The Judicial Committee of the Fellowship has conducted no official committee business during the past year. The Chairman has advised the Executive Committee and the General Council on several matters:
1. When Urantia Foundation informally indicated their intent to seek damages from the Fellowship in connection with the publication of the Uversa Press edition of The Urantia Book, the Chairman conducted a search for legal representation, interviewed a number of qualified attorneys, and selected Michael W. Coffield of Chicago to serve as counsel to the Fellowship. Subsequent discussions with Mr. Coffield and his associates were helpful to the Fellowship's negotiating team in framing our meeting with the Trustees of Urantia Foundation last October. Although Mr. Coffield had been carefully selected for his experience and background in areas of law relevant to certain matters under dispute with Urantia Foundation, a flexible approach to issues by both the Fellowship and the Foundation resulted in settlement of the matter without further legal action.
2. The Chairman reviewed the 1997 TDA Resolution #9 regarding the "Support of Urantian Religious Belief and Practice," conducted discussions with a number of proponents and opponents of the resolution, formulated an analysis of the issues at hand, and presented two resolutions for consideration by the General Council at its 1998 midwinter meeting. "A Resolution Supporting General Use of the word "Urantia" and the Revealed Trinity Symbol for Identification and "A Resolution Supporting Formation of Groups Identified for Urantian Religious Belief and Practice" were both adopted by the General Council.
3. The Chairman prepared a legislative package for amendment of the Fellowship constitution to create a Family Life Committee as a tenth standing committee of the Fellowship. This package consisted of a proposed constitutional amendment and a motion to be voted by the Executive Committee approving the amendment for submission to the General Council. Before Executive Committee action, this package was discussed informally by the Council at its 1998 midwinter meeting, with the result that further action towards formalization of the Family Life Committee was deferred indefinitely.
4. In connection with the expansion of web publishing activities by the Fellowship, the Chairman has advised the General Council, the Executive Committee, and the ad hoc Web Oversight Committee on matters related to the "fair use" of copyrighted material permitted by United States law. As part of this service, the Chairman has also consulted with members of the General Council considering service as volunteer members of the Foundation's copyright review committee and with certain Trustees of Urantia Foundation concerning ways in which the Foundation might preserve its copyright, fulfill the requirements of its Declaration of Trust, and ameliorate the continuing ill-will generated among the readership by policies established in an earlier era.
5. The Chairman is currently working with the ad hoc Publicity Committee on matters relating to the development of a new and clear organizational identity for the Fellowship.
6. The Chairman is currently working with the ad hoc Web Committee on matters relating to the establishment of the Fellowship organizational identity in cyberspace.
A new project adopted by the Judicial Committee Jointly with the Charter Committee) is the development of a "standard" constitution for use in establishing chartered societies of the Fellowship. This constitution would be offered to groups interested in forming a new society as a practical starting point for their own constitutional development. Groups choosing to accept the "standard" constitution without modification could enjoy a streamlined chartering process, since there would be no need for the Charter or Judicial Committees to review the specific details of their proposed constitution or to suggest or require changes. I hope to be able to report more fully on this initiative at the midyear meeting of the General Council. It has been suggested that the Judicial Committee should undertake the redaction of the Constitution and By-Laws of the Fellowship, since a number of extant versions, previously thought to be authoritative, have been found to be incomplete or inaccurate in some details.
Respectfully submitted by Dan Massey, Chairman, for the Judicial Committee:
Christel Garrick
Dick Johnson
Steve McIntosh
David Owen31 May 1998