How Public Talks are Done by some Congregations

by Amazing 35 Replies latest jw friends

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  Amazing

  Reading Lady Lee's post about collecting Public Talk Outlines made me recall the following:

  When I was the Public Talk Coordinator and Cong. Secretary, I kept the Public Talk File. The Society sends updates on ocassion to the P.O. (or Secretary when I was serving). So, I had a complete file of all talks. Each Elder in the Circuit is assigned Talk Numbers and Titles, so that when we scheduled talks, I would go to the Elder Registers (we had more than one circuit, which allowed for me to have several registers) and call each Elder in various congregations to ask them to give talk number so-and-so. The register showed the Elder's name, assigned talks, phone number, address, and Congregation.

  This was a tricky job, because we would meet as Elders and decide what material the congregation needed. Then, we also wanted to make sure all the talked were eventually covered, so that we did not hear the same thing very often. We did avoid some of the more boring talks, as the Society never gave much direction on how we handled this aspect. I kept a self-made form (spread sheet) that showed what talks were given when, and by whom. This enabled me to make sure the talk topics were spread out as evenly as possible over the year.

  We graded visiting Elders (and local Elders). We would sit with a copy of the outline when an Elder gave a talk, then note if he followed it or deviated too much. This practice was introduced in the mid-1980s, after the big Apostate scare started. We were supposed to assure that the speakers were not introducing apostate thinking. We then used an A, B C D, of F grade system. This was not done at the explicite direction of the Society, but the CO would ask us who we thought were good speakers in the Circuit. The A, B and C speakers never knew we graded them. The D speakers were counseled privately in the library and told how their talk sucked, and what we would be looking for in the future if we ever invited them back again. The F speakers were told the same thing, and we called their P.O. or other Elders to report them. If the bad speaker was a P.O. , then we would call one of the other Elders. We would tell the F speaker that he would not be reinvited to speak at our Hall again. Oddly enough, this never created bad feelings, or caused any stir with the CO. I suspect that bad speakers were relieved to not have to give anymore inane and boring talks. Though I am sure some were privately hurt.
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  willyloman

  Amazing: That is precisely how it was supposed to be done. But in several congos I was in, and I suspect in many more, this process wasn't carried out well. I had the talk schedule for a while and, like you, read the instructions and attempted to assign talks to avoid repetition. However, the guy making the talk assignments and one other elder were supposed to counsel the speaker and I often had a hard time getting another elder who was interested in doing that; so lot of lousy ("F") speakers got away without receiving any counsel. Since I had the schedule and the list of elders in all the circuit congos, I just put a yellow line through their name and never invited them again. Once or twice, an "F" speaker (to use your grading system) would be banned from my personal list and then, to my surprise, wind up on the circuit assembly program six months later! A lot of times, it was who you knew, right?

  It was also not unheard of for a speaker to show up and give the "wrong" talk. I remember a number of times greeting the speaker and helping him get set up on stage and having him tell me the name of the talk we were expecting was "wrong" and that he had brought talk-number-whatever' instead. They mostly pretended they'd made a mistake, although one or two just simply said, "I've given that one so many times, I brought this one in its place." These were usually the guys with some "weight" in the circuit. I never argued with them even though we did get the same topic two weeks in a row once - altho a totally different treatment. Later, I began doing the same thing myself; if I got assigned a talk I didn't feel like giving, I just took another outline and alerted the chairman when I got there. So much for balancing out the topics!

  In later years, the "privilege" of giving talks outside the congo lost a lot of its luster and it got harder to get/provide speakers. We were just grateful to get one who was bearable to listen to.
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  lurk3r

  Wickedly good thread! I love hearing about the "behind the scene" going ons. Did either of you ever notice a brother with "apostate thinking" surface? If so, how did you handle it? Seeing as you were both in "deep", did you ever present any of the said line of thinking in a discourse? How bout at the elders meetings when you had to determine which topics would be covered in that hall? What were they like? Was their any partiality that was shown ever? Towards brothers that got an "A" at your hall before? Did the "c" "scorer's" get called upon when you had to find a "fill in"?

  Makes me wonder now about assemblies....surely there must have been a brother, appearing to be "spiritually strong" at an assembly, with some doubts. Perhaps he was even "coming out"...Good opportunity to "make a few points".

  Edit: Also, Amazing, you made a note of stating "some" congregations. Why? They MUST be doing this worldwide by now, no? if not, I'll bet it's coming. More "control".

  lurk3r
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  SnakesInTheTower

  I was a talk coordinator for a number of years. I was pretty organized. I used an Access database that allowed me to filter by just about any conceivable method. One of the best things was I could tell the last time a talk outline was given. I used the software to print out schedules for each of our speakers. I would email filtered lists with congos I exchanged speakers with. If I would have had more time, I could have used the same database to generate the information board copies of schedules (and for quick update drafts I did).... but I could never get the formatting the way I liked it so I typed the board copies in word.

  The way I usually figured it...I only needed inbound speakers 35 weeks of the year. There were 3 weekends a year that were assembly weekends....and 2 weekends a year that were CO visits... leaving 47 weeks we needed talks. Then I used the first Sunday of the month to use local speakers and did not usually send out any...providing (allegedly) for more "First Sunday Field Service" support. 35 weeks was easier to schedule.

  I tried to send even numbers for scheduling purposes. I hated when a small congo could only provide 2 speakers (of good quality) and they needed 6 or 8 speakers. When this was the case, I would tell them that we could provide qualified MS to them...often they were so desperate that they were happy to have anyone come the 60 or 90 miles to their little congo. For a brief while, the tables were turned and I was the coordinator for one of those small town congos.

  If a brother gave a particularly bad talk, I would mark it my notes column.. I did follow the outline while listening to the talks...not to be overly critical, but because I have ADD and it helped me focus.....The so-called D and F speakers were counseled by myself, and/or the TMS overseer or the PO after the meeting. Often they did not stay for hospitality (aka lunch).

  When it came time to exchange speakers with that congregation again, I never allowed blanket swaps... If a talk coordinator wanted to send me a particularly bad speaker again, I would ask what outlines that speaker had.... didn't matter if we needed those outlines or not, I told their coordinator we didn't need that outline at the time.

  Sadly, we had one elderly brother in our congo who was a crap shoot when it came to talks...and it was not predictable months in advance what would happen. On good days he gave outstanding talks and had that deep voice of a DJ...and in fact he had been a radio DJ in his early days. His stories were funny and the congregations enjoyed his talks. On bad days, it was a horribly uncomfortable disaster. I remember one of the last times I sent him out, I warned the PO (talk coordinator) exactly what I just said. They let him come based on that disclaimer. He gave an outstanding talk. Unfortunately, the next two trips out (and meeting parts in our hall) were disasters. I quit scheduling him. He came to me after a few months wanting to know why he wasnt going out... I told him his outlines had not been requested...not the truth exactly....I just told folks he was unavailable. I finally had to meet with the rest of the body to take him off as TMS overseer and I had two of the older elders talk to him about public talks......it broke his heart....and ours... he loved the school and going out... but we could not continue to subject the congregation to his "old timers" moments...

  As I was sitting here thinking about this, it reminded me of how tricky it was scheduling and not hurting people's feelings. I was never good at the politics of it all...

  Snakes ()
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  Lady Lee

  wow Fascinating

  I still remember the really bad ones or the really nervous ones and even the one so nervous he got an erection every time he was on the platform (they finally got a bigger podium for him to hide behind).

  My husband gave good talks, was well received and often was asked to go to other congs.

  As a sign language interpreter some speakers were terrible to sign for - they muttered too much or went too fast or so o o s l o w.
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  Doubting Bro

  I was the talk coordinator both as a MS & an elder. When I was a MS, I'd run my propsed list by the PO before contacting the other congregation. I was never as organized as any of the above posters. I did try to work through all the outlines but frankly, there were so many poor speakers or guys that wouldn't give talks out that it was difficult. I also tried to hook up with each congo in the circuit to get some variety.

  There were only 2 times that the talks were so bad that we "counseled" the speaker afterward. Neither time it went very well and there were complaints registered with the CO (and DO in one case). At the end of the day, it was much easier to just avoid the guys than offer any constructive counsel.

  I also ran into several congregations that had say 8 elders on the list only to find out that 5 of them didn't give talks out. It wasn't because they were poor speakers, they just basically didn't want to do it.

  I will say that I sort of enjoyed doing the talk coordinating. It was fun horse trading and a few times I agreed to give talks at the last minute (like the night before). I would always note my file and when I needed a favor, I would call in my chips.

  Like Snakes said, there were a lot of politics involved and at one point in my career, I was interested in playing the game to move up the ladder. Silly, now that I think about it!
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  lurk3r

  Lady LEE! NO WAY!! THAT my dear is why a brother would get some looser fitting dress pants, and a NOT wear boxers! lol I'm NOT calling you a liar, BUT are you playing this straight up? "This guy has a woody for all his talks, lets get a new podium!". Maybe it was just YOU LL, sitting there, STARING at his 'package'. lol I HAD TOOOO! Elaborate please. hahahha damn funny indeed.

  Doubting Bro. Good on you for being so organized, you had a good plan there. I'm GLAD you were not in MY congregation! I always LOVED it when the co ordinator "messed up" and there was no public talk scheduled...it was like Christmas! No talk, JUST the Watchtower. They were the BEST meetings.

  Snakes - Why were they D and F speakers? Just poor speakers in general? Or were any of them incorporating apostate stuff? any arguments ever?

  lurk3r
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  Lady Lee

  lurk3r

  I kid you not and I wasn't the only one who noticed. And it lasted for the entire talk - thank goodness he didn't give the public talk

  looser pants? They seemed pretty loose after he got off the platform

  The initial podium we had had a square base with a pole about 4x4 inches and the top platform. From the audience it was easy to see him - well actually pretty hard NOT to see him.

  When they got a new podium the upright section was at least 24 inches wide.

  OK you can ignore all the puns in this post
• 

  gubberningbody

  I think giving talks is probably one of the things I might miss. I gave talks fairly regularly. I think I'll rejoin Toastmasters.

  The largest audience I had was in the late 80's in the Houston Astrodome. 35,000+ that day.
• 

  passwordprotected

  I was Public Talk Co-ordinator when I was an MS. This job was used as part of the grooming process before being appointed as an elder.

  I really enjoyed the job, especially trying to think about the outlines that would most meet the needs of the congregation. In practice, however, it proved quite frustrating because most co-ordinators wanted to get the talks assigned ASAP, so would just rattle off names and outline numbers and it was all you could do to write them down quickly enough.

  I inherited the job from the current PO (congregation co-ordinator) and he's a pretty organised guy, so I got a detailed spreadsheet containing the talk outlines given by the local speakers, plus the current year's schedule and the 2 previous year's schedules.

  The Society provides the co-ordinator with a 4 page document with the outline numbers/titles plus spaces for the year and date the talks were last given.

  The grading system that was discussed by the OP was brought in latterly by our old congregation. I'd apparently been graded quite high and was put forward to the CO for parts in the CA/SDA. I think not being a suck-up pioneer who eventually left 'the truth' in rapid fashion closed that particular door to me....