Noteworthy Decisions from the January 2018 Board of Trustees Meeting

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By Judy Van Cleave, secretary, Urantia Foundation, Idaho, United States

The year 2017 was a good one. Progress was made on many fronts.

Highlights

• Tamara Strumfeld became the executive director of Urantia Foundation.
• Nearly 20,000 physical books were sold, 95,000 books were downloaded at urantia.org and 35,000 more were downloaded through the Apple app. Combined, these downloads took place in 134 countries. The top ten were:
  • Brazil 27,634
  • The United States 16,789
  • Mexico 15,793
  • Colombia 6,126
  • Spain 5,776
  • Germany 4,651
  • Poland 4,587
  • France 4,513
  • Hungary 3,620
  • Russia 2,909
• The new Revelation Bridge Fund was launched with approximately $1.3 million. The fund is earmarked for the future to ensure that a financially rock-solid Foundation is inherited by generations to come and that Urantia Foundation continues to do spiritual good for centuries.
• 41 courses in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese were given by the Urantia Book Internet School (UBIS).
• An index, started in the 1960s by Urantia Foundation employees, was finally completed and published at urantia.org. This index will become widely available in 2018.
• The new Cambridge LeatherSoft™ book made its debut.
• 679,184 unique visitors attended 1,190,389 sessions at urantia.org.
• Urantia Foundation intensified its commitment to work with other organizations and individuals who have dedicated their efforts to seeding The Urantia Book and its teachings globally.
• Financially, we lived within our means as annual donations and other income exceeded annual expenses. We put every penny we could into programs that advanced our mission while we diligently kept administrative expenses to a minimum.

Urantia Foundation Goals for 2018

• Spread The Urantia Book and its teachings throughout the world by 1) increasing book sales and downloads by at least 7% over 2017, and 2) publishing new products like an enhanced eBook, an index, and secondary works.
• Raise $700,000 in unrestricted donations, $25,000 in restricted donations, and $250,000 earmarked for the Revelation Bridge Fund.
• Stay at or below our $750,000 operating expense budget and $45,000 book printing capital budget (unless book sales increase beyond expectations).
• Reorganize and staff internal job responsibilities to meet our growing organizational needs.
• Update our 17-language website and our social media platform.
• Partner with willing individual believers and believer organizations in outreach efforts such as the Parliament of the World’s Religions, conferences, book shows, book placement programs, and the creation of secondary works.
• Focus on governance policies needed to modernize and improve the workings of the board and board committees.
• Finalize a plan to introduce the revision of El libro de Urantia.

New Outreach Committee

The charter for a permanent outreach committee of Urantia Foundation was approved.