David "The Captain" MacDonald will become the next international director of the Mutual UFO Network effective February 1. MacDonald is experienced in MUFON leadership roles, including sitting on the current board of directors.
According to MUFON, MacDonald is a successful businessman, currently operating a school for pilots and aircraft dispatchers. He is the owner/operator of a charter airline, Flamingo Air.
I emailed MacDonald and congratulated him on his recent appointment as international director. I inquired if it would be okay to ask him a few questions, to which he agreed. Below are my questions and his responses, of which I appreciate him taking the time and attention to provide.
What do you identify as your most urgent and top priorities in your role as MUFON international director?
To continue to increase and improve the professionalism, stature, efficiency and financial well being of the organization.
What are you currently most pleased about MUFON?
The fact that it is the largest, most prestigious and well known UFO investigating organization in the world.
What are you least pleased, or most concerned, about MUFON?
Training of Field Investigators and State Officers. Much more needs to be done and we are working on it.
The MUFON mission statement reads, "The scientific study of UFOs for the benefit of humanity." How would you evaluate the current MUFON execution of scientific study of UFOs, particularly as commonly represented in the MUFON Journal and its symposiums?
Since we are the only major organization that actually investigates UFOs, I say we are doing quite well. However, as stated above, there is a lot of room for improvement.
What is your stance on MUFON providing public platforms for individuals who use hypnosis as a primary investigative tool and as was recently the case when MUFON LA hosted and promoted David Jacobs?
As of this writing I have not even officially taken office. Therefore I prefer not to comment on issues of which I have not been fully briefed on. However, I will state if a chapter wishes to host a speaker to make a presentation on any investigative procedure, be it hypnosis, photo analysis or evidence collection, as it relates to UFO investigations, I have no problem.
What is your stance on MUFON chapters continuing to promote and practice hypnosis as a memory retrieval tool?
To me, the key word is tool. We do not promote the use of hypnosis. Rather, we accept its use, under stringent requirements and prerequisites, as a tool to aid in the discovery of latent memories. MUFON has considerable guidelines governing the use of hypnosis including a section of the training manual dedicated to ethics in investigations.
