About MUFON of Georgia
Hello and welcome to the website of the Georgia Chapter of MUFON. If you have not visited the International MUFON site, here are some facts about our parent organization before we jump into the specifics regarding our Georgia group.
With about 2,500 members worldwide, the Mutual UFO Network is the largest international organization of its kind. MUFON is headquartered in Littleton (metro Denver), Colorado. Founded in 1969, MUFON is a Nonprofit Corporation under Sections 501 (c)(3) and 509 (a)(2) of the United States Internal Revenue Code.
MUFON's mission statement is “The scientific study of UFOs for the benefit of humanity.” In recent years MUFON has also used a more broad statement of its objectives, which is, "The systematic collection and analysis of UFO data, with the ultimate goal of learning the origin and nature of the UFO phenomenon." Both of these statements summarize what MUFON is all about.
Most states in the United States of America (and many other countries) have a MUFON chapter headed by a local director, with a headquarters consisting of the Director's immediate staff of experienced senior field investigators and specialists. The remaining chapter membership usually consists of additional certified field investigators, investigator trainees, and others whose occupation, family obligations, or similar constraints, might not allow for active participation in field operations. To supplement the outstanding monthly MUFON UFO Journal, state chapters normally produce and distribute either a printed bulletin several times a year, or an email bulletin to the members (ours is the MUFONGA Update) also posted on the group’s website, or both. Chapter meetings are normally held once or more each year, and might include an organized SKY WATCH, which is usually a night-time (although it could be daylight) surveillance of an area having a history of recent reports of suspected aerial anomalies. Some chapters also have members organizing and/or attending regional meetings within and between the state's various sections. These types of meetings are usually more prevalent in chapters that have a large concentration of members in densely populated regions, i.e. the Los Angeles area, New York City and environs, Tampa-St. Pete and its nearby beach communities, and so on.
The Georgia chapter of MUFON operates as described above, but with some minor variations in organizational procedure due to population density and the distribution of our membership. At the page entitled “Contact Us,” you’ll find listed our main chapter leaders.
So how does MUFON of Georgia investigate UFO reports? (Remember the mission statement from above!). After orientation, training and certification, Georgia field investigators follow closely the techniques and procedures found in the superb MUFON Field Investigator's Manual. This 300+ page document, compiled by the MUFON scientific board, provides the methods used by most competent UFO investigators, no matter where they began their career. There is no other field manual quite like it to our knowledge. Its professional content compares very well with law enforcement SOP manuals now in use with many police departments.
After certain initial administrative steps involving the Case Management System (CMS), which is MUFON’s online system for managing and recording UFO case investigations, a MUFONGA Field Investigator (FI) begins work with an interview of the witness(es) (although not always-see below). A good old-fashioned "sit-down" with a witness can provide a competent investigator with information that might be overlooked by those not oriented towards or trained in forensic or police types of interviews. A typical investigation would include an official witness' personal account or signed statement; a sketch of the observation and/or object seen by the witness; diagram(s) of the event site; and depending on the sighting, photographs/video of the site and recovery of any physical evidence (if any). All completed cases include creating maps of the area; completion of other MUFON forms; and much more in the event the sighting involves 1) landing trace evidence, 2) electromagnetic effects, 3) radar/visual activity, or other special circumstances. Subsequent investigative steps usually include contacting the local law enforcement authorities, area military installations, the FAA, local weather centers, news media, the local college or university, and similar sources, for information.
In many cases however, the distance between our nearest FI and the sighting location, combined with the relatively simple nature of the sighting (a light in the sky, usually at great distance), means that it is neither practical nor sensible to conduct an onsite interview. In these cases, a properly-conducted telephone interview, combined with research done via telephone calls and use of Internet resources, is more than enough to become reasonably sure what the source of the report really was. These cases we refer to as “Cat-1.” Despite the absence of an in-person interview, a completed Cat-1 case might still have all of the components and reference material listed above, and take substantial work and/or time to resolve.
All of this effort is directed toward ONE objective - to determine if the described event can be attributed to a mundane cause(s), or cannot be. These can be numerous; bright meteors or bolides, returning space debris, natural celestial and/or atmospheric phenomena, weather, misidentified aircraft or blimps, misidentified military aircraft, advanced or secret military drones or experimental aircraft, weather balloons, space launches, satellites, (biological) visual phenomena resulting from a vision problem, and of course the everyday variety of lying or fabricating hoaxer. If the field investigator is able to eliminate all of this and more, only then will a truly anomalous and unexplainable event have been shown to have occurred. A detailed report is then completed and submitted to MUFON HQ via placement into CMS.
Note that in ALL cases, the identity of the reporting citizen is held in strict confidence and is not revealed to anyone. The few MUFON staff who have access to CMS are bound by agreements to protect private witness personal information. MUFON takes this extremely seriously.
A special note to those new to MUFON or Ufology: We believe it deserves mention here that in any field of inquiry dealing with the unknown, or even the more mysterious elements of life on our planet earth, the business of exploring such areas will attract a few odd "characters" with bizarre, paranoid, imaginary, or truly way-way-out-there beliefs and personalities. In this regard, MUFON of Georgia wishes those folks well, but we will neither ally ourselves with them nor provide a platform for them. To be clear: We fully understand that UFOs may not and need not have a “nuts and bolts” solution, and we are not committed to one. But we are not willing to abandon science and the scientific approach, weight-of-evidence, facts, and common sense. Our approach mirrors that recommended by Dr. Jacques Vallee in his books. That is, we are pursuing all facets of the phenomenon, including the physical basis. We are not interested in metaphysical, mental or New-Age ufology. Others can pursue those, and we wish them well.
We at MUFON of Georgia remain open minded in our pursuit of the truth behind the UFO enigma, giving due consideration and discussion to all rational theories, from extraterrestrial, to ultraterrestrial, to intra- or inter-dimensional. We respect the theories of our society's serious thinkers and scientists, from the prosaic to the profound. Our members have studied as references a wide range of outstanding work on the UFO problem, including work by the famous astronomer and CUFOS founder Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the world- renowned psychologist Dr. Carl Jung, longtime UFO professional and author Dr. Jacques Vallee, the pioneering Dr. Ivan Sanderson, NASA scientist Paul Hill, perceptual psychologist and scientist Dr. Richard Haines, Dr. Peter Sturrock of Stanford, Fortean researcher and author John Keel, researcher and author Greg Little, longtime UFO researcher and author Richard Hall; the fascinating higher-dimensional physics and cosmology research by Dr. Michio Kaku; paranormal researchers William Buhlman, Richard Broughton, Loyd Auerbach, Robert Monroe, and Georgia’s own Dr. W.G. Roll; and many others from a wide range of UFO-related and paranormal fields of study. We regard especially highly the 400+ papers posted online at the website of the Society for Scientific Exploration (Journal of Scientific Exploration).
We do NOT, however, have any confidence in those proclaiming to have regular intimate relations with strawberry-ice-cream-eating extraterrestrials in secret bases under Nevada, or those with "insider" knowledge of U.S. Government operations with alien “greys” that only they have the facts on, with an "alien base" under every other mountain and valley, and so on and so forth ad nauseam. Such stories are fun to read and certainly good for cheap thrills, but fifty years of dead ends proves that they lead nowhere.
The chapter leadership of MUFON of Georgia, and probably our entire membership, feels that with the UFO mystery, we are probably dealing with more than one source for the unexplained core of the phenomenon, i.e. it is not necessarily only, or in any part, an extraterrestrial matter. In upcoming years it might be seen as “quaint” that ufologists once thought it was all as simple as ETs from six star systems over, come to call.
Please browse our site. We recommend what we think are the best books by the best authors, on our recommended reading list. There is a vast amount of UFO garbage in print and on the Internet; even websites that “should know better” and look professional, have photographs and cases presented without reference to their known status as fakes (photos) or hoaxes (incidents). It bears repeating that MUCH of what is out there on the Internet is complete GARBAGE. Those new to ufology would do well to apply healthy skepticism to what they see out there.
If your own thinking matches up with our views, that the UFO mystery deserves a scientific, evidence-based approach and an unrelenting application of common sense, then we would be delighted to welcome you to our group. And if you’re visiting Georgia, write us or give us a shout, we’d love to hear from you!
[Originally by Former SD WT Sheets; modified Jan. 2010 by SD Ralph O. Howard, Jr.]