|
Issue 15
|
Editor's Corner Janet Nilsen |
|
Dear Northwest Urantia Association Members, In the past, Northwest Urantia Association elections have been so conducted that the physical presence of members was necessary to participate in the nominations and balloting process. Consequently, this practice has resulted in the virtual disenfranchisement of the large majority of our farflung membership. The NUA could now, for all practical purposes and functions, be termed the Willamette Valley Urantia Association or more accurately, the Portland Metro Urantia Association. The US Pacific Northwest encompasses a huge geographical area. It is incongruous with IUA goals that the recent NUA elections were decided by a handful of individuals, most of whom reside within a few square miles of each other. We, the Senior NUA Governing Board officers, wish to address and rectify this increasingly imbalanced situation before more elections are conducted. It is imperative that distance and physical barriers should not be limiting factors in NUA elections participation. In order to correct the errors of the past, we in our capacity as NUA officers intend to enact the following: 1. Poll each member as to their desire to participate in NUA. If participation is desired, then each indivdual will be asked to decide their NUA status: either as an active voting member, or as a non-voting inactive member. 2. After determining the voting status of all listed members, conduct elections using the current mail-in nomination and balloting procedures in use by USUA. The International and United States Urantia Associations are vibrant, growing organizations. IUA/USUA members may span the globe but they can enjoy daily contact with each other via fax, phone and email. The USUA mail-in nomination and election procedures have succeeded in overcoming the barriers of distance. Members’ physical presence is not a requirement to vote. The past NUA voting practices have inadvertantly worked to exclude the active participation of distant members. Regional provincialism is inappropriate in even local Urantia Associations. Increasingly important elections of UA officers should not be decided by a small group of friends. For those of you who have found active membership in Northwest URANTIA Association impractical or impossible, please accept our heartfelt apologies. Your cooperation in helping us correct this unfortunate situation is greatly appreciated. Your increased participation in NUA functions and elections, by any means, is very much desired. Thank you for your patience as we attend to this long overdue restructuring of NUA election procedures. Yours In Service, Janet Quinn Nilsen - NUA Vice President Rebecca Oswald - NUA Secretary Editor, Northwest URANTIAN NUA Meeting Minutes - March 26, 2000 Eight members of the Northwest Urantia Association met on March 26, 2000 in West Linn, Oregon at the home of Bruce Porter. Members present were NUA President Pat Murnin, Vice President Janet Quinn Nilsen, Treasurer Anne James, Secretary Rebecca Oswald, MC, Bruce Porter, Jeanette Schafer, and Dennis Gray. Gabe MacIsaac came as a guest. Janet gave a report on her recent trip to Chicago for Urantia Foundation’s 50th Anniversary and the USUA Council of Presidents and Vice Presidents’ strategic planning session held on March 17. She shared a list of questions that were presented at the planning meeting for the group’s opinion. She presented a copy of Urantia Foundation’s recently published history to NUA. It is available for lending from Rebecca. Janet also made a $50.00 pledge from NUA for the translation effort at the Foundation’s fundraising dinner. Anne reported that we have $178.00 in our treasury, before giving the above-mentioned pledge. Nine people paid their dues last year, and this year’s are due in May. A discussion followed about the need to distinguish between active and inactive members in the future. Also discussed was the need to contact and involve our Washington members, whose presence has been missed at this past year’s meetings. It was suggested that the next newsletter include information addressing this. A winter newsletter was not mailed out due to Janet’s computer crashing. The deadline for submitting articles to the next newsletter is June 15. Rebecca read the minutes from the fall meeting. She invited all present to her upcoming masters degree composition recital. Rebecca proposed that we, the NUA, take up the challenge to come up with a specific project(s) to raise funds for the UF’s translation efforts. Let’s all come up with some ideas. Pat asked Bruce to tell us about the retreat he hosted recently at his home. Bruce said that retreat activities focused on group worship and prayer. A phone hookup was used to enable three other retreat groups to worship simultaneously. Janet reported that SURF President Jane Ploetz has compiled book placement lists of universities and colleges for all states. Members were asked to each "adopt" colleges for book placement. Contact Janet for NW college book placement info. Gabe MacIsaac suggested that a work/study scholarship program be created so that young adult readers could attend IUA conferences with less expense. Pat Murnin presided over nominations and elections for new NUA president and treasurer. Janet presented a note of proxy from her husband Dan who was unable to attend. Bruce questioned the use of proxy votes. Janet pointed out that there had been precedent of proxy use by the NUA governing board itself. Bruce and others continued to question the appropriateness of proxy use in the absence of a prepared ballot. A decision to not use the proxy vote today was reached by a show of hands. For the election of President of NUA, Bruce nominated Jeanette Schafer; this nomination was seconded by Anne James. Pat nominated Janet Nilsen; this nomination was seconded by Rebecca. It was explained that if Janet won, we would have to elect a new Vice President. For the election of Treasurer of NUA, MC was nominated and ran unopposed. Dennis Gray was also nominated, but he declined. The IUA voting policy was reviewed. Six members present had at least three years’ standing and cast two votes each. For President, Jeanette received 9 votes, Janet received 5; for Treasurer, Mario received 12 votes. The new NUA governing board is as follows: President, Jeanette Schafer. Vice President, Janet Quinn Nilsen. Treasurer, MC. Secretary, Rebecca Oswald. Welcome aboard, Jeanette and Mario. We give loving thanks to Pat and Anne for their service as NUA officers these past two years. President-elect Jeanette handed out copies of a colorful newletter about the Retreat Network. It has articles and retreat schedules geared to Urantia Book readers who wish to cultivate the worship experience with others. For more info on the Retreat Network, contact Jeanette or Bruce. The new governing board decided to continue having its monthly conference call on the second Tuesday evening of each month, as before. The governing board plans to meet once before the next meeting. The next NUA meeting will be held at the UB camping retreat July 14-16 at Cape Lookout State Park. The time and exact location of the meeting will be announced in the future. Our meeting closed with a prayer. Respectfully submitted 4-6-00 by Rebecca Oswald, NUA Secretary NUA Election Errors Announcement Dear NUA Members, It is necessary to inform you of the discovery of serious errors in the conduct of the recent NUA elections for President and Treasurer. Apparently, inadvertent errors were made in counting the March 13, 2000 membership list, in the members named on the list itself, and in the resulting calculations made to determine the required number of voting members which would constitute a quorum. The March 26th elections proceeded with 8 voting members present on the basis of the following erroneous information: that NUA possessed a voting membership of 21, indicating that 7 voting members constitute a quorum, while the March 13th list gives 25 individuals’ names. If that list had been counted accurately prior to the elections, the elections would necessarily have been postponed, as a valid quorum for a membership of 25 is 9 members. A post-election inspection of the March 13th list revealed that several NUA members’ names were missing from the list. Each of these "missing members" has since been verified as valid by USUA Secretary Connie Greene. USUA data confirms a total NUA membership of 31. A valid quorum for a memberhip of 31 is 11 members. This unfortunate situation was surely due to innocent human error(s), but he discrepancy is too great to ignore. Too many members were disenfranchised in the way the elections were conducted. Upon consideration of these facts we have concluded that wisdom, integrity, and adherence to IUA by-laws requires us, as NUA Vice President and Secretary, to declare the March 26th elections invalid. The USUA Governing Board has been apprised of this matter, and mail-in nominations and elections will be held as soon as the active/inactive status of each NUA member is positively determined. We thank you for your patience in the meantime. In service,
NUA Welcomes Foundation Visitors NUA members and all interested students of The Urantia Book are invited to meet with URANTIA Foundation Executive Director, Tonia Baney; IUA Administrator, Cathy Jones; and at least one URANTIA Foundation Trustee. Please join us at the Columbia River Doubletree Hotel, June 24, 1:00-5:00pm for a lively, informative afternoon with our honored guests from Chicago. Light refreshments will be served. For directions and room reservations call the Columbia River Doubletree Hotel at 1-503-283-2111. Address: 1401N. Hayden Island Dr., Portland, OR . Be sure to ask for the URANTIA Foundation event discount. To RSVP or for more information contact Lynn Prentice, Events Director, at 1-888-URANTIA. A similar event will be held in Vancouver, B.C., Sunday, June 25, 2:30-5:00pm at 5055 Joyce St. Contact Lynn Prentice or Nathen Jansen, CUA Vice-President at: 805-2150 Bellevue Ave, West Vancouver, B.C. V7V1C3, Canada. Phone:1-604-926-5814; email nnk@telus.ne Become A Sponsor In the College Placement Program Jane Ploetz, President of the Southwest Readers Family (SURF) has initiated a program to place copies of The URANTIA Book in every US university and college library. URANTIA Foundation’s library placement program will donate a copy to each college upon receipt of a request for a book by that school. The plan is for volunteers from each local URANTIA Association to "adopt" the regional college(s) of their choice and to follow through with a simple placement procedure already in use by URANTIA Foundation. If you wish to participate in the College Placement Program in an area outside the Pacific Northwest, please contact: Jane Ploetz, 960 Ora Avo Dr., Vista, CA 92084-6567 or at jploetz@sdcoe.k12.ca.us. To "adopt" a Pacific Northwest college, contact: Janet Nilsen, PO Box 833, Cascadia, OR 97329; or email: jqnagog@peak.org. Send designated donations to URANTIA Foundation., 533 Diversey Parkway, Chicago, IL 60614 First USUA President Rick Brinkman Departs for Morontia Career Dear Friends, It is with deep regret that I announce the passing of Rick Brinkman on Sunday, May 21, 2000. Rick, a native of New York, retired chiropractor, living in Florida, was a dedicated student of The URANTIA Book for several decades. He was loved and respected by those who knew and served with him over the years. Rick was the first president of the Greater New York URANTIA Association, first president of the United States URANTIA Association and served as president of the URANTIA Association of Florida for four years. His loyalty and belief in the URANTIA teachings were evident in his life. We will miss him.After Wednesday, May 23rd you may call Shiela at the URANTIA Foundation for further information.Sincerely, Cathy Jones, IUA Administrator. IUAList Salutes Dr. Rick Brinkman
P.3 - §5 Divinity may be perfect--complete--as on existential and creator levels of Paradise perfection; it may be imperfect, as on experiential and creature levels of time-space evolution; or it may be relative, neither perfect nor imperfect, as on certain Havona levels of existential-experiential relationships. P.3 - §13 7. Absolute perfection in no attribute, imperfection in all. P.137 - §5 In all his dealings with all his beings it is true that the laws of God are not inherently arbitrary. To you, with your limited vision and finite view point the acts of God must often appear to be dictatorial and arbitrary.The laws of God are merely the habits of God, his way of repeatedly doing things; and he ever does all things well. You observe that God does the same thing in the same way, repeatedly, simply because that is the best way to do that particular thing in a given circumstance; and the best way is the right way, and therefore does infinite wisdom always order it done in that precise and perfect manner. You should also remember that nature is not the exclusive act of Deity; other influences are present in those phenomena which man calls nature.
|
