Newsworthy Items From The April 2007 Trustees Meeting

   

Printer-friendly versionSend to friend

Urantia Foundation's Extended Board:
Back Row: Neal Waldrop, Seppo Kanerva, Richard Keeler, Gard Jameson, Jorgan Andrews, Jay Peregrine, Mo Siegel
Front Row: Judy Van Cleave, Patricia Mundelius, Georges Michelson-Dupont, Irmeli Ivalo-Sjolie, Claire Mylanus, Marilynn Kulieke, Tamara Wood, Sue Tennant

By Mo Siegel Secretary, Urantia Foundation

The extended Board of Urantia Foundation met in Boulder, Colorado, United States, for the April 2007 Quarterly Trustee Meeting. The meeting proved to be a very productive two-day session, where an extensive list of issues became resolved. The Board also had the opportunity of attending a local community potluck dinner and a Urantia-Book-inspired planetarium presentation, sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Fellowship of Urantia Book readers. The potluck was attended by some 150 people. This was followed by a wine and cheese social with the leaders of the Executive Committee of the Fellowship at the home of Mo and Jennifer Siegel.

Apart from the excellent food, inspiring program, and the opportunity to renew old friendships and gain new ones, the weekend vividly demonstrated that the only true end is relationships.

In an effort to improve communications with the worldwide Brotherhood of believers, you are receiving the first e-mail newsletter titled Urantia Foundation's News Online. For a long time we've heard many readers express the need for Urantia Foundation to communicate more. Since the Foundation is run by mostly volunteers, we have found it difficult to communicate all the news and inform about activities that are taking place in a timely manner. Please let us know if this format for communication has been helpful and if you have any suggestions as to how to improve it in the future. We really want your feedback.

Tamara Wood.
Urantia Foundation's Sales Manager

Highlights of the Trustee Decisions

Before we discuss new decisions, you should know that Jay Peregrine, Executive Director, and Tamara Wood, Book Sales manager, spent the first few hours of the meeting leading us through all the good work taking place at 533 Diversey Parkway. Jay talked about the web site, leaky water pipes on the third floor of our building, reader services, the new book keeping system, branch offices, and the host of opportunities at hand. Tamara told the Board about increasing first-quarter book sales spanning from Russia to Canada, book storage problems, the next books that need reprinting, book industry trends, difficulties collecting money from some of our distributors, and our new distributor in Central and South America. If you love The Urantia Book, you'd be thrilled at all the work being accomplished by the team in Chicago. On behalf of all the readers worldwide, thank you Jay, Tamara, and the rest of the Chicago team.

Urantia Europe

After extensive discussions and appreciation of the work done by the newly created European Board, Urantia Foundation's trustees approved the continued planning for the new European organization. The trustees asked that the European team comes back to Urantia Foundation's Board in August 2007 with a detailed plan of action regarding organizational structure, financial needs, details that will be defining the working relationships between Chicago and Europe, and book distribution options. It would be fair to categorize the developments in Europe as some of the most exciting developments in the current history of Urantia Foundation.

Jay Peregrine & Gaetan Charland signing
the UF - UAI social trademark license

Social Trademark Licensing for the UAI

Some months ago Urantia Foundation introduced a new expanded social trademark licensing system. The terms of the new license encourage all dedicated social groups committed to the revelation to use the concentric circles and the name Urantia to identify their groups. The requirements of the new license can be viewed at: http://urantia.org/soc-lic.pdf Urantia Association International applied for the new license and became the first licensee under the new system. The Board deeply appreciates the UAI's continued support of Urantia Foundation's long term mission to bring God closer to man and man closer to God by disseminating and promoting The Urantia Book and its teachings. For more information visit the web site of the UAI at http://www.urantia-iua.org/

Printing the Portuguese Translation

The immediate and tangible demand for a printed Portuguese Urantia Book (which is available online and on a CD), resulted in a resolution to print a limited run of 3,000 copies of the existing translation. We had hoped to make numerous corrections before we go to print, but due to the needs of Portuguese and Brazilian readers, the Board decided to print a limited number of copies. It is estimated that approximately seven years will be needed to accomplish a full revision of the translation.

Additionally, the Board agreed that a disclaimer paragraph needs to be included on the publisher's page of the printed Portuguese translation, explaining that this edition is a work in progress and not the final translation. The paragraph will explain that the nature of translations is evolutionary, needing continuous improvement, which results in further revisions and corrections. The paragraph will express the Foundation's views that translations not only strive for accuracy of interpretation but beauty of language as well.

Disclaimer in all Translations

The Board resolved that all translations of The Urantia Book need a disclaimer paragraph on the publisher's page, explaining the evolving nature of any translation. By including this short disclaimer, Urantia Foundation is stating the need to provide ever more accurate and beautiful translations, based on the highest standard available at the time. The disclaimer lets readers know that improvements and changes might be seen in future editions and that the English text is the authoritative text.

Paper-Section Numbering System

For many reasons, ranging from multiple publishers, user friendly study group referencing, and greater flexibility in publishing, the Board agreed that Paper and Section numbering will be introduced in all future printings of The Urantia Book. In the currently available editions the left-hand header indicates the Paper number along with the name of the respective Part of the book. In future printings, the Paper number, the Section number, and the name of the Paper will be included in the left-hand header.

Seppo Kanerva & Patricia Mundelius

Definition and Determination of the Inviolate Text

The Board decided to establish a six-member ad hoc Committee on the Inviolate Text. The Committee will be chaired by Trustee Kanerva; its other Foundation members will be Seppo Kanerva & Patricia Mundelius. Uversa Press will be invited to appoint three members to serve on the Committee. The Committee is charged to examine all changes effected in the first-printing text and determine whether or not the changes were and continue to be correct. Additionally, the Committee was asked to recommend an appropriate method for indicating the acceptable changes made in all published versions of The Urantia Book. At the completion of their work the Committee is to recommend the text that will be defined as the Inviolate English text.