And wasn't Spain printing branch dismantled due to Spain government wanting pensions provided for Bethelites by Society. It's awesome the governments care about the health care and pensions, and eventual old age of JWs... Certainly the Watchtower Society doesn't, only preaches the governments are going to be destroyed soon.
I just heard of more organizational changes...........
by awildflower 95 Replies latest watchtower bible
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cabasilas
Will magazines printed for the US in Canada be mailed from the Canadian printery? Or, will they truck the magazines destined for the US across the border into the US before mailing them? Seems like it'd be very expensive to mail them from Canada to the US. Anyone know how they plan to get the magazines over to the US?
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daniel-p
Also, Ontario's loaded with the pulp and paper industry. It makes sense to move printing there since it'll reduce cost of shipping.
That's a point to consider, however, why would they move ALL North American printing to Canada after investing in so much expansion at Wallkill and attempting to buy more land at Ramapo?
When I was at Wallkill Bethel in 2000/01, they were in the middle of a ton of expansion: at least two new large residence buildings, a new kitchen, a new dining room, a new laundry, a new lobby and visitor center, and, of course, the printery expansion which came a couple years later with the new LITHOMAN printers worth tens of millions of dollars EACH.
I can't see them recouping their investment in the Wallkill property should they up and leave--in this economy, who would have a use for such a massive complex? Not only is the economy a significant worry, but there are other considerations such as land use regulations that would affect a new owner. The Watchtower may have gotten away with loose land use regulations due to certain allowances being grandfathered in, but with a new owner, all the new environment/land use/zoning regulations would apply. For example, the "E Res" is one story too high for zoning regs and the Society pays a penalty every year for being out of compliance. A new owner would probably be required to bring the property into compliance, or be assessed at a higher penalty or something. I obviously don't know all the requirements of the relevant jurisdiction, but these are the kinds of things that would affect the Society's ability to sell the property for a decent price. It is also uncertain whether a new owner would still be able to use the property for similar purposes (i.e. light manufacturing).
Anyway, this raises a lot of questions. With no printing in the US, they don't need Wallkill. And who would buy it? This is a massive complex that would only be compatible with a few uses, and not all would be welcome to the community.
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awildflower
I was thinking along similar lines daniel-p. My thought was why 8 years or so ago would 'Jehovah' move them to put all this money into the new printery building and these masive printers only to move it now? Where is the Holy Spirit in all of this? Just another example of it being a man-made org and not a divine one IMO.....wf
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daniel-p
Where is the Holy Spirit in all of this? Just another example of it being a man-made org and not a divine one IMO.....wf
It actually reveals a kind of "shoot-from-the-hip" mentality of the decision makers. Perhaps its a side effect of their good-ole-boy system, I don't know. But in any case, they've been making some pretty inconsistent decisions lately. Remember DUMBO? So here they are saying they're gonna leave Brooklyn, but then they announce some new huge residence building in DUMBO. Now that's scrapped, they say they're gonna move out of Brooklyn to Wallkill and Patterson. They try to buy hundreds of acres in Ramapo, but their plans sputter. Meanwhile, in Europe they close Spanish Bethel and move everything to England.
Now they say (rumored anyway) they're going to move all printing to Canada. All I can say is, what the hell is going on? Could all this be due to power struggles within the GB and the new generation of members taking over from the old? I don't know, but it's pretty intriguing.
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Scott77
daniel-p revealed that "the Society pays a penalty every year for being out of compliance." Wow, is this really not a double standard? Is not this a criminal action on the part of the society? What kind of example is it setting to all other JWs? Are secular, civil laws less important to obey them?
Scott77
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daniel-p
Is not this a criminal action on the part of the society?
Not at all. There are many instances where plants continue operations while out of compliance with certain regulations. Government will often give you a choice: bring it into compliance or pay the fine. A frequent example is that of pollution-generating companies that choose to pay a fine for excessive contaminants from their smoke stacks instead of installing expensive filters. It's a simple cost-benefit analysis to determine the more cost-effective outcome for the proerty owner. The Society chooses to pay a fine for being out of compliance with their E Res building rather than removing the fifth floor, for obvious practical reasons. I don't know the exact amount... I believe I heard a number used like $40,000 or something, but of course this could be very innacurate.
Enforcement of local land use regulations is a patch-work system, where jurisdictions vary in their ability and willingness to enforce every component of their municipal code. One reason is that it's just too labor-intensive to keep tabs on every property in a city or county and then try to bring those properties into compliance. It's just not worth it for many jurisdictions, unless people start showing up at council meetings and complaining about it publicly. However, with the Wallkill complex being quite a high-profile operation in that neck of the woods, it wasn't a surprise that they were penalized for building a fifth floor without the permits for doing so.
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stillajwexelder
Close Brooklyn
In Walkill and Paterson do all the books and anything else. Relocate the GB and all the sschools. Sounds perfect.
Sell brooklyn and make loadsa money
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
Well, I'll throw in my additional speculation. It's been a very long time since I've visited Canada Bethel, but the last I'd heard was a huge cut in personnel up there and they were left with lots of empty residence rooms. I think it's location is still isolated and it's not like they could sell any of those buildings or convert unneeded residence rooms to unneeded offices or unneeded storage. So, they move magazine printing up there to utilize already existing, idle space. I'd assume they would transfer a few pressmen from Wallkill up, but mostly get fresh Canadian recruits to do the work.
Paper was mentioned, so I'll speculate some more, maybe daniel-p might know about this... I'm guessing it would be advantageous to get paper supplies in Canada and print the ragazines up there. As I recall, in Wallkill they always seemed to have a massive inventory of paper. For some reason that I'd never inquired about, it seemed that they were paranoid that shipments wouldn't come through for extended periods. I think there were some bridge and/or road issues that made heavy trucking in the area problematic. I'm guessing Canada would better handle JIT paper supplies... well, except for when it snows all the time up there.
I'm assuming they have the issues of shipping from Canada to the US figured out. Currently, much of the litteratrash going from the Wallkill to the congregations is sent on Watchtower Corp trucks to assembly halls and other literatrash depots. Other more remote congregations get theirs via UPS, I think. So, now they'll have to change it up for the trucks coming from Canada. We'll see.
B the X
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insearchoftruth
Very good assessment Billy and daniel-p, not sure if laws have changed, but when I worked for a former company, we had some large motors manufactured by a plant in Canada and one issue we had was many of the highways were not open to truck traffic on weekend, so items we needed quickly were worked through the department of national defence to get waivers...may have changed though...
If nothing else the wts can move massive amounts of paper...