Assessment of Six Year Plan Pioneer Goals

7 September 1989

To all National Spiritual Assemblies

 Dear Bahá’í Friends,

 On 14 May 1987 we wrote to all National Spiritual Assemblies on behalf of the Universal House of Justice conveying the call for the minimum number of pioneers who were to settle in their goals by Ridván 1989, together with a call for pioneers to settle in a number of Eastern Bloc countries by the end of the Six Year Plan. This call was supplemented by a letter issued on 5 June 1987, listing the Inter-Assembly Collaboration Projects which had been included in the individual National Plans and which were, for the most part, intended to be pursued throughout the six years of the plan.

The Bahá’í world has now grown so large, and the flow of pioneers and traveling teachers so constant that it is virtually impossible to keep a detailed up-to-date record of the vast number of projects being undertaken in every country. However, the most recent information that the Department of Statistics has been able to collect presents the following highly encouraging picture of the pioneering goals so far achieved during the Plan.

During the first year of the Six Year Plan, before the pioneer call of May 1987 was sent out, a large number of believers pioneered, of whom 523 are still at their posts. During the subsequent two years, in answer to the call, 943 believers have settled in goals specified in the Plan or in posts not originally assigned. The total number of international pioneers since April 1986 is thus 1,466. The details of the response to the pioneer call, by continent receiving pioneers, are as follows.

Of the 176 pioneer goals outstanding, 14 have been canceled in light of changed circumstances and in view of the new call for short-term pioneers described below. There remains, therefore, the immediate task for the Bahá’í world to fill the 162 pioneer posts remaining vacant from the original pioneer call and, indeed, to increase the flow of long-term pioneers to needy areas. In addition to these, the tremendous recent acceleration in the twin processes of expansion and consolidation calls for a new flexibility in meeting the needs in the field. Therefore, to supplement the work of pioneers and traveling teachers, the Universal House of Justice is now calling for a range of short-term pioneer projects during the remaining years of the Six Year Plan.

These short-term pioneer goals are being assigned in terms of months per pioneer. In other words, a goal of 24 could mean one pioneer for two years or two pioneers for twelve months or even four pioneers for six months each. We can also envisage that special circumstances may warrant a succession of short-term pioneers for terms as short as three months. These services could run either concurrently or one after the other. The idea is that they should be for longer periods than can normally be spent by a traveling teacher but, since the short-term pioneer does not have the aim of settling permanently in his post, he will, generally, be freed of the need to find employment, and so will probably obtain a visa more easily and will also be able to spend his time in remote areas which the home front teachers and the longterm pioneers find it difficult to reach or on specific tasks which others are unable to perform for lack of time or other reasons.

Many of the short-term pioneers may be able to cover their own expenses; others will need financial help from the responsible National Spiritual Assemblies or the International Deputization Fund. All will need proper preparation for their service and orientation both before and after they arrive in their goal countries.

The responsibility for sending short-term pioneers has been assigned to specific National Spiritual Assemblies to ensure that volunteers are found and placed in the field. But such Assemblies do not necessarily have to draw the pioneers from their own communities. Volunteers may arise from communities which have no assigned goals, or from countries which neighbor the goal areas. The services of all these can be used and will count towards the achievement of the goals. The assistance and advice of the Continental Pioneer Committees can be sought in this regard.

Enclosed are two lists, one in the order of National Assemblies to receive assistance, the other in the order of National Assemblies which have the responsibility to send it. It will be noted that no goals are included for the countries of the Eastern Bloc; these are being dealt with separately in view of the unprecedented opportunities, great urgency and special conditions of the work there.

The Universal House of Justice will pray in the Holy Shrines that the believers in every land will arise with increasing determination to speed the process of entry by troops and the establishment of firmly grounded, efficiently functioning Local Spiritual Assemblies.

With loving Bahá’í greetings,

Department of the Secretariat

(Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1986-2001)