Annual Report of the Membership Committee

July 2006

The Past Year

Committee Members: Last year the GC re-elected Dale Sztejnberg (New York) to serve a 6 year term on Membership. Other members include Tom Allen (Oklahoma), Geri Johnson (Singapore), John Causland (Michigan) who serves as the Committee's secretary, and Lenny Cowles (Colorado). Richard Omura (California) serves as an Adjunct committee member. The Chair's term expires this year and I feel strongly that we need to try to involve new people at all levels of The Fellowship, including Membership Committee Chair.

Societies: Although no new group has applied for chartering during the past year, activity has increased in societies that have been organizationally inactive. The Orvonton Society has regrouped under the leadership of Bob & Linda Buselli and Michael Painter of Indianapolis. Members held elections for officers, elected delegates to the upcoming TDA, and are planning to revise of their society constitution. Similarly, Northern Light Society of Alaska has been revived by long-time study group members in the Anchorage area, including Tony Finstad and Jacquelyn Koury. They also held elections for officers and elected delegates to the upcoming TDA. These are healthy signs for the functioning of The Fellowship.

Members-At-Large

During the past year, there have been increased requests for applications to become Members-At-Large of The Fellowship. Some were already members of a society but had been inactive for some time. So far, two applications have been received and unanimously approved by the Committee. They are Phil Taylor (Vermont) and Jamie Ortega (Massachusetts). We eagerly welcome them to our Fellowship.

Affiliate Organizations

No new groups have inquired about for becoming a Fellowship Affiliate. This is not surprising since The Fellowship has little to provide international organizations other than what they are already receiving through our Internet services and the International Fellowship Committee. Thank you to David Kantor and the many others working in these areas. Yet so much more can be done by providing introductory materials and study aides to The Urantia Book that can be translated into many languages.

Furthering Society Purposes

Constitutional Amendments

In response to the General Council's request that The Fellowship devise a mechanism for dealing with inactive societies, the Membership Committee worked with the Judicial Committee to develop the wording for amendments 1a and 1b to be voted on by the GC this July, 2006. The first requires each society to provide The Fellowship with a current copy of its constitution and the second creates an inactive status for societies that do not comply with requirements in the Fellowship's Constitution.

TDA

The Assembly scheduled to begin July 5th is the first meeting of Society representatives since the 2003 TDA. These meetings are special experiences in democracy and group process for all who participate and they make the Fellowship a stronger organization.

SocAdmin Email List

In January, SocAdmin began its seventh year as a tool for Fellowship communication. The List now includes former officers of Societies and of The Fellowship. SocAdmin Guidelines are available on The Fellowship website at: urantiabook.org/admin.

Next Year

Membership Benefits: The Committee has discussed the idea of new membership cards but the consensus is that they provide little of value to either new or long-time members. Instead, there is sentiment to expand the information available to members on the web site and to provide new members with an automated email contact of information about The Urantia Book and The Fellowship. These ideas will be discussed at the Committee's annual meeting during SSS06.

For the Membership Committee,

Bob Bruyn, Chair