UAI Representative Report
Argentine Book Fair

Thursday, July 10
From: Marian Hughes

Greetings to all concerned,

I apologize for my delay in submitting my UAI report of the Buenos
Aires International book fair project report but I was traveling in
Europe and had family obligations immediately upon my return to Hawaii.
I feel that Carlos has addressed many of Bucks statements so I will not
go back over all those corrections. I do feel that some of the concerns
that Buck had do need to be addressed since I feel that even though I
was not mentioned by name, they do personally concern me.

First and foremost I would like to address one attachment that you all
received with this email, that being the sign that we had plans to
display. I said I would take care to get it printed. But right from the
start there were problems with the sign that Buck wanted. It could not
be printed as it was full of mistakes and Carlos had to come up with the
correct translations. By the time he was able to do this I had already
left for my home in Chile. It seems that Buck did not have the correct
translation in Spanish for " The Fellowship for the Readers of the
Urantia Book" He had also neglected to have the word The in front of
the Urantia Foundation. So it was not possible for me to print this sign
on my home printer before I had to leave. I was also told that I would
easily find the correct frame for this sign in Buenos Aires. That proved
to be incorrect information. I spent many hours looking for a frame that
would work for the sign. I can't tell you how many stores I went to find
a proper frame that could stand on one of the surfaces that we had in
the stand, but there were none to be had. I wondered how such a simple
thing that is so easy to find in the states could be so hard to find in
BA. Also there was a 3 or 4 day Holiday when I first arrived in BA with
many shops being closed. The air from the fires was also very bad so it
was hard on my lungs to spend a lot of time walking around looking for
a frame. I tried my best but I was not successful in this task. Believe
me when I say I gave it my best shot. I also needed to be at the stand.
Then there was the problem of finding a printer to print out the
corrected version of the sign. I never did find one. As time went by we
also realized that there was no proper place to put the sign. The bar
area in the front of the booth was not very large and the books were
placed there for people to look into. One table held a beautiful bouquet
of flowers and the other table was being used by the Fellowship to fold
their brochures and their spiritual vitamins. Since UAI did not care
that we were not receiving credit for the booth, our main aim being to
display the Revelation, I had the corrected sign emailed to Agustin, so
he could look for a frame and get the sign printed. I left it in his
hands to accomplish what I was not able to do before I left BA. ( The
proof of this is in the attachment with this email). He must have also
decided that this task was not so easy to accomplish. There were two and
a half weeks left after my departure to accomplish the task if he had
wanted to do so. I am not completely to blame here.
If our ability to work together is so dependent on this little piece of
paper then indeed we may be far from unity.

Another point that needs clarification is the accusation that I called
the Fellowship workers "Rebels" This is completely untrue. I was asked
by one of the hard working Argentina volunteers, what was the main
difference between the UAI and the Fellowship and I said that among
other things was the fact the that UAI supported the Urantia Foundation.
She asked in what way. I told her the story of the copyright lawsuit. I
explained that The Fellowship had submitted a amicus curiae to the court
in support of the Michael Foundation. I also explained that Harry
McMullen had committed perjury on the stand when he stated that Doctor
Sadler had stolen the Urantia Papers from a "crazy" patient of his. I
said this was a lie and a rebellious act. I absolutely never said that
Nelida and Agustin were rebels. She may have misunderstood as my Spanish
and her English are not perfect by a long shot. How this was so
misconstrued I have no idea. I am sorry if Nelida and Agustin thought I
said that, I didn't! Obviously they are both very dedicated to spreading
the Urantia Book or they would not have put in so much time to help with
the booth and had to endure living in a substandard apartment for such a
long time down there. Nelida and I exchanged hugs and gifts and IMO I
thought that we were on friendly terms. It pains me to hear these post
fair stories.


Now for the subject of the Spiritual vitamins. It is no secret that I
had a problem with them. I found it hard to understand how when someone
would come up to the stand and start to thumb through the book,
(the actual real Fifth Epochal Revelation), why Agustin would rush up
to them and put the blue plastic bowl of spiritual vitamins into
their personal space distracting them from reading El Libro because he
wanted them to stop what they were doing, to distract them to unwrap and
read this tiny little thing instead of giving them their moment with the
Spirit of Truth. IMO it was poor judgment and I tried to voice my
concern to no avail. These little tightly wrapped and well sealed little
pieces of paper are difficult to unfold and when one is already reading
the book they are a distraction, no doubt about it. The book teaches us
that there is no validity in things like Tarot cards, throwing I Ching
sticks, fortune cookies and astrological signs. Carlos and I agreed to
disagree on the subject of the vitamins and I gave up trying to press my
point of view. As the vitamins ran out the workers again had to
manufacture new ones and IMO this was a distraction from the real task
at hand which was watching for the "click", that special moment of
interest displayed by a passerby. IMO it was poor judgment and I tried
to voice my concern to no avail. In the future I would never agree to do
a booth if these vitamins are included in the process.

I understand body language and I watched as some people turned to their
side to avoid the booth when they were approached with this bowl or the
brochures as they walked by the stand. I can only judge how I felt as I
walked by the many booths and people tried to push their literature into
my hands, my reaction was to avoid. It is true that many young school
children were delighted to open their vitamins, but I question if this
large gathering of young people in front of our stand, blocking the view
plane was a deterrent to an adult that may have otherwise been drawn in.
This we will never know. I made it clear that it was not my
personal style and that I preferred a less aggressive approach.
Volunteers did what they each wanted to do while they worked at the
stand. I tried an experiment one evening and took a stack of brochures
over to the distributor who was selling the book and just stood in front
of his stand smiling with the brochures in hand but not pushing them on
anyone and in a short time they were all gone and a couple approached me
who seemed very interested. I ended up having dinner that evening with
the woman and we met again the next day and have stayed in contact. Only
time will tell which approach works best in each different culture.


Yes, it is true that UAI has a less aggressive approach when it comes to
sharing the Revelation. When Carlos and I worked the booth together we
would wait for what we call "The Click" and then we would approach the
person and give them the brochures. We ALWAYS handed out all three
pamphlets even when there were no Fellowship people in the stand. Now
concerning the first Fellowship brochure. It was in Spanish so I never
critiqued the content, but Carlos did and he said that it was full of
mistakes and that he did not want his name to be associated with such an
illiterate brochure. His information was also on it and he may have been
embarrassed by it.

UAI had two translators check our brochure, it took us weeks to design
it and check the translation, it was professionally printed and folded.
There were plenty to give out and they looked very professional. As I
said it took many hours to write, translate and design our brochure. At
least four people were involved in the process. We did not have to take
up space in the stand folding our pamphlets. We were ready to go from
day one. We were able to concentrate on sharing El Libro. I did not care
for the fact that one of the tables had to become an "arts and crafts
section" manufacturing brochures and spiritual vitamins as they ran out.
I even found myself folding Fellowship brochures when they ran out, lest
we be accused of only handing out Foundation and UAI material. I would
suggest the Fellowship be more organized, professional and prepared in
the future.

This goes along with the fact that there was one day when the attire of
the male Fellowship volunteer was unsightly
( A T-shirt with The smells of India was absolutely inappropriate) Some
of us should not have been put in the position of being the policeman
for the booth. Being the public face for the FER is an important
responsibility and needs to be taken very seriously. The dress code
should have been stated from the start. All the women always looked
nice, no problem there.

The substandard housing due to under funding may have been a problem for
the Fellowship volunteers. There were too many people in too small a
space with too few adequate beds. I am sure this contributed to a
certain level of stress. Those poor guys had to endure flooding from a
broken hot water heater, a toilet that didn't always flush and a shower
that was either scalding hot or only freezing cold. I felt sorry for
them and can't even imagine what would have happened if the other two
gals had been able to attend. I spent a few hours one day a few
months before the fair trying to help the Fellowship volunteers find a
nice apartment. But my suggestions were never used and this apartment
was a last minute find. Buck, if you are going to expect your helpers
to work that hard it would behoove your organization to allocate more
money to house them in the future. I know they were very uncomfortable.

Carlos accomplished many behind the scenes tasks to make this book fair
become a reality, we can never thank him enough. He was wonderful to all
of us. He is an amazing selfless individual. He did not give any of us
any preferred treatment. Many more people now know about The Urantia
Book in Argentina than they did a few months ago. Was it worth all the
time and money? Only time will tell us that answer. If the Fellowship
doesn't feel the time is ripe to do these types of three party projects,
then I am sure UAI and UF will find a way to raise more money to
accomplish what needs to be done to spread the Revelation around the
world. What the Father wills and the Son desires IS.

I hope you can take these comments and review as a constructive critique
and I want to thank all of you who helped to put this fair on.

Sincerely,
Marian E. Hughes