Minutes of 5/24/08 Field Investigators Meeting

The meeting began at 7:00 p.m. at the Valeria Ranch, Black River Falls, following the Jim Marrs/Mel Riley event.

Experienced Field Investigators Tim Whiteagle and James Grubb were present.  In addition, Deborah Atherton, Charles Modlin, Vicki LeBlanc, Victoria Ramsay, Diane Luchterhand, Jeremy Greiner, and Joshua Greiner had all recently passed their FI test and were present.  Ray Hawk had been at the event but had to leave prior to the meeting.  David Watson was not present due to illness.  Richard Heiden, Carmelle Peloquin and Dean Werner were also absent.

State Director, Tim Whiteagle, announced that he would like to hold quarterly meetings for FIs.  In an effort to address the backlog of cases, Tim made the following appointments:

Jeremy and Josh Greiner will be State Section Co-Directors for the NW area of WI.

Jim Grubb and Diane Luchterhand will be State Section Co-Directors for the NE area.  Jim will also serve as the Field Investigator Assistant and may contact you by phone regarding assignments.  If you have any problem with taking the assignment, you need to let him know right away.

One of the things that Tim would like Jim and Diane to do is to send mailings to Sheriff’s Departments, urging them to subscribe to MUFON.  Nick Roesler will get a Public Information Booklet (and format of a letter that has been sent previously) to Tim to be sent with the mailings.  Jim and Diane will send a copy of their letter to Tim prior to mailing anything out.

Deborah Atherton will serve as an Assistant State Director.  She will be the project coodinator for all activities.
  
Victoria Ramsay raised the issue of the problems she is having with her computer; therefore, all memos to her should be sent by U.S. mail.

Nick Roesler is an Assistant State Director. His area of specialty is public relations and information and he will continue as the editor of the newsletter.  Nick has been experiencing problems with his laptop but it should be back in order soon.

Chuck Modlin was appointed as an Assistant State Director.  Chuck specializes in Electronic Data Collection.

Regarding new membership, Dustyn Palosaari of Eau Claire got the prize for signing up the most new members – 16!

Tim gave several assignments and asked the FIs to let him know which cases they would like to take on from those that remain unassigned.

Tim showed us sharp-looking black windbreaker with our MUFON-Wisconsin logo.  He would like the Wisconsin team that attends the International Symposium in July (San Jose) to wear something that will set us apart.  There was a discussion on whether we could obtain a patch that could be affixed to our clothing.  FIs were asked to think about this and get back to him with ideas in two weeks.

Tim then asked for volunteers for the UFO Days held in mid-July.  Diane, Victoria, Chuck and the Greiners indicated a willingness to help out. 

The Dundee, WI UFO event will be held at the same time as the International Symposium so Tim asked those who would not be attending that to help out.

Nick suggested that information about MUFON-Wisconsin could also be distributed at the State and County Fairs.  Victoria Ramsay suggested that a small TV playing the Dan Akroyd tape would draw interest.  Vicki L. will call to find out the cost of renting a booth at the State Fair, which we believe falls around 8/12.  If a raffle was held in conjunction with an event like this it could provide a mailing list of people to approach re membership.  The whole idea is to increase membership and to add new Field Investigators to WI.

Vicki L, raised the idea that Craigslist may provide us with a way to get out information.  She will report back on this.

Chuck Modlin will be teaching Radiation at the International Symposium.  He will send Tim and Jim a copy of the handouts he will be distributing and also provide information on the make and model of face masks and filters.

Tim indicated that there are three General Case Forms that you need to get in right away and that these may be obtained from the computer.

Re JAR (Journal of Abduction Encounters Research), Tim encouraged us to subscribe to it.  He will be subscribing.

Vicki raised the issue of a liability release form.  This info has been provided to MUFON International and we will follow their direction, if any.  Another legal issue that we may wish to consider is the signing of a confidentiality statement.

Chuck has a template for making MUFON-Wisconsin business cards.  Field Investigators who would like to have some cards made up should send Chuck an e-mail with their name, contact information and picture and he will print the cards up.

Tim asked all FIs to read the Case Investigation Protocol that Chuck Reever has sent out. 

This concludes the minutes for this meeting.

Submitted by Vicki LeBlanc

Charles "Chuck" Modlin, of Pewaukee, WI has recently been appointed to the MUFON Strike Team for Area Research, or STAR team  He was the 6th member to be added to a group, which will probably always be 10 members or less, and is subject to be deployed at any time with a two-hour notice.

Chuck's extensive background includes radiation, radar systems, navigational aids, missile systems, telemetry, lasers, electronic sensing devices, video monitoring and many other technologies.  He has lots of electronic gadgets and is looking forward to employing them in field investigations.  He will be teaching Radiation Site Surveying (and how to protect yourself) at the International Symposium on Thursday, July 24th (10:00 AM - 11:00 AM ). 

Originally raised in Wisconsin, Chuck is a world-wide traveler.  He retired from the Navy then went on to work as an Electrical Engineering supervisor for 20 more years for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. He has a special passion for diving, which he began as a child here in Wisconsin.  His wife, Vicki, is also a Field Investigator. 

MUFON International completed negotiations with the Discovery Channel earlier in the year for a series which will feature STAR team members. Information about the series will be posted on the website as it is received.