© 2019 Paula Thompson and Derek Samaras
© 2019 The Urantia Book Fellowship
Now that you’ve read all that all of us do at The Urantia Book Fellowship, you may want to know what role the central office plays in all of this. Where to begin?
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Reader Services is the most beloved part of our job. Have you ever called or emailed the office with a question or a request? If so, you are not alone, many readers do, and we love being here for everyone. We hope that you will always find a friendly and helpful voice on our end, even if it’s just a friendly, listening ear. Among other things we help readers with conference registration, website issues, general UB questions, books sales, outreach materials, study group information, help with starting study groups, finding other readers, and promoting and consulting on Urantia events. We’ve often helped people find that passage that they just can’t find. There is not much we won’t do to help Urantia Book readers.
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Internal Support is the invaluable support that we provide for Fellowship volunteers. These are the people who step up to serve the mission of revelation together with us. In that regard, the office is like a company secretary. We are instrumental in bringing these devoted volunteers together with what they need to do their work. Here are some examples:
- a. Publications Committee needs us to manage the logistics and coordination for mailing our wonderful publications around the world. All of this happens from the office.
- b. Outreach Committee often needs our help in setting up booth outreach efforts by securing booth space for various expos. The people who promote those events need a central location to liaise with. We work similarly with the Youth and Young Adult Committee, Interfaith Committee and International Committee.
- c. Membership Committee counts on us as a first point of contact for members and potential members.
- d. Education Committee counts on us to manage conference venue contracts and contacts. To help make sure all logistical requirements for conferences are met, including and especially registration.
- e. Finance Committee needs our help with writing fundraising letters and managing campaigns.
- f. Then there is the Executive Committee, consisting of the President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary and Secretary General. We hope that the support that the Fellowship officers require to do their jobs is self-evident because it would require another whole report to list it.
- g. In addition to our Standing Committees and Officers, we also have important Ad Hoc Committees that manage our web presence and book publishing, and again, they count on us to liaise with the many outsourced services they employ.
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Special Projects are something that we thrive on. One such project is the ever popular Pipeline of Light. The Pipeline of Light was created to meet the need of people who sincerely want the book but simply can’t afford it. For twenty years we’ve collected funds to purchase and ship books in all languages. As of last March our current efforts brought the Pipeline all-time totals to seven thousand, one hundred and ten copies of The Urantia Book placed into eighty-five countries around the world.
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Prison Ministry is something dear to our hearts. We have a team of devoted volunteers who have shipped hundreds of books to prisoners domestically and have corresponded with most of them. This effort is also coordinated from the Fellowship’s office.
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Office Space was not always a benefit we enjoyed. For more than 12 years we did all of these tasks from an upstairs bedroom in our Director’s home. Eleven months ago we secured an office space which allows us space for meetings, visitors, and volunteers who want to come and help out and because of the support of friends like you we now have ample space just to do our work. Thank you! We hope this gives you a small idea of the work we do at the Fellowship’s central office. We know you have many worthy causes that you can donate funds to, and we also know that administration work is not a really sexy cause, so we are deeply grateful for donations that go to general purposes. Thank you sincerely for helping us keep the lights on!
Your friends at the Fellowship Office, Paula Thompson and Derek Samaras!