“No, I am not considering it and I told them that,” she said.

The chamber’s Board of Directors unanimously voted Tuesday to “relinquish sole sponsorship” of the Roswell UFO Festival, and to encourage the formation of a new entity to organize it. Previously, the chamber ran a festival committee, chaired by a board member, which served as the organizing entity.

“We’re trying to be as inclusive as possible this year,” said CEO Shawn Hughes.

A new organization would “add a new level of cooperation between all of the entities, including the UFO museum,” but also the RCC, the Roswell Hispano Chamber of Commerce, the Roswell Convention and Civic Center, the Roswell Visitors Center, Roswell Parks and Recreation, MainStreet Roswell and Roswell Runners Club. A press release from the chamber Wednesday quoted Hughes saying the International UFO Museum has the expertise and audience necessary to be the leader in such a group and put on a successful festival.

“The central player in this organization would hopefully be the UFO Museum,” he said in the release. “If I were visiting Roswell for the first time, I’d be inclined to head to the Museum first. That makes them an ideal choice for a leadership position in this new entity.”

But the museum has other intentions. Plans have been in the works for a while, Shuster said, for the Roswell UFO Event 2004, which will be held July 1-5 at the museum and the civic center. With a focus on the serious and educational aspects of the Roswell Incident and other UFO phenomenon, it won’t be much different from what the museum has done in previous years, she said.

“The museum has always done their own thing,” she said. “This year what we are doing is expanding but focusing on what we do and what we have always done. ... We’ve taken a different direction and are going to do our own thing.”

Chamber president J.P. Cheney said Thursday the board decision was made in an attempt to unify the organizations involved in the festival’s planning process, and that Shuster’s reaction was puzzling.

“I understand her position ... I don’t know why they’re choosing to do it the way they’re doing it,” he said. “I certainly would hope they would welcome the event for everybody.”

Shuster says that by concentrating on the more serious, scientific aspects of UFO phenomenon, the museum is sticking to what it knows and what it does best — and they know their audience. The UFO Festival has “become a carnival, or a side-show,” she said, “and that’s not what the museum’s all about.” The people who come to the UFO fest also want “some kind of UFO entertainment,” Cheney said. “That’s what runs her museum, is the alien fluff that everyone buys. ... They come here for that ‘carnival’ atmosphere. Those people who come for the carnival are the ones that finance her shop.”

The museum’s first priority is to recognize the Roswell Incident, she said, the reported 1947 UFO crash that put the town of Roswell on the world map, drawing visitors here year-round. Shuster plans to announce the event schedule, which may feature an astronaut as a special guest, sometime in January.

“All I’m going to do is worry about what’s in the best interest of this museum,” she said.

The museum’s decision may be a mistake, Hughes said, because the proposed new organization could be advantageous to “them and all of us. I’m still going to continue to urge them to rethink their position.”

Source: Roswell Daily Record News

Lisa Ridgely

Record Staff Writer

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