THE URANTIA BOOK FELLOWSHIP
ADMINISTRATION WEBSITE

As faith-enlightened and spirit-liberated sons of the kingdom of heaven, you face a double responsibility ofduty to man and duty to God while you voluntarily assume a third and sacred obligation: service to the brotherhood of God-knowing believers. [178:1.5]

 

Ad-hoc Information Technology Committee Report
July 2006

The ad-hoc Information Technology Committee was established in early 2005 to
review the Fellowship's IT operations and develop suggestions for improvement
and continued development. Over the past few years the Fellowship's demands for
IT services have increased dramatically. The situation can be best understood by
reviewing the reports of the webmaster, David Kantor.

The first task of the committee involved the generation of a report providing
thorough documentation of the Fellowship's IT infrastructure. This was necessary
as a foundation for discussion, and also as essential backup information in the
event that the webmaster was unable to carry out his responsibilities. This
infrastructure document is periodically updated, and copies are provided to the
few individuals who might be called upon to function in an emergency. This
initial review also indicated a temporary over capacity in server services. This
was adjusted resulting in a savings of about $600 per month.

Many IT matters require attention, including backup and restore systems, email
services, database services, point of sale systems, conference services, and
backend website programming. Current resources do not allow us to address these
matters simultaneously. It has been necessary to prioritize work according to
perceived need.

Currently attention is focused on developing a point of sale system (POS) to
track contributions and sales. This involves integration of the POS system with
the Fellowship's database and accounting operations. David Kantor, Robert Burns,
Paula Thompson, and Gloriann Harris (accountant) are currently working on this
project. When complete the system will substantially reduce the Fellowship's
bookkeeping expenses, and provide ease of access to information needed for
fundraising and other activities. Not unexpectedly in complex matters of this
kind, the project has taken somewhat more time to complete than anticipated.

Adjustment of hosting services for the Fellowship's website and IT services are
also currently underway. These operations are in process of of moving to the
business facilities of a Urantia Book reader in Denver, Colorado. This change
will result in both increased capacity and substantial cost savings.

It is unlikely that the Fellowship's website and IT operations can continue to
develop under the current model of support. Currently there is only one paid
IT/website employee - David Kantor. A number of volunteers work along with David
assisting with maintenance and development. However, the level of demand for
skilled services has outgrown the ability to continue functioning on this basis.
It seems likely that the Fellowship will need to employ additional IT
professionals if development of IT/website services is to continue in a stable
manner. That presents a twofold problem - finding the right people, and finding
the money to pay them.

More detail about these matters can be found in the report of the webmaster, and
in discussions likely to take place during the General Council meeting.

Many thanks to those participating in the work of the ad-hoc IT Committee: David
Kantor, Susan Cook, Michael Challis, Barry Clark, Larry Watkins and John Hay.

Steve Dreier
IT Committee Chair