New Rumor: Downsizing Circuits/Assemblies (page 4)

Nice_Dream

I hope so. I hate living in a convention city...it makes sense for people to go to conventions closer to home rather than drive 8 hours for "spiritual nourishment."

Maybe this is what the grab for the title deeds of Kingdom Halls is about? If the WT owns the halls, they can force congregations to sell them and pitch in with other local congregations to create more complexes which will double as assembly halls?

jookbeard

8 day DC's

Evening sessions going on into pitch darkness

International DC's and watching the various national dress of the "brothers and sisters"

being burnt alive

being pured down on and all huddling under a plastic sheet that keeps blowing away

binoculars

the stench of stewed coffee and the smell of bacon butties

"rooming" and waiting to see what oddball family would be staying at your home

reel to reel tape machines and cassette recorders

the dirty filthy tub of rancid water that you were expected to wash your hands in

the industrial sized catering units

food tickets

checking out "sisters"

pub after the final Sunday and drinking it dry!

watching the apostates

wondering how many miles the walk would be from the car park

working as an attendant

the final song and hearing the whole stadium raising the roof "Jeehovah is my refuge"

And to think a new generation of Dubs wont ever experience any of what is mentioned above..

Phizzy

"Of course we had it hard in our day............... put Jookies post in here............... and you tell that to the Dubs today and they won't believe a word of it"

With Thanks to Monty Python and the 4 Yorkshireman sketch.

dozy

I guess it makes financial sense to utilise assembly halls as much as possible and it makes sense where possible to have District Conventions there but I don't see the WTBTS completely phasing out big stadium assemblies completely.

For one thing , there are many countries that don't have assembly halls. Also you can't beat the impact of having a big convention with tens of thousands of JWs , sometimes from many lands. Other than stadium rental ( often subsidised by local authorities or by the stadium owners keen to get their premises cleaned ) there isn't a big financial saving. Don't forget that all the costs of assemblies are covered beforehand by the " rate per publisher" levy on the congregations , so all the donations made are pure profit.

Another possibility often suggested would be to change the existing 2 day assembly to 1 day - this at a stroke frees up 26 days a year in assembly halls.

But as ever it is impossible to second guess the WTBTS - it is like Kremlin watchers trying to determine the machinations in Soviet Russia. When you have a few men cut off from real life in an ivory tower thinking that every decision they make is directed by Holy Spirit and driven by numerous legal factors and a strong need to constantly cut back on costs , then who knows what schemes they will cobble up.

blondie

mickey mouse, in the US KHs are non-profit corporations under 3 elders/trustees in the congregation who hold the territory the building is in. In order to take control of sales of the building, the WTS has to dissolve the congregation, that is send them off to other congregations. That has been done, but a wholesale dissolving could make the most loyal jw wonder deeply. I can see more assembly halls being built. That is what started the AH building, the difficulty getting secular sites to have circuit assemblies, high school gyms, smaller, not well-maintained buildings.

Sapphy

I wonder if they've considered going for mid-week district conventions. It would be unpopular, but hey it's only 3 days a year right? Surely the rank and file can be guilted into showing appreciation for spirtual things mid week, once a year right?

Here the society charges circuits about £3/4k per day to use an assembly hall at the weekend. If they could use it all week long there would be a huge uptick in profitability.

As soon as the district conventions become loss making they'll be rationalised / simplifed / abolished.

tresdecu

some great speculation threads to wake up to this morning! I hope the downsizing continues! I don't think anyones's mentioned nixing the 1 day SP ASS DAY. I see this happening too

WTWizard

I hope this is a sign that the religion is shrinking. Hopefully, with donations going down (hopefully to zero), and attendance dropping sharply (I hope to zero as well), they will have to resort to more creative means to goose up their numbers to make themselves look big.

If this trend continues, a witless might not have to travel more than 50 km to attend all functions. And, it will be possible to do better online--one apostate, or one Devil worship site, can provide more insight on religion than one could get in a lifetime as a witless. I got much new light on visiting my first apostate site (better than any a$$embly, and not costing me an arm and a leg). I got additional new light, particularly recently, looking at some of the spiritual Satanist web sites. Again, that handily beat out what I could get at the a$$emblies. I got 9 CDs worth of those Devil worship sermons, and so far they are better than anything I would ever hear at the a$$emblies (and it only cost 37 toilet papers).

Joliette

Wow this is pretty big news.

New Rumor: Downsizing Circuits/Assemblies