Friday 26 July 2013
MUFON announces leadership change and alliance with French UFO agency (Video)
The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), the largest UFO investigation organization in the U.S. and possibly the world, recently held its annual symposium in Las Vegas, Nevada. The theme was Science, UFOs, and the Search for ET. The conference featured presentations from several Ph.D.s and scientists.
Among the news announced at the conference was a new Executive Director for MUFON, and the partnership between MUFON and France’s GEIPAN. GEIPAN is France’s official UFO investigation organization. It is a part of the CNES, France’s space agency, similar to NASA here in the US.
Dave MacDonald, the current Executive Director for MUFON, says his job was always meant to be temporary. Beginning on August 1, 2013, Jan Harzan, a long time MUFON volunteer and member of the board of directors, will take over. Harzan says that he was actually asked to take over the head position at MUFON when their last director, Clifford Clift, had to step down due to family health issues. However, Harzan needed to wait until retirement to take on the position. Now that he is retiring, Harzan is free to head the busy organization.
One of the things MUFON has been busy with is increasing their international presence. MacDonald and MUFON’s Director of Investigations and International Affairs, Ruben Uriarte, have been working hard to gain footholds in countries throughout the world. Uriarte says MUFON now has active members in over 30 countries and are working to forge relationships in parts of the world they rarely communicate with, such as Asia.
An international relationship that has been particularly exciting for MUFON has been the forging of formal relations with France’s GEIPAN. MacDonald was able to visit France and meet with GEIPAN administrators and form a working relationship that allows the groups to share best practices and aide each other with investigations. The keynote speaker at the symposium was Francois Louange who has a doctorate in signal processing, has worked for CNES, and is a consultant for photo analysis for GEIPAN.
Open Minds was there to cover the conference, and interview speakers and MUFON personnel. We will be posting more interviews and news from the event, so stay tuned to OpenMinds.tv for more.
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