This is beyond a waste of time. They waste 30 minutes guilting people into shortening the field circus meeting so they can spend (waste) more time in field circus. It is true that, if you have a small group and everyone knows where they are supposed to be, you can quickly assign the work, say the prayer (so you can connect with whatever psychic power you have into the damnation work), and go.
But, it never works that way. You are supposed to start at 9:00 AM, sharp. At that point, you have one to two car groups. The minute you think you have the groups assigned, along comes another group. Of course, they have been meaning to work with the group, so you need to rearrange things. And, invariably, someone that insists on working with someone who is already there shows up 20 minutes later. By now, everyone is confused and it takes another 20 minutes before everyone knows who they are working with and what they are doing.
And forget about leaving stragglers in the cold. It is usually an assistant hounder that is late. Someone who is "just a brother" could be on time regularly and start, only to have the disruptions start. Then, once the assistant hounder or hounder shows up 20 minutes later, this idiot usurps the work already done. Groups are torn apart, new ones started, and if you try leaving them out in the cold, they will whine and complain to the lead hounder about how theocraptic arrangement is that the assistant hounder (even though it shows up 20 minutes late and the groups are already arranged) is supposed to take the lead. The "brother" taking the lead because he was the only one on time usually gets chewed out for usurping theocraptic arrangement.
Now, I wonder how long it will be before this pattern resumes--or if it will even be disrupted at all. You cannot get the group out in the territory within 5, or even 15, minutes as long as some idiot is going to come 20 minutes late and, because he is an assistant hounder, trash the whole group and remake the groups because he is "supposed" to take the lead. You are looking at, at best, 30 minutes, and usually 45-60 minutes if this rubbish is going to be tolerated.
