MEETING OF PARTICIPANTS OF THE

STELLE GROUP - JULY 20, 1974, AT

THE CULLOM COMMUNITY CENTER

 

TRUSTEES’ REPORT

 

J. Howery - pres., G. Kieninger - v pres., D. Cysewski - treas., J. Williams - sec’y

 

1.     Fred Kleinberg has been appointed the new position of managing editor for the “Stelle Letter,” replacing Tom Valentine who is busy with other activities.

 

2.     Dennis Monikowski has been appointed coordinator for the Public Meeting in Chicago.

 

3.     Voting on the assessment for establishment of an Emergency Relief Fund has been closed, with a majority vote in favor of the proposal. One half of the money has been received to date.

 

4.     J. E. Howery Discussion:

 

 

I wish to apologize to the 15% of the membership to which the discussion tonight does not apply and to the newer members who have not as yet been sufficiently involved with Stelle to have been tested.

 

A.      I would like to answer many questions which have been asked of the wrong people. By that I mean many of you have taken your questions to one another rather than to your orientation classes, or to the trustees when they are personal. Why is your approach improper?

 

First--all things being equal, the best decisions are made by those people who have the most data to base them on and that usually will be the parties responsible for the decisions being made.

 

Second--if you are going through a crisis, you undoubtedly will bring negativity into the environment of the person you talk to. The trustees have accepted the responsibility for these situations; why unload them onto another member who may not be able to handle the negativity you introduce into his environment?

 

Third--if you have a valid point to make, it generally must pass through the trustees anyway before it will be implemented.

 

Fourth--there are approximately ten different approaches lower entities seem to use to drop in negative thoughts on people who are in a crisis. The trustees through experience over the years have a good understanding of these approaches and also need to know how widespread it is during periods of general attack in order that corrective measures can be taken to counter such attacks.

 

Fifth--it is your responsibility to The Stelle Group.

 

Sixth--everything that the trustees “have a need to know” gets back to them. It is part and parcel of the help we get to carry out the work we have assumed the responsibility for and is as it should be.

 

B.      I would like to take a moment to address the members who have been here less than one year. I admonish you to avoid carefully the following pitfalls:

 

1. Politics. Remember that an idea which is counter to the status quo and is taken to someone you know will agree with you regardless of the idea, good or bad, constitutes a subtle form of politics. Take your ideas to your orientation classes, the trustees, board of directors or supervisors where they belong and can be acted upon.

 

2. Gossip and Rumors. While we are here in Stelle, we are the guests and the junior partners of the Brotherhoods and Christ. In these capacities, it is the responsibility of each person to keep himself qualified to be here as Their guests. We are doing the Brotherhoods’ thing. They are not answerable to us. Many older members who are not yet doing the Brotherhoods’ thing and still insist on doing their own thing because in that way their insecurities are not impinged upon, may try to attract you to their gossip center. Beware of these negative chakras (energy-centers) and know that they will disappear when there are no longer ears that listen. Do not assume that the older Stelle Group members have automatically become experts of the Philosophy. Remember, Egoic growth comes from the effort put forth towards it, not from the amount of time one spends at it.

 

C.      We have started having meetings with regard to what we call economic direction and planning, attended by the Board of Trustees, the Board of Directors, Thomas Hood, and Merrilie Johnson. Although I mentioned this before, I was told it was too brief and will therefore expand on it. One of the main areas we are studying is the economic situation that is coming up, as well as past history of economics, and we are trying to project more closely when the depression might be expected to occur. Another area we are working on is how to provide for the basic needs of Stelle and outside communities. Those basic needs in the order of their priority are:

 

1.       Food/Water

2.       Heat/Power

3.       Sanitation/Medical

4.       Physical Defense/Communications

5.       Shelter

6.       Clothing

7.       Mental/Physical Activity and Goals

8.       Community Organization

 

Bob Hanauer is coordinator for the food, and we are looking into quite a few agricul­tural programs including hydroponics, which is being tested in a scientific manner, under control, and well documented. As to heat/power, this will come from some­thing we don’t yet have. We are evaluating inventions now and have been for some time.

 

D.      Regarding admissions, there have been many people who out of not knowing where their membership status stands or wanting to hear about it more quickly have taken their questions to other Stelle members. There is only one place your answers will come from, and that is Admissions: so please direct your questions there where they belong.

 

F.      There have been gossip and rumors with regard to Greenhouse funds being used for things other than the Greenhouse project. I would like to report the actual status of the account: To date we have spent $49, 665. 00 toward the greenhouse project for purchase of the 80 acres of land and putting in the water well. We have received $21,804.63, leaving a deficit of $27,860.37 still due to The Stelle Group from the fund.

 

F.      In answer to questions about the financial situation of Stelle and rumors from the gossip circuit that we are not growing because of negative financial karma, I would like to explain the actual situation which exists based on fact. It is as follows:

 

As of June 30, 1974

Stelle Industries, Inc. Assets                         $1,250,000.00

Stelle Industries, Inc. Accounts Payable        $3,000.00

The Stelle Group Assets                               $650,000.00

The Stelle Group Constr. Accounts Payable  $32,000.00

 

Collectively, then, we have:

          Assets         $ 1,900,000.00
          Payables      125,000.00

 

This shows that only 6 1/2% of our assets are not paid for or are being paid by agreement of both parties involved through loans. Therefore, if we are not using more than we have paid for either with cash or time payment, we are not in a situation of financial karmic indebtedness. Those of you involved in this rumor and gossip circuit about the terrible financial karma we have, would do well to get your facts straight and learn what karma means since your gossip has gained for you some of the wrong kind of karma.

 

There exists on the outside a tight money problem, and we who carry the financial decision-making responsibility are aware of most of the causes. The banks in the area don’t have much money to loan out, partly because the farmers have not yet sold their crops from last year while waiting for higher prices. We are trying to adjust to the situation that exists. We are presently working towards getting all of our operating divisions into a solid profit—making existence and expanding those divisions that are making profits. For the first time in a long time, we know where we stand financially. We are also operating on an austerity program in trying to keep operating costs to a minimum.

 

G.      Relative to housing, there have been rumors that Priority Points no longer have any significance. Let me state emphatically that their importance has not changed; however, the basis for Priority Points was that many people would come with more money than was needed for their houses alone. To date, there has not been that much extra money coming in. Therefore the criteria presently being used is that a house will not be built if there is not a down-payment. I trust this is a temporary situation. We have, however, recently added another stipulation, a checkpoint for insuring that persons living in Stelle will be Egos who are striving for advance­ment and are in agreement with the Philosophy, thus guaranteeing to all who live in Stelle an environment which is conducive to Egoic advancement. This does not imply that all who are already living in Stelle would necessarily be acceptable today under these newly imposed Stelle standards.

 

H.      In answer to questions of when we will have lessons to study and when will the Emissaries be here to teach us, it would be good to review the following thoughts and ask yourself if you think you are ready for the Emissaries to come and physically work with you.

 

1.     Are you a responsible person?

2.     Have you developed self-discipline?

3.     Do you daily practice and live the Great Virtues?

4.     Have you balanced “Practicality - Spirituality - Mentality”?

5.     Have you read The Ultimate Frontier so many times that you no longer see things which appear to be new to you?

6.     Are you familiar with all the data in your Membership Manual?

7.     Do you know and understand Universal Law?

 

Presently only about 15% of the membership are far enough along the Path to warrant the physical attention of the Emissaries. The other 85% of you have all the information you presently need for Egoic growth. I would like to quote from the “Observations” column of the April issue of the “Stelle Letter”:

 

“We always seem to want upliftment without effort, and I suspect that people hanker after the concept that through some special grace God has and may soon again enlighten and advance us without our own effort being required. The whole scheme of life is and has been based on balanced

 

development from lower to higher; from lesser to greater; from ig­norance to knowledge. No one can do our growing for us. Mankind receives information as fast as we can assimilate it and can actually use it in practical application. Over the ages man has never been denied truth. He just hasn’t listened to it or heeded it.”

 

I.       The necessity for the recent policies which have been issued is distressing. Immanuel Kant has stated: “In nature’s method of developing the hidden capacities of life, struggle is the indispensable accompaniment of progress.” It has been observed here that there continues on the part of some of the mem­bership a lack of desire to do the job that needs to be done. There still continues to be too much of the “I would rather do my own thing” or “what I enjoy doing.” That is not Stelle. This is an organization, and in an organization you must follow the policies of the organization. There is a definite lack of desire to face and struggle with our own Egoic growth problems. With only two productive years left, many members still do not get their donated time in. Other members inform their supervisors that they already have their 66 hours in even when there is ad­ditional work needed to be done requiring only 1 or 2 hours and are more con­cerned about getting their vacations than whether or not they will play an impor­tant part in The Stelle Group’s goals.

 

p.       114, TUF: “The world cannot stand excellence and will seek to tear down whatever shows them up as lessers. It will require courageous men and women to take the grand step of allying them­selves with the community, for their families and friends will bring social pressure to bear in order to dissuade them. But Christ Himself declared, “I am come to set man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father and mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me is not worthy of me.” (Matt. 10:35-38) *** Those who cannot or will not follow must be abandoned. Those who are ready to advance must not be held back by their lessers. The lessers must be cut off without a backward glance, for they are as dead, and they shall lose life. We cannot save them all.”

 

(This was not stated at the meeting but was felt relevant to the general discussion.)

 

Some years ago while we were still in Chicago, I asked Richard at an Open House what he would do if the present membership was not accomplishing the goals of the Great Plan which are assigned to The Stelle Group. His response was, “I will get new people.” If you will refer to the latest insert you have received for your Membership Manual (“An Egoic Growth Concept”), you will see that his­torically that is exactly what is done. The attrition rate of all applicants to those who are part of the membership today is 67%, which should connote to everyone the extremely high level of selectivity in Stelle.

 

J.       We are in the middle of two major programs at this very moment. The first is the refining and solid establishment of an economic base through the expansion of our profit-making divisions in Stelle Industries. This action is creating a financial situation which requires the elimination of wastefulness, keeping paid employees to a minimum and a higher degree of efficiency from all of us. By doing these things, we will be able to pay for the new factory addition which is critical to the establishment of a sound economic base in Stelle. The factory addition, by the way, has not been receiving your collective precipitation and without it we may be in dire straits. We have $76, 000 in structural steel ordered since December, 1973, and due any day now; and we still do not have the $650,000 loan commitment we need for the building, money which will be used to pay for the structural steel.

 

The second program we are into presently is the working toward raising the general level of the collective consciousness among The Stelle Group member­ship. Since Richard’s statement April 1st and due to his present physical absence, I believe many of you have been functioning under considerable additional and self-imposed pressures. I feel that many of you who leaned on Richard as a father figure now suffer greatly trying to stand as mature adults and therefore test and hassle The Stelle Group program looking for a new father figure who will chastise and carry your responsibility. That is not where it’s at! Others among the membership who image themselves as philosophy students and now feel they have lost their guru or physical teacher have been testing and hassling the philosophy thus searching for a new teacher or spiritual leader through argument. This also is not where it is at!

 

p. 218, TUF: “We bend our energies to the pursuit of pleasure, property and plaudits instead of to the pursuit of maturity. The former lead to folly and disillusionment whereas the latter brings contentment, confidence and self-respect. ... nobody can portray the advantages of maturity to a childish person because no amount of description can convey the feelings of an emotion to a man who has not already experienced that emotion.”

 

p. 220, TIJF: “Less than one person in 2,500” can be considered emotionally mature, and only this aristocracy of excellence is really ready for democracy.”

 

p. 222-223, TUF: “If the average man of today were transported to a civilization like that of ancient Lemuria or the coming Kingdom of God, he would be a jarring misfit. His selfishness, his negative desires and ambitions, his arrogant intolerance, hatreds, cruelties, and overall lack of personal peace and happiness would make it impossible for him to get along in co-operative harmony. Since fear, anxiety, fretfulness and irritability in one individual tend to spread to those who come in contact with him, it is obvious that he would only detract from the spiritual peace of a Lemurian environment In spite of the luxuries, beauty and material abundance that a society can create, its civilization is vapid, restless and unfulfilling if the citizens are no better than the man of today. He has not learned self-discipline let alone self-government. He would require too many laws, and the Lemurian way of life relies on its code of ethics without external enforcement.

 

“The very minimum of government is a Lemurian principle lest the government operate in the environment of the citizens against Cosmic Law.”

 

Everyone here has a choice to make which must be followed with a commitment. The outside philosophy that it is what’s inside of a person that is important is an excuse for immature external actions. You are as you think~ and your actions and behavior reflect what you think. It is not possible to vacillate and remain long in Stelle. To not make a decision is in itself a decision.

 

Will we have more and more regulation, or do we remove those who will not grow? Each of you must decide.

 

 

 

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