MUFON Massachusetts PIPEline

History

Marge Christensen published the P.I.P.E. Line from 2 Cherry Rd, Beverly, Massachusetts 01915, beginning in 1984. The publication had a dual identity: it functioned as a Massachusetts MUFON chapter bulletin, but its primary role was coordinating MUFON's National UFO Information Week across all fifty states. Christensen sent questionnaires to every State Director, compiled their responses, and published detailed summaries of each state's capabilities: meeting schedules, membership numbers, hotline numbers, equipment availability, willingness to do press releases, mall displays, and media appearances.

The results were blunt. By January 1985, only 15 of MUFON's state organisations had responded. Christensen set a goal of 40 to 45 states and divided the country into regions (West Coast under Paul Cerny, Southwest under Tom Deuley, Central States under Dan Wright, Southern States under Doug Labat) to push non-responsive directors into action. Each issue published the specific capabilities reported by responding states: Rhode Island had a hotline but no members and no meetings; Delaware had three members and could not participate; South Carolina had a State Director but no meetings and no idea how many members existed statewide.

The P.I.P.E. Line also carried Massachusetts chapter news: speaker announcements, investigator training updates, media coverage tracking, and reports from national symposia. Its editorial voice was distinctly impatient. Christensen asked directly what accounted for "the widespread apathy and lack of willingness to actively participate on the part of about 2/3 of our State Directors" and pressed repeatedly for responses. The publication documented both the ambition and the frustrations of trying to run a decentralised volunteer network as a coordinated national organisation.