Kalamazoo Flying Saucer Study Club

History

The Kalamazoo Flying Saucer Study Club (KFSSC) was a regional civilian-research group active in Kalamazoo, Michigan in the late 1950s. The archive holds fifteen issues of the club bulletin, numbered No. 01 (1957) and Nos. 07 through 20, with Bulletin No. 11 surviving only as a partial copy. The numbering gap between issue 01 and issue 07 reflects what almost all small-club bulletin runs reflect: copies that nobody kept, copies that survive only in the founder's basement, and copies that found their way into the bibliographic record because one diligent member sent them to a fellow-traveller in another state.

What the existing bulletins document is the texture of late-1950s grassroots ufology. In October 1957 the board of directors reorganised, with each member given a specific title and a specific job. The November meeting at the Crosstown Branch of the First National Bank ran a dual program titled "The Physical and the Metaphysical in Flying Saucer Research," followed by the latest NICAP report, a book review of They Shall Be Gathered Together, a board report, and the details of the club library. The format is the format every serious civilian research club ran in the period: a monthly meeting, an agenda, sourced reports, and a willingness to keep going in the absence of mainstream-press interest.