Leadership Role of the Core-Group of 49
- Article by Bernadette Brand, published in the FIGU-Bulletin Nr. 72, December, 2010
- Translated by: Vivienne Legg with assistance from Vibka Wallder, Adam Dei Rocini and Dyson Devine
- Translator’s note: Bernadette is the secretary of the core-group of 49, Switzerland.
Originally, the idea of the study groups goes back, of course, to Billy, because, already in the initial years of FIGU, various core-group members, prompted by Billy, maintained diverse, little study groups which they led themselves. Thus, regular meetings, such as these, existed in Schaffhausen, Kloten, Winterthur, in Schongau, Konstanz und Munich, and not the least, in the Center itself.
In the past years, a series of FIGU study groups then came about worldwide which, in the beginning, only loosely worked together with the core-group of 49 at the Semjase-Silver-Star-Center. In part, overseas study groups existed with only a few persons, about whom, at the beginning, we were not even informed, and who got together sporadically, or regularly, in order to read and study the spiritual teaching together, in the narrower or broader sense, or to translate it into their country’s language. One of the first study groups which formed was the South German Study Group, which was founded by Günter Neugebauer und Andrea Grässl, however, before they made their way into the core-group. Soon followed, in Japan and the USA, the first official FIGU groups, which became “official” FIGU groups because of their federal laws, because they had to register as associations with their own statutes, in their respective countries. By and by, further little study groups, and study groups, came about, which began to make efforts – extending beyond the study of the spiritual teaching – to do publicity work in some form or other. These efforts then led to the first conflicts, because it was not understood that the spiritual teaching is not to be spread by missionising, rather that every human being’s personal freedom of opinion, and free right to to make a decision, must always be preserved. From these first efforts, the core-group then worked out initial, simple rules which the study groups had to bear in mind, because we recognised that the mission could only be helped towards the desired success through an appropriate order and an efficient structure, that is to say, an appropriate system.
At all times, the responsible core-group members stood by the side of all these study groups with their knowledge, and with moral and practical support, in order to help the study groups to sort their inner and outer structures into an appropriate framework. The core-group of 49 was thereby confronted with the most varied problems and country-specific circumstances, for which solutions had to be sought and found, for which we offered assistance – appropriately, and within the structure – as is determined by the statutes and rules of FIGU. Since the legal regulations in regard to associations are not the same in every country, let it be explained here that, in Switzerland, and in other countries, statutes externally describe the legal basis of an association. Statutes are, for example, submitted to the authorities, legal persons, other associations or private persons, who want to, or must, be informed about the sense and purpose of an association. The rules, on the other hand, are the regulatory factor which internally forms the association in its essential inner structure, and which does not have to be announced outwardly, rather it only serves the internal order. The rules must, of course, be aligned with the statutes – that is to say – move within the rule of the statutes. Put another way, the rules are an internal interpretation or precise rendering of the statutes.
The rules and statutes of FIGU are absolutely unique worldwide because they have not been drawn up by the founding members of FIGU. Their fundamental development, and their necessary expansion up until now, do not only lead back to Billy, but also to Quetzal und Ptaah, together with their team of advisers concerning terrestrial matters. Especially Quetzal decisively contributes in regard to the rules and statutes and is, for that, the responsible one from the Plejaren side, just as he is for the core-group handbook which guarantees order and function within the core-group. That guarantees that the statutes and rules of the FIGU core-group are extremely far-sighted and progressively constructed and that, in their essentials, they comprise and implement the creational-natural laws and recommendations as far as that is at all possible in accord with terrestrial, or, more exactly, Swiss, legislation. The statutes and rules are thereby absolutely independent from the mentalities and value-concepts of nations or those typical of peoples, because they are worked out such that they alone take into consideration the real, and inner, mentality and value of the human beings. Thus it follows that the statutes and rules of FIGU are oriented towards absolute longevity and already predetermine the entire scope and structure of FIGU as it not only presents today, but as it will also present in many hundreds of years. Already established in the essential features is the association’s entire wordwide structure of which, in the course of the coming centuries, only insignificant things will change, and which is directed towards growth and success. Naturally, room is given for necessary adjustments and expansions, which will prove unavoidable. But that does not mean that anything will, or can, change regarding the principles, because, after Billy’s death, and the final stopping of the contacts from the Plejaren side, the then existing set of rules will, in all their parts, remain such and be maintained as they are, unless it proves, in the course of time, that certain expansions to the existing basis become necessary.
The core-group of 49 at the Semjase-Silver-Star-Center has, for years, already recognised and learnt – as a result of Billy’s instruction and the practical implementation of the statutes and rules, as well as the consistent application of the rules in the core-group’s handbook – that, from it, emerges peace, cooperation and effective success which is not only lasting, rather it vehemently increases and intensifies.
In the context of the implementation of the statutes and rules, very much room is provided for the personal develpoment of individual core-group members and their interests, talents and skills, however this fulfilment always happens in the context of the common good of the association and its members. The means for that is the communication between the members, which we in the core-group were able to learn and which should also be learnt in the study groups and national groups. In all FIGU groups, one’s own opinion shall, and is permitted to, be held without punishment and consequences, and it shall not only be accepted by the other members, but is mostly also really understood. The FIGU members all sit in the same boat, and all work together and for eachother, which basically constitutes the success of FIGU. There is no room at all for little personal power plays, for highhandedness, arrogance, selfishness, pressure, Gewalt and controlling, as well as suggestive, goings on in regard to the manipulation of other FIGU members in view of one’s own wishes, ideas and desires. Members who tend towards such faulty behaviour are, however, not to be schoolmastered by other members, rather are to be taught in a neutral and rational form, in that they hold an allocated place within their groups, in which the opportunities are taken away from them for a degeneration in the mentioned form, whereby they can learn to overcome their failings and find their way to new forms of communication and cooperation. The fundamentally most important factor of FIGU membership is the equal value and equal standing of all members as human beings. Once that is recognised, and this value is implemented in practice, then very many problems and animosities thereby fall away, as do difficulties with communication; and the need to want to rule over others rapidly decreases and ultimately dissolves. The matter of FIGU itself, therefore the mission of the worldwide spreading of the truth, must stand in the first line as the foremost interest of FIGU members. Personal wishes, bad habits, egoism and power-lust only hinder the mission, destroy its credibility and ultimately lead to personal problems, because the egoistical wishes and endeavours cannot be translated into action.
As determined by the statutes and rules, and as a result of that which the current core-group members were able to learn during more than 30 years in hard discussions, untiring work and through Billy’s patient, never-waning instruction, the core-group has, today, taken on the task – as the core-group as a whole, as an unanimously deciding collective acting consistently within the statutes and rules – of taking on the leadership role for all existing, and still emerging, FIGU groups, as in study groups, and national groups, from which, at a later time, core-groups for each country will then emerge. FIGU Switzerland, therefore the core-group of 49 of the Semjase-Silver-Star-Center, as actual support, responsible entity and mother-group for FIGU world-wide, is, on the basis of its statutes and rules, always, and in every case, authorised to give instructions to ALL study groups and national groups in the whole world.
Its obligation is the great and difficult, responsibility-laden task of building up FIGU as a worldwide association; of preserving it, and leading it into a successful future in that it creates the basis for a fundamental turn-around in the thinking of all human beings of this planet, and in that it also maintains this foundation. The core-group of 49, of the mother centre – Semjase-Silver-Star-Center – deals exclusively in the interests of the success of FIGU and thereby in the interests of the mission to which it is loyally bound. Study groups or national groups, which do not want to follow the instructions of the core-group of 49 of the mother centre, can, based on the statutes’ articles, be disbanded, and the fallible members are excluded from the passive-group of FIGU Switzerland, which can naturally also be done with refractory members of the study, and national, groups if they refuse to follow appropriate and practical instructions from the core-group. This way of proceeding does not correspond to a threat or to Gewalt, with which the unwilling members or groups are to be held in check, rather it simply guarantees the smooth functioning of FIGU, which, in consideration of the size of the task, must be secured in any case.
The concept of FIGU is very good and is forward-looking in its construction, and it provides for the forming of study groups, which are unrestricted in their number, in every country of this Earth. A single study group from among these study groups can distinguish itself such that it becomes the responsible national group, which, after its founding, overtakes the leadership of its country’s study groups, within the framework of the national group’s statutes. The distinguishing process succeeds, on one hand, through the daily commitment of the study group in the context of the mission, and, on the other hand, by means of a group-majority resolution, of all members of the relevant study group, that it wants to become the national group. The study groups are very freely organised and only have a few conditions that they must bear in mind. Thus study groups meet once a month, in each case on the 2nd Saturday of every month, and they consist of an external group in which, together with visitors and interested persons, the spiritual teaching is studied to the fullest extent, and a meditation is carried out. In the inner circle of the study groups, in which only declared study-group members are allowed, who must also be passive members of FIGU Switzerland, predominantly the publicity work is organised and carried out, as, for example, information stands in various cities, lectures which are organised by study groups, Internet contributions by the study groups or publicity activities, also in cooperation with the national group, as for example, readers’ letters, interviews on radio and TV, and so forth, and so on. The study groups are structured with a president/organiser, a secretary and a treasurer, each also having to have a deputy as soon as the group is big enough. In principle, an official study group can already be founded with two (2) persons, and the number of their participants is open ended.
The national groups are subject to clearly stricter organisation, which demands from them that groupstudy, including visitors and interested persons, is carried out in the afternoon, in addition to which an optional meditation with the guests may be carried out. The actual organisational works and regular meetings must be postponed until the evening, because the national groups are then obliged to carry out two peace meditations. In the time between the meditations, which must occur at the normal time of the relevant country, (winter time of the country), all outstanding business and organisational plans must be discussed and resolved. To that also belongs the leadership of the study groups of the relevant country, as well as the setting up of a yearly meeting for the passive members of FIGU which come from one’s own country. The national groups are led collectively by a committee of 9 (nine) persons, which includes a president, a treasurer and a secretary. The deputies for the office holders can either be chosen from the committee members or from the regular members of the national group. As is logical, all national group members also have to be passive members of FIGU Switzerland, and the number of members of a national group is open ended, just as it is with the study groups.
All official FIGU groups draw up a report (meeting minutes) within three days after their meetings, a copy of which is passed on to the group which is positioned above them.
As soon as the core-group of FIGU Switzerland has reached its total number of members, and its associated secondary core-group extends to at least 50 members, it can then begin to form core-groups from the existing national groups. The forming of a core-group from an existing national group is entirely the matter of the core-group of 49 of the mother centre – Semjase-Silver-Star-Center – whose task it will be to filter, from the body of the existing national group-members, those members who are suitable for leadership, and to nominate them as core-group members of the relevant country, have them elected and install them. This task will have to be approached with the greatest care and corresponding experience, because the core-groups of the individual countries will, namely, continue to be subject to the advisory authority of the core-group of the mother centre, however they will otherwise be able to operate selfsufficiently to the greatest possible extent, within the framework of the statutes and rules, which should, as far as possible, be adopted from the mother core-group. Adapted to the conditions of their country, the core-groups of the individual countries will then lead the study groups which stand directly below them and, together with the secondary core-group of their country, which belongs to them, they will continue to further the mission in their own country. These newly-formed core-groups are also obliged to report to the mother core-group in Switzerland and, apart from that, they each have to delegate a member in the secondary core-group of the mother core-group of the Semjase-Silver-StarCenter, Switzerland.
All these groups in the individual countries not only work, within the framework of the mission, on the spreading of the truth in their country, rather they also make responsible translations – for which they take responsibility – in their country’s language(s) and simultaneously work on the promotion of the German language in their country, because the deep basis of the spiritual teaching can only be fully comprehended and implemented if the German language is learned and understood in its fundamental principles, and is really thoroughly mastered.
The long-term task of the core-group of 49 of the mother centre, Semjase-Silver-Star-Center, is based upon not only working on the spreading of the mission in Switzerland, rather, it is also even to lead and guide the study groups, national groups, core-groups and secondary core-groups of all the countries of this Earth, in the sense of the mission, aside from which, it will, for all times, have the responsibility of assuring that the spiritual teaching, as it is given by Billy in numerous works, as well as in the essential spiritual teaching syllabus, is conveyed – un-violated, un-falsified and word for word – to the coming generations, which, from their side, will continue with the same task. Ultimately, in the course of the coming centuries, through the long-term work of FIGU, the basis will be laid for a fundamental change in the thinking of the human beings of the future, who will be instructed in the spiritual teaching by the FIGU members, whereby a peaceful and stable future, worthy of humanity, is guaranteed. Therein lies the essential leadership task of the core-group of 49 of the mother centre, SemjaseSilver-Star-Center, Switzerland, and all its core-group members, into the distant future.
