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January 2008: Two New Trustees Elected

January 29, 2008: The Trustees of Urantia Foundation are pleased to announce that Urantia Foundation has two new Trustees: Marilynn Kulieke and Judy Van Cleave. The Board now consists of seven Trustees and five Associate Trustees.

Urantia Foundation’s President Seppo Kanerva said, “We welcome both of these exquisitely merited ladies to our Board. Marilynn and Judy bring with them a wealth of experience, dedication, wisdom, and a willingness to serve the Revelation. We feel blessed that they now join us in the opportunity of bringing a new revelation to our world.” reation of a new social usage trademark license. This social license offers all dedicated Urantia Book social groups an opportunity to identify their social activities and organizations by using the name “Urantia”® and the three blue concentric circles symbol set against a white background.

Marilynn Kulieke is a long-time reader of The Urantia Book. She was introduced to the book by her husband, David, whose family had been involved since the early 1930s. She is a member of First Society for Readers of The Urantia Book in Chicago and served on the General Council and Executive Committee of the Urantia Book Fellowship for eighteen years. She has been an Associate Trustee for the past year and has also served as editor of Urantia Foundation’s News Online, the Foundation’s electronic newsletter.

After receiving her doctorate from Northwestern University in Educational Psychology, she worked as a researcher and evaluator in a public school district for 15 years. For the past six years she has served as the Senior Vice-President of Research and Development at the National Study of School Evaluation in Schaumburg, Illinois. Marilynn and her husband live in Lincolnshire, Illinois. She has three grown children and one granddaughter.

“I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in the exciting work of Urantia Foundation in bringing our beloved revelation to the peoples of the world. It is indeed an honor to serve with those who have already dedicated their lives to this important undertaking.” - Marilyn Kulieke

Judy started reading The Urantia Book in 1973 after being introduced to it by her sister, Connie. Since then, Judy has attended and hosted study groups and local conferences and, since 1997, has attended national and international conferences. She is a charter member of the Idaho Urantia Association. During the last ten years she has served on the Governing Board of the Idaho Urantia Association and the Governing Board of the Urantia Association of the United States. She has also served on the International Service Board of Urantia Association International. Since January of 2007 she has served as an Associate Trustee of Urantia Foundation.

Judy and her husband, Wayne, live in Boise, Idaho, where they have a heating and air conditioning business, which they founded in 1976. While raising her two children, a son and a daughter, Judy volunteered regularly for years at their schools and served as a board member of the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO). She coached her son’s soccer teams for three seasons, and both she and her husband participated in activities related to her son’s Boy Scout troop and his Little League and high school baseball teams. She has three grandchildren, in whom she delights, and on whom she lavishes time and affection.

“It is truly a privilege, and also rather humbling, to accept this opportunity to serve with such skilled and devoted Urantia Book readers entrusted with Urantia Foundation and with the responsibility of ensuring the availability of The Urantia Book and its life-transforming truths around the world. I am looking forward with enthusiasm to serving with them in the years ahead.” - Judy Van Cleave

April 2007: Social Usage Trademark License Offered

Urantia Foundation announced the creation of a new social usage trademark license. This social license offers all dedicated Urantia Book social groups an opportunity to identify their social activities and organizations by using the name “Urantia”® and the three blue concentric circles symbol set against a white background.

The clearest explanation of the new social license can be read in the preface of the license itself. It states: “Urantia Foundation offers this social usage license to provide equal opportunity to all social and fraternal groups solely dedicated to the teachings of The Urantia Book who desire to use the name “Urantia”® and the three blue concentric circles symbol. This license is a direct consequence of the Board of Trustees desire to relate to all dedicated social groups equally and not to interfere in their internal affairs. This license reflects our sincere desire to see peace, active cooperation, and spiritual harmony flourish within the worldwide community of Urantia Book readers. We encourage all sincere groups of Urantia Book believers to unite in the purpose of living and spreading these teachings commensurate with your own style and culture differences.  We believe this policy reflects the teachings of The Urantia Book and offer this license in that spirit.”

Additionally, Urantia Foundation hopes that the broad spread social usage of the symbol will create a direct linkage between the social groups and the inviolate text of the Revelation. Choosing to associate with the trademarks “Urantia” and the symbol of three blue concentric circles set against a white background, will help build a worldwide group network nurturing and supporting the inviolate Urantia Book in its planetary mission.

How does the Social Usage Trademark License work?
The social usage license is for groups or organizations that have as their central focus The Urantia Book and its teachings. The two marks, Urantia and the three concentric circles, can be used for the group’s official business, social activities, including print and electronic media, materials, websites, and conferences. The social usage trademarks are for non-commercial endeavors. Using the social usage marks does not preclude membership in any other Urantia related social groups or organizations.

Why should a group choose to obtain a Social Usage Trademark License from Urantia Foundation?
The world mission of The Urantia Book is becoming increasingly complex, pluralistic, and diverse. It requires the peace, cooperation, and goodwill of all dedicated readers acting together to bring about the needed “promotion, improvement, and expansion among the peoples of the world…through the fostering of a religion, a philosophy, and a cosmology…” The sheer magnitude of this mission needs the cooperation of every Urantia Book reader who wishes to work together to achieve these purposes. In civilization much, very much, depends on an enthusiastic and effective load-pulling spirit. As stated in The Urantia Book:

Ten men are of little more value than one in lifting a great load unless they lift together–all at the same moment. [911:2; Paper 81, line 184: 13]

By expanding the use of the symbol, Urantia Foundation encourages groups throughout the world to joyfully display the three blue circles as a sign of their collective allegiance to this wonderful revelation.

How does a group apply for a Social Usage Trademark License?
If a group is interested in pursuing a social usage license they should download an application from Urantia Foundation’s website at http://www.urantia.org/pub/social-license.pdf
or contact Executive Director Jay Peregrine at +1 (773) 525 3319 or <jperegrine@urantia.org>. Applications can be submitted via email, fax, or mail. Please allow four to six weeks for applications to be processed

2006 Annual Report

Urantia Foundation's 2006 Annual Report is available on-line, or email us to request a printed copy in the mail. Call 773 525 3319 to speak to us directly. We'd like to hear from you!

February 2007: DECLARATION OF TRUST AND BY-LAWS AMENDED

Urantia Foundation announces that a small number of changes have been made to the Declaration of Trust (DoT) and the By-Laws governing Urantia Foundation. For many years the Board of Trustees of Urantia Foundation felt that the Declaration of Trust Creating Urantia Foundation and the By-Laws needed amending. The DoT, operative since 1950, has never been amended. The By-Laws, which are an applied derivative of  the DoT, have been amended a few times. Since 2001 the Trustees have discussed and worked on a small number of conservative amendments. The changes, listed below, provide ways for the DoT and By-Laws to adequately address the expanding needs of Urantia Foundation’s worldwide operations.

When the DoT was first created, our forefathers built the organization’s trust around standard non-profit legal documents used in the 1950’s. The only extraordinary sections of Urantia Foundation’s DoT are to be found in the beginning of the document, and they end after Article 3. In the first three articles one finds the Principal Object, Concordant Object, Duties of the Trustees, and Preservation and Control of the Text. None of these sections of the DoT were revised in any way. The founder’s original intent for the organization’s purposes and duties remain identical with those described the original document of 1950.

The Trustees did change a few outdated legal operating procedures so to meet the necessities of the 21st century. Articles from 4 to the end of the DoT deal with routine issues, such as security investments, personal property, power to loan, voting powers, operation of business enterprises, additional trustees and other minutiae. The now effected changes concern a limited number of points in those sections. The changes reflect needs and requirements which the original five Trustees could not possibly have foreseen. The authorities have now duly approved these amendments. The number of amendments in the DoT is four and the respective number of substantive By-Laws changes is seven. The amendments are the following:

           •    Number of Trustees. Until now the DoT has not included any explicit provision concerning the number of Trustees. Since the original Board of Trustees was five in number, subsequent Boards assumed five as the limit. The responsibilities and the workload of the five Trustees have dramatically increased since 1950 and continue to increase because of the worldwide expansion of the Foundation and the Revelation. The Board likewise sees great value in fresh ideas, an expanded circle of wisdom, international diversity, more workers, and opinions that could be provided by additional Board members. That is why the Board increased the number of Trustees.
           The amended DoT provides that the minimum number of Trustees shall be five and the maximum number nine. The amended By-Laws prescribe that between 2006 and 2016 the maximum number of Trustees shall be seven and after 2016 the number may be increased up to nine.

           •    Appointment of Successor or New Trustees. The DoT has so far provided that a simple majority of the incumbent Trustees could appoint a successor Trustee. The Board felt that the importance of trusteeship would rather require a qualified (a super) majority.
           The amended DoT prescribes a 75% majority vote when a successor Trustee is appointed. A simple majority may, within the limits described above, increase the number of Trustees. A new Trustee may then be appointed by a 75% majority vote of the Board.

           •    Removal of a Trustee and a Trustee’s Status during the Removal Procedure. Until the amendments were approved, the DoT required a unanimous vote of the remaining Trustees if they considered it necessary to remove one of their peers. The requirement of unanimity meant that just one Trustee was able unfairly to block the removal process. Moreover, and somewhat in deviance from the provisions of the DoT, the By-Laws prescribed a cumbersome and complex procedure, which required three separate, and each time unanimous, votes at three regular quarterly meetings of the Board. Because of the complexity of the prescribed removal proceedings and the absence of provisions governing a Trustee’s status during the removal process, there have, in recent years, been two painful and costly litigations initiated by removed Trustees. Those Trustees demanded their reinstatements as Trustees or asserted that they continue as Trustees, with all concomitant rights and duties, until the final decision after the third vote had been made.
           The amended DoT requires that a 80% majority of the remaining Trustees votes in favor of the removal of a Trustee. The amended By-Laws prescribe additionally that a 80% majority of the remaining Trustees has to vote at two meetings for the removal of the Trustee and that there has to be a 60-day interval between the meetings, which can be regular or special. The amended By-Laws determine explicitly that a Trustee subject to removal proceedings shall be deemed inactive and shall not have the right to vote, attend meetings, or receive confidential or other information.

           •    Committees. Neither the DoT nor the By-Laws authorized the use of Board committees. These advisory committees, with no independent powers apart from those of the Board, have become a vital part of non-profit organizations. These committees provide the Board with the valuable service of submitting well thought-out memoranda, recommendations, and other propositions to the meetings of the Board. Committees, which may include Trustees, Trustees Emeriti, Associate Trustees and possibly outsiders, afford the Board access to fresh ideas, new approaches, increased work capacity, and unprejudiced opinions.
           The amended DoT includes a short provision which prescribes that the By-Laws shall have a section concerning the appointment of standing and special committees. The By-Laws now contain an article on committees, which directs that all committees be formed by a 75% majority vote of the Trustees, and that the Board appoints the chairman and the members of each committee. The By-Laws describe the tasks of the Standing Committees, which are the Audit Committee, the Investment Committee, and the Governance Committee. Special committees may be formed to perform an assigned task, and once the task has been completed the committee shall be disbanded.

           •    Timing and Notices Concerning Regular Quarterly Meetings.  The DoT has no provisions on meetings of the Board of Trustees. The By-Laws used to prescribe that regular meetings of the Board shall be held on the third Sunday of January, April, July, and October. The Board has for a long time felt that there should be more flexibility in the timing of the meetings. The By-Law provisions have until now prescribed that notices to regular meetings shall be given at least three days prior to the date of the meeting. Now, as the Trustees and Associate Trustees represent many nationalities and live in a number of even far-away countries, it has become necessary to reconsider the notice period, which was fully in place at the time when all Trustees lived in Chicago. Notices had to be delivered by hand or by mail (or even telegram!); electronic mail has now supplanted those obsolete methods of delivery.
           The amended By-Laws stipulate that quarterly meetings shall be held once each quarter. A notice period of ten days is provided if it concerns a regular quarterly meeting, and fourteen days in case of a special meeting. The new provisions enable also notices by e-mail.

           •    Quorum. The DoT did not include any provisions concerning the quorum at meetings. The By-Laws provisions, simply determining that a majority of Trustees shall constitute a quorum at any meeting, were somewhat ambiguous and subject to interpretation. Because some provisions in the DoT and the By-Laws presume a qualified affirmative majority, there was a need to clarify the provision.
           The current wording of the By-Laws provides that whenever the affirmative vote of a specific number of Trustees is required, such action may not be taken by the affirmative vote of a lesser number of Trustees, even if a quorum is present. Any provision which expressly requires a simple majority vote shall be treated as a requirement for a specific number of affirmative votes. Withdrawal from a meeting of one or more Trustees necessary to form a quorum shall cause a failure of the quorum.

           •    Future Amendments. There was no provision in the DoT discussing amendments to the DoT, yet the DoT prescribed that the By-Laws shall have a provision concerning their amendment. The By-Laws then prescribed a unanimous vote on any By-Laws amendment. The Board viewed this provision of unanimity excessively strict.
           The currently valid provision determines that the By-Laws may be amended by a 75% majority vote.

International copyright protection under the Bern Convention of the original English text of The Urantia Book expired on January 1, 2006. Copyrights in the various translations of The Urantia Book made under Urantia Foundation's auspices continue in force.

For more information please feel free to contact Urantia Foundation directly.

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