News > North America

UBF Headquarters
May 27, 2014

Last weekend, May 22-24, the North America senior staff and elders had a meeting at the Chicago chapter in the USA and reviewed the "UBF North American Local Chapter Guidelines." These guidelines were developed in committees by senior staff at an earlier meeting in San Diego in early February 2014. Subsequently, these guidelines were reviewed by the North American Board of Elders and a review committee appointed by P. Abraham Kim, which included Mark Vucecovich, Teddy Hembekides, Ron Ward, Dr. Augustine Suh, Kevin Albright, Dr. Jose Ahn, and David Baik. This review committee met in late February and March and suggested revisions to the original drafting committees. After revision, the latest draft was reviewed by the senior staff and elders over the weekend.
Before considering the revised draft, the senior staff and elders listened to two lectures on Tuesday evening. Dr. Joe Wert, an associate professor and university dean in political science, shared “Three Types of Government Structures” which summarized how the federal and state and local governments in the United States work together. Afterward, P. Kevin Albright shared a lecture on the history of church government. Then, on Friday morning, the senior staff and elders reviewed the committee drafts section by section from the beginning to the end. On Saturday morning P. Abraham Kim reported on the works of God during 2013 and shared prayer topics for 2014. P. Mark Vucecovich reported on the North American UBF ministry region by region. He brought the issue of the 2015 North American staff conference. It was suggested to hold the conference on June 16-20, 2015 at Colorado State University. Senior staff and elders will pray about this and confirm it at a later date. There was also a brief discussion about which book of the Bible to study at the next staff conference in 2015. Dr. Jose Ahn encouraged UBE leaders to encourage qualified and interested members to apply for short-term missions for this summer. Finally, the meeting ended with earnest prayer.
Total attendants were 30 (Chicago: 16; outside: 14). Sh. Andrew Christopher (Montreal, Canada), P. Kevin Albright (Chicago) and Sh. Bob Henkins (IIT, Chicago) were invited according to the recommendation at the last year’s meeting.