1986 Annual Report of the
Publications Committee of
Urantia Brotherhood
Dan Massey
During the past year the Publications Committee has accelerated the publication schedule of the URANTIA Brotherhood Bulletin, producing four issues, two of six pages and two of four pages. Each issue has exhibited a somewhat different focus, though each has been a timely report of Brotherhood activities.
The Summer 1985 issue highlighted the TDA and General Council meetings. The Fall 1985 issue focused on the annual fund drive and the work being accomplished by various standing committees. The Winter 1986 issue discussed the consultation on The URANTIA Book at the American Academy of Religion and introduced an experimental feature prepared by the Fraternal Relations Committee. The Spring 1986 issue presented the interim results of the General Council planning session in Orlando, Florida and also published our first foreign-language article.
The committee plans to continue this publishing schedule during the next year, adding additional pages and photographic coverage as funds permit.
The Winter and Spring issues of the Bulletin were typeset by our printer directly from floppy disks which we supplied. This arrangement has resulted in a significant reduction in the cost of each issue.
The other major activity of the committee has been to prepare a citation standard for The URANTIA Book in response to a resolution passed by the 1985 Triennial Delegate Assembly and General Council. A copy of this proposed citation standard, together with observations prepared by the committee, as modified on review by the Executive Committee, is attached to this report.
The citation standard was initially developed in a much more general and complex form and circulated to thirty-six interested readers, including all members of the Executive Committee and the Trustees of URANTIA Foundation. Written comments were received from nine individuals and verbal comments were provided by several others. All written comments were circulated to the group of thirty-six for further comment. The currently proposed standard was then developed by combining the most valuable insights of all participants.
The committee continues to work to develop a better structure for organizing its work. While the Chairman continues to be responsible for editing the Bulletin, various members of the committee have assumed specific responsibilities for regularly recurring subject areas. At the present these assignments are-Neal Waldrop, conferences; Eileen Laurence, international; and Lisa Renn, societies. We are also endeavoring to establish a working group to consider the role of media in the work of the Brotherhood and the URANTIA movement.
We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the many contributions to the work of the committee of our previous Chairman, Barbara Kulieke, whose term expires this June. Although Barbara's heavy professional commitments now limit her ability to work on committee projects, in previous years she has played an important role in developing the publishing activity of the Brotherhood to its present state. In particular, she initiated the development of an audiovisual history of the Brotherhood, established the format and style of the bulletin, and spearheaded the publication of its first multilingual edition.
The annual meeting of the committee will be held in Chicago at headquarters on 21 June 1986.
Respectfully submitted,
Dan Massey, Chairman
Barbara Kulieke
Mark Kulieke
Eileen Laurence
Lisa Renn, Secretary
Neal Waldrop
5 May 1986