ICER had been three years in the making since the first initial meetings took place in China with Roberto Pinotti, our President and Donald Schmitt.

Those discussions were at the behest of a Chinese led group led by Jin Fin, that suggested a coalition of internationally recognized UFO researchers coming together to form an organisation on extraterrestrial matters and the pursuit of World Disclosure. This idea become known as the Chinese Initiative on Disclosure.

With money to be provided by the Chinese group, Roberto and Don began to approach prominent researchers from around the world with a view to inviting them to attend a conference in Moscow, Russia during October 2018. It was be a joint conference organised by the Chinese with Russia co-hosting it.

The conference, called the ‘Five Continents Forum’ took place over three days in mid-October 2018 and the original researchers who attended were Roberto, Don, myself, AJ Gevaerd (Brazil), Gabor Tarcali (Hungary), Haktan Akdogan (Turkey), Anthony Choy (Peru), Lachezar Filipov (Bulgaria) and Andrea Simondini (Argentina). Moon Fong (Hong Kong) was also present in Moscow but did not take part in those initial talks.

Over the course of three days a series of discussions took place between the leader of the Chinese group, Jin Fin and the attending researchers.

The Chinese group sought to have us assemble a coalition of internationally recognised UFO experts and we were told that plans had already been made to have its headquarters building in the city of Heze, China (a city known for having links to China’s first lady).

It was provisionally agreed that the Chinese group would fund and organise a conference to be held in China by February of 2019.

At the end of the three days of talks a series of principal agreements, most notably that the organisation would operate on the basis of one country, one vote and that all delegates should sign an oath of allegiance to the organisation.

The oath would state that each delegate believed that the UFO/UAP phenomenon was real and that we were dealing with an extraterrestrial/non-human intelligence.

This oath would be our bond and with it achieve something that had never been done in UFO historical terms i.e., a genuine worldwide international coalition of like-minded researchers.

I left Moscow cautiously believing that we had collectively done something that felt important and that there was the potential for a real push for Disclosure.

Developments in 2019 - Expansion and Frustration

In the months that followed the Moscow conference the original nine attendees began the process of identifying potential national delegates and within a matter of months we soon had 20 plus researchers who had agreed to join us. All those wanting to become national delegates all duly signed the oath of allegiance.

Originally the researchers who attended the Moscow Conference agreed that with the Chinese funding the initiative, that its leader, Jin Fin, would become the President with Roberto Pinotti being unanimously chosen to be the Vice President.

It was also agreed by those delegates attending that AJ Gevaerd would be the Continental Director for South America and become a member of the Executive Council. Don Schmitt would be the Continental Director for North America and be a member of the Executive Council and I would become the Continental Director for Europe and be on the Executive Council.

By February and with nothing being heard about the agreed conference in China, some of us began to suspect that there were internal problems on the Chinese side preventing them from pursuing their original aims. We were then told that there were some unforeseen delays and the conference would take place later in the year.

Sadly, and as the year progressed it became increasingly clear to the Executive Council that for whatever reason the original Chinese Initiative was unlikely to succeed.

We had originally set the Chinese a deadline of one year from the date of the original Moscow conference (October 2018-October 2019) to deliver on their promises but when that date passed with nothing positive being heard from them we decided to explore other options and pursue our original aims by a different route.

The Executive Council decided that in the absence of the Chinese group that it was logical for us to consider continuing the work we had started as we did not want to lose the goodwill of that delegates that had agreed to join us and with it the unprecedented opportunity the coalition offered.

Developments in 2020 

Early in 2020 I organised the first online delegate meeting and it was proposed and accepted by those attending that Roberto Pinotti should become the President and that I should be the Vice President.

Within a short space of time two working groups were quickly established to create our organisation’s Mission Statement, values and ethics etc., and another to create viable media platforms, including a purpose-built website.

During 2020 a small number of representatives have stepped down from their roles or have been unable to give the necessary commitment to ICER for a variety of reasons so we are currently in the process of identifying and approaching a number of replacements who can devote sufficient time to ICER.

The process of regular online meetings continued regularly throughout 2020, a year blighted by the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the pandemic those meetings achieved a number of key things including:

1. The delegates voted on the name of our organisation – changing from our provisional working name - World Coalition on Extraterrestrial Contact (WCEC)  to its present title – International Coalition for Extraterrestrial Research (ICER).

2. The delegates voted on the ICER logo design from three approved designs.

3. The wording of a series of documents relating to ICER’s Mission Statement, working documents have been agreed and approved.

4. The delegates voted to change their title from ‘delegates’ to ‘representatives’.

5. The ICER website and domain has been created and is currently under construction which would be in English and Spanish.

6. From 2021 onwards that there would be regular South American themed meetings that would be over and above general ICER meetings.

2021  

As ICER moved into 2021 the frequency of meetings increased and the work of two working groups, Communications and Familiarisation, culminated in a series of documents that would form a 'Launch Pack' for each of our 27 countries.

The documents include a chronological 60 Case Summary of worldwide UFO/UAP reports dating back to 1942! It also includes an original document called 'The ICER Papers' written by four of our representatives.

In early April the launch date was set for 25 May 2021 and everyone has been working hard to get our preparations completed before launch.

That day is now upon us.

Summary of ICER origins written by Gary Heseltine Vice President 24/05/2021.