Let's see what notes I took. It was pretty spotty; I fell asleep a few times during the days, so some parts have nothing. Also, some parts have nothing that caught my attention. So without further ado, let's look at Day 1:
10:00 Why Give God Glory?
Missed it. Late.
10:15 Theocratic Misery Ministry School
The guy said something about things being left out of the Bible. Many things left out? How would you even know that, aside from Apocryphal books? What's in isn't even that spectacular...
Number 3 talk. Sisters' talk setting: the mark is being discouraged from studying. Instead of directly confronting the problem, the solution is to apply some story--Mephibosheth--to real life. Something about endurance, to distract from the real issue. Dealing with the family's discouragement directly is not a recommended solution.
The last one was about "Loaded Blood Questions." It was mainly the guy coaching everyone how not to give "culty" answers. One of his suggestions was to tell the doctor that we would "risk our lives for God." Risk life for God? Not a good response. Doesn't sound very balanced.
11:00 The Pioneer Ministry Glorifies God
I can sum it up in one sentence: everyone deep-sixes their passions and hobbies for the WTS for God. Notable quote from a brother: "Sometimes I felt like I was spinning my wheels inbetween not-at-homes and coffee breaks." Another: "One thing I did to make field service more enjoyable was to make it like a business."
11:35 Dedication & Baptism
Attendance: 848. Baptized: 4. That's a whopping .47 percent. It's even less if you count the next day's morning attendance of 1,035. The A-side also had 4 dunked.
13:45 Symposium: Glorifying God in All Aspects of Our Life
a: Same old heavy interest on Jehober. No history on it. They said God put the name on the org, but didn't Rutherford do it late one night?
b: Nothing....
c: There's a skit about a brother who has a problem with drinking. He blames work. The legendary witness alcoholism is not mentioned, of course.
d: Same old claptrap about the internets. One "returned wallet witness." Oh, get this: the brother says you can't root for teams in the world cup!! It's too devisive, or something.
Rest of the day was a nice nap....
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10:10 Symposium: Rendering Sacred Service to Praise Jehovah
a: So they want people for branch offices...but didn't they just downsize? That doesn't make sense.
b: Nothing.
c: Nothing.
d: This one was mainly about the HLC goons who enforce policy and the RBC. Interesting quotes: "One doctor told me that blood had too many problems." "You JWs have been right for 30 years." Right about what? That God would rather have dead kids than a transfused servant? If you don't use blood, you obviously avoid complications from mixed-up blood, improperly cleaned blood, etc. I doubt the HLC top goon has read the "Tort of Misrepresentation" from Louderback-Wood.
The RBC covers 55 KHs and 1 Assembly Hall for the San Diego, Imperial, and Yuma counties. They have 21 projects that they want to complete within 3 years (he didn't elaborate how many were new halls, rebuilds, remodels, etc.). They really need civil engineers, graders, and underground utility engineers. Not going to be easy with the traditional college discouragement, is it?? Also, they want unskilled labor. Guess which positions they'll get filled first, if anyone can spare time from barely scraping by to help.
11:00 Announcement: I guessed that we would have a $3k deficit. We had a $3.6k deficit. Question: isn't the "deficit" just whatever they need to send a fat check to Brooklyn, and how they cover the real expenses every time? I need a memory jog.
11:40 Giving Attention to the Needs of the Circuit
Ok, here we go: the theme--and I swear I'm not making this up--is "Imitate Jehovah, Not Satan." So apparently we need to not imitate . And just how is our circuit imitating Satan? Are we challenging the elders? Sacrificing chickens on pentagrams?
No. It's lack of meeting attendance!
Here are some facts: the B-side of the California 20 circuit has 8 congregations, with 768 publishers. The FS average is 9.3 hours per publisher. The highest attended talk is the public talk, at 97%. The least attended meeting is the School and Service Meeting at 81%. Average missing per week: 150 publishers. In his words, "It's like a whole congregation missing every week!"
When confronted by the hounders, reactions include embarrassment, denial, and excuses being given. Notable quote: "When the Great Tribulation starts, you'll need to explain to Jehovah why you didn't go to your meetings." () To the CO there seems to be a lot of faultfinding among the brothers. Some give the cold shoulder, some just end up not going at all due to these problems. His suggestion? "Find the roses, not the thorns, in your brother!"
Boredom was also listed as why people don't want to go to the meetings. He talked about people wanting to be entertained, but curiously said nothing about the piss-poor content of the meetings. Funny quote: "The meetings have been set up to exercise your mind!" All the solutions accuse the people, not the program.
Midday attendance: 1,035 (jump probably due to the poor saps who couldn't get Saturday off. If everyone were encouraged to get schooling for more skilled jobs, maybe Saturday would always be off...)
13:45 Who Are the People Who Glorify God?
Didn't have to listen. The answer is the dubs.
14:25 Remain Firmly Set in the False Truth
So the guy encourages everyone to examine whatever questions they have concerning Christianity, but in the next breath, tells everyone to stop doing that with the WTS! Interesting quote: "Study brings you in, study keeps you in." Really. Research the early 80's at Bethel much...?
Next he labels the following as "insidious doubts:" Not believing that we're in the last days, not believing in the inerrancy of the Bible, and questioning the organization. This part pissed me off more than anything.
The only "antidote" to these doubts is just more immersing yourself in dub-ism--more and more studying, more and more field service. Nothing said about confirming or debunking the doubts directly, of course. The CO then displays his incredible telepathic skills as he reads King Solomon's mind as to why he became apostate. No scriptures cited as a basis for this, of course.
Napped for the rest.
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So....same BS, different convention name. Once again: is the "deficit" just what they want to send off to Mother?