Updates from the October 2024 Trustee Meeting
Updates from the October 2024 Trustee Meeting
By Judy Van Cleave, secretary, Urantia Foundation, Idaho, United States
Operations Overview
The Expanded Board of Trustees convened at Urantia Foundation for the final quarterly meeting of 2024. What a pleasure it was to welcome the four new associates for their first board meeting: Joyce Anderson from New York, United States; Collins Lomo from Accra, Ghana; Tom Sadler from Illinois, United States; and Richard Zhu from London, United Kingdom.
Five-Year Planning
The expanded board spent an entire day strategically planning goals for the next five years. With creativity blended with practicality, we look forward to finalizing the goals and the course of action by April 2025.
Books
Urantia Foundation’s book business showed strong growth for the third quarter and year to date (YTD). Total book distribution in Q3 was up 27% over Q2 2023, and YTD book distribution was up 15%. English sales performedg exceptionally well, with a significant 28% increase in Q3 and a 16% increase YTD. French, Hungarian, and Spanish sales were also up notably.
Overall, 58,907 Urantia Books (downloads included) have been sent into the world this year, and the team will continue its work to increase distribution next quarter.
Education
The Urantia Book International School (UBIS) continues to harmonize the various language branches to help them function more uniformly. The first course in Chinese will be offered in the January trimester. Richard Zhu will be selecting students and plans to begin with a study of the Universal Father. This course will bring the number of languages in which courses are offered at UBIS to eight.
Gard Jameson reported that a copy editor has been retained to edit A Narrative History of The Urantia Book. He shared that it is a project passed on from Carolyn Kendall. Marilynn Kulieke added that it is an evolutionary project that grows and changes as we learn more.
Tamara Strumfeld reported on the activities of the Urantia Study Group Directory. The team continues to upgrade the site and recently moved to a larger hosting farm that can accommodate the growing needs of the directory. As a reminder, if you have not registered your study group, please do so at urantiastudygroup.org.
Fundraising and Finances
• Q3 unrestricted donations were 18% below Q3 of 2023 and 19% below Q3 budget.
• Restricted donations were 95% below Q3 of 2023 and 60% above Q3 budget.
• Q3 estate gifts totaled $3,000.
• Total income decreased 37% compared to Q3 of 2023 and was 14% under budget.
• Administrative expenses increased by 19% compared to Q3 of last year but were 3% below budget.
• Total expenses increased by 4% from Q3 of 2023 and were 13% under budget.
2025 Budget
Tamara Strumfeld and Gard Jameson presented and reviewed the proposed 2025 budget in detail. For the benefit of the new associate trustees, Gard expounded upon the Foundation's guiding policy CAMP (Conservatism, Aspirational, Mission Driven, and Process) for budget development. The budget was approved, and all are anticipating good work next year to further the mission of seeding The Urantia Book and its teachings globally.
Mustard Seed Grants Program
The board approved the following five grants for the second round of 2024.
1. Urantia Book Teacher Education Program
• Applicant: Urantia University Institute
• Country: United States
• Focus Area: Education
2. Ireland Library Urantia Book Placement
• Applicant: Hawaii Urantia Local Association
• Country: Ireland
• Focus Area: Library Placement
3. Urantia Book Kitchen Table Education Series
• Applicant: The Urantia Book Fellowship
• Country: United States
• Focus Area: Education
4. Urantia Spiritual Songs
• Applicant: Marti Garlow Leib
• Country: United States
• Focus Area: Music, Art, Film
5. Experiential Study Group
• Applicant: Carmela Flores
• Country: The Philippines
• Focus Area: Education
Cultural Advisory Council
Ms. Samrawit Muluneh treated the board to a vibrant and colorful presentation on Ethiopia’s rich and fascinating history. The last several minutes of the presentation were filled with inquiries from board members to which she most graciously responded. Read Samrawit’s article in this issue.
Translations
Georges Michelson-Dupont presented his 104th translation report. He touched on Esperanto and applauded the completion of the Farsi translation. The team working on the Filipino translation just finished Paper 67. Jay Peregrine also reported on the work done to maintain text integrity in the Foundation’s translation software system. Lastly, the Chinese translation in simplified characters was discussed. There has been growth in the readership with study groups across platforms like Facebook, WeChat, YouTube, and a public channel in Singapore.
Website
Tamara Strumfeld reported that the biggest news for Q3 was the successful launch of the Foundation’s new website in early July. With new sites, stats always drop due to content and URL changes. It takes time for the Google bot to re-index all of the content. It’s estimated that the “spidering” of a new site could take 6–8 months. Meanwhile, improvements will be ongoing.