It is strange to think that I
have been writing these annual reports for 22 years, and this – believe it or
not – is the 23rd that I have written.
In those years, the Centre for
Fortean Zoology has been through many major changes, and – as I write – we are
going through another one.
We have become yet another victim
of the British government’s ‘austerity’ measures and, as a result of that, our
infrastructure (particularly as far as personnel is concerned) has changed
immeasurably in the last few years. For example, ten years ago, we had a
relatively large number of volunteers who were working quite considerable
amounts of man hours for us. Now, because people can no longer afford to
volunteer their time to anywhere near the extent that they used to, we have far
fewer. In real terms, we have gone from the equivalent of about 5 full time
staff to a fraction of that. Even Corinna and I no longer work full time for
the organisation that I started, which such high hopes, 25yrs ago.
This doesn’t mean that the CFZ is
going to close. Far from it. But it does mean that we are having to re-evaluate
the way that we operate.
Weird Weekend
In 2016, mostly as a result of my
declining health, I declared an indefinite hiatus for the Weird Weekend, or at
least for the Devonshire-based Weird Weekend, that had continued unbroken for
17yrs. It wasn’t just because of my health; again, whereas once we’d had a large
number of volunteer workers on whom to draw, by 2016 there were just a handful,
and even they were having to juggle other things in their lives. But, the venue
we had been using – the Small School in Hartland – had also been forced to
close, for many of the same reasons that I enumerated earlier as causing so
many problems for the CFZ; a lack of volunteers, and a lack of funding. Several
key people who had been part of the Weird Weekend for many years – Richard
Ingram, Paul Vella and Syd Henley – had died, another family had been decimated
by a horrific divorce, and others had been affected by changing economic and
social conditions. It was obviously time to end, at least for a while.
However, I am pleased to say that
several people who had been an integral part of the Weird Weekend organisation
over the years, have taken the figurative baton and run with it:.
- Glen Vaudrey has now done two successful Weird Weekend North events in Cheshire, and a third is planned for 2018
- Richard Freeman and Jackie Tonks held their first ‘Day of Weird: A Celebration of Eccentricity’ in London in November; an event raising funds for the Sophie Lancaster Foundation.
- Lars Thomas attempted a Weird Weekend Scandinavia in Copenhagen this spring, and although it didn’t work, they are planning another bash at it next year.
- Matt Salusbury is planning a Weird Weekend East in Ipswich.
Several people have suggested
taking over the Devon Weird Weekend, but I am not ready to let it go just yet.
We have been approached by a representative of a very high profile North Devon
businessman about resurrecting the event, here in the village. I am waiting to
see what happens, but, I suspect, that the story of the main Devonshire Weird
Weekend is not necessarily over yet.
Those We Have Lost
As eluded to in the previous
section, we have lost a number of people this year.
·
- Paul Vella. In late summer, I received an instant message on Facebook from Paul Vella’s brother, Dermot, telling me that Paul had died. Before anyone asks, I don’t know the details, but I do know that he had been suffering from various diabetic related conditions for many years. It was only when trying to write an obituary after having replied to Dermot’s brief IM, that I realised how little I actually knew about Paul. I knew, for example, that he had separated form his wife, and that he had 2 children, but I didn’t know their names, sexes, or ages. Paul was a very private man, and kept his personal life very separate from his work in cryptozoology. However, from 2002 onwards, until ill health forced him to resign a few years ago, Paul headed the CFZ BHM Study Group. He was also a regular benefactor to the CFZ, giving us gifts of both money and equipment. He was a generous, kind man and his appearances at various Weird Weekends, both at Exeter and in Woolsery, will be remembered fondly by everyone who knew him. I particularly remember his lecture to the young people of the village about Bigfoot, and the sight of a dozen or so small children sitting cross legged, enraptured before him, as he explained the story of Bluff Creek, will stay with me for a long time.
- Syd Henley. A co-founder of APRA Books, together with Bob Morrell MBE. A loveable bear of a man, with a bushy beard and a wicked sense of humour. He was someone whom I’m proud to have called a friend. And I was terribly upset when, this autumn, Bob phoned me to tell me that – a couple of years after having a major stroke – Syd had been rushed to hospital, undergone an amputation of one of his legs, and died. He was a kind, sweet man, who 20-odd years ago, rescued a feral street child and treated her as if she were part of his family, steering her as best he could through the pitfalls of adolescence. He was immensely knowledgeable about fortean books and booklore, and – back in the 1970s – had been an avid member of the Loch Ness Monster Research Community, being one of many people who expressed the opinion to me that the late Frank Searle had been unfairly dealt with in the annals of cryptozoological history. His health problems were immense, but every year for a long time, he and Bob would drive down to Devon for the Weird Weekend, only missing the final two. Since his passing, there is a very big Syd-shaped hole in my life.
- Richard Dawe. A very old friend of mine. We first met during the summer of 1985, in a 2nd hand shop in Exeter’s Fore Street, where we were both looking for Frank Zappa LPs. We soon became fast friends, and when – a couple of years later – my first wife and I started a small home publishing company, we discovered that Richard was a very talented artist. And so it was with Richard’s art and layout that all our magazines, including Animals & Men, left the starting gate! Sadly, having moved up here 12 years ago, I hadn’t seen Richard for a while, but we kept in touch by phone and email. He had struggled with mental health issues and substance abuse problems throughout his life, and I don’t think that anyone who knew him would be particularly surprised to hear that he took his own life this autumn. He was a very dear, sweet, if fragile, human being and I owe him an enormous debt for everything he did right at the beginning of my publishing career to launch me upon the trajectory that I am still on today. Both Richard Freeman and I were very fond of him, and I do not think that we will see his like again.
- Kiryi Rainbird. Anyone who attended the first 3 Weird Weekends in Exeter will have met Kiryi, who was an important part of the social group which rounded those first events. Sadly, she died in November. She will best be remembered as having been the person who gave us the long standing CFZ cat, Helios 7.
CFZ Grounds
When we first moved up here in
2005, we had big plans for a library, a museum and a mini-zoo. Sadly, all three
of these have been overtaken by events. The repairs to the museum building have
taken longer to carry out than anticipated, mostly because of funding. The work
is very nearly done now, but because of changes elsewhere, what was – and
hopefully will be again at some point – the museum building, is presently a
store room.
Over the past decade, Corinna’s
office in what used to be the dining room, has become larger and larger and so
we have decided it is time to decommission the conservatory as a reptile room
and turn it into an office for Corinna. The main result of this will be that
the Downes family will get the dining room back and, as we no longer have as
many animals as we once had, we no longer need the conservatory to keep them
in.
Finally, the CFZ library. This
still exists, but it is presently doubling up as a bedroom for my elderly
mother-in-law, and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
This year saw one high profile
death amongst the CFZ animals. The male Reeves’ pheasant, who had been with us
for just over a decade finally died of old age. And the only permanent addition
to the CFZ menagerie has been some ex-battery chickens, whom we rehoused from
the British Hen Trust. We rehomed the Mexican king snake and two of the
axolotls this summer. At least at the moment, because of the financial and
personnel constraints that I described in some depth earlier in this report,
there are no plans to increase the CFZ menagerie at this time. We will, of
course, continue to take in rescues and crisis rehomings, but that is all.
Expeditions
We carried out two expeditions
this year, both organised by Richard Freeman.
The first took place in January,
when Richard and Mike Williams went back to Tasmania for the latest CFZ
Australia mission in search of evidence for the continued existence of the
thylacine. The lads interviewed new witnesses and explored parts of the island
that they had not been to before, and all in all had a satisfactory, if
unspectacular, investigation.
The second expedition took place
in July, when Richard, Dave Archer, Jackie Tonks and Chris Clark went back to Kabardino
Balkaria, a federal subject of Russia situated in the Caucasus mountains, home
to probably the most western sightings of the almasty. One of the most
interesting results, however, from this year’s expedition (our second to the
region) were the stories that the team gathered about sightings of spotted
hyena. This large carnivore is supposed to have become extinct in the region at
least 30 years ago, but the proliferation of sightings collected by the team
would suggest that either it never became extirpated at all, or that it is
increasing its range northward to areas where it is still known to be found.
CFZtv
In many ways, the most important
news of the year is that we have – after some years shilly-shallying about –
relaunched our monthly webTV show On The
Track (of unknown animals). There was a four year hiatus for all sorts of
reasons, many of them – no, most of them – being financial. We have come a long
way technologically in the last 4 years and I have to admit that I shudder a
bit when I look at the production values of some of our earlier shows. Now, we
have better cameras, and more sophisticated editing software, not to mention
faster computers, the production values of the new shows are considerably
improved.
We have also changed the format;
Charlotte Phillipson is now co-presenting with me, and we try to make the news
items shorter and snappier, with more cryptozoology and less of the peculiar
events which happen in and around the CFZ. Although the episodes are meant to
be half an hour long, the four that we have released since August have all been considerably
longer than that. Initial reactions to them seem to be very promising and I am
very pleased with the way that they are going.
We have also taken the first
faltering steps towards crowd-funding our endeavours. My friend Louis Rozier
has set up, and is administering, a Patreon campaign, and I am pleased to say
that we have already got 4 patrons. I would like to think that this is
something that is going to go from strength to strength.
Publications
I have already explained how the
government’s pernicious austerity measures have crippled us, but as the same
can be said about a large number of other people and organisations in the
United Kingdom, I am not going to bellyache about it. However, this does mean
that our publishing schedule has been somewhat truncated. 10yrs ago we were
publishing 25 books a year. This year we have only managed 3:
- Muirhead's Mysteries: 2009 - 2010 Leaves from a Fortean Zoologist's Notebook Volume One by Richard Muirhead. 216 pages. ISBN-13: 978-1909488489
Richard Muirhead is one of the longest
standing members of the Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ). When the CFZ started
a daily blog in 2009, Muirhead was one of the first contributors, and over the
intervening years has contributed hundreds of fascinating articles. A trained
librarian, he has what Charles Fort would have called a 'wild talent'; he has a
remarkable attitude for unearthing arcane data from obscure archives. CFZ
director, Jonathan Downes, has known him for nearly half a century, and
considers him to be the best researcher he has ever known. Read this, the first
selection of his blog postings to be anthologised and we expect that you will
agree with him.
- · On Vampires by Ronald Murphy. 154 pages. ISBN-13: 978-1909488519
Join
cryptozoologist and folklorist Ronald Murphy as he journeys throughout history
in his quest to uncover the impetus for the archetype of the vampire. Beginning
at the lair of cannibals at the dawn of human history, explore the images and
evolving ideas of the vampire, tracing these concepts up to the information
age. Keep a stake close by as you uncover the world of the vampire.
- · The third book is an anthology of various writings by me. At the moment, this has not been given a general release, but we will let you know as and when that changes.
We have published 3 editions of our long-standing magazine/journal Animals & Men, and we are confident
that the 4th issue of the year will be out before everybody gets
drunk and does the ‘ring out the old, ring in the new’ bit. Because of time and
financial constraints, this year’s issues have not yet been released in hard
copy format, although we do intend to do so as soon as we are able. However, as
with everything else, it is my opinion that it is more important for us to
still get information out there, rather than spending too long fussing about
the exact nature of the medium by which we do so.
Next
Generation Initiative
Earlier in the year we were approached by CFZ member, and Ohio state
representative, Colin Schneider. He wanted to set up a young person’s branch of
the CFZ. This is something that I have been interested in doing for many years,
and in fact, was in discussions with the late Paul Vella about setting up
before his activities were proscribed by his tragic illness, and changes in
personal circumstances. The Next Generation Initiative is still in its early
planning stages, but it is something that we very much hope will be up and
running by the end of 2018. We are also,
as part of this, looking into the feasibility of having some sort of a
mentoring programme as well. These are exciting times for the CFZ and I look
forward to bringing you more news about this new initiatives very soon.
Colin writes:
“The Centre for Fortean Zoology's Next Generation Initiative will be a place where young and aspiring cryptozoologists can go to learn, get advice, receive help with research, and share their own research. The field is constantly getting young people who are interested in working in cryptozoology, but there is nowhere for perspective cryptozoologists to get advice and support. It can be intimidating to ask already established researchers for advice but having a place where people their own age can work together would definitely encourage those interested in the field.
It will also serve as a place
where young researchers can share what they are working on and receive
constructive feedback and discussion. This is something that the entire field
of cryptozoology is lacking and if we can change it with the next generation,
then maybe the future of cryptozoology will be different on a whole.
Essentially, the NGI will serve
to be a place where the next generation of cryptozoologists can get a head
start in the field and begin doing the right things early. It will be a
community that is helpful, positive, questioning, and respectful. The NGI will
be a place where the up and coming in cryptozoology receive a positive platform
for their work and can help shape cryptozoology itself.”
Women comprise 52% of the human
race, and I have always wanted the female gender to provide 52% of the CFZ.
However, in the 25yrs that we have been in existence, this has just not
happened.
Whereas I am not a believer in
positive discrimination for the sake of it, I am very pleased that there are so
many women involved in the organisational parts of the CFZ these days, but
there are ways that we can improve on this.
The most important of these is to
make sure that all the spaces that are managed by the CFZ are safe, comfortable
and welcoming to everyone.
Over a decade ago, when we first
had our CFZ Bulletin Board, my attention was drawn to an unfortunate
occurrence. It seemed that whenever a young woman registered and started to
become involved with the activities on the board, there were male members on the
board that would immediately hit on her.
This is not acceptable!
Just because some of the people
using a CFZ space happened to be born without a Y chromosome, does not mean
that she is fair game for the attentions of those who have one.
This is non-negotiable, and if we
see anything that could be described as sexual harassment in a CFZ space, it
will be dealt with swiftly and without mercy. Worse, I’ll hand you over to
Olivia and Corinna, and they scare the crap out of me!
Research Request Room
As readers of our monthly
newsletter will already know, a year or so back Richard Muirhead instigated a
Notes & Queries column as part of the newsletter.
Right from the beginning, the CFZ
was intended as a clearing house for information, and a resource for researchers
across the globe. Whereas Richard Muirhead’s Notes & Queries does exactly
what it says on the tin, it has been brought to my attention that many
researchers, especially younger ones without access to a sizeable
cryptozoological library, like many of their elder counterparts, run against
major stumbling blocks when they are trying to get specific quotations or
citations to papers they are trying to write. Therefore, we are intending to
instigate a CFZ Request Room on Facebook, purely for people who are interested
in the idea of sharing information.
It will not be a social exercise,
or a chat room in any more than the most functional sense. And frivolous posts
will be frowned upon.
However, I think that this will
prove to be a valuable tool for researchers across the world, and also a major
stepping stone in our ongoing community building exercises.
If you think that you would be
interested in something like this - and I should probably have already noted
that it will be completely free - please contact me.
I look forward to hearing from
you all.
Personnel
There have been surprisingly few
comings and goings this year. However, the core CFZ team was joined by Rowan
Rider for a few months during the second part of the year. He worked as
gardener and general assistant to Graham, because he could do things which Coby
(who is still only 11) would not be able to do. In the summer, my stepdaughter
Olivia became my 3rd secretary in the past 24 months, and has filled
the role with aplomb and flare. She really is a remarkable young woman (and I’m
not just saying that because of our family relationship or because she is
typing this right now) and is making my life considerably easier.
We are also in talks with a
relatively recent member of the CFZ who has expressed an interest in taking
over the museum and making it functional again. At this point, however, we
would like to stress that the museum is only ever intended to hold our personal
collections of material taken by the CFZ over the last 25yrs. It is not intended
to be a tourist attraction like Lauren Coleman’s Cryptozoology Museum in Maine,
and we find online speculation that somehow Lauren and the CFZ are at
loggerheads with each other to be both untrue and embarrassing.
Closing Thoughts
As I have said elsewhere in this
year’s annual report, I have no intention of letting the CFZ be dragged under
by the current financial constraints either in the UK or the US. We can, and
most certainly will, continue, and I find it very heartening that there is a
new generation of young people in their late teens, their 20s and early 30s,
who are getting ever more closely involved with the organisation and what we
do.
Although I was initially very
under-impressed by the concept of social media, I have – reluctantly – been grabbed
kicking and screaming into the 21st century and now accept the
importance of such things for any organisation that operates in these peculiar
times. Thanks to Louis, Olivia and others, we are getting our heads around the
realities of what needs to be done to make sure that the Centre for Fortean
Zoology has a presence on social media, and furthermore one that carries enough
gravitas to effectively carry out what we wish to do.
2018 presents a new slew of
challenges, but they are challenges that we as an organisation have confidence
that we will be able to face, and overcome.
It only remains for me to wish
you all a Happy and Peaceful New Year.
Best wishes,
Jon Downes
Director, Centre for Fortean
Zoology
