MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE ANNUAL REPORT

August 2005

 

 

THE PAST YEAR:

 

Committee Members:  Last year the GC elected Tom Allen (Oklahoma) as a Committee member. Other members include Geri Johnson (Singapore), Dale Sztejnberg (New York), Lenny Cowles (Colorado), and John Causland (Michigan) who serves as the Committee’s secretary. Richard Omura (California) 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 to About The Urantia Book 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 – The Membership Committee now has 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 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, three applicants were approved to become Members-At-Large of The Fellowship. They are Meredith Tenney (New Hampshire), Robert Korson (Colorado), and Randall Scarbrough (Arkansas). 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 – There has been no meeting of Society representatives since the 2003 TDA decided to end annual meetings.

·         SocAdmin Email List – In January, SocAdmin began its six year as a tool for Fellowship communication. The List has been expanded to include former officers of Societies and of The Fellowship. SocAdmin Guidelines are available on The Fellowship website at: urantiabook.org/admin.

 

NEXT YEAR:

 

TDA: The next meeting of the Triennial Delegate Assembly will be next summer, 2006, prior to the Summer Study Session in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Membership Committee will continue to assist in providing information to new delegates and alternates prior to the Assembly. Societies are reminded to schedule the election of TDA Delegate and Alternate representatives during the coming year.

 

Society Expectations: Last year at the GC Retreat a recommendation was made to: “Systematically work to re-energize and strengthen weak Societies, remove those unable to function, and promote the growth of new Societies.” The Membership Committee will meet during IC05 to discuss these issues. Ideas include: 1) contacting Societies about ways The Fellowship can support them, 2) soliciting ideas about minimum requirements for Societies to remain active, and 3) making recommendations to Judicial Committee regarding constitutional changes that reflect any new requirements. The last idea would require ratification by the Triennial Delegate Assembly.

 

Membership Cards: Now that the new logo has been adopted by The Fellowship, new membership cards should be sent to all current members. Many members enjoy having a tangible symbol of their affiliation with The Urantia Book Fellowship.

 

 

For the Membership Committee,

Bob Bruyn, Chair