Since its beginning in 1954 UMN has been a consortium of Member Bodies. These Member Bodies were Missions, Churches and Christian organisations who contributed to the work of UMN by sending expatriate personnel. They were the ‘owners’ of UMN and responsible for its governance. This model has served UMN well, however there have been many changes in Nepal, in the Nepali Church, in UMN and in Member Bodies.

The Board has been looking at this issue for the past 2 years and at the UMN General Assembly in early May, the new ownership model proposed by the UMN Board in November 2006, was ratified. This means that UMN has changed from being a consortium of Member Bodies to being an organisation which has Supporting Partners. These are churches, missions and other Christian organisations – from outside Nepal who share the values of UMN, can sign the Basis of Faith and who show a commitment to UMN’s work. Some will also choose to be involved in the governance of UMN and will vote for the Board of Trustees who can be other than the Supporting Partner representatives. This new model gives more flexibility both to UMN and the Supporting Partners. The changeover to the new Board will take place in the November 2007 round of Board meetings.