Here at the US Office of the CFZ, we are always looking for volunteers to help us in our quest to uncover the cryptozoological mysteries of the United States.
We are looking for anyone and everyone that can undertake field research, interview witnesses, and submit news and information from their own areas of the US, and that can be posted at this blog and published in the CFZ magazine, Animals & Men.
We want to create a team of dedicated researchers, investigators, writers and explorers States-side who are up for a challenge, enjoy adventure, intrigue and the search for the unknown, and are willing to share their findings with like-minded individuals.
If this piques your interest in becoming a field representative for the state in which you live, drop me a line here.
5 comments:
Good Afternoon... This sounds extremely interesting. My name is Symkai Scott, living in Baltimore Maryland can be quite stale and the audience for such things is limited here. I don't even know where I'd begin... Things like haunted places and the Supernatural really intrigue me, but the only place i can go for these is television (how disappointing). can you help me? sscott365@sprintpcs.com if you can.
- Symkai Scott =.= eyes open...
Symkai:
If it's more supernatural based things that you are interested in, you may want to check out www.anomalist.com - that always has a lot of information on new paranormal accounts.
Also: there are many good Yahoo groups that cover all the latest news on hauntings and ghosts etc.
At the CFZ, we tend to focus primarily on unknown animals, but we do cover those cross-over things between the paranormal and cryptozoology, such as werewolf reports and things like that.
In fact, the further you dig into cryptozoology, the more paranormal/supernatural cases you find.
I'd definitely recommend clicking on Yahoo and searching their "Groups" section for "hauntings" and "ghosts" and you will find a lot of discussion groups there. Lots of cryptozoology groups, too.
Coast to Coast Radio is a great resource too for paranormal. And do a Google on Joshua P. Warren, and check out his sites. Josh is a friend of mine and is a leading haunted house/ghost expert in the US.
Nick
Dear Mr. Redfern,
I have long had an interest in anomalous and Fortean phenomena. The position of field researcher sounds intriguing. What qualifications must one have in order to be considered for this task?
Thank you,
John Kormendi
Hey, Nick... my name's Austin and I live in Hattiesburg, MS where I go to school at University of Southern Mississippi. Have been a fan of CFZ since reading about y'all in Fortean Times a while back. (Also enjoyed your book, Three Men Seeking Monsters.) Was prompted to finally visit the website after Jon was on the radio. Am finishing up my doctorate, so I don't know how much longer that I'll be in MS, but would like to learn more and maybe even help out a little in the meantime. Do field reps take instructions/assignments from the CFZ on what they investigate or do they go their own way? Is there a set protocol for collecting data, etc.? Thanks man...
John & Austin:
As you both ask similar questions, hopefully this will help: basically it's pretty flexible. As it's volunteer work, we always say that whatever people are comfortable doing in their own time is absolutely fine with us.
It could be anything from investigating local cryptozoological cases in your own areas of the country, or forging links with local media outlets to increase the CFZ profile in that area and ask for reports/witnesses to be highlighted and brought forward, or perhaps writing case-studies on things that you have investigated that can be posted on the blog or that can be published in the CFZ magazine, "Animals & Men). Anything like that, really.
We are drawing up new definitive guidelines similar to above and by mid next week I'll have them posted to the blog; which will also include the various benefits and rep kit details available for those who become CFZ reps.
But basically, it's a case of us really trying to create a good, solid network of people around the US (of the type that has existed in the UK with the main head office for the last decade) to the point where - hypothetically - if tomorrow there was a sighting of a Bigfoot in a particular area of Washington State, we would have a CFZ rep close enough to the location who could perhaps interview the witness, get photos of the area, write a summary report, that could then be shared online with CFZ members as well as the public. Or it could be that we would get details of a case in your respective areas, and phone/email you and ask if you want to look into it, prepare a report, etc.
However, as I stressed, everything we do is self-funded, and so I do understand and appreciate that not everyone is in a position to undertaken huge investigations; and which is why we are always very appreciative of any work done - large or small.
It's enthusiasm and dedication that drives us, and what we look for in others too, and so if one person can promote the CFZ on a local radio show, and someone else is out taking pictures of a lake where some weird creature has been seen and doing a witness interview, or even just forwarding on to us a name of someone to interview, then everyone is doing their bit - and collectively it all adds to the knowledge of the subject.
But check out the guidelines that we'll be posting by mid-next week and that will hopefully provide more data too (Jon and me are working on them right now).
Of course, field reps get copies of our Animals & Men mag with their articles in (which is a glossy, color-cover publication).
Austin: many thanks for the 3 Men comments; much appreciated.
Nick
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