Do Most Pioneers really Get there time quota?

xelder

Over many years, I've known only a handful who were conscientious and actually seemed to work hard and efficiently.

I have long thought that counting time was really stupid. All on us would kill time inefficiently, but for many years as I served on the service committee, we would review the pioneers activity twice a year. I would say only 20% actually made their time by the end of the year.

And much of that time was fake. If the way they worked was at a secular job, they would be fired. Early morning laundry mats, in rural territory, driving as far and slow as possible between making calls on houses, crossing the county, and then driving all the way back to where they started, then coffee break, then a garage sale, then pick up a prescription, then work a couple houses, etc.

I didn't care how they counted time, it was all about the pioneer title for many. I wouldn't recommend a person to begin or continue pioneering if they couldn't get their time (even if it was fake - but that was on them). But the CO's would always want to keep low hour pioneers and put on new pioneers who had been low hour publishers because it made there circuit look better.

xelder

we would have special campaign months every spring around the memorial of Christ's death and get 20 - 30 extra people to pioneer for a month. Then we never could come close to giving them enough territory, so they had to kill time. I'm sure Jesus is very impressed by the awesome little paper reports that he personally reads every month.

xelder

Oh yeah - plus

Many times the unemployed were encouraged to not look for too hard work. Just pioneer until God provides.

Quandry

When I lived in Florida, ten years ago, there were so many JWs we just about tripped over each other. There was no territory. You never even saw one unless you were the bookstudy conductor or a pioneer.

I was always concientious when I auxilliary pioneered, but with no territory, and if you found someone to talk to at a door, they were already someone's return visit, I HAD to walk slowly, drive around alot, etc., and hated it. But as an elder's wife, I felt I had to show a good example.

There was one 7-11 in our territory that had so many JWs around the door and in the store for breaks that regular people could not get inside. The workers were always calling and complaining to the KHall.

yknot

Damn you have some lazy Pioneers if they can't properly fake their time!

But it is the last of your initial post that says it all:

the CO's would always want to keep low hour pioneers and put on new pioneers who had been low hour publishers because it made there circuit look better

It is a business, if he doesn't get his numbers in he looks bad, the DO looks bad......etc

dissed

And there is the other way to look at it.

My wife and me wanted to aux poineer but the Elders wouldn't let us because our night jobs interfered with the meetings too much. We was bad examples!

So we did it anyway, putting in 80-100 hrs a month.

Congregation avg went from 2.2 to over 4 and the CO commended the brothers for the spike. Then when we were allowed to REALLY pioneer the cong. avg went down again.

Proving their worth to survive Armageddon, one monthly time report at a time.

Favorite line by Elder over reports: If you lie, you will die.

sir82

In my experience, no more than 50% actually made their time.

And of course as noted above, much of the time actually recorded was pretty iffy. For example, starting your service day at 6 AM, but spending it driving around to gas stations and convenience marts - perhaps each pioneer speaks for a total of 2 or 3 minutes, but each of them records 3 hours.

Then again, most publishers have such "sham" time in their reports, such as coffee breaks, driving 20 or 30 minutes between return visits, etc.

Out of the "1 billion hours spent preaching annually" the Society is so proud of, I'd reckon no more than 10% is actually spent in conversation with other people - perhaps far less.

WTWizard

Most of the pio-sneers get their time in, and will kill themselves to get the time in (I have yet to hear of the fake time slip in my former congregation).

However, the quality of the work left much to be desired. I have seen one pio-sneer couple show up consistently about 15-20 minutes late, with a cup of coffee, having spent time placing the rags at the laundromat or "starting their time" at a house near where we met. This is actually quite normal--they would drive about 25 MPH (the speed limit is 30), and take quite a few coffee breaks. I have noticed people tended to cluster their calls together in one area before moving on, alas.

The biggest time waster I have observed is that people take half an hour to warm up (and sometimes more) when the temperature is just below freezing. They might go on 4 or 5 doors, and then back to the car for "cold" feet, fingers, or being generally cold. I tended to let the heat out of the car to slow this down even more, so they could waste even more time "warming up". I always hated those days when it was about 75 o and sunny, because that would cut down on those warming up breaks. I have also noticed more time wasted when it was raining or very hot outside, or if there was so much snow that the sidewalks were not clear and parking spaces were few and far between.

Along with doors where we knock and no one answers, I have gone out in field circus all morning and perhaps had 4 or 5 turns to talk (and, more often than not, they were not interested--just fine with me). All in all, I think around 5-10% of the time I was out in field circus was actually spent talking to householders--and for me, that was 5-10% more than I wanted (and they wonder why I would let them waste their time driving past their target street or house).

Cadellin

Out of the "1 billion hours spent preaching annually" the Society is so proud of, I'd reckon no more than 10% is actually spent in conversation with other people - perhaps far less.

I'd say way, way less. I've had recent conversations w/family members who are pioneers and they go like this:

Her: We had a really great morning in service, the sun was out and the territory was so nice!

Me: Any good conversations?

Her: Well, nobody was home the entire morning. But we had a good time anyway.

---

Later, Her: (Other family member) is really enjoying pioneering here. The car groups are so much fun and everybody is so friendly. (Other family member) stayed out in service all day! (Other family member) didn't get home until 5:00!

Me: Wow! Were they getting many people home?

Her: Oh no, nobody home. But (Other family member) had a good time anyway.

Do Most Pioneers really Get there time quota?

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