MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE ANNUAL REPORT
September 2004


THE PAST YEAR:

Committee Members: Last summer the GC elected Geri Johnson ( Singapore) and
Jack Kane (Colorado) as Committee members. Other members include Dale Sztejnberg
(New York), Lenny Cowles (Colorado), and John Causland (Michigan) who serves as
the Committee’s secretary. Richard Omura serves as an Adjunct committee member.

Membership Structure: The Fellowship’s membership structure has not changed.
Descriptions and application forms are available for download from the website
at http:\www.urantiabook.org by following the links What Is The Fellowship to
Membership Information. Here are the highlights:
· Societies – The standards for Society chartering requires at least ten
Founding Members who have read the entire Urantia Book and who adopt a
constitution to create an organization which participates in the representative
governance of The Fellowship. The Fellowship does not require that a Society’s
Charter Members and subsequent regular Members to have read the entire Urantia
Book as these standards are determined by each Society.
· Members-At-Large – This year the Executive Committee authorized the
Membership Committee with the authority to approve individuals to be
Members-At-Large. Applicants are not required to have read the entire Urantia
Book.
· Affiliate Organizations – The Executive Committee also has the
authority to establish an administrative relationship with Affiliate
Organizations. MAL applications are made available to the individual
participants of Affiliate Organizations who wish to become Fellowship members.

Societies: No inquiries for chartering were received during the past year and no
new Societies were installed.

Members-At-Large: During the past year, four applicants were approved to become
Members-At-Large of The Fellowship. They are Jack Miller (Florida), Bernie
Gingras (Ontario, Canada), Larry Mason (California), and A. Matthew Joy
(Nishinomiya City, Japan). We welcome them to our Fellowship.

Affiliate Organizations: No application for becoming a Fellowship Affiliate has
been received since the installation of “Centro didático-terapêutico Casa de
FAD” on May 6, 2002 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Furthering Society Purposes: This Constitutional task has focused on the
following:
· TDA – In 2003, Society Delegates at the TDA voted to discontinue the
experiment of meeting annually. The next Triennial Delegate Assembly will be in
2006. The Membership Committee will continue to assist in providing information
to new delegates and alternates prior to the Assembly.
· SocAdmin Email List – In January, SocAdmin began its fifth year as a
tool for Fellowship communication. In April, the EC agreed that The Fellowship
should consider expanding the SocAdmin email list to allow former Society
officers to remain on the List. The Membership Committee considered the issue at
length and made the following recommendations that were approved by the EC:
Ø Each List participant is a current member of The Fellowship.
Ø All former Society officers, Society representatives (TDA Delegates and
Alternates), and Society committee members are eligible to participate on the
List and can be added retroactively when a Society (President or Secretary)
provides The Fellowship with the list of names and email addresses.
Ø All former General Councilors and Fellowship committee members are
eligible to participate on the List and can be added retroactively when the
individual contacts The Fellowship.
Ø A participant remains on the List indefinitely -- there are no term
limits.
Ø Any individual can choose to opt out of the List at any time by notifying
The Fellowship.
Ø Current Society officers can remove a former participant from their
society for cause.
Ø The Executive Committee can remove a former Councilor or Fellowship
committee member for cause.
Ø The Membership Committee retains oversight for the List and can remove
any participant from the list if he or she is not abiding by the List
Guidelines. For example, being abusive to others.

These ideas have been incorporated into a revision of the SocAdmin Guidelines
which are available on The Fellowship website at: urantiabook.org/admin.

· Society Expectations – Last year the Committee was faced with issues
of Society functioning (Aloha Society) and vitality (several Societies did not
send representatives to the TDA). Although there was some discussion about
updating The Fellowship Constitution, no recommendations were forwarded or acted
upon.

NEXT YEAR:

Membership Cards: The Fellowship gives Membership Cards to new MALs and supplies
Societies to distribute to their members. However, these all have the Wrightwood
office address on them. The Fellowship probably needs updated membership cards
since many members enjoy having a tangible symbol of their affiliation. Possibly
this could be accomplished in conjunction with the adoption a new logo and
permanent address for The Fellowship.


For the Membership Committee,
Bob Bruyn, Chair