CIUFOR

"CIUFOR was founded in 1967 by the 8th Lord Clancarty, Brinsley le Poer Trench, author of several UFO books written in the 1960-70’s period. Brinsley had already created a group called the “International Sky Scouts” in the early 60’s from which Contact emerged. As a well known face in Ufology, Clancarty became a media consultant whenever the subject of UFOs was discussed and seemed to have cult followings all over the world.  Indeed, as a result 30-50 overseas branches were set up in the 1970’s and membership overall was claimed to have reached 11,000.

"However, the first ten years’ records are confused and disjointed due to a continuous change of administrative personnel. The group’s magazine “Awareness” and “UFO Register” first appeared in 1968 and remain active to date. After a vague editorial start, J. Bernard Delair (current President) was editor of “Awareness” for most of the 1970s and since 1980 Geoffrey E Ambler (current Vice President) is now actively in the role. The magazine contains general articles on Ufology, sightings and other articles of interest by contributors worldwide. The editor of the “UFO Register” - a listing and analysis of UFO reports has been Frances Copeland since 1985. The Awareness magazines are produced 3-4 times a year the UFO Register approximately bi-annually.

"By the late ‘70s Lord Clancarty was approaching retirement and apart from instigating the “House of Lords UFO Debate” in 1979 produced very little after that. Thus in the early 1980s most of the running of Contact International (name at the time) was handed over to Derek Mansell, the chief Investigation Officer, based at Oxford where the majority of the UK branch administration officers had resided over the period 1975-80. Also the position of President was handed down from Lord Clancarty to Ruth Rees, a freelance journalist based in London.

"In 1988 Derek Mansell departed for Cornwall and handed over the running of the organisation to Geoff Ambler, Frances Copeland and Michael Soper. This arrangement continues apart from a period in the mid-1990s when interest in UFOs suddenly rocketed most probably caused by the “alien body” film. A more formal council was formed with Brian P. James as Chairman. The new grouping decided in 1996 to rename the organisation “Contact International UFO Research” as opposed to “Contact International” and “Contact UK”

"Lord Clancarty, (Brinsley) died in 1995 after a long period of illness and bequeathed his extensive library to CIUFOR. There are books added from time to time and a video collection, thanks to recent contributions from Bill Foley, the hot-line controller and chief Investigating Officer.

"CIUFOR is still very active in collecting and disseminating UFO data which is recorded and stored for further analysis some of which is later released both in the Awareness Magazine and UFO Register. There are small informal meetings twice a month which are currently held on a “round-robin basis” so that information and letters received can be dealt with - whilst also keeping up to date with news and any recent happenings on the Ufological front."

Contact
Web: http://contactinternationalufo.homestead.com