What's the logic behind 'Quick-build' KHs?

by african GB Member 21 Replies latest jw experiences

• 

  Oceanblue

  In the area I live in, two kingdom halls were built and they definitly took more than 2 days. It was more like 8-10 days. Last year, the two kingdom halls were to be built and the one I attend was supposed to be remodeled. All of this was supposed to be done by the end of the year. I think they just finished this weekend on the second hall. I'm not sure if they really are finished, but I'm not going to bother to ask either. Who knows when they will get around to remodeling, especially since they made sure to say that with Jehovah's help (and donatations from the local congregations) the work would all be done in December 2009. On top of that, with Jehovah's help (more donations from the local congregations) work on the new assembly hall will began.

  The kindom hall my family uses was first bulit in the early 80's. Then it was remodeled in the mid 90's. About a year or two ago, the bathrooms had to be redone because their was a major plumming problem. Both congregations using the hall have donated money for these other halls to be built, while their hall, which has been used to the max between the spanish, ASL, pioneer school, etc for the past several years is about to fall apart. What do they do? They keep pushing the project back and sending money to other projects. Then they come back for more money when they run into problems. I wonder how long it will be before the RBC comes back, and take up the portion for the service meeting, begging for more money in the name of Jehovah. A few weeks ago, they had the nerve to ask on a Thursday night for individually wrapped snacks for 500+ people, along with fruit and drinks, to be delievered to the site that Saturday. Even the PO seemed a little embarrased to be asking in their behalf. I was looking around, like are you guys serious!?!

  What's with this borrowing money from the WTS on 0% interest to build kingdom halls? Do they even have that much money to spare after the pay offs to the pedofile's victim(s)?
• 

  OUTLAW

  Quick Builds give the WBT$ and Jehovah`s Witness`s..

  Something to Brag about..

  ....................................................................................................

  Only Jehovah`s People could put up a piece of Crap this Fast!..

  The Army sent in Engineers to watch a JW Quick Build..

  So they would know how to do it..

  Charlie Sheen was so Impressed with the JW Quick Build..

  He wants to film an Episode of "Two and a Half Men" there!

  Tiger Woods hides from his Wife,at JW Quick Builds!

  ........................... ...OUTLAW
• 

  thetrueone

  The JWS in my community tried to build a quick build once, the only problem was they never took the time

  to do a soil and foundation assessment on to where they were going to build a graduated slanted concrete floor designed within the hall.

  I attended the first meeting at this new hall and the usual thank yous to Jehovah were given out for this

  lovely new and modern hall of worship. Unfortunately they built this new hall onto some very unstable ground which

  mostly consisted of clay and peat, resulting in the entire concrete floor of the main seating area to sink.

  Within 2 years the entire floor had sunk 8 inches, breaking plumbing water lines and electrical outlets.

  Not too sure what they eventually did to resolve the problem, but its a lessen in what happens when

  you let a bunch of half wits and amateurs build something of substantial size.
• 

  snowbird

  Outlaw, you're becoming more Ninja-like every day!

  LOL.

  Sylvia
• 

  BluesBrother

  Contrast thetrueone's comments with Happy Guy's above... I think that Happy Guy has the more typical experience. In my old cong we had a QB. The Circuit had its own planners and engineers and tech people. Nothing was left to chance with the site evaluation and planning application . The Branch Office kept a tight overview of costs and finance.

  It took 4 days to construct, but many months of hard labour by the locals in site preparation and foundation digging. The advantages of the method include

  Standardisation

  Cost saving by buying materials in bulk

  Less of a drain on the local cong's time and finance

  An impact on the coummunity that is ,in the short term, favourable
• 

  VoidEater

  What wobble said...!

  The one old-style build I was involved with was completely custom designed. It took longer than anticipated to build due to worker availability, unanticipated costs, undelivered materials...and then a jackass elder decided to ignore the carefully laid plans to mask off the beautifully stained natural wood exposed beams and paint the entire interior white, white, white.

  What BluesBrother said, too, to be honest.

  My dad photographed a recent quick build, a fairly complete photo document. It looked well organized and well completed.
• 

  WTWizard

  If Jehovah was really behind these quick builds, then why doesn't He go ahead and create the materials? And have one person assemble the whole thing in about 10 minutes, without any substantial effort beyond lifting a small screwdriver, and get it done perfectly? I would be much more favorably impressed, if I was to give God any respect (which, due to His not giving me any, I do not), if I saw these buildings going up practically by themselves in minutes and being structurally and functionally perfect (meaning no air conditioner or ventilation faults).

  And costing nothing. If Jehovah is the source of all wealth, why couldn't He simply create all the land, facilities, and materials Himself (perfect quality) and do all the difficult work Himself while one person merely attends to the site? That way, the money could go to actually spreading the message (and busting, not protecting, the pedophiles) instead of being wasted on these 5 year "quick(??)" build scams.
• 

  HappyGuy

  Quality and safety? The quicker you build them, the more chances there are for accidents on the site.

  I was on dozens of quick builds all over the country and I only saw one accident and the accident happened to me, I fell off a scaffolding because I did something stupid. Again, speed does not necessarily mean sloppy, if the people doing the work are professionals and plan everything correctly. Which we were and we did. I have seen amateurs do building work very slowly and it was extremely dangerous and sloppy.

  More people there means more people to get hurt and get in each other's way. And, you rush--that's when accidents seem to happen.

  The work is planned out to the minute. Where each crew is working at any given point of time is well orchestrated to make sure that crews are not in each other's way. There is a difference between building quickly and rushing. A quick build is not a rush job. It is meticulously planned and very well executed by professionals. I get the impression that you have never actually been to a quick build. Actually I am certain of it.

  They also usually have issues with the air conditioning, heat, security systems, and the locks on the doors and the littera-trash counters.

  I never saw any issues with the a/c, heat, security systems, or the locks on the doors. Nor sure what a littera-trash counter is. What issues specifically are you talking about?

  I have also heard of issues with mold from improper seasoning of the materials. .

  Improper seasoning of materials? I have no idea what that means. For items which need to cure, like concrete or mortar we added quick curing components and used fans and heaters. I never saw this happen and would have pitched a fit if it was happening.

  I would not be surprised if many an electrical fire was started because of a dauber's job with the electric or because of crap quality materials

  I worked on dozens of quick builds all over the countryand never saw or heard about a single fire. Not sure what a dauber's job is but our electricialns all came from the commercial electrical field and they were all highly trained professionals and we used first class materials and did the electrical to the highest commercial grade standards.

  because of crap quality materials

  This is just pure speculation. We used only the best materials. On any quick build site there are multiple professoinals in each trade who take pride in their work, they would have pitched a fit if shoddy materials were delivered to the job site.
• 

  HappyGuy

  I think there is a misunderstanding of how a quick build works. People don't just show up on a Friday with no plan and just helter skelter start throwing a building together. THe entire process takes MONTHS. In some cases it took more than a year.

  The quick build committee consists of architects, engineers, and licensed trades people for all the major trades. There are also people skilled in project planning and project management. Nothing is left to chance. Everything is meticulously planned to the smallest detail.

  What makes the quick build process work is the scheduling of the work. I'll give an example to illustrate. On a "normal" building site the framing carpenters come one day and the electricians come the day after the carpenters are finished to rough in the electric. On a quick build site as soon as the first few walls are up the electricians are coming right behind the carpenters roughing in the electrical. Same with plumbing, exterior siding, etc. This collapses the calender time being spent on the project greatly but the overall time being spent is the same or perhaps slightly more.

  The construction does not take 2 days as some have pointed out. A few weeks prior to the quick build weekend the site work and foundation work is completed. A utility closet which will house the electrical breaker box is built so that there will be electricity. The plumbing to the foundation is installed and is working so that there is water.

  The quick build weekend is when the structure is completed, we usually shoot to have that done by Sunday afternoon. The weekend actuallly begins on Friday afternoon. Usually the landscaping, parking lot, sidewalks, and other paving were done after the quick build weekend. I was on a few quick builds where all of that was done on Sunday afternoon but that was not typical.

  I dont' care what you say or if you like or dislike Jehovah's Witnesses, the quick build process is a marvel of efficiency and professionalism and does accomplish a miracle.

  Now, the WTBTS claims that only they can do the quick build process because "Jehovah's spirit" makes it possible. This is not so. Other organizations have done the quick build process. I worked with Habitat for Humanity for a while training them how to do it. The Air Force and the Army do it. I have been in war zones setting up cyber warfare operations centers and we went from having no electricity, no water, no phones, no internet, no communications to having a fully functional cyber warfare operations center up and running in 48 hours. Of course there was a general threatening to shoot us if we didnt' get it working so we had incentive.
• 

  thetrueone

  What's the logic behind 'Quick-build' KHs?

  Keep the building costs to a minimum and its used as self supporting advertisement on

  how well god's organization functions cohesively within the brotherhood.

  To say that its only the JWS organization that does this is simple BS propaganda.