President
Chris Wood worked with the Fellowship’s Education Chair, David Kulieke, to finalize the 2016 co-sponsored UAUS-Fellowship Conference date and establish the planning team. He also worked with Presidents of the Fellowship and Urantia Foundation to facilitate cooperation for the Parliament of World Religions.
Vice President
Andres Ramirez continued to Chair the online continuous meeting of the Representative Council. He also met with readers and leaders in Guatemala, served as a member of the planning team for the 2016 Latin American Conference, and liaised with Wilson Leon on a Leadership Seminar for readers in Latin America.
Chief Financial Officer
Bradly Tharp submitted the 2nd quarter financial reports and participated as member of the Executive Team and the Fundraising Committee.
Secretary
Susan Owen carried out the regular administrative duties such as scheduling monthly meetings and providing their minutes, providing advice and support to the Executive Administrator, and keeping track of and following up the action points of each ISB member. She also participates as a member of the Executive Team, and is on committees for Website Management, Public Relations and Education.
Executive Team
Members of the Executive Team are Chris Wood, Andres Ramirez, Bradly Tharp and Susan Owen. Following are some of the topics addressed in the 3rd quarter:
- Continental Communication Coordinator Project: Antonio Schefer, ISB Conference Chair and Continental Coordinator for Europe attended association meetings and conferences in Italy, United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Andres Ramiez, ISB Vice President and Continental Coordinator for Latin America attended conferences in Guatemala and Brazil.
- Job Description for Executive Administrator: Final edits were done in preparation for final completion.
- Volunteer Coordinator: Work and discussions continued on the establishment of a Volunteer Coordinator position.
Fundraising Committee – Chris Wood, Chair
$87,226.46 was raised through 30 September 2015 and work was completed on the fundraising letter for the 4th quarter capital campaign. A goal was set to raise $40,000 before the end of 2015. The Association is on target to meet its 3-year goal to have 2016 budget money in the bank by year end 2015.
Membership Committee – Anton Miroshnichenko, Chair
Two new committee members were confirmed and the first meeting of this committee was held. Work continued with Urantia Dach to form an association covering German, Switzerland and Austria. Membership coordinators for each National Association were recruited and plans to create webinars in Russian are underway. Also a translation service for the Central Administration was tested.
Communications Committee – Kathleen Swadling, Chair
- Publications: Regular issues of the Journal and Tidings were published in English, French and Spanish and the subscription policy to the Journal was revised. The 2014 Annual Report was completed.
- Website: Translating of the website into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Ukrainian continued. Two readers have offered to assist with translating the website into Dutch and Finnish. A new landing page for Events, along with an Events Calendar, has been added to the website. Investigations were undertaken to improve the speed of the website. The Website Committee has begun developing an Access Control Policy document to insure ongoing security of the site.
- Public Relations: A Social Media sub-committee was established to focus on Facebook, Twitter and any other form of social media that the Association is involved in. Antonio Schaffer is the new Chair and additional members include readers who are experienced in social media. Discussions began on revising the Home page content of the website and the committee assisted with the Fall fundraiser.
Study Group Committee – Gaetan Charland, Chair
Gaetan submitted all final reports and recommendations from the 2015 International Conference. He attended the Parliament of World Religions and will be presenting a strategic plan for the Study Group Committee in the 4th Quarter.
Conference Committee – Antonio Schefer, Chair
Antonio and his team have developed and hosted several webinars in Spanish and worked with all three of the 2016 Conference Committees to agree on individual themes for their conferences based on “Jesus as a Teacher”. Antonio has been actively using and promoting events on the Association’s Facebook page and updating the Events page on the website. He has reviewed, edited and uploaded all of the videos from the 2015 International Conference in Quebec to the Association’s YouTube channel. He has also created a private Facebook group for young adults and is in the process of forming a sub-committee for young adults. He attended conferences in Italy, United Kingdom and the Netherlands and worked on reviewing the draft of the Association’s Conference Guide.
Dissemination Committee – David Linthicum, Chair
David and his team focused on building book distribution channels in Malawi, Ukraine, Zambia and Philippines. David participated in the planning of the Parliament of World Religions and attended the event. The Prisoner Inquiry Response Team worked on funding a library placement program for prisons in the United States. A new greeting letter for the Association was developed and translated by the Reader Services Special Committee. 70 letters to readers were sent out in the 3rd quarter.
Translation Committee – Chris Moseley, Chair
Chris and his team continued to look for volunteer translators. They have been working with Anton Miroschnichenko to find a cost effective translation service for the Association’s governing documents and have provided translation services to the ISB, the RC and the website.
Education Committee – Sheila Keene-Lund, Chair
Sheila attended the Parliament of World Religions and continued work on the topical index for study aids.