UFO Hiatus

Something had to give...

Over the past couple months, life has gotten surprisingly busy, and I find I haven't been able to keep up with my responsibilities as a Certified MUFON Field Investigator. Between selling my Hynek book (which means I have to write the damn thing by next summer!), prepping to start a new gig teaching screenwriting at DePaul University and gearing up for a 16-day Antarctic cruise over the holidays, I have been spread out pretty thin and letting my caseload slip as a result.

So I wrote to my state director and told him that I may have to take a leave of absence from MUFON for the first 6 months of 2016. By then I'll have the book done, school will be on summer break, and things will settle down greatly. I told him I would let him know after the 1st of the year, once I'm back from the South Pole. He was very cool about it, and appreciated the heads up.

To be completely honest, though, I've been ready for a break from MUFON for a while. My motivation has been seriously lacking since last summer, and once it starts to slip away it's hard to get it back.

Thank God I can get away from UFOs in the Antarctic... or can I?

There are two big issues. First of all, there have been too many cases over the past few months that are either obvious pranks, obvious mistakes, or just flat out unimportant. It's hard to enthusiastically dedicate even one night a week to this when so many of my recent cases are exactly alike: "I saw a light in the sky. I watched for a while, trying to figure out what it was. Then it disappeared." Well, ok. Maybe that's something, maybe it's not, but if that's all there is to the report then what, exactly, am I "investigating?" I spend 30 minutes on the phone with the witness, who repeats what he/she said in the initial report, and then I file it with MUFON as an "Identified Flying Object-Man Made" or "Insufficient Data," or some such thing. Which does absolutely nothing to help us understand the UFO phenomenon, and feels like a big waste of my time. Much better, I would think, if the simple Category 1 cases were just filed away and the investigators only had to look into the truly strange and interesting cases. But who's going to make that call?

The second issue is that the MUFON Case Management System where I file my reports is so clunky, slow, cumbersome, counterintuitive, and nonsensical that I dread having to go into the system to file a report. It always takes twice as long as it needs to, because the reporting requirements are so inane. We basically have to fill in everything twice, which usually means cutting and pasting into the wee hours of the night, and then we need to type the report into a text box so tiny it can barely hold one letter, much less a report. It's sheer torture, I'm telling you. I have hated the CMS since day one.

Then in October, they changed the CMS reporting procedures, for no apparent reason. The email MUFON sent me about the changes is completely incomprehensible to me:

For Cat 1 cases. Copy and paste the elements of the Short Form (see bottom of page 8) into the text box for Field Investigators Report located at the bottom of CMS. Complete the report.

For Cat 2 and higher cases. You will complete only Form 30. Upon completing the report as a Word document, do the following:

Highlight the all of the information from the Investigation Section (see top of Page 4). Click copy and then move your mouse to the Field Investigators Report box and then click on paste. Next, attach the Word document as a file to CMS and close the case.

Uhhh... What?

The last straw came the other day when MUFON changed the log-in procedures. All of a sudden, with no warning and no explanation, they require me to choose a new password and then keep changing it every 45 days...

I've been using the same password for 4 1/2 years without any problem. I remember that password. It's easy and it's secure. Why do I need to change it, and then keep changing it? Well, I knew there was no getting out of it, so I put in the new password and wrote it down, and guess what? The next time I tried to log in, I couldn't remember the new password--of course--and I couldn't find where I had written it down. So I had to ask MUFON to help me reset the password, and I was told to check my email for the reset code. That was a week ago, and I'm still waiting for the flipping email. (and before you write to tell me to check my bulk folder, I have, and it's not there)

The thing is, even if I get the email and I get the password reset properly, I'm going to have to go through this stupidity every 45 days from now until forever, and I can pretty much guarantee that I will promptly forget every new password every 45 days, the minute I create it. And for what? Do we really have security problems?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not leaving MUFON. I just need a break, and I need to concentrate on the book and blog and the class for the time being. Even if I decide to take the leave of absence, I'll still be keeping up with the blog, although maybe less frequently than in the past.

I may not get back here again before my trip, so Happy Holidays to all, and keep watching the skies!