2007 Annual Report Outline

“James, James, when did I teach you that you should all see alike? I have come into the world to proclaim spiritual liberty to the end that mortals may be empowered to live individual lives of originality and freedom before God. I do not desire that social harmony and fraternal peace shall be purchased by the sacrifice of free personality and spiritual originality. What I require of you, my apostles, is spirit unity—and that you can experience in the joy of your united dedication to the wholehearted doing of the will of my Father in heaven. You do not have to see alike or feel alike or even think alike in order spiritually to be alike. Spiritual unity is derived from the consciousness that each of you is indwelt, and increasingly dominated, by the spirit gift of the heavenly Father. Your apostolic harmony must grow out of the fact that the spirit hope of each of you is identical in origin, nature, and destiny.

141:5.2 (1591.7) “In this way you may experience a perfected unity of spirit purpose and spirit understanding growing out of the mutual consciousness of the identity of each of your indwelling Paradise spirits; and you may enjoy all of this profound spiritual unity in the very face of the utmost diversity of your individual attitudes of intellectual thinking, temperamental feeling, and social conduct. Your personalities may be refreshingly diverse and markedly different, while your spiritual natures and spirit fruits of divine worship and brotherly love may be so unified that all who behold your lives will of a surety take cognizance of this spirit identity and soul unity; they will recognize that you have been with me and have thereby learned, and acceptably, how to do the will of the Father in heaven. You can achieve the unity of the service of God even while you render such service in accordance with the technique of your own original endowments of mind, body, and soul.

141:5.3 (1592.1) “Your spirit unity implies two things, which always will be found to harmonize in the lives of individual believers: First, you are possessed with a common motive for life service; you all desire above everything to do the will of the Father in heaven. Second, you all have a common goal of existence; you all purpose to find the Father in heaven, thereby proving to the universe that you have become like him.”

rick warren wrote:

UB Friends,

The Reader Community is now quite diverse and ever growing. The revelation chugs along as we spread the benign virus and disseminate the teachings, each in our unique truth-led way(s). As we work the fields, Urantia Foundation continues translating and establishing the UB in the book markets of the planet. I believe UF is the best hope for preserving the whole and unaltered revelation for future leaders of the next several hundred years.

For readers interested, two good ways to track Urantia Foundation activity and planning are Urantia Foundation News Online http://www.urantia.org/urantian_news.html, and its Annual Reports. The following is an outline of its recently released 2007 Annual Report. Through these two public media does the Foundation attempt to reach all readers and contributors with insights into its many projects, and its progress fulfilling its mission to translate, print and publish the inviolate text (now in 12 languages, soon to be 16, details below). The Foundation staff mails, by regular post, over 20K Annual Reports--to all on their mailing list.

Good Sonday ~ Love to all, Rick

***

From the President (of Urantia Foundation Board of Trustees, Seppo Kanerva).

~It was reported in September that Seppo is stepping down this month, after 24 years of selfless service in one role or another fostering dissemination, translation and study. But he will continue as manager of translations for the time being. In his final statement, among other things, Seppo writes of his belief that "a long-awaited era of co-operation is dawning within the community of readers..." He is a dedicated, focused, effective, service-minded, tireless toiler in the fields, who led UF through a tumultuous time.

Board of Trustees: 2007 Highlights

~January - Revised Declaration of Trust and Amended By-Laws presented.
~April - Social Trademark Usage Agreement offered.
~August - Permanent Fundraising committee established.
~October - New format and dust jacket approved for English edition in
North American market.
~December - Associate Trustees appointed for 2008: Jan Bernard, Marta Elders, Irmele Ivalo-Sjolie, Marilynn Kulieke, Olga Lopez Molina, Clare Mylanus and Judy Van Cleave.
~January 2008 - Marilynn Kulieke and Judy Van Cleave elected Trustees.

Finances: 2007 and 2008

~Donations Up Over 20% During 2007, Due to Generous Gifts, Appreciation on Invested Assets.
~Budgeted Projected for 2008 = $732K, to Meet Projected Expenses = $721K
~Number of Donors in 2007 = 667 (down 19 from 2006)

Perpetual Printing Fund

~Now Over $1M is Held in One Restricted Fund for the English Edition.
~Plans for PPF's for Each Translation Under Consideration by the Board.

Funding for UF's Expenses and Projects

~Translations
~Printing
~UF Staff
~Publishing
~Website Management
~Outreach and Education
~Thanks to 152 Anonymous Donors for $200K

The Book Business

~Seventeen Thousand Foundation Produced Copies Were Sold in 2007.
~English Sales Down 11% from 2006, Several Factors Cited.
~Approval of New Cover Design [Debuted in June, 2008]
~Spanish Translation Sales Up 182%!
~Plans set to Reprint El Libro de Urantia in 2008.
~Distributors and Contractors in Latin America Found.
~Russian Translation Sold Well in 2007. Fourth Printing to Be Done in St Petersburg.
~Lithuanian Translation Almost Sold Out. Second Printing Goes to Press in 2008.
~Portuguese Translation Printed and Selling Well in Brazil.
~German Translation Almost Sold Out. Second Printing Formatted and Printed in Jan '08.
~Fluxuations in Europe Impacting French and Dutch Sales.
~French Selling Well in Quebec.
~Italian Translation Sales "soft". Distributors Sought.
~African Library Placement Project Seeded 1500 UF Books [Southern and Eastern].

Index to The Urantia Book

~Index to Have More Than 38K Entries.
~Possible Publish Date Late 2008

Translations

~Nearing Publication: Estonian, Hungarian, Romanian and Swedish.
~In Progress "with paid translators and regular output": Chinese, Farsi (Persian) and Japanese.
~Others Are in Progress by the Labors of Volunteers [More details on various translations].

Public Relations

~Three Issues of Urantia Foundation News Online Were Published in 2007 [Three more have been published in '08]
~An Average of 7500 Downloaded Each Issue of UF's News Online

Social Usage Agreement [for UF Registered Trademarks]

~Licensing Groups
~Contact UF for Details

Website and the Internet School

~June 2007 UF Had Most Web Visits Ever, Over 200K
~Portuguese, Spanish and Russian Translations Very Popular
~Upgrade is Needed

Looking Forward

~Several Editions and Translations Reprinting Due Soon.
~Website, Improving and Expanding Service to Global Readership.
~Education, OBIS (USB Internet School) Establishing New Curricula.
~Trustees Met With Readers at 2008 Conferences in Los Angeles, Kansas City and Quebec.
~Matthew Project-Fund Raising Committee to Meet in New England

Join Urantia Foundation Mail List: http://www.urantia.org/mailing_list.html

Annual Reports 2002 to 2006: http://www.urantia.org/news_info.html

Urantia Foundation Frontpage: http://www.urantia.org/

Urantia Foundation News Online: http://www.urantia.org/urantian_news.html
[Apologies for first posting this in the Q&A subforum. rw]

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