This report is written in accordance with the request by the 1979 General Council that each committee state its goals and what progress has been made toward realizing them. The best guide to what our goals should be is given by the Urantia Brotherhood constitution, as follows:
"The Domestic Extension Committee shall promote knowledge of The Urantia Book and its teachings among the inhabitants of the United States; it shall encourage the dissemination of The Urantia Book, promote the organization of Urantia Societies throughout the United States; it shall assist interested persons in forming such societies; and it shall assist and co-operate with any Urantia Society in furthering the purposes of such society and the purposes of Urantia Brotherhood.
To analyze this more closely, it says that the Domestic Extension Committee
1) shall promote knowledge of The Urantia Book among the inhabitants of the United States;
2) shall promote its teachings among the inhabitants of the United States;
3) shall encourage the dissemination of The Urantia Book;
4) shall promote the organization of Urantia Societies throughout the United States;
5) shall assist interested persons in forming such societies;
6) shall assist and co-operate with any Urantia Society in furthering the purposes of such society and the purposes of the Urantia Brotherhood.
With respect to #1, so long as it is contrary to Urantia Foundation policy to "promote" The Urantia Book, I don't know how our committee can fulfill that goal, other than along the lines of what is set forth under #3.
I am at a loss to know how we may go about achieving the #2 goal as a committee of the Urantia Brotherhood. #2 seems more appropriately furthered by the lives we live as individuals, and by separate organizations such as the Family of God Foundation,
#3 is where we should be able to make progress. I take #3 to refer to the physical dissemination of The Urantia Book. The traditional method for our committee to accomplish this has been through the mechanism of Gift Book Fund - a fund which is supported by direct gifts from members and by Brotherhood general funds. (In fact, at the present time the committee doesn't really have a function here. The Executive Committee gives approval for any gift books to be sent and the headquarters staff sends them out.) The fund purchases books from the Foundation at the same price as bookstores do and then donates them to libraries and other public institutions on request. I would like us to set as a goal that no public library, college or high school library or prison library be without at least one Urantia Book. Our committee has discussed a plan whereby interested Urantia Brotherhood members would be asked to contact libraries personally, first to attempt to induce them to purchase a book, and failing that, to see if they would accept one from us as a gift. We have a list of over 100 individuals that we feel sure would be happy to help with this project, and, at this time, are limited only by a lack of funding. I feel that $100,000 per year would be a respectable amount to invest in such a program. This would enable us to place a little under 5000 books per year. It strains me to think of any program which the Brotherhood could undertake which could yield so much lasting good for the progress of the kingdom of heaven, for the U.S.A., and for the Urantia Brotherhood. At the present time, however, such funding is just not available, and until it is generated, an expansion of the Gift Book Fund program along the lines suggested here must wait.
The literal wording of #4 and #5 encompasses what is generally regarded to be the domain of the Charter Committee. If we construe the wording to mean "study groups" rather than "societies", our committee could have an important part to play without serious overlap between committee jurisdiction. We have submitted a plan to the Executive Committee which involves our committee acting as a clearinghouse of information between societies and other groups, primarily for presentations which could be passed around. Aside from this there is much that should be done to help study groups feel more a part of our brotherhood.
Lastly, #6 seems more in the domain of the Fraternal Relations Committee. I do not have any specific ideas about how we may carry this one out; our committee has not been asked for any such assistance, but certainly stands ready if asked.
Another committee project during the past year was the submittal to the Executive Committee of a questionnaire designed to locate study groups. This project was suggested by John Hales for the purpose of discovering who is where, so that individuals who call or write headquarters may be referred to a group, if one exists nearby. It is thought that such a questionnaire should be sent yearly, since many study groups come and go, or change their schedules so as to render previous information obsolete,
The committee also is sponsoring one day of the summer conference. I believe that this is the first time the Domestic Extension Committee has been such a sponsor. The theme was lifted directly from an outline which Tom Kendall, the previous committee chairman, had worked on for several years, and which he intended to be a one-week Leadership Training program. Time limitations forced its compression into six hours, which we tried to achieve with minimum violence to Tom's original idea.
Respectfully submitted,
Harry McMullan, Chairman