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EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE LETTER
December 4, 1976

TO: General Councilors, Society Presidents, and Field Representatives

John Hales and I had a most pleasant and, we believe, mutually enlightening and edifying visit with the Oklahoma City Society and the Urantia Book study group of Dallas. We spent the evening of November 18 enjoying a carry-in dinner and warm fellowship with folks from the Oklahoma Society at the home of Berkeley Elliott. Oklahoma has been waiting for answers to questions submitted to the Foundation. The Foundation is preparing answers to these questions which will be sent to the Oklahoma Society in the near future. Clyde Goodman is chairman of a committee of the Oklahoma Society which will, hopefully, work with us in making suggestions to the Foundation regarding a revised Confirmatory Agreement.

John, Berkeley, and I were in Dallas the evening of November 19. We participated in a carry-in dinner at the home of Gene Joyce and had a great time meeting and fellowshipping with the fine people of the Dallas study group. Although they were disappointed with our decision not to consider granting charters until the Confirmatory Agreement problem is resolved, they understood our reasons for making the decision and showed a remarkably good spirit in accepting it. We hope they will be the next study group to receive a charter.

John Hales was at the Florida Conference on November 13. He reports that an enthusiastic group of around 60 people attended the conference. The theme of the Saturday meeting was Personal Growth and the Thought Adjuster. Several short talks were presented. These were followed by small workshops which provided for more informal discussion. The Florida leaders feel that much was learned from the experience of organizing such a mini-conference which will be applied to future meetings.

I should like to urge all of you who are willing to share your ideas concerning the purposes and goals of Urantia Brotherhood to send them to me by January 1, 1977.

The first Field Representative workshop will be held at Urantia Brotherhood headquarters on March 5 and 6, 1977. We hope that every Field Representative will send us suggestions for the workshop by January 15.

Paul Snider's presidential report to the Triennial Delegate Assembly and his Statement to the General Council regarding Brotherhood-Foundation Relationships are ready for distribution. The former is available to members of Urantia Brotherhood and the latter to General Councilors only. Please contact John Hales if you would like to have copies of these reports.

We have received a few comments about the finance letter sent out by the Brotherhood and Foundation suggesting that it was too businesslike and lacked spiritual connotations. This all too often happens when letters are composed by committee. Hopefully, next year we can improve our style. To date response to the letter in terms of pledges and contributions has been good.

The Judicial Committee made a preliminary report concerning the question of member-at-large representation at the Triennial Delegate Assembly. This problem was discussed in great detail and the committee came to the unanimous decision that such representation is not consistent with the Brotherhood constitution. A more complete report from the committee will be available before the next General Council meeting.

A decision was made to hold the next General Conference of Urantia Brotherhood the week of August 13-18, 1978, at George Williams College on the shores of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. There will be no General Conference in 1977.

The General Council meeting next year (1977) will be held on Sunday, June 19, at 533 Diversey Parkway.

Opal Schmidt of Hemet, California, Ann Cole of Sarasota, Florida, Meriene C. Anderson of Anchorage, Alaska, and James F. George of Reno, Nevada, have been accepted as members-at-large.

We extend our best wishes to all of you for the holiday season.

Cordially,

Meredith J. Sprunger, President


A Service of
The Fellowship for Readers of The Urantia Book