© 2018 Larry Bowman
© 2018 The Urantia Book Fellowship
by Larry Bowman
At the Triennial Delegate Assembly in July at Techny Towers in Illinois, seven newcomers and three former Councilors were elected to the Urantia Book Fellowship’s General Council. New on the Council are Ted Blaney, Pamela Chaddock, Jack Holloway, Stephen Sawyer, David Schlundt, Jill Strunk, and Ben VanPelt. Returning to GC after absences of a few years are Tom Allen, John Lange, and Barbara Newsom.
In all, the TDA elected 18 candidates for 19 openings. Incumbents reelected were Lara Amyx, Emilio Coppola, Avi Dogim, John Hales, Diane Labrecque, Derek Samaras, Cristina Seaborn, and Geoff Taylor. The remaining vacancy will be filled by the Council at its winter meeting.
At the Council meeting following the Summer Study Session, the newly reorganized Executive Committee was elected. Formerly the EC consisted of 14 members: five officers and nine committee chairs. In order to reduce the need for so many people having to travel to four meetings a year, three new positions were created to oversee the committees and represent them at the EC meetings. These three Service Team Leaders join the five officers in comprising the new EC.
The only new officer is the President, Dana Bredemeyer. Michael Challis stepped down as President to become Vice President. Steven Dreier, Emilio Coppola, and Larry Bowman were reelected respectively as Secretary, Treasurer, and Secretary General.
Geoffrey Theiss was elected to a three-year term as Worldwide Service T earn Leader. This consists of the Interfaith, International, Outreach, and Youth and Young Adult committees.
Lara Amyx was elected to a two-year term as Fellowship Service Team Leader. This consists of the Education, Finance, Judicial, and Membership committees.
Cristina Seaborn was elected to a one-year term as Media and Communications Service Team Leader. This consists of the Publications committee and the IT and Website Content ad hoc committees.
In another year Cristina’s position will become available as a three-year term. In two years the same will be true of Lara’s term. In three years, each of the Service T earn Leaders will be serving staggered three-year terms.
On Geoff Theiss’ ( Geoffrey the Younger) service team, the committee chairs are Geoff Taylor (Geoffrey the Elder) for Interfaith, Derek Samaras for International Fellowship, Paula Thompson for Outreach, and Sean Privitera for Ya YA (Youth and Young Adults).
Lara’s service team consists of David Kulieke as Education Chair, Tom Allen as Judicial Chair, and Dan Amyx as Membership Chair. (Dan is already used to Lara telling him what to do.) Lara will also serve as Finance Chair.
On Cristina’s service team, the only standing committee is Publications, which for now she is also chairing. For the two ad hoc committees, Emilio Coppola is chair of IT, and Dana Bredemeyer is chair of Website Content.