Trustees Visit Readers on the East Coast of USA

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

Report by Bob Solone

This month the Trustees continued their outreach to readers by visiting groups in New York and Boston. Joining them were the Foundation's Executive Director, Tonia Baney; the IUA Administrator, Cathy Jones; and myself.

Members of both the IUA and the Fellowship attended open meetings and dinners that were hosted by the Urantia Association of New York and The Urantia Association of New England.

The Trustees presented their goals and plans and then answered questions.

In New York, about 50 readers attended including the Fellowship's fonner President, Steve Dreier who, with many others, contributed positively to the discussion. During the question & answer segment, however, there were also some difficult issues broached.

One of these issues was the duplication of translations. Those who are doing this work from a Fellowship Society and who head up a Russian translation project, did not seem pleased with the Foundation's regained copyright in the book and its translations, and vowed to continue the work as long as sponsors, (the Fellowship Society), continued their support.

Also, some Fellowship members were under the impression that the Foundation has not and does not give any referrals to any Fellowship study groups. Some were glad to hear that our referral system is nonpolitical and in fact, many Fellowship members and groups have been given as referrals. I pointed out that I, as a staff member of the Foundation, have personally given out Fellowship members and groups as referrals. The Trustees stressed that we do not look at study groups as IUA or Fellowship groups, but instead, we refer readers to groups that focus on the study of The Urantia Book and are not political or focused on other teachings. This news was well received.

In Boston, about 30 readers attended the meeting, including a former Trustee of the Foundation, Helena Sprague. Helena contributed positively to the discussions and she and the others were very pleased to hear the Trustees goals and plans. There were several old friendships reestablished and new ones begun, and the consensus for working all together for the revelation seemed to be the prevailing desire.

Foundation Info

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

Urantia Foundation, 533 W. Diversey Parkway, Chicago, IL 60614, USA
Tel: +1-773-525-3319; Fax: +1-773-525-7739
© Urantia Foundation. All rights reserved