Often Mentioned but some of us don't know what it refers too (except the fact they charged for parking when they didn't have too - could be argued it offsets the cost of stadium hire). Is there a specifc example with how much money is raised?
Convention Parking Scam - What exactly is it?
by cantleave 14 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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Sapphy
The last time we were allowed to park at Twickenham conv. I was charged £13 for 3 days parking. There were probably about 20 cars in my cong, so that would be £260 from my hall for parking. I don't know how many congs were assigned to Twickers tho'.
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cantleave
Thanks Koolaid-man - Yep that is a Scam!!!!!!!
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AdaMakawee
There were about six conventions in Tacoma per summer (guessing), and the dome was filled at these conventions. I don't know how many seats that is, perhaps 20,000. Say one car per four people. That works out to 5,000 cars X $4.00 - $20,000 per convention roughly, or x6 - $120,000. This was a big deal where I came from when this news broke. Talk about cognitive dissonence when the rank and file tried to work out a way to make this ok.
Ada
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AdaMakawee
Its been a long time, but I thought I remembered the tickets were $5.00. I could be mistaken but $4.00 doesn't ring a bell.
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HappyGuy
Convention centers offer various deals when it comes to parking. These are the 3 main options in terms of parking:
1. You can let the convention center charge for parking in which case the rental fee will be less,
2. You can charge for parking yourself, in which case you have to split the parking fees with the convention center,
3. You can offer free parking, in which case your rental fee will be slightly more but your convention attendees dont' have to pay for parking.
When you rent a convention facility you sign a CONTRACT stipulating terms including parking arrangements.
The WTBTS was telling convention centers that they were not going to charge for parking and did not want the convention center to charge for parking, then the WTBTS told each congregation to sell parking tickets in advance. The excuse used was that this was a new "arrangement" to make things more efficient. They even quoted some scriptures to that effect. The real reason for the new "arrangement" was to scam the convention center out of the parking fees.
Here is how you know this was a scam. You could not buy tickets at the convention itself. One year, I had been very ill and was not at the meetings when the parking tickets were sold. I just figured I woudl buy them at the convention. They were not for sale. Why would the WTBTS not sell the convention parking tickets at the convention? Only one reason. They did not want the convention center management to know they were charging for parking.
Many cities caught on to this scam and then blacklisted Jehovah's Witnesses from ever using their convention center again. I know for a fact that Augusta Georgia did that because I know the manager of the facility. THe WTBTS claimed that these convention centers were refusing to rent to the WTBTS because of RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. This was a bold faced lie. I asked my friend in Augusta about this and he just made a disgusted sound and said "NO, we won't rent to them because they ripped us off and we offered for them to make restitution and they could use the facility again but they refused so we black listed them".
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WTWizard
From what I heard, the witlesses are charging for parking that comes with the rental of the venue. And they are being dishonest about it.
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OnTheWayOut
I remember what happened in Columbia, South Carolina during the same time they were ripping them off in Tacoma. They were ripping us off too, probably agreeing with the USC stadium not to charge the members for parking. They sold the parking tickets at the local congregation, but then told attendents that every car with the JW's had to have the parking ticket in their windshield so the university would know the cars were theirs.
So at the convention, passes were handed out freely by attendents, but they told the people that they were expected to drop $2 per day (Six bucks for all three days) in the contribution box. I knew nothing of the scam at the time, but am certain that they were not to "sell" parking to the JW's, so they kept the secret proceeds.