Assembly/Convention Accounting

by dontplaceliterature 32 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Mad Sweeney

  This probably includes the amortized costs for taxes, electricity and other services used throughout the week when it sits empty, probably also paying off the 'loan' from the society who funded the construction.

  There are no taxes and there are no loans. The society owns these assembly halls. If it loaned itself money to do so, and is making the rank and file JWs pay it back, that's criminal.

  There is electricity and there is water and there are supplies like paper products, gas for the lawn mowers, shovels for the snow, etc. That's it.

  This isn't just suspicion. People who have worked in accounts at assemblies have confirmed this. The announced costs are NOT actual costs. They are projections based on a certain amount per publisher per day and they are highly inflated above what any actual costs might be.
• 

  diamondiiz

  Here is JW assembly hall in Calgary, Alberta Canada where I use to go when I lived there. I know it was paid off and then they continued to expect same money from those attending there because they were "saving" for renovations. Anyways, IF I remember correctly there were 5 KH there and 10 or 12 congregations attending. The walls slid open and it turned into an assembly hall with about 800 people attending. As everyone here said, they always run deficits obviously until the final count where they would have some surplus which was announced on the next assembly date and much of the surplus was donated to wts. I don't remember what the daily cost for assembly was but I always thought it was high since it has been used by 10-12 congregations on regular basis. I know there are some from Calgary here who might still attend meetings who can state actual daily cost for assembly day - but I think it was somewhere around $2-3k a day. Since they are tax exempt, the property paid for, the daily bill shouldn't be that much since we're talking about utilities and maybe tiny bit for the upkeep and wts insurance.

  Here is Calgary property assessment for this building, I don't understand why the property is divided in two but under one address. The combined assessment of the property is 3.4million and they are tax exempt.

  Go to this link and type in this address 1736 10 AVE SW. You can get the details and see it's tax exempt right from the Municipal web site.
• 

  thetrueone

  All churches / Kingdom Halls / Assembly Halls are tax exempt at least in North America.

  Over $9000 for two days.

  Yes that is over the top as far as expenses , but its not unusual for the WTS. accountants to fudge the books

  to make it look like they need the money ( badly )

  Assembly Halls have utility costs such heating and electricity, which would naturally go up during an Assembly

  but they certainly wouldn't be that high for two days.

  I'm sure there would be a separate AH fund that would run on a specific budget, including such things as insurance against fire and damage

  and possible upkeep costs and basic utilities.
• 

  RubaDub

  It can be argued fairly that a building costing 2-3 million dollars with a loan term of 10 years could cost a person $7-10 per weekend when you factor in all of the additional expenses involved in maintaining any facility.

  But, as mentioned above, once the building is paid off, they still use the same numbers. Then instead of the $7-10 amount, it would drop to $2-3. Even if you factored in a renovation fund of let's say $2 per person, you are still at or below $5 per person per week ... or $2.50 per person or less for the SAD (one day).

  The part that is very wrong, IMO, is that there is no proper disclosure on the additional amounts send to the Society or other amounts factored to come up with a "cost".

  Rub a Dub
• 

  Cadellin

  Family members just went to their CA at the Surrey, BC, Canada assembly hall. It was renovated a few years ago, but it's not a new building by any means. There are 2 kh in it as well (I think) and the assembly hall itself is used almost year round. The announced expenses for the 2-day CA (which would have had around 1,000 in attendance, maybe a bit less) were--get this--$14,000. That was what was announced.
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  sd-7

  Why would they be announcing expenses like amortization or property taxes? What is said from the platform is that this report is for the costs of the ASSEMBLY PROGRAM, NOT the cost of paying for loans, taxes or anything like that. Either way, actual details on what these expenses are--that's totally lacking. The numbers are meaningless because none of the people there know what's behind them anyway.

  Also, the local congregations are ALREADY instructed at their HOME Kingdom Halls to donate to repay any loans the Society gave for building the Assembly Hall. So to expect donations towards a loan AGAIN at the program would be fleecing the flock. And yes, I know from experience, the Society does indeed loan money for these projects and expects it to be repaid. I think we all know that.

  The other thing is, the elders have a business meeting during the assembly programs and vote, without consulting anyone else, to send a specific amount to the Society. They then inform everyone else after the fact. Why, I found myself asking, would we be sending money to the Society if we can't even pay for the costs of this program today and we therefore have a deficit? Because what matters most to the Society is that they take in some money from every assembly program. Or...the only other way this is possible is if there really is no deficit for the assembly program. Or maybe it's somehow made up at the end by a crapload of donations. Somehow, I just have trouble believing that.

  --sd-7
• 

  JW GoneBad

  dontplaceliterature: Did you see any Debit/Credit card tables set up for contributions in the lobby?
• 

  OUTLAW

  There is a Built in Debt for every assembly..The WBT$ wants X amount of dollars per person..Period..

  Screw the Actual costs..Screw anyone who complains..

  The WBT$ wants the Projected Money..

  Sell a Kidney!..

  

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

  palmtree67

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/62001/1/Circuit-Accounts-Servants-Confesses-how-the-SCAM-WORKS
• 

  mythreesons

  From what I remember, this is how it was explained during the "business meeting" during lunch.

  They take the costs of maintaining the Assembly hall (ie..utilities, mortgage, supplies) for the year and divide it into the # of days on the weekends the A. H. is being used. Sometimes the hall is only used say 40 days a year. This gives the "amount per day" for the assembly. Then they also add in....plane tickets for "Bethel Speaker", expenses for C.O & D.O. & Bethel Speaker for the week, also expenses for any C.O. and D.O. apartments that the Circuit incurs, that way the home congregation doesn't have to foot the entire bill for the C.O. living on the premises.

  Also, sometimes there is going to be renovations or remodeling of the Assembly Hall. They try to factor that in as well, so that the materials (labor = free) can be paid for without any financing. This is just from what I remember. They also add-in a donation to the "world-wide work" which I remember being approx. $500 per day for the Circuit I was in...(that was an amount the elders voted on).

  So as far as I can tell and from my experience in the meetings. The prices for the assembly seems quite high, but in reality it's prett legit.