Education Committee Report 

For the year 2010  

In the past year the Education Committee had organized and run the Summer Study Session of 2010 which, according to the feedback we received, was successful.

The conference was held at Techny Towers in Chicago, a venue which was perceived by most attendees to be a major improvement over the previous location. 120 persons attended, a 5.5% increase over attendance at SSS 2009. 

Although we had a children’s program prepared and available none registered. We are not discouraged and will continue offering this program.

Our website is developing and growing.

We held our annual meeting in Florida over a weekend in November, at which time we discussed the Education Committee’s mission and came up with language for a Constitutional Amendment that will clearly state it.

We spent a lot of time during our numerous conference calls and a face to face meeting discussing the best ways to stimulate and promote in-depth study of the whole revelation.

GOALS FOR 2011 

Continue expanding our website

Write at least one article for each Mighty Messenger

Present two educational workshops at IC11

Run two intensive workshops in collaboration with a Florida study group – preparing potential teachers.

Initiate planning for SSS12

We are ready and willing to make presentations and workshops for any group that will invite us. 

For the year 2009

In the past year the Education Committee had organized and run the Summer Study Session of 2009, which was successful both educationally and financially. At the present time, the Committee is actively engaged in preparations for Summer Study Session 2010, which will be held at a new location, Techny Towers in Chicago. For more information about the site go to www.technytowers.org

The Committee met over a weekend in October during which it developed a Strategic Plan (see below) describing its goals and plans for the rest of the year.

 STRATEGIC PLAN

 Over the past year, the Education Committee has shifted into higher gear: we aim to work for and encourage a change in the culture of learning within the Fellowship.  We are inspired by the norms of the Fifth Mansion World, which exhibit for the first time among average ascenders, unselfish service and spontaneous worship, and especially, for us in the Education Committee, the notion of voluntary study. 

We on the Committee believe that the practice of voluntary study presupposes a deeper and broader focus by students of The Urantia Book on the pursuit of truth, beauty and goodness.  This inspiring idealism embraces elements of mind and spirit, a living marriage of meanings and values.  In attempting this shift to a more studied approach to the teachings of the Fifth Epochal Revelation, we are moved by the principle of group wisdom guided by our best effort to discern God's will for the quality and extent of education in our experience.  

We want to see a more explicit use of The Urantia Book as fellow students gather to learn from the revelation through group study.  We are taking steps toward creating a more deliberate approach to the use of the book, including preregistration for the summer study sessions, greater effort to communicate with Fellowship members through a newsletter of the Education Committee and an expanded Education website. Also planned are the establishment of a preconference day as a permanent feature of study conferences and collaboration with the Education Initiative with an eye toward improving study groups and study practices.  

In evaluating our work, we will be mindful of "performance-based" forms of assessment, i.e., programs and events, the fruit of which can be observed for their effects.  For instance, in the process of teaching some of our members to present more effectively, we would want them to actually "present" later on in the same conference in which they received their training.  This follows the principle in the universe of "learning in the morning and practicing in the afternoon," if you will.  We, on the Committee, believe that the effort to combine theory and practice, idealism and habit, is crucial to improving the culture of learning within the Fellowship.  Programs or events that can succeed at Fellowship conferences may in turn serve as educational models for regional conferences and for study group  At least, this is our motivating ideal. 

GOALS FOR 2010 

1. Expanding the Summer Study Seminar to include

            a. Preconference day offering more options than in the previous years

    b. Children’s program

    c. Truth seekers program

    d. Some workshops requiring preregistration and study of the assigned materials  prior to participation

2. Developing an expanded Education Committee website

3. Publishing and distributing a semiannual Education Committee Newsletter to promote conferences and other educational endeavors

 

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