Memo Regarding Council Resolution on
Creation of a History of Urantia Brotherhood
September 20, 1985
Memorandum
To: Executive Committee and Special Projects Committee
From: Marilynn Kulieke
Date: September 20, 1985
Re: Resolution on History of Urantia Brotherhood
At an informal meeting of the Special Projects Committee on September 14, participants Carol Forsythe, Neal Kendall, John Hales and myself discussed some ways that we could formulate a plan that would address the spirit of the resolution which states that a factual history of Urantia Brotherhood should be developed. After discussing this resolution in depth, we decided that we needed some additional guidance from the Executive Committee. Jim McNelly and Bill Hazen concurred with this decision over the phone.
If my understanding of what occurred during the Executive Committee meeting is correct, our committee was not being asked to write a history of the Urantia Brotherhood. Instead, we were to develop a plan that would address the first stage of this process. This stage is to systematically collect information that would be pertinent to have if a written history of the Urantia Brotherhood was ever undertaken. The following five ideas that we came up with during the meeting are based on this premise. They are not necessarily mutually exclusive. I would like to have your reaction to these ideas at the Executive Committee meeting at the end of this week. Also, if you have any other ideas which take a different direction, I would appreciate your sharing them. I would like to leave that meeting with a consensus on the direction that our committee should be heading. For your reference I have attached a copy of the resolution with which we are dealing.
The first idea that we discussed was the creation of an historical archive. We envisioned that this archive would be stored on microfiche and would contain all documents from Urantia Brotherhood files that were not confidential and which were critical to have from an historical perspective. These archives would most likely differ from the current Urantia Brotherhood files in that they would be organized from the perspective of an historian. They might also contain information that is not currently contained in the Urantia Brotherhood files but is important from an historical viewpoint. The archive would serve an additional purpose of providing a duplicate copy of important documents. It would be somewhat costly to create this archive. It costs $.04 per sheet for an independent company to provide us with microfiches of our documents. If we chose to buy a microfichc, reader (either with or without xerox capabilities), it would additionally cost between $300.00 and $2800.00.
A second idea that we discussed was to create a written chronology of the history of Urantia Brotherhood. This chronology would have no narrative but would be an history of Urantia Brotherhood events, people, and places. We discussed a format similiar to an expanded timeline. During this discussion an issue was raised as to the role of Urantia Societies in this timeline. Since societies make up Urantia Brotherhood, it was felt that they should have a pronounced part in the history. This would mean that we would need to work with societies to get their own histories.
A third idea was to collect oral or written histories from individuals. The rationale for this idea was that the subjective feelings and perceptions surrounding history are important as well as the actual factual history. Decisions/events do not occur in a vacuum and setting the context for the history is worthy of some attention. The mechanism for this plan would be to ask individuals who have observed/participated in a key point of the history of Urantia Brotherhood to either tape or write down their recollections. We anticipate that we would develop sets of questions and ask several individuals to respond to each set. These responses would then be catalogued in some systematic way so that at some future point in time they could be used in an historical document.
A fourth idea is to create a document similiar to that created by many different fraternal organizations. This is often called an historian album. It was noted that many organizations have historians that continuously keep their historical records updated. If wre feel that keeping our own history is a priority of our organization, then we might create a position for an historian (probably unpaid) who would be responsible for the continuous collection and categorization of information.
A final suggestion was that we not act on this resolution at all. The rationale for this suggestion is that the time and energy placed into this resolution could be better spent on other projects.
These ideas represent our thoughts on different possible ways that we might proceed with our task. If you can give me your reactions as well as any additional ideas we can proceed with this task at our September 29 meeting. Thanks and I look forward to your input.
RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Urantia Brotherhood is an evolving organization, growing both, in size and in experience; and
WHEREAS, by dint of this growth, the Urantia Brotherhood of today is different from the Urantia Brotherhood of thirty years ago, and will be different still thirty years from now, and therafter; and
WHEREAS, diligent men and women preserve the history of their experience for the benefit of their posterity, just as prudent men and women look to the experiences of the past in order more wisely to manage the present and more effectively to plan for the future.
NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved that the men and women of Urantia Brotherhood desire to preserve for the edification of future generations of its members and functionaries a factual history of its evolution from its inception in 1955 to the present day; to be compiled as a narrative chronology of events, people, and places, without prejudice by a procedure established by the General Council.