Dear Bahá'í friends,
To intensify the prosecution of the Nine Year Plan we call
upon your Assemblies to appoint Pioneer Committees respectively for
Australasia, Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas for raising up and deploying
the huge army of pioneers necessary to win the goals of the Plan.
The importance of this step is emphasized by the need,
during the coming Bahá'í year, to settle no less than four hundred and two
pioneers in teaching and consolidation areas -- twenty-eight for Australasia,
seventy-one for Africa, sixty-seven for Europe, one hundred and sixty-eight for
Asia, and sixty-eight for the Americas.
These Pioneer Committees, to be appointed by and be
responsible to your respective National Assemblies, will have functions set forth
in the enclosed outline. [1] Since they are essentially service committees, a
membership of three will suffice. The secretary should be a competent and
knowledgeable Bahá'í having time, ability and facilities for carrying on a
volume of correspondence. All members of the committee should have organizing
ability as well as an aptitude for dealing with problems in a warm and loving
Bahá'í way.
The Pioneer Committees will in no way infringe upon or
substitute for existing committees which your Assemblies may have already
appointed to deal with the teaching and pioneer requirements of either internal
or external goals assigned to your Assembly. Rather they will supplement the
work of existing committees of all National Assemblies in the respective
continental areas, provide an effective means of exchange of vital information,
and assist in the processing of pioneer applications and the transfer of
pioneers to goal areas.
The Pioneer Committees should be prepared to assume their
full responsibilities and functions at Ridvan so that no time will be lost in
the rapid transfer of pioneers to their posts, thus avoiding any possible
dampening of their spirits.
In the meantime, we will be forwarding additional
information and instructions which will enable the committees to swing into
action at Convention time. Since announcement of the appointment of these
committees will be a part of the Ridvan message, your Assembly should wait
until the Convention to inform the friends of these plans.
Time is of the essence. It is imperative that we have the
names of Pioneer Committee members and the address of the committee within
thirty days of your receipt of these instructions.
Assuring you of prayers at the Holy Shrines.
Deepest love,
The Universal House of Justice
Pioneer Committees
To assist National Spiritual Assemblies and their relevant
committees in the following respects:
- a. Information on availability and qualifications of pioneers.
- b. Act as a clearing house for information both continentally and inter-continentally.
- c. Determine travel and subsistence budgets needed.
- d. Supply information on needs for pioneers in various localities within their respective continental areas, this information to be furnished initially by the Universal House of Justice, and any later needs to be cleared through the Universal House of Justice.
- e. Supply information on the types of pioneering service needed in specific localities, such as: for teaching in mass conversion areas, or for deepening in administration; also special qualifications for pioneers to specific localities (e.g., language, ethnic background, work opportunities, etc.), and useful information about the territory itself (e.g., climate, geography, living conditions, visas and governmental regulations).
To assist prospective pioneers in the following respects:
- a. Place them in contact with the National Assemblies and/or national committees responsible for settling or consolidating specific localities in which pioneers would like to serve or are qualified to serve.
- b. Furnish useful information (such as that set forth in items I. d and e above) which will enable the prospective pioneers to determine where, when and how they can best volunteer their services.
- c. Work out, in consultation with the relevant National Assembly and the prospective pioneer, such assistance budgets as may be necessary.
Pioneer Committees will in no case assume direct
responsibility for filling goals. Their function is in the nature of secondary
assistance to the responsible or assisting National Assembly (or national
committee). If a National Assembly can fill a goal without assistance, it need
not consult a Pioneer Committee, but should keep the relevant Pioneer Committee
informed as to the status of pioneer goals.
Pioneer Committees will clear with the prospective pioneer's
own National Assembly before offering his services.
Foremost is the Pioneer Committee's responsibility to
expedite and facilitate the transfer of pioneers from the place where they are
to the goal areas where they will serve. Only such procedures as will be useful
to this purpose should be adopted.
- The Universal House of Justice (Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1963 to 1986)
[1]. The Universal House of Justice later assumed
responsibility for appointing the members of Continental Pioneer Committees and
transferred responsibility for directing their work to the International
Teaching Centre (see message dated 19 May 1983 in ‘Messages from the Universal
House of Justice 1963 to 1986’).
