by stapler99 12 Replies latest jw friends
I was just wondering what people's experiences with how the congregation decided how to decorate their hall, colour schemes and so on. Was the decision made by the BoE without much consultation? Were many in the congregation upset at the choice?
This comes to mind because I heard that a vote was held on something like this, and it seems to be the only case (other than Resolutions rubberstamping decisions already made) where there was something like democracy in the congregation.
I remember doing this when I was much younger, like in the early 80's, but the last few times our cong remodeled it was completely in the hands of the "decorator" hired by the BOE under the auspices of the finance committee. They got to have complete say over what the remodel would look like as far as lay out and everything. I remember another congregation near ours that completely bucked the committee and built their hall out of brick. The bigwigs from Bethel were furious; it wasn't another cookie cutter hall. Looking back its amazing to me how homogenous everything with the dubs are - like a great freaking huge Stepford factory!
Usually the elders or more likely their wives did the redecorating. The closest thing to a choice was when they layed out 2 slightly different ideas and actually allowed us to vote on it.
When I attended a hall that had 2 different congregations using it, there was always a running fued over decorations and landscaping.
What amazes me is how often they redecorate the assembly hall here. I wish I could afford the fancy things they made us pay for through resolutions at the assembly hall.
It is only the appearance of choice,....although.....
I remember one KH that was in an all-black area. The Regional Comm (made up I believe entirely of whites) sent them 3 or 4 color packages (carpet, paint, tile, wallpaper (wallpaper now all but eliminated))...the brothers in the all-black congo wrote a very humble, sweet letter that essentially said "Dear brothers, we truly appreciate the hard work you put into picking these choices, but to be honest, those colors are just bland, they are just not 'us'".... The congo ended up choosing a color scheme that I (as a white person) would describe as very loud...as in Easter Sunday/Orange LOUD...but when it all came together, it was actually OK...almost nice.... (still not my choice, but I did not attend there).
Nowadays, the Borg, through the Regionals, try to control absolutely every aspect of construction/decoration. I know if the local congo uses society funds (aka "loan")...they have to kowtow to the regional. I am not even sure if local congos are allowed to build a KH outside of the Borg/Regional control. If Regional is involved at all, Borg has final say. In fact, if a congo uses even 1 brother or sister from a congo not at that KH (or KH complex in multi-auditorium KHs), then they have to go through Regional Volunteer Service (which I was involved in).
I was not on the Regional Committee as an elder, but I was pretty close to many of them and the key men. It was all about staying to the set plans, set colors, etc....choices are really made before they get to the locals... so the vote is between blah and really blah ....so sad...all in the name of "keeping it simple so we can get back to the all important Ministry Sales Force" ... I did serve as Local Building Committee Chairman for our remodel, but I drug my heels because our congo could not afford what they were wanting to do and they were not prepared for the workload. (small body of elders, lazy MS's) Once I was booted off as an elder, they started moving ahead with their fancier and more costly plans (with a sudden infusion of cash from a sister who died...left money to our KH AND 2 other KHs....but the SO of our KH was also Executor of her estate....talk about wolf guarding the henhouse...hmmm...suddenly no money for the other 2 poorer KHs.... suddenly their needs AND wants could be had....at the expense of the others....although I hear there is yet another delay..... selfish bastards....
SnakesInTheTower (of the "who cares what color the fu*k*ng KH is" Sheep Class)
Yeah I remember that! We could choose between two almost identically bland combinations. It was voting on little things like decorating, and whether to donate $150 to the circuit overseer, that helped me believe that we were as much of a democracy as a theocracy.
A couple years ago, our hall went through a remodel. This was another reason I chose to fade out.
We, as a congregation, ended up voting a few times on certain decisions like color schemes and seating types. We were presented with, I think, 4 different color schemes from the society's regional building committee, and we wasted a good portion of the service meeting voting on them. The thing that kinda pissed me off was the vote on whether to choose more expensive movie-theater style seats or cheaper stacking-style seats. There was a $10,000 difference, and at the time I remember a previous meeting with a letter from the GB begging for money for Kingdom Hall building in other, poorer lands. Our hall voted for the more expensive, theater-style seats instead of donating the difference to some other more "worthy" endeavor. Meanwhile, the halls in Africa use wood benches and thatched roofs. Not that I care anymore about all that, but it is just another hypocritical thing about the witnesses. I think the materialism in the congregations I've attended here locally is appalling.
A couple other votes had to do with more minor details concerning the remodel, but you could tell the elders already made up their minds about what they wanted and gave us two options ("Resolutions rubberstamping decisions already made")...what they wanted (played up to sound appealing) and some bogus other option (very obviously down-played to not sound so appealing). The brother in charge of this was a manipulative one...and it showed.
This same elder and his wife and another even more manipulative elder and his wife managed to sneak in a couple modifications to the decorations in the hall without a vote, too....so it's not all handled democratically; sometimes it's done totalitarian-style, too.
I do recall a vote at some stage on the interior of the prison KH but only out of 2 choices, bland and blander. The congo settled on blander. Brown theatre style chairs that were designed to give you a sore back. Bland brown curtains and beige paint to bring the two nauseating colours together. Memories
Here is my vote--I highly doubt it would go through, but I will keep insisting on it:
Having a red, green, and white Santa Claus wallpaper scheme highlighted with gold tinsel garland hung along the top perimeter. There would be LED lights of multicolors running along the garland. At the points where the garland sags, an ornament would be hung--perhaps an angel, a snowflake, pine cone, or star. This would run along the whole perimeter.
The doors and halls would also have tree figurines along with tinsel garland of several colors running along the doorway and the perimeter. Mistletoe would be hung at every doorway, in plain view. There would also be LED lights running the perimeter. We would also have some Nativity scenes in the lobby, as well as a multicolor star hanging in the chandelier (which would be LED lit). Santa Claus figurines and water globes would be present there, too. Also, a North Pole Elf scene would be prominently displayed and lit.
The front of the hall would have a great big Christmas tree. This would be artificial--about 9 feet tall. It would have tons of LED lights on it, shatterproof bulbs, Santa and angel figures, and plenty of tinsel garland and snowflakes. The top would be an angel with LED lighting. This would be prominently placed just to the left of the stage.
I highly doubt that this recommendation would ever pass. But, maybe if I forge a Governing Body letter complete with forged signatures, and present it to the lead hounder of the congregation, they would think they have no choice but to force it through. Then just wait until the hounder-hounder shows up--he would have a cow.
I don't recall ever getting to vote on these things. At my last hall, I was told that one of the elder's wives (not a comittee, mind you, just this one gal) got to pick out the decor. It looked exactly like her living room- all mauve and beige, with these yucky paintings of bucolic meadows and cottages with gardens.
I remember feeling vaguely annoyed that these pictures, while seeming to celebrate the beauty of nature, actually presented a very sanitized version of it. The meadows were ringed about with prim, white fences, and looked as freshly mowed as a golf course. The cottages were more of the same, lots of flowers surrounding them, but obsessively pruned with not a stray fallen leaf in sight. When I mentioned the creepy perfection of these pictures to one of the sisters, she told me it represented the New System, when we will have "conquered" the wild profusion of nature and turned the entire world into a lovingly tended park. When I pointed out the lack of people (or, for that matter, any living creatures) in the pictures, she said it was because they were all in a k-hall, praising Jehovah's name. Ugh.
I've only been out for a short time, so I know the current policy. Congregations are given two choices and vote privately by writing their choices on a slip of paper and putting them into a ballot box. Usually, the two choices are TERRIBLE (I once had to choose between a green and orange theme, YUCK).
