Style of assembly/convention speakers

by comment 8 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  comment

  What precisely are the instructions that are given to assembly or convention speakers about the manner in which they are to deliver their talks, especially the manuscript ones?

  The reason I ask is that I was always irked by the strident, hectoring tone of the speakers at these events.

  You'd have Brother Mild-Mannered from your home congregation on the platform, someone you knew gave talks at the Kingdom Hall in a (relatively) low-key "I'm a normal person" voice, but get him up there at the Doers of God's Divine Godly Fear Kingdom District Convention and he'd be snapping out those long boring rhetorical questions and thrashing his hands around like some dictator wannabe.

  It made me think that if you wanted to turn people on to the organization, the district convention sure wasn't the place to start.

  comment
• 

  Mister Biggs

  I know what you mean, comment.
  They all talk like a cross of a televangelist and Farrakhan.

  So many stupid people, so few comets! :o)
• 

  Room 215

  Nice comment, comment...

  One hardly qualifies for such an exalted privilege unless he is a petty demagogue, has some distinctive affectation, penchant for hyperbole, grandeloquence or eccentricity. In short, a no-life ham who thrives on milking applause from a compliant audience.
• 

  Outaservice

  One time I was the 'Chairman' of the day at our Circuit Assembly. The DO told me to talk it up how good the lunch was for the day, and be very enthusiastic. So, I did.

  A brother and I noticed when we went to eat that there were some little tiny black bugs in the beef (the meal was beef tips and noodles). We right away went to the overseer handling the cafeteria and showed him. He told us to keep quiet as they had nothing else prepared and besides the bugs wouldn't hurt anyone! Plus, I imagine, they would have lost a lot of money on lunch.

  So, dumb asses that we were we dropped it, but did not eat it ourselves.

  If we reported anything about contributions, it was to be like we haven't received much, so hopefully the brothers would take that into consideration. Who knows, we may have taken in a million dollars, but that was not to be hinted at.

  Outaservice, (used to be Out-In-Service)
• 

  Michael3000

  One hardly qualifies for such an exalted privilege unless he is a petty demagogue, has some distinctive affectation, penchant for hyperbole, grandeloquence or eccentricity. In short, a no-life ham who thrives on milking applause from a compliant audience.

  Yep, that pretty much sums up J.R. Brown's speaking style.

  Ah, memories...

  "Any day spent NOT knocking on doors is a good day!"
• 

  DazedAndConfused

  I don't know how they do it now but years ago when I was in a part at an Assembly we had practice sessions with the CO there watching and listening. He would stop you during the session and tell you to be more......whatever you were lacking in. Most of the cases it was that the Br's weren't forceful enough or animated enough. I felt bad for the Br's where it wasn't natural for them to do so because the CO would stop him every few minutes to make him do it over again until he got it right.
• 

  Simon

  I loved it when they "fished for applause" after saying something that they obviously thought was important but everyone else slept through. I can still hear that echoey "blah blah blah with Jehovah on our side, won't we brothers?! ... (silence) ... won't we brothers" (with strange mix of arrogance and worry/panic just coming through in the voice)

  clap, calp, clap, yawn, ZZZzzzz

  For some reason, they always seemed to put on an American accent over here !
• 

  proplog2

  Simon:

  My favorite applause is when they give statistics at the end of the district conventions. Usually the statistics indicated an increase. I could never understand why they applauded when they gave the number of partakers at the Memorial. If the number went up something was obviously wrong. And if the number was less than the previous year it meant a bunch of people died.

  Were they really applauding because a bunch of people thought they were annointed but weren't REALLY?

  Or were they glad that a bunch of them died?
• 

  FreePeace

  One hardly qualifies for such an exalted privilege unless he is a petty demagogue, has some distinctive affectation, penchant for hyperbole, grandeloquence or eccentricity. In short, a no-life ham who thrives on milking applause from a compliant audience.

  While the above comments certainly apply to some convention speakers, they do not apply to all.

  Some of us really cared about making a difference. Some of us were really very good public speakers who did not change our speaking style to accomodate some CO/DO.

  I was a convention speaker, and I do not consider the above words as applicable in my case. I did not do it for the glory, nor the applause. I did it because I love speaking (unlike most people). I did it because I wanted to make a difference.

  I still want to make a difference. That's why I am no longer a Dub. Now I can make a difference in a way that really counts.

  FreePeace
  "The World is my country, and to do good, my religion." --Thomas Paine
  TruthQuest: http://beam.to/truthquest
  Who Am I? -How to Reinvent Yourself After Leaving the WTS