Here's what is involved in being a hounder:
First, you are accountable for all the problems in the congregation. Suppose you are the new hounder, and in your first month the congregation hours have dropped 10% or more (never mind that part of that was that it was February and there was a blizzard with a meter or more of snow, and temperatures near -40. The hounder-hounder shows up, and you are the first one to get it. They chew out all the hounders, who are now expected to find out why the hours are down. Now, you are required to come up with solutions, implementing what the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger says. You are about 85% true, but you have one little original idea. Of course, March is warmer and milder--and longer, and field circus is back up to normal. Now, you are going to get ripped--for not obeying the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger 100%.
You are also responsible for the "cleanness(??)" of everyone in the congregation. You are expected to deal with calls at 3 in the morning about someone masturbating. You will deal with situations where people are not donating enough, perhaps because of materialism. You will have to find out what is driving such materialism and root it out. If someone listens to "bad" music, you are the one that has to fix it. Usually, you come out looking like a complete dork, driving away everyone because you have to hound them for listening to "bad" songs that really aren't all that bad. If children aren't out in field circus, you are responsible for hounding the parents--perhaps because they are not really all the way in.
There is additional work. Usually, it's the hounders that have to do administrative work at the Kingdumb Hells. They compile accounts, they fill out field circus slips, they take accounts for new publishers, they handle people moving in and out of the territory, they handle the talks and most of the parts, they assign the parts, they handle the Washtowel study, and they are the ones to step up and donate to the Worldwide Pedophile Defense Fund if no one else will. And they are required to be out in field circus, no matter what, if their turn comes up to handle it. They also have to set examples--if they listen to a "bad" song, it might "stumble" 50 people rather than the 2 or 3 that a regular witless might. They answer to the hounder-hounders, who are not generally nice people (and even more so lately), when things go wrong.
For all this, what is the benefit? For most decent people, nothing. You are not going to get more than one everlasting life if you are a pious-sneer, a hounder, or go to Beth Hell. More prestige? Hardly--you are as likely to lose out by ruining the joy of people when you inform them that a song is "bad" and they cannot listen to it or that they can't move to New Zealand because Nigeria is where the "need is greater". Only the power freaks and pedophiles find anything worthwhile in staying in this position: Power freaks can ruin others' lives, and pedophiles can molest children on the pretext of a shepherding call.
