State Director Leslie Varnicle was
fired has been solved. For starters, it had to do with James Carrion and
whether he was to blame for MUFON losing its contract with Robert Bigelow.
James resigned in January 2010, and after that the view circulated in MUFON
was that James’ “mismanagement of the funds” had been the cause for Bigelow
terminating the contract after $334,000 of the promised $672,000 had been
paid.

It was in November 2009 that Bigelow descended on MUFON
demanding an accounting of the money. This threw the MUFON Board of
Directors into a panic and they gave up the books of MUFON, and the books of
the Bigelow project, to Bigelow to audit. It didn’t mollify him. He
terminated the arrangement which had been in effect the previous ten
months-the arrangement in which Bigelow paid wages and expenses to MUFON’s
Star Team investigators and administrators, and in which Bigelow had
unrestricted real time access to MUFON CMS (computer Case Management
System).

The MUFON Board didn’t tell James, the International Director,
what it was doing to try to appease Bigelow, and when James found out, he
resigned. After that, people got the idea James was incompetent or even that
he might have stolen money from the project.

Leslie Varnicle asked too many questions

In an interview, Leslie Varnicle says at first she went along
with the idea it had all been James’s fault, but then, “I started looking
and checking and researching,” she says, “and talking with James. I have
learned over the years to follow my senses, and initially my senses were
telling me No, it hadn’t been James’s fault, but I went along with what I
was being fed [by the Board]; I was drinking the Kool-Aide.”

She says she started asking Cliff and other Board members questions, such
as: “If James did all these things wrong, why didn’t the Board know it?
Didn’t you watch him?” she wanted to know. And “Didn’t you have an
accountant looking at the books?”

“The idea James had stolen money was implied, but when it come down to the
facts hitting the floor, I found that No, he hadn’t. As a matter of fact,
the $30,000 salary James was supposed to get he contributed back to MUFON.
Eventually,” Leslie says, “I came to the realization James had been thrown
under the bus.”

She didn’t believe much of what the Board of Directors said

Leslie Varnicle had become disillusioned with MUFON. And the
scape-goating of James Carrion wasn’t the only reason. Leslie didn’t like
that “the states are not part of MUFON” and have no say in how MUFON is run.
She pushed to get Colorado MUFON incorporated into International but the
Board of Directors wanted no part of that. Leslie says the Board was eager
to get money from the states but hesitated because that might entitle the
states to a greater say in MUFON’s affairs.

She tried to get MUFON to purchase an insurance policy to cover
investigators, but the Board would have none of that. Leslie, who is in the
insurance business, says the policy would have been “inexpensive” to
purchase.

Leslie tried to become a member of the Board of Directors but the Board
wanted no part of her. They claimed she didn’t make enough money to pay for
all the travel involved. Her response was to develop Webinar for MUFON use
and she advocated electronic internet teleconferencing to permit the Board
to meet without travel, and that idea went nowhere.

Leslie definitely did not like the marginalizing of the states
after the Star Team came in and the states got only the “lights in the sky”
cases, and she didn’t like the secrecy surrounding the Star Team
investigations. She didn’t like the “background checks” of MUFON
investigators that began to be required and she didn’t like the Star Team
administrators barking out orders and their rudeness. She felt she was a
competent investigator, after 41 years in MUFON, and she believed her
regular team in Colorado was qualified to carry out any investigation in
MUFON.

She didn’t like the secrecy and the background checks.

As for the background checks, she felt MUFON did not have
procedures in place to safeguard the information demanded-”date of birth,
social security number, maiden name, military records,” she says-from
identity theft. Nor did she care for the “non-disclosure” forms in Star
Team. “That really got my goat,” she says. “What do you mean I can never
talk about anything?” she says referring to the terms of the non-disclosure.
“You can never talk, never write about anything you see or do. What? I
thought we were here to keep this stuff open to the public and be a thorn in
the side of those who want to keep UFOs secret. But apparently MUFON wants
to keep secrets too!” she says.

Leslie was suspicious of the confidentiality procedures surrounding the Star
Team and she claims the information in CMS is manipulated. Leslie is adamant
that cases sent to Colorado showed up in her email but were not in CMS when
she went to look for them. She says global searches for the case number did
not produce the case. On inquiry to CMS administrators she was told the
cases had been “deleted for bad language,” and she did not believe that.

Leslie also says Colorado ASD Cheryl Gantz reported that Clifford Clift had
told her (Cheryl) not to have any speakers on abductions-”That’s not what we
do; that’s not what MUFON is about,” Cliff is reported to have said-and
Leslie didn’t like that.  In a hostile interview, Gantz at first told the
Committee: “Cliff never said that” and later Gantz said, “I’m not going to
get into that.”

The Feb. 12 Colorado state meeting

Leslie says she is not surprised Clifford Clift did not tell the
truth when he spoke to the Colorado members on Feb. 12th.  Leslie was fired,
Cliff told the members, because she “said on a radio program that she
recorded a state directors’ meeting and gave the recording to James and he
is going to use it in a defamation suit against MUFON.” [An accurate quote,
confirmed with Cliff.]

Actually, Leslie said no such thing on any radio program. James,
however, did. On the Pippin program Feb. 7, James stated he had received the
tape and that Cliff thought he got it from Leslie. Of course, James saying
that on the radio Feb. 7 could not have been the reason Leslie was fired
Jan. 25th.

Two emails to Clifford Cliff from the Committee to Reform MUFON
asking him for the name of the radio program on which Leslie made the remark
he attributed to her went unanswered.

She didn’t see any “ethics” in MUFON

So the Committee to Reform MUFON went to Leslie and asked: Did
you give a tape of the 2010 symposium state directors’ meeting to James
Carrion?  “Yes,” she said. When James asked you for the tape, why didn’t you
go to Clifford Clift and ask him what to do? “I didn’t do that because I
don’t see any ethics in MUFON.”  What do you mean by that? “In my job I have
to abide by codes of ethics for the licenses I have, everything from federal
to state licenses. Every two years I am required to take ethics classes. And
one of the things I don’t see in MUFON is ethics. I see no ethics
whatsoever.”

Is there was something unethical about the way James was treated?  “Yes
there is. I gathered enough information to realize James was not the bad guy
I was led to believe he was. There was no ethical behavior from the Board of
MUFON and there still is none.”

In other words, in the period before she was fired Leslie became
disillusioned by what she observed in MUFON, and she expressed it by giving
James a tape to defend himself against libel.

She didn’t like the contract with Bigelow and what it brought to
MUFON. She didn’t like the marginalization of the states and she didn’t like
the secrecy regime. She felt she and her investigators were exposed to
liability and that MUFON didn’t care, and she worried that information
provided in “background checks” would not be safeguarded from identity
theft. She didn’t like the “self-perpetuating” Board of Directors and how
“the states weren’t part of MUFON.”  She didn’t understand why Clifford
Clift said abductions should not be discussed in MUFON, and she couldn’t see
why secrecy was enforced on the Star Team when she thought the Mission of
MUFON was to provide all information to the public, and she saw evidence CMS
was manipulated.

She tried to keep faith and hold on to her job

She tried to change MUFON from within, but nothing she tried
worked. She tried to get on the Board of Directors, she tried to get the
Board to adopt electronic communications, and she tried to merge the
Colorado chapter into MUFON. She suggested to the Board they needed better
accounting procedures and she tried to get the Board to insure the field
investigators. In other ways she tried to accommodate to and put up with the
practices within the organization. For example, she tried to believe James
Carrion was incompetent and had caused the loss of the contract with
Bigelow. She tried to keep faith and hold on to her job in the organization
she had worked in for 41 years.

As for the MUFON Board of Directors, we suppose that over time
the Board became aware of Leslie Varnicle’s misgivings. They knew she did
not buy into the new, James Carrion-Robert Bigelow era ways of doing things
in MUFON. And she is capable, experienced, and observant.  Accordingly, they
fired her and in the process even stripped away Leslie Varnicle’s field
investigator status after 41 years in MUFON.

Telling the truth would open the door to too many questions

Seeing this, it becomes clear why the MUFON Board cannot tell
the truth as to why Leslie was fired. It becomes clear why the International
Director cannot tell the truth about the firing even when speaking before
the members of Colorado MUFON. It becomes clear why he cannot speak for
MUFON, but instead resorts to taking words from the mouth of James Carrion,
putting them in the mouth of Leslie Varnicle, and using those words, not
MUFON’s words, to “explain” the firing of Leslie Varnicle.

If the story was told truthfully, it would open a window on a host of
embarrassing, controversial and possibly libelous issues. It would lead to a
discussion of the nature of Leslie Varnicle’s critique of MUFON and whether
indeed there are any “ethics” in MUFON- and that is not a discussion
Clifford Clift and the MUFON Board intend to have with the members of
Colorado MUFON. So in the end, Leslie herself was scapegoated.

And that, in the view of the Committee to Reform MUFON, is a
good part of the story as to why Leslie Varnicle was fired in January as the
State Director of Colorado.

Submitted by The Committee to Reform MUFON:

Marilyn Carlson
Elaine Douglass
Steve Bass
Marlee Spendlove
Bill McNeff
Dean DeHarpporte

Then most recently on 7-6-11 we have this blog on Ufodigest.com from Elaine Douglass.  You can find the link to this most recent post here on ufodigest.com

The following analysis has been conducted by the Committee to Reform MUFON for the benefit of the Members of MUFON.

Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy and sound judgment in this analysis. Democracy is not an alien being in MUFON In February, the Committee to Reform MUFON (CRM) began raising these questions:

Why can’t the members of MUFON vote on who is on the Board of Directors?

Why do 9 people in MUFON get to appoint themselves to the Board?

Why is it none of MUFON’s 2800 members has a chance of ever being on the Board?

Why is it the 2800 Members of MUFON have no say in how MUFON is run? Why? And why can’t we change it? Why DON’T we change it? Why don’t we get a system where anyone who has been a member of MUFON for, say, 5 years could run for the Board and we’d all vote on those people? The candidates could present themselves and we could ask questions. Then we would all vote. Why don’t we have a democratic system like that in MUFON?

As soon as CRM raised these issues, various people in MUFON responded with misleading statements. They said if MUFON changed its governing corporate document, MUFON would lose its tax exempt status and cease to be a non-profit organization.

They also said changing the corporate documents would be extremely difficult and expensive. Misinforming statements Here are some examples:

On Feb. 5, Terry Groff, assistant director of investigations for Texas, wrote: “MUFON is a 501(C)3 non-profit organization. Any attempt at restructuring or reformation would violate its terms and MUFON would have to give up its non-profit status.”

On Feb. 3, Fletcher Gray, assistant state director for Texas, wrote: “MUFON is a 501(C)3 organization doing business under the authority set down with the IRS. Changes to these guidelines could cause MUFON to lose their 501(C)3 status. The undertaking. . .would be an enormous task not to say an expensive one.

Proving that the Directors of MUFON do not always have a firm grip on the truth, the following statement is attributed to Board member and Chief of Investigations Marie Malzahn in February:

“This [MUFON] is a non-profit organization. . . .we must follow the federal guidelines in order to keep our non-profit status. . . ”

Originally, MUFON was supposed to have an elected Board. The Committee to Reform MUFON knew that these statements were not correct. We knew the organization would not lose its non-profit status if it changed the Articles of Incorporation to provide for member election of the Board of Directors, and we knew it would not be difficult. But just to be doubly sure, we consulted an attorney knowledgeable in the law of non-profit corporations.

In the process we learned something interesting: until 1982 MUFON’s corporate charter (Articles of Incorporation) DID provide for member election of the Board of Directors.

Here’s what the corporate charter once said: ARTICLE 8: The business of the association shall be transacted by 3 trustees to be elected by the members of the association [i.e., the Members of MUFON]. And of course, at that time (prior to 1982) MUFON was a tax-exempt corporation, just like it is today.

In other words, democracy is not the alien, never-before-seen-in-MUFON, tax-exempt-destroying being some people want us to think it is. Far from it!

Walt Andrus, founder of MUFON, intended for the Members of MUFON to vote for the Board of Directors and he wrote the instructions for voting into Article 8 of the original corporate charter, but we lost our voting rights in 1982

In 1982, the then Board amended Article 8 to do away with member voting. They replaced it with a new Article 8 in which the 9 members of the Board of Directors vote for themselves, as follows:

ARTICLE 8 [current version]:

The business of the corporation shall be transacted by the Executive Board composed of the International Director, Deputy Director of Administration, Deputy Director of Business Management, Secretary, and Treasurer, to be elected by the members of the Board of Directors.

(The MUFON corporate Articles of Incorporation, as well as the corporate By-laws, can be seen at www.mufon.com under “About” and “Our organization.”)

Would it be it difficult and expensive to change MUFON’s corporate documents?

Not at all. All it would take is to file a paper with the state of Texas, where MUFON is registered as a corporation.

It would not even be necessary to have the assistance of an attorney, and if an attorney was involved it would take about 2 hours of attorney time ($600), according to the attorney CRM consulted. In other words, with the stroke of a pen the MUFON Board could change the corporate charter to restore the vote to the Members of MUFON—just like they changed the rules in 1982 to do away with the vote.

With the stroke of a pen the MUFON Board could change MUFON from an autocratic to a democratic organization. With the stroke of a pen we could have a NEW MUFON in which the Members would have a voice in the direction of our organization.

Elections for the Board WERE held in the 1980s Not only that, but it seems there can be member voting for the Board of Directors even without a change in the corporate charter because in the 1980s there was.

In 1988 and 1989, and possibly in other years, Walt Andrus conducted elections for Regional Directors who then served on the Board of Directors. Nominations were submitted by state directors and any member of MUFON who wanted to run for Regional Director/Board of Directors submitted their name to their State Director.

In the spring of 1988 Walt conducted an election for Central Regional Director. MUFON members from 19 states voted on a ballot enclosed in the May issue of the MUFON Journal. In the Director’s Message in June, Walt announced that “George Coyne was seated on the Board of Directors after his election to the position of Central Regional Director by popular vote of the members in the central states.”

George Coyne was at that time the state director of Michigan and, according to Walt, he had “served as assistant chairman of the very successful and professionally managed MUFON 1986 UFO Symposium in Michigan.”

In the spring of 1989 Walt held another election, this time for Eastern Regional Director/Board of Directors.

“Every member is encouraged to vote,” Walt wrote in the Director’s Message, “since this is your opportunity to select the person you feel will best represent the eastern states on the MUFON Board of Directors.” In May, Walt announced that Florida state director had won the election after “receiving more than half the total votes cast. Therefore he will be representing the eastern region of states on the Board of Directors for the next four years.”

Democracy not an Alien Being in MUFON.

As can be seen, without difficulty, and in short order, we could have a democratic MUFON. That was the vision of MUFON’s founder Walt Andrus, and MUFON would not lose its tax-exempt status. It is time for change in MUFON, and this is the change we need. The Board of Directors’ idea of change In the meantime, last week ID Clifford Clift sent out an email (June 10) acknowledging that change is needed on the Board of Directors.

And here is his idea of the kind of change needed:

Clifford said the Board is looking for 3 people willing to serve on the Board for up to 2 years without a vote on the Board, as long as they are willing to work, pay their own expenses, and donate money to MUFON. Cliff called these positions “interim” positions, by which he meant a kind of try-out or audition for the Board. Cliff did not say this, but if history is a guide these Board try-outs will be required to sign a paper saying they agree the Board can dismiss them at any time without cause.

With this announcement from Cliff, the Board is offering nothing to the Members of MUFON.

As in the past, the Board and only the Board will appoint the 3 new members. In the past, however, when an individual was appointed, they became a real voting Board member, not easily dismissed before their term of office expired. The 3 new interim members, whether they come from the Board’s inner circle, as in the past, or from farther afield, will be carefully screened and they will have less independence and be more compliant than a normal Board member since they are on “try-out.”

In other words, they will be debilitated Board members. There are no advantages in this arrangement, either for the try-outs, or for the Members of MUFON. The MUFON Board does no fund raising For years we have been told about the financial contributions made by members of the Board. It is implied that, Sure, anyone in MUFON could be a member of the Board as long as they are willing to contribute money to MUFON annually.

In this vein, Cliff reports in the June MUFON Journal that the Board of Directors contributed $15,000 to MUFON in 2010. $15,000? That is a pittance compared to the amounts of money MUFON could potentially raise if our organization were mobilized to do professional fund raising! Not that professional fund raising is easy. It requires a sustained, long term commitment to reach out to the foundation world and to people in New York and Hollywood, but that is exactly the kind of professional fund raising that is done by every successful non-profit in this country.

It is also the kind of fund raising that has never been undertaken by any MUFON Board of Directors, as far as we know. In other words, we have a Board which does no outside fund raising, leaving MUFON in a perpetual hole; the Board periodically kicks in tiny amounts such as $15,000 and the Members of MUFON are then told we must have this Board because this Board gives money. There is something wrong with this picture.

Similarly, we were told MUFON must get in bed with Robert Bigelow because he was the ONLY person who would give substantial amounts to MUFON.

Really? Was anyone else asked?

Can this Board provide a list of funding sources approached in the last two years?

Please note that $15,000 represents an average contribution per Board member of $1700. Is that enough to purchase control of MUFON? In the meantime, the 2900 Members of MUFON collectively contributed $160,000 at minimum, not counting state assessments and other given monies. How is it that $15,000 buys a voice in MUFON and $160,000 doesn’t?

Why did Cliff announce the Board is looking for “interim” members? Previous new Board members were drawn from the Board’s inner circle. Is there no one left in the inner circle? Do some members of the Board wish to leave (?) and is there no one to take their place? What about the position of International Director?

The word is Clifford Clift intends to resign. In the past, the ID job always went to someone on the Board. Word was that longtime Board member. Jan Harzan would be the next International Director, but now it is known that he will not be taking that position.

In other words, this Board is unable to generate a new leader for the organization.

Fine.

Will this Board, then, permit the Membership of MUFON to generate our own leaders?

The answer is:

Hold elections Hold elections for the Board of Directors and the International Director. With the stroke of a pen, change the Articles of Incorporation. Restore Walt Andrus’ original vision of democracy in MUFON. Provide MUFON with legitimate leadership elected by the Members of MUFON. That is the solution to the problem.

Submitted by The Committee to Reform MUFON

Steven Bass, Marilyn Carlson, Elaine Douglass,

Sandy Gonzalez, Bill McNeff, Marlee Spendlove, Ron Spicer

 

Another blow to the gut of MUFON bent on forcing it to reform its procedures and practices. NOTHING that MUFON is doing seems to be done with any forethought or sense of direction from the Board of Directors. MUFON does need democratic elections for board members, transparency, due process, fundraising directors, secured background check information, drop the Star Team secrecy, keep with the non-profit mantra and stay as open and free with information collected.

This lying sack of crap of a International Director, Clifford Clift, will be on live Monday night with Jerry Pippen and Joe Montaldo. We here at The Mind Cemetery sure hope they pin this worm down with every lie he has told and every unethical move he has made. Make this man answer the hard questions, he is at the mercy of the members not the other way around.

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