Noteworthy Decisions From The October 2009 Board Meeting

   

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By Marilynn Kulieke, Secretary, Urantia Foundation, Illinois, USA

Trustees and Associate Trustees

Henk Mylanus from Brittany, France, was elected as the 7th Trustee to Urantia Foundation's Board. For the last year, Henk has served as an Associate Trustee while also serving as the European sales manager. Thanks to the remarkable efforts of Henk and Claire Mylanus, along with Jay Peregrine, The Urantia Book distribution system in Europe has taken a giant leap.

Dr. Ralph Zehr, a long-time friend of Urantia Foundation, has been elected as an Associate Trustee. Ralph currently serves on the Board of The Urantia Book Internet School and has helped the Foundation with numerous projects over the years.

At the October 2009 meeting, Claire Mylanus and Irmeli Ivalo-Sjölie retired as Associate Trustees after 3 year terms. Both women had a significant impact on Urantia Foundation, and we'll miss them at Board meetings. Thankfully we know they'll continue their work for the Urantia Revelation and for Urantia Foundation. We thank Claire and Irmeli for their years of loving service.

Book Committee

The Executive Director and the Book Committee recommended the following book printing schedule for 2010 and early 2011:

♦ Q1 2010: Reprinting of the English edition and the Portuguese translation.

♦ Q2 2010: First printing of the Swedish and Estonian translations and reprinting of the Latin American edition of the Spanish translation.

♦ Q3 2010: First printing of the Polish translation.

♦ Q4 2010: Reprinting of the European edition of the Spanish translation.

♦ Q1 2011: First printing of the Hungarian translation.

This production schedule increases the number of translations from 9 to 13, a 40% increase in printed translations. Congratulations to the manager of translations, the translators, the production team, the Foundation's office team, and the donors who make translation funds available.

Progress is being made with book distribution in Europe. Henk Mylanus and Jay Peregrine have found a warehousing and distribution system that could easily double or triple the availability of books in European bookstores over the next few years

Translation Website Development

Trustee and Manager of Translations, Georges Michelson-Dupont, and Rogerio Silva have been working to provide translators with web available systems that systematically improve the quality of translations. The Board approved continued development and support for these efforts.

Standard Reference Text

Because the Declaration of Trust Creating Urantia Foundation states that "it shall be the primary duty of the Trustees to perpetually preserve inviolate the text of The Urantia Book", the Trustees appointed a committee, the Standard Reference Text Committee, to study all the changes made to the book since 1955. The desired outcome was for both current publishers to agree on the "correct" text, to notate it as the "Standard Reference Text", and to encourage all Urantia Book publishers, now and in the future, to print only the Standard Reference Text. With the English edition of The Urantia Book no longer protected by copyright, this strategy provides maximum protection "to perpetually preserve inviolate the text of The Urantia Book."

The Standard Reference Text Committee examined all changes, including typing errors, formatting issues, misspellings, table of contents errors, and the digital referencing system. After two years of diligent work, the Committee unanimously recommended a standard text for future editions of the English text.

After receiving the recommendations from the Standard Reference Text Committee, the Trustees studied them for eleven months and agreed, at the October 2009 meeting, to approve them. In the future, the Standard Reference Text will appear in all printed and digital English editions of The Urantia Book printed by Urantia Foundation. This text will also be the "official text" from which all translations, done under the auspices of Urantia Foundation, will be made.

The detailed work of the Standard Reference Text Committee will appear on Urantia Foundation's new website. The Committee's report will be a transparent historical record of all past changes and will contain the Committee's final recommendations. The website will also contain historical records, such as suggestions made, but not accepted, by the committee.

Urantia Foundation's Text Identification Number (TIN)

In the past Urantia Foundation identified each printing of The Urantia Book by numbering the printing on the publisher's page: First Printing 1955, Second Printing 1967, and so on. This identification system no longer adequately tracks the production of The Urantia Book because of its many translations, the use of electronic files, and the book's availability on the Internet.

A new Text Identification Number has been developed that will solve a myriad of identification problems in both the digital and physical formats. All future productions of The Urantia Book originating from Urantia Foundation, whether in physical or electronic form, will contain the Text Identification Number (TIN). This code will be imbedded in all electronic versions of the book and will be displayed on the publisher's page in all printed books. Our hope is that all versions of the book on the web, in whatever language, can be easily identified, and that only the latest corrected and revised versions will appear in all digital technologies.

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Urantia Foundation's Text Identification Number (TIN)

                UF-POR-001World-2007-1 

                             means:

Urantia Foundation-Portuguese-For the whole world-2007-1st Edition

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Website Update

The team developing Urantia Foundation's new website presented the improvements being made to the current site. The new site provides significant upgrades to almost every aspect of the current site. One of the most important upgrades will be the capability of providing fully developed sub-websites in 14 languages.

While it will take a few years to make this website fully functional, you will see marked improvements in the next few months. We shall keep you posted as to when the new website goes up. Special thanks go to more than 20 people helping to create the new website.

Presentation from Dandelion Applications

Todd S, the creator of The Urantia Book application (app) for the iPhone/iPod, presented his remarkable story to the Board. The app - called Big Blue Book - allows people who own an iPhone or iPod to download the book for free onto their devices. The book comes in multiple languages and has been downloaded in 71 countries since first becoming available eleven months ago. Amazingly, the download volume exceeded bookstore sales in the last eleven months. We have clearly entered a new era of book dissemination. If you wish to see the app, go to the following URL:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=298474490&mt=8