Noteworthy Decisions from the January 2016 Board of Trustees Meeting

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Richard Jernigan

Ralph Zehr

By Judy Van Cleave, trustee, Idaho, United States

Decisions

Conference Sponsorship

The board agreed to co-sponsor the following three conferences: 1) the 2016 joint Urantia Association International (UAI) and Urantia Book Fellowship conference in San Antonio, Texas, 2) the 2016 UAI Budapest conference, and 3) the UAI Latin American conference in Colombia, South America.

Video Conferencing at Board Meetings

Because quarterly face-to-face meetings are expensive and logistically difficult for international board members, the board adopted a new policy to install a video conferencing system so that members can attend some meetings digitally. This policy will enable us to expand the number of international board members by permitting them to attend meetings virtually.

Science Symposium Coming June 2, 2016

The Education Committee of Urantia Foundation will hold a science symposium this summer. Topics will range from neuroscience, evolution, astronomy, molecular biology, and cosmology. To learn more, please email Joanne Strobel at [email protected].

Chinese Translation Team to Visit Chicago in April

The Chinese translation team will attend parts of the April board meeting in Chicago. We are thrilled for this opportunity to visit with the team and begin discussions and plans for the day the Chinese translation becomes available.

Associate Trustees

The board reappointed Ralph Zehr, associate trustee emeritus, to actively continue serving on the board through 2016. Richard Jernigan was reappointed for his third annual term as an associate trustee.

Safeguarding and Preserving The Urantia Book

The Declaration of Trust that established Urantia Foundation states the following: “It shall be the primary duty of the Trustees to perpetually preserve inviolate the text of The Urantia Book.” The Declaration of Trust also mandates the safeguarding of the original inviolate text, its medias for printing, all future printings, and all translations. Three copies of all printed books and translations thereof are stored in a salt mine. Today, translations and formatted books (media for printing) are stored digitally. Because of the change in media, we are developing a new system to protect physical books and digital files. This system is expected to be in place within the next three months.

Help Wanted

From time to time, Urantia Foundation is in need of associate trustees, committee members, UBIS facilitators, staff, and volunteers. If you have specialized skills, such as bookkeeping, accounting, writing, editing, teaching, text formatting, marketing, sales, computer technology, book industry experience, outreach experience, board experience, and more, please send your resume to [email protected]. Your data will be kept on file in case a relevant opportunity arises.