Salaries at the Parapsychology Foundation

The tax return of the Parapsychology Foundation (PF) for 2005 (signed November 9, 2006) lists compensation paid to its officers. President Eileen Coly received $37,000 and Executive Director Lisette Coly received $90,020—the total being $127,020. No entry was made for “Other employee salaries and wages.”

That year the Foundation gave $18,000 in grants and scholarships.

Lisette Coly (b. 1950) and Eileen Coly (b. 1916)

In 2004 the Foundation moved its library on Manhattan’s upper east side to Greenport, Long Island—a move of 98 miles (MapQuest estimate). Greenport is near the northern tip of Long Island and quite remote; one would expect the library to attract few visitors. Indeed today (December 31, 2007), the Foundation’s webpage, “Library Basics,” includes this sentence: “The Library will be open on an occasional schedule through-out [sic] the summer of 2006 — if the flag is out, we’re in! — and by appointment.”

In decades past, the PF was also known for its conferences and lecture series, but such events now rarely occur.

Given the library’s remote location and presumably few patrons, and the paucity of conferences and lectures, one might expect the PF to turn its attention to its International Journal of Parapychology (IJP). In fact, the last published issue of the IJP was dated 2001. (Lisette Coly is Editor-in-Chief of the journal.)

The Foundation’s 2005 tax return reports that Eileen Coly and Lisette Coly each devoted an average of 40 hours per week to the PF. One wonders how their time was spent.


References

Coly, Lisette. (2005). Parapsychology Foundation on the Move. Parapsychology Foundation Now, Issue 4, Spring, pp. 1, 4. Available at: http://www.parapsychology.org/dynamic/info/PF%20Now%20Issue%204%202005.pdf. Accessed December 31, 2007.

Library Basics. [webpage of the Parapsychology Foundation website]. Available at: http://www.parapsychology.org/dynamic/030100.html. Accessed December 31, 2007.