By Scott Brooks, Lewis Center, Ohio, USA
Nearly 600 visitors from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Finland, France, Hungary, Mexico, Ukraine, and the United States converged in May at a new location in cyberspace: the Study Group Directory. They went there to find a study group or to register a study group.
The Urantia Book Study Group Directory (www.urantiastudygroup.org [2]) is a project sponsored by Urantia Association International, the Urantia Book Fellowship and Urantia Foundation. It is managed by a team of volunteers from each organization. In May, the site dropped the name "portal" and began using the name "Study Group Directory" to better reflect the primary focus of the site.
The directory automatically switches from English to French, Russian, or Spanish as it senses the native language of the visitor. The directory plans to add more languages so that readers from around the world can find study groups near them. The directory team is looking for volunteers to help translate the site's pages into other languages. Volunteers should contact [email protected] [3].
As of May 2012, there are about 260 study groups from 29 countries registered in the directory. The United States has 190 study groups listed in the directory. Canada has 22 study groups. Australia and Brazil each have six. Estonia, France, Germany, Great Britain, New Zealand and Venezuela each have three. Belgium, Mexico, Spain, Sweden and Ukraine each have two. And Chili, Denmark, Finland, Guatemala, Hungary, Israel, Kenya, Lebanon, Norway, Peru, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, and Switzerland each have one.
The team has worked to improve the directory's Google ranking so that readers around the world can find the Urantia Book Study Group Directory using online search engines. A search for "study group directory" now finds the directory listed above longer-standing groups studying subjects as diverse as A Course in Miracles, HaYesod, Ayn Rand, and the McKenzie Method.
To readers who have suggested improvements to the directory, we, the directory support team, say, "Thank you." We shall be implementing some of those suggested improvements in the near future.
| The Urantia Book Study Group Directory Team | |||
 Marta Elders (UF) |
 Lenny Cowles (Fellowship) |
 Tamara Strumfeld (UF) |
 James Woodward (UAI) |
 Michelle Klimesh (Fellowship) |
 Gaétan Charland (UAI) |
 Emilio Coppola (Fellowship) |
 Scott Brooks (UAI) |
 John Hales (Fellowship) |
 Mo Siegel (UF) |
||