Updates from the January 2023 Trustee Meeting

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By Judy Van Cleave, secretary, Urantia Foundation, Idaho, United States

Operations Overview

Books

• Total sales for Q4 2022—including Urantia Press titles—were up 10%, and was up 4% for the year.

• Urantia Press sales were down 19% for Q4, and down 17% for the year.

• Downloads were up 34% for the quarter, and down 11% for the year.

• E-books were up 49% for the quarter, and up 15% for the year.

• More than 1,900 free books were sent around the world in 2022. In Q4, 580 Spanish paperbacks were gifted to Urantia Association International, which distributed them to nine Latin American countries, and 90 Spanish books were gifted to the Fellowship’s Pipeline of Light. This brought the Fellowship’s total to 941 free books in 2022.

• Total dissemination was up 20% for Q4, and 9% for the year. This includes everything but downloads.

• Urantia Foundation also had Urantia Books printed. 4,500 Portuguese, 2,000 Spanish European, 1,200 Hungarian, and 990 Italian books have arrived at their appropriate warehouses and are selling. The Hungarians were especially pleased to have the newly revised text.

• Hanno van der Plas of the Netherlands assumed the role of manager of European book sales, replacing former trustee Henk Mylanus.

Education

• The Urantia Book International School (UBIS) is launching soon the new Spotlight Series. It will include small topics, invited speakers, and group discussion; each branch is planning one in their own language. The advisory council is increasingly global—international growth being a great highlight.

• Planning is underway for seminars on race and family.

• During their Q4 meeting, the Urantia Study Group Directory team discussed succession and how to best leave the mechanics of this operation for those who follow. The most difficult and time-consuming job is ensuring that the directory’s information is up to date. To make this easier, they approved the building of an automated system which is expected to be finished in early 2023.

Fundraising and Finances

• Donations—Q4 unrestricted donations were 11% below budget, and up 9% for 2022. Restricted donations came in 1,963% above budget, and 1,476% above budget for the year. Total income is up 20% from 2021 and up 41% from the 2022 budget.

• Estate gifts— Q4 2022 estate gifts were $407,287 compared to $0 in Q4 2021. Estate gifts for the year were $1,048,942 compared to $813,213 in 2021.

• Expenses—Total expenses were up 9% for the year, but 10% below budget.

Translations and Revisions

• The Filipino translation team completed Part I in Q4 and is now working on Paper 38. The team reported that their productivity has been going up, to the point where they can translate and edit between 20 and 30 pages a month. This is due to several factors including familiarity with the common English-to-Filipino words acquired over the past two years, and the increasing number of work hours devoted to the translation. Some minor adjustments to the organization of the team have also resulted in greater efficiency.

• The Farsi translation team is down to their final 20 papers! They plan to translate 12 papers in 2023, and the remaining 8 in 2024. You can view the Farsi translation on our website: https://www.urantia.org/fa

• The Translation Committee plans to dedicate time during the April meeting for a discussion about the Spanish revision and Chinese translation processes.