The following is a report on the past year's activities for each area in which we work.

URANTIA Brotherhood Bulletin

Our goal continues to be to publish quarterly issues of the Bulletin during the quarters in which they are due. For the past year or so, we have had problems with timeliness, often resulting in combining two issues. Because feedback from the field indicates that readers want to receive issues quarterly, and because of the nature of the news we cover, we are striving to solve the problems we have had. At our May 31 meeting, we analyzed and discussed our problem, which is that it has taken too much time to review final copy submitted by the editors. Delays in one issue cause delays in another, and delays in the review process interfere with other aspects of production. We feel we can work this out with the people involved, and starting with the Summer 1981 issue, we feel you can expect to receive regular quarterly issues on time.

The Bulletin is growing in numbers of contributors, respondents, and types of articles. We have well established procedures for writing, editing, proofreading, photographs, typesetting, layout, paste-up, and printing. All of these services except printing are provided free of charge, at considerable savings to the Brotherhood. Mark Kulieke has been heavily involved in day-to-day details of publishing the Bulletin since 1979; at our April 25 meeting we made him managing editor of the. Bulletin since he really had been functioning in that capacity. The mailing list has grown to 3,000, but we have continued our policy of keeping costs to no more than 25c per copy, including postage.

Slide-tape History of the URANTIA Movement

Our goal for the post year has been to carry out the procedure for showing the slide-tape established by the Executive Committee last fall. The Executive Committee determined that upon written request to John Hales, President, the slide-tape could be shown by the Publications Committee Chairman at URANTIA society meetings and URANTIA workshops and conferences. In the past year, the slide-tape has been shown six times; 387 evaluation forms have been filled out by viewers. Ratings have averaged in the "excellent" category at every showing and thus for the showings collectively. Of the 387 evaluations, four were against making the slide-tape available for URANTIA Book readers; the rest were in favor of it. Many articulated the value the history had for them and viewers' comments and suggestions have been tremendously helpful to our thinking about revisions. So for, only changes in the slides have been made; the text has not been changed, nor the original tape recording. We know of some changes we would like to make, and requested funds for this purpose, and to work toward distribution, but our budget request was denied.

French-speaking readers in Canada and France, and Spanish-speaking readers have asked if the history could be translated in French and Spanish. These requests were presented to the Executive Committee last fall, but the Executive Committee felt we were not ready to translate it at that time. Several people have asked if a written transcript could be made available, but the Executive Committee has not discussed this. Two more showings have been scheduled for the fall and some informal requests received for additional future showings. We will continue to monitor viewers' responses to the history. About 700 people have seen the history, but not all filled out evaluation forms.

Cooperation -and Coordination Among URANTIA Movement Publications.

Editors and staffs of URANTIA movement publications were invited to a publications "Idea and Information Exchange" at the 1981 General Conference. Similar to one of workshops we held at Lake Geneva, this meeting provided many ideas for publications committee work in the coming year. We have already worked out procedures for one of the requests the publishers have--to list periodicals and how to subscribe to them from time to time in the Bulletin. Our first list will appear in the Summer 1981 Bulletin. At Snowmass, the group mentioned some other activities which we will be working on after the committee has a chance to get together and go over the results of the Snowmass meeting. Publishers shared news of their activities, too, including some new activities.

The Publications Committee will be sponsoring workshops in the summer of 1982, along with other Brotherhood committees. We will continue to work on written statements of philosophy, policy, and procedures which we have been evolving over the past few years. We considered an idea from the URANTIA Societies' Conclave that a newsletter for URANTIA societies might be started (Lisa Renn reviewed the idea in a paper which served as a basis for discussion), and referred the idea back to society presidents (informally at Snowmass). One or more of the presidents may bring the idea to the attention of the Domestic Extension Committee. This year society presidents were invited to our workshop, and several attended. Nancy Grimsley will be working on some of the projects in these areas now that she has more time available.

Translation of Brotherhood Publications

We continue to coordinate with the International Fellowship Committee concerning translation of pamphlets and handouts about the organizations. Mike Painter is preparing, a proposal considering publication of French and Spanish editions of the Bulletin and Journal; our earlier work toward this end resulted in the conclusion that translation of quarterly or semi-annual issues is not feasible at this time. We are, however, considering annual French and Spanish editions of the Bulletin which would compile and digest salient material from our publications. When John and Duane went to France, one of the recommendations of the group there is to make Brotherhood periodicals available in French.

1981 Conference Papers

This year the Publications Committee arrived at a policy we may continue to use concerning post-conference publications. We decided to let the speakers be responsible for reproduction and distribution of their own papers after obtaining permission from URANTIA Foundation. Demand for copies of presentations varies considerably. This approach keeps us from spending much, perhaps unnecessary, time and energy producing post-conference publications and it allows presenters maximum freedom in the way that they present such material. A letter stating this policy was sent to 1981 General Conference speakers.

Publications Committee Report

Archives and Scrapbooks for Headquarters

The committee is still aware of the need to collect and organize photographs and other material which has been a by-product of our activities. However, with a tight budget and the need to work on other projects, this has not been a priority project. Much material exists in private collections we have become familiar with, and eventually we will make progress in this area.

Media Relations

Our goal is to coordinate with other committees concerning media relations. Thus far the movement has been amazingly fortunate in maintaining a low media profile. We think that this will not continue by accident . The need to determine wise methods of handling media inquiries into our activities and to train leadership in such methods is just now upon us. The possibility of 1,000 attendees at the 1981 General Conference brought this topic to mind and we hope to facilitate much thinking on this topic so that the movement will be prepared when media contact becomes more frequent.

Our committee invites your comments and suggestions. All written material concerning our work (such as history evaluations) are available to any General Councilor upon request.

Respectfully submitted,

Barbara Kulieke, Chairman Publications Committee