Same,

I have been too busy steam rolling everyone for me to notice tho.  Thought maybe they were giving me the cold shoulder..

Not that i know of. You mean the pre game settings that i comb through exclusively

I am curios about something, do minors count toward the required number of factions to meet before the UP starts?

I'm fairly confident that they do. 

Time until the next UP meeting can be seen under Diplomacy -> UP Details

Ah, that would explain it.  That does bring up an interesting dynamic in the larger maps with a handful of civs. 

Although, personally with 9 empires (one of which is me, so 8 other empires), I've definitely come across 4 of them and not had any meetings either.  Is it half or "more than half"?

thanks.