STANDARDS FOR MEMBERSHIP
AND CONDUCT

Southwest Florida Paranormal Investigations is a science-based paranormal investigative organization based out of Ft Myers Florida in Lee County. SWFPI is a serious and focused group of individuals working together to provide accurate services to the public free of charge. Many of our members have had paranormal experiences themselves and the determination and dedication to find the truth through scientific means is shared by all. SWFPI fully investigates claims of paranormal activity through the use of the latest in technology to better understand paranormal activity and its relationship with our natural environment.

All information and data collected in the field is compiled and analyzed by many expertises in our organization and outside our organization. There is very little known about the variety of paranormal activity being reported and witnessed today. The data collected and experience SWFPI gains during the investigations today will hopefully help future understanding of the phenomenon tomorrow. As a helpful hand to those we conduct investigations for, our goal is to help educate and present the many source possibilities of the phenomenon. We hope to obtain a long- term personal relationship with each client and case for as long as the client feels comfortable. Doing this helps us, and the client get a better understanding of the data collected.

Southwest Florida Paranormal Investigations serves the entire Gulf Coast region and is willing to travel outside the stated area. SWFPI also has a trusted and growing national network of other paranormal investigative groups, so don’t hesitate to contact us if you are outside our area.

Our official phone number is (239)985-9137. You can also visit our
website at www.swfpionline.com, or E-mail us at swfpionline@gmail.com

MEMBERSHIP STANDARDS

The following are standards of SWFPIs governing policy for operations within the organization. These set standards are to be adhered to and practiced by all members.

Individuals who apply for membership within this organization are to completely fill out the SWFPI Team application, supplying only truthful information.

Information requested includes: current employment, background history, and any criminal history they may have. If an applicant is found to have supplied false information regarding his/her application, this is grounds for immediate Termination of membership.

An applicant may be deemed unacceptable of membership for the following reasons:

• Addictions to illegal substances as dictated by the federal government.
• Prior criminal history or SERIOUS felony convictions.
• Persons that have demonstrated to have and act on within the group, deep emotional or personal problems.
• Individual has no knowledge or experience in the paranormal, or the aptitude to understand the protocols and use of the equipment.
• Personal issues between individuals will be worked out privately between members. Leadership shall be informed of any issues out of the control of the individual. By no means shall arguments, public displays, or personal issues be acted upon in a public forum which includes investigations, chat rooms, or message boards.

MEMBERSHIP DUES
All members are required to remit membership dues of $10 a month per group member. This payment is voluntary but is still a requirement for active membership. Dues requirement will go into effect after 90-day probationary period for new members. All dues will be collected and kept on record by the founder of LCGH and the records will be made visible for all members. Spending of any dues accumulated will be voted on during the next monthly meeting. All items and expenses made will be the property of the organization.

ATTENDANCE
All members must attend at least two monthly meetings over a four month period. Probationary members must attend all meetings and one investigation during a three-month probationary period to be eligible to be moved to investigative status among the organization. Personal or health purposes may be excused and can accompany a freeze on membership until the issues are resolved. Attendance is not required during this time as long as leadership of SWFPI is notified on a timely basis.

DRESS CODE
All members must wear clothing that is suitable for the assignment at hand.

Meetings: Casual dress (no Speedos).
Outdoor Investigations: Must wear SWFPI apparel suited to comfort level.
Indoor Investigations: Casual pants, SWFPI Polo shirts (try to avoid shorts and/or very short skirts).
Public Events: SWFPI apparel and comfortable bottoms. For formal events wear the SWFPI black Polo shirts and causal pants.

CONDUCT
Once the team has entered an investigation site, all members are required to act professionally at all times, which means:

• No profanity during investigations.
• No smoking within a close proximity of the investigation site.
• Absolutely no abandoning a possible paranormal situation (that is why you are there). If
The situation becomes to over whelming, ask for assistance and calmly leave the location.

Observations should be recorded during all investigations:

• Map investigation location.
• Electrical sources within the location.
• Set temperature readings data logging devices in the investigation area.
• Electro-magnetic field readings and sources, and apply these readings to a drawing of the location.

Investigation Structure

Preliminary Investigation
All investigations are required to have a preliminary investigation before any planning or initiation of a full investigation is implemented. No more then three investigators are required for the preliminary investigation. The investigators will be required to have all the necessary permission and release forms signed and filed. The preliminary investigation should include an interview session with witnesses that are currently at the location and not present at the location. The interviews should include an audio recording of the conversation along with hand written notes. The location being investigated should be mapped and locations of electricity and other factors need to be identified for the full investigation should be noted. The exterior and interior investigation locations should be photographed for planning purposes. Professional contact information should be given to the client and a date should be set in accordance with the client’s availability. All preliminary investigation should include a founder or a manager of SWFPI to be present.

Historical Research
The researcher should visit the County records location, the County Clerk’s Office, the local Historical Society and museum archives for documentation pertaining to the property being investigated. This includes previous owners, use of property and land. Also, in many cases the anthropologic history of the location should also be investigated. Review all specific dates and events in the local archives of news articles for residence deaths, murders and suicides. Some locations may be industrial and possible large construction site. Past fatal accidents should be investigated.

All historical data should be comprehensively applied to a report form which would include an introduction paragraph illustrating the land and property history of the investigated location. This would also included deeds of ownership, building age and construction dates. The body paragraph should go into detail of the location including past traumatic events which include murders, fires, fatal accidents and criminal activity. Additionally past witness testimony of suspect paranormal activity should also be noted in detail. The final section should correlate the present investigation and the historical information collected and should come to a conclusion whether the history has any relation with the report witness testimonies.

Primary Investigation
Prior to entering the investigation location the selected team of investigators should meet and go over set up, safety and procedures. On arrival the lead investigators present on site should greet the property owner or business owners to go over logistics of how the investigation will proceed and the controlled environmental condition need to have a successful investigation. All information collected during the preliminary investigation should be utilized for set up and safety procedures. While the lead investigators are discussing logistics with the client the specialist in the group will be setting up the equipment and staging area for the investigation. EMF sweeps should be complete to compare to previous collected levels. All stationary cameras, voice recorders, microphones and motion detectors should be set prior to beginning the investigation. Notes should be kept of all activities being preformed before, during and after the investigation. These notes will be designated to at least two investigators and should be located in the staging location where the DVR or Audio observation station is located.

Once the start time of the investigation has been initiated a period of silence and observation from the staging area for approximately one-half hour to one hour should be conducted. After this observation period is complete teams of two to three should start performing walkthroughs using Q&A techniques. All walk through should only happen one at a time. Different teams may enter after the previous team has returned to the staging area. All walkthroughs require no less then two investigators. Under no circumstance shall an investigator enter the site alone for safety and credibility issues. The majority of the walkthrough should be accompanied by a designated documentation investigator using a camcorder or digital camera for evidence collection purposes. Other procedures and experiments will be utilized as the investigation proceeds. Further or extra procedures will be discussed prior to the start of the investigation.
During the break down and end time of the investigation which will be illustrated in the procedures prior to the start time, all equipment will be collected and packed away. Investigation will be restored to its original condition prior to the start time of the investigation. All investigators will assist in walk through the investigation area to check for left over equipment and other items not indigenous to the location. All notes and other data collected will be released to the lead investigator onsite prior to exiting the site.

Post Investigation
All evidence collected by individual investigators is required to review the data in a timely fashion. DVR specialist and investigators with stationary video footage will submit a detailed time line of events to the lead investigators in charge of the report writing. Any substantial footage captured will need to be transferred to a readable format for other investigators to view and burn to DVD to be presented to the client and for archival purposes. Investigators are required to save suspect EVPs and e-mail them unedited to the lead investigators from which it will be analyzed and redistributed to the organization for further analysis. Investigators shall not delete or discard of any audio, video, or any other data collected, regardless of its value to the investigation, until the investigation is complete.

A report will be completed utilizing all submitted evidence. A conclusion will be met by the organizations stated requirements for a conclusive determination of paranormal activity. This standard is as follows:

Determination of Paranormal Activity

SWFPI’s absolute determination of paranormal activity or “haunting” must meet certain criteria in order to assume the location is “haunted”. If a combination of quantitative and qualitative data is reached on a single paranormal event, a definitive conclusion may be met. Determining whether these conditions have been achieved entails, but is not limited too, a number of situations described below:

• Visual confirmation of a entity, residual, or paranormal phenomenon event witnessed by no less then two individual field investigators simultaneously.
• Audible confirmation of a reported event or paranormal event witnessed by no less then two individual field investigators simultaneously.
• Quantitative and qualitative data supporting one of or both of the previous conditions.

< Quantitative data: examples of quantitative data include electromagnetic field detection (EMF) measured in milligauss, ambient air conditions including temperature and humidity, positively charged ion particle counts and photon detection.

< Qualitative data: examples of qualitative data include motion detection, electronic voice phenomenon (EVP), video confirmation of visual observations and other audible and visual occurrences involving unnatural movement of inanimate objects.

The final report will include the historical report as it becomes available. All conclusions are strictly based on SWFPI’s determination of paranormal activity clause.

Investigator Structure

Lead Investigators
A lead investigator consists of all founders and managers within the organization which also includes investigators with more then 5 years experience in serious investigative work in the paranormal or equivalent technical investigative and research work. The lead investigator is responsible for his or her current investigation and is responsible for the efficiency and production of the investigation and post investigation work. All procedures and appropriations of duties are sole responsibilities of the lead investigators on site. A lead investigator must be present at all time during preliminary investigations and primary investigations. Other responsibilities include case management, interviewing and communication with media outlets.

Field Investigators
A field investigator will be responsible for his or her equipment present on an investigation. All quantitative and qualitative data collected by the field investigator during the investigation are required to transfer the data to lead investigators for review. Field investigators should be focused on his or her specialty at all times during the investigation.

Researcher
Researchers are not required to be involved in the preliminary or primary investigations unless asked to do so by the Lead Investigators. He or she will be responsible for the collection and composition of all historical data and past witness testimonies. In addition it is important the researchers correlate in their compositions, the present possible paranormal activity to each case.