Annual President's Report
July 22, 2007

 

Greetings, Fellow Readers of The Urantia Book!

With the 720 days or so left of my term in office I am focusing my energy in two main areas:

1. Continuing the improvement of the administrative structure of the Fellowship
2. Energizing the General Council in its responsibility to direct the affairs of the Fellowship.

Over the last year we have been improving the administrative procedures and the Fellowship is experiencing larger degrees of office efficiency. We are continuing to improve our systems through the continuous work of committee groups focused on specific projects like our Information Technology systems, Point of Sale and online transaction processing; enhancing our accounting and general office procedures, improving storage and archiving, back-up and disaster recovery procedures for organizational data; improving communications—and the list goes on. 

With all this work in process, we are still going about the day-to-day administration of running the organization with all the duties being completed on schedule. With increased sales of The Urantia Book over any previous years, the office duties are as busy as ever.  It is important to note that all this office administration work is being accomplished with only one dedicated employee and the aid of a few dedicated volunteers and the work of our CPA.

While the office is busy keeping things in order, the Fellowship has major projects being worked on by the Standing Committees (see the reports from Outreach, International, Publications, Interfaith, Special Projects, Judicial, Membership, Finance and Education), and the Ad-hoc committees (like Uversa Press, Pipeline of Light, Standardized Reference Text, and the work of our Liaison Chairperson), and let’s not forget the immense amount of logistics in planning and managing the yearly conferences, either the Summer Study Sessions or the International Conferences—we have reached the point where we always have conferences in the planning or implementation stage. And we are slowly but surely building relationships with readers and leaders all over the world and, more importantly, maintaining them.

Such a limited snap shot of the administration and committee work hardly tells the story of  the accomplishments of the Fellowship. With our extremely limited annual budget, the Fellowship accomplishes much, but does so mainly due to the dedication and devotion of so many volunteers. It is inspiring to be a part of such a group and a privilege as well.

I will continue to work toward improving and evolving our administrative systems in such a manner that they remain flexible while providing the necessary form and structure required to fulfill our short and long term purposes.

Now about our purpose.

This brings me to my second area of focus.  The General Council is a body that sets the main policies which direct the Fellowship in fulfilling its Statement of Purpose as contained in our Constitution in meaningful and productive ways.

Let us review our Statement of Purpose, in a somewhat reorganized manner for emphasis.  I encourage all General Councilors to read, study and interpret the Purpose Statement for themselves. Basically, we are mandated:         

• (The What) We are to be about:
  • The study and dissemination of the teachings of The Urantia Book
  • The promotion, improvement, and expansion among the peoples of the world
    • of the comprehension of Cosmology
    • of the relation of the planet on which we live to the Universe
    • of the understanding of the genesis and destiny of Man and his relation to God
    • of the understanding of the life and teachings of Jesus
    • of the realization and appreciation of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man
• (The Why) and we are doing this in order:
  • To increase and enhance the comfort, happiness, and well-being of Mankind, as an individual and as a member of society, and
• (The How) we are to accomplish this:
  • By fostering a religion
  • By fostering a philosophy
  • By fostering a cosmology
• (Qualifying How) through the medium of fraternal association:
  • In a manner which is commensurate with man's intellectual and cultural development

General Council: It is your duty to keep the Fellowship on track with these stated Purposes in our Constitution. The meaningfulness of the Fellowship to the Fifth Epochal Revelation is in your hands. You are responsible for bringing meaning to the stated purposes (values) of the organization.  You make the final determinations if the organization is doing enough to live up to the organizational reason of existence.

It is time to ask ourselves, how are we doing?  Are we studying and educating enough? Are we disseminating the teachings to your satisfaction? Are we promoting, improving and expanding the comprehension and understanding of peoples around the world of the life and teachings of Jesus, the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man? Are we comfortable in out efforts to foster a religion, a philosophy and a cosmology? Are we fraternal enough in our associations throughout the world?

Deliberating these types of questions and coming up with meaningful actions is what it means to be a General Councilor.  It is what each General Councilor is elected to do—to be a part of an active group in creating the vision and plans to realize our organization's Purpose of Existence.

I ask you as a fellow General Councilor to find the motivation and the collective will to be about this business of the Fifth Epochal Revelation that has been thoughtfully and lovingly given to our planet.  With God, anything is possible.

Respectfully Submitted,

Robert Burns, President


Cultivating the Spirit of Religion