Noteworthy Decisions from the April 2012 Board of Trustees Meeting

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By Marilynn Kulieke, secretary, Urantia Foundation, Lincolnshire, Illinois, USA

Books

• Sales of The Urantia Book in Spain and Portugal have increased over the past year. Book sales in France have declined. Urantia Foundation will continue to track the political and economic situation in Europe during the next year in relationship to book sales. Thanks go to Henk and Claire Mylanus for promoting Urantia Book distribution in Europe.
• Book sales in Russia have come to a halt. It is sad to report that a fire occurred in the warehouse of our book distributor, and our entire inventory was destroyed. Urantia Foundation is looking for a solution and will report more later.
• The cost of The Urantia Book is prohibitive in Latin American countries. Urantia Foundation printed a less expensive Spanish book for distribution. It is hoped that this will reduce the price of the book to between $20 to $70, depending on the country.

Educational Endeavors

• The Education Committee is sponsoring a series of seminars at 533 W Diversey Parkway. The first seminar was held in May 2012 on the topic of worship and wisdom.
• The Urantia Book Internet School (UBIS) offered a variety of courses during the spring semester. The board members are looking into technologies that will support UBIS in serving even a greater number of students.
• A study version of The Urantia Book in an electronic format is being investigated. This textbook-like application could include cross-references, bible notations, and other related materials. The Education Committee and Ralph Zehr will review current study versions and provide a recommendation on how to move this project forward. Special thanks to Ralph for his informative presentation on annotation and end noting.
• The “historical index” project, which began prior to the publication of The Urantia Book, has finally come to fruition. Work is underway to ready the index for publication.

Translations and Revisions

• Progress continues on the Chinese, Farsi, Hebrew, and Japanese translations. Trustee Georges Michelson-Dupont, the manager of translations, has done a great job at moving these translations forward.
• The Spanish revision team is making excellent progress on the in-depth revision of the two Spanish translations. The goal of this revision project is to produce a beautiful translation of The Urantia Book that all Spanish-speaking people will enjoy. This is an important project and many thanks go to Víctor García-Bory for his leadership on this project.
• A superficial revision of the Portuguese translation is underway. This project is expected to be completed in two years.

Community

• A letter was received from the Urantia Book Fellowship inviting Urantia Foundation and Urantia Association International to sign a declaration of cooperation. In response, a letter of intention expressing a spirit of goodwill was sent back to the Fellowship stating the trustees desire to meet to discuss cooperation between the organizations.