CUFOS or the Center for UFO Studies was practically built brick by brick by Dr. J. Allen Hynek and Sherman J. Larsen back in 1973 and is one of the few centers that study the UFO situation from a scientific basis.

The fact of the matter is that since 1997 - the year of the 50th anniversary of Roswell, there has been a steady decline in the number of people who have supported the center by subscribing to their newsletter. At one time, when people needed to know anything about UFOs, the only avenue available to them was information found in the print medium, such as books and newsletters. With the glut of information currently available on the Internet, it appears that people are less willing to pay a paltry 25 dollars a year to receive that information in a newsletter even IF the information contained within the pages has been painstakingly and scientifically investigated.

But CUFOS is not the only organization in the UFO community that is in trouble, Arcturus Books, a reputable seller of books that deal mostly with the UFO phenomenon have stated that they might have to close their doors at the end of this month because, once again, people are not purchasing their product - books, printed on paper because once again, people out there seem to think that anything and everything they ever wished to know about UFOs can be found on the Internet.

What very few people realize about the Internet and the information contained therein is that it amounts to little more than somebody's opinions on things. Web sites have popped up by anyone with a reasonable knowledge of HTML and if that person decides to create a website saying that Black is White, there are many people out there who wouldn't bother to argue with the theory because they saw it on the Internet... therefore it must be a fact. In many ways, the Internet today is similar to television of yesteryear. If somebody saw something on the tube, it automatically became fact and had to be real.

But the bottom line here is that it really doesn't matter what the reasons are for the potential demise of organizations like CUFOS or Arcturus Books, what does matter is that the only people who can stop it in its tracks are those of us who are interested in UFOs. So the final choice is yours... are you content to live with receiving only information from the Internet that may or may not be truth or are you willing to help pick up the pieces and make sure that the UFO community does not LOSE some very valuable resources?

I firmly believe that if we allow CUFOS and Arcturus Books to sink into oblivion it will become the first step in treating all UFO matters as something that is simply too mundane to care about... but that's just my take on it!