Had this job a few times when the MS guys we had doing it didn't keep up. Once spent a lot of time calling all the congos in the circuit to get their lists of speakers to add to a database for the benefit of all. I promised a copy of the compiled list once completed. A few congos did not wish to particpate for some reason, so I listed them as "REFUSED TO PARTICIPATE" in the final copy that I sent out. Boy did the whining start. Told them they had their chance to willingly help - so tough. Loved getting back at those pompous duds.
Talk Coordinator: A pretty sucky job
by Open mind 27 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
-
mythreesons
Yep, I had this job too, up until the day I stepped aside as an elder. I received one of those 'phone calls' about a year ago, I told him I didn't do that job anymore and for him to contact the COBE. I've been out now for 2 1/2 years, I was biting my tongue the whole time....I had a huge smile on my face though.
The other elders were fine if the talk sucked. They honestly didn't care as long as it wasn't them giving the talk. Especially, since the outline was 30 minutes. They could take anything for that short a time. But, the elders wives made it known how bad a speaker was or not, and would always gripe to me about it. They would also complain about their husbands having to go out and give talks too much. I had several complain all the time that we needed more 'black' speakers. I would call different halls that were predominately 'black' and then the elders would start saying things about halls they 'wanted' to exchange with....that is Not from the 'inner city'. LOL Just can't win.
-
blondie
What was sucky was that many elders were only prepared to give 3 or 4 talks total. I swear I heard the same talks over and over. I did complain to the TC when 5 speakers in a row from the same congregation were Ds, actually Fs. It turned out that the TC in that congregation hated the TC in ours and deliberately sent the worst speakers. I can remember going with my husband to give talks elsewhere and no one would have signed up for hospitality and I could tell the chairman's wife did not want to get stuck with it or I could tell they had a large family and could not afford to take us out. Once my hubbie replaced a speaker and we went to a congregation to find out the persons with hospitality did not want to do hospitality because we weren't the people they signed up for. One time a COBOE who disliked my husband (no reason he was just like that) told the sister who had signed up that we had cancelled. Wasn't she surprised when we showed up and she was unprepared. Or the time we showed up at a congregation to find out it was the CO visit and no one had called after driving 50 miles one way.
You can imagine we started calling to confirm talks and that those who signed up for hospitality knew who was coming. I agree that being TC is a thankless and time-consuming assignment.
-
WTWizard
Good thing I never volunteered for any "privileges(??)". I got stuck handing out the rags, and that was more than enough--having to show up early and stay late for the boasting sessions every day sucked plus being stuck behind the counter. Then handling the Theocraptic Misery "School(??)" assistant--I was good at timing a precise 5 minutes (when my watch beeped, exactly 5 minutes elapsed and that would alert the conductor, who was not usually appreciative, that the time is up). At least I was as strict with my own talks being very close to 5 minutes (in the 4:50-5:00 range) as with everyone else.
But beyond that, I didn't want the responsibilities (and being sure that Jehovah would not reward me in any meaningful way). Hence I started dogging what I had--if only I would have "lost" the records on the Theocraptic Misery "School(??)" or corrupted them so they would have had to waste time making new ones.
-
dozy
Bringing back a lot of memories , this.
There was always the risk that a speaker wouldn’t show up , even if you had phoned him the day before , or that some miscommunication would happen & 2 speakers turned up. Thankfully this didn’t happen too often but there was one time when a HLC brother giving the (now no longer allowed) no-blood talk came at the same time as another scheduled speaker. The HLC guy had got his dates wrong but he was a high profile JW & felt that as his was a “special talk” he should get priority. The other speaker was a bit miffed by his attitude & there was almost a stand-off as they argued who should give the talk. (I suggested tossing a coin , which didn’t go down too well , though I did say it was like casting lots for Matthias!)
Late on in my JW “career” & already mentally out I had a talk in a cong in a neighbouring circuit that had a reputation for being weird & not very friendly. My kids called it “Tumbleweed Congregation” as going there was like walking into one of the bars in a wild west town where everyone stared at you & nobody spoke.
The PT co-ordinator was pretty useless & hadn’t rang me so I phoned him on the Saturday to confirm. I was feeling somewhat unwell & had a poor day at work on the Saturday & the whole family were pretty fed-up about being dragged early out of their beds & going on an hours journey to a crap congregation. The journey in bad weather wasn’t very pleasant & I just wanted to get the job done & get home.
When I got there I had the usual lukewarm reception & went to the platform to put my notes on the rostrum only to find someone elses notes there – some other guy was giving the talk! The PT coordinator was nowhere to be seen & none of the elders knew what had happened and were running around in “headless chicken mode”. The other guy had also travelled a distance & I just said to him – it’s ok – you give the talk.
My wife & kids wanted to leave then & there , but it would have created too much of a scene so we decided to sit near the back of the KH through the talk & make a quick exit after it. ( I told one of the elders that I had some elders business to deal with back in my own congregation so I needed to get away sharp – always a useful excuse.) We sneaked out during the middle song & went to a local pub for a bar lunch & went for a walk by the river which made the exercise more palatable. But I vowed that I would never again give a talk there & wouldn’t send any of our elders there either.
-
shepherd
This is one job I did. They called it a privilege but it was an amazingly large pain in the ass. I could not believe how selfish and uncaring many quest speakers were - I would call the a week before and be told it was okay - then call again the night before and they would make some reason they were not coming. They may have known for days they were not coming, but never thought it important enough to let me know.
Then they would turn up and give a completely different talk to the one agreed on. This led to times the congregation heard the same talk 2 weeks in a row (the funny thing was, few noticed).
I had something similar happen to what Blondie described - I had a hospitality arrangement canceled DURING the meeting when they saw it was not the elder they were expecting - so much for real hospitality :)
It was a thankless job I was glad to get rid of. Despite booking months before, calling a week before and then the night before, I still had no-shows, and then I would get looks from certain elders as if it was all due to my incompetence. And you would be amazed how feeble the excuses would be sometimes...
-
NewYork44M
I had that job for several years. It was not too bad. My only problem was that I had one elder who thought he was a mini C.O. and wanted to be assigned an out of town talk all the time, then there were others who did not want to be bothered.
I occasionally had a missing speaker, but not often. Also, we assigned the speaker hospitality by study group. I assigned these in sequential order. It was up to the study group to figure out who was going to do lunch for the speaker.
-
Open mind
Towards the end of my very short TC career, I came up with a partial solution to the problem of "no shows".
When either the incoming speaker or his TC would give me a last-minute call to cancel, I would ask if he had a replacement available. Amazingly, about 50% of the time, just asking this kind of gave them a virtual smack upside the head and made them realize how they were leaving our congo in the lurch. And THEY would do the scrambling to get a replacement. If he was a "D" quality speaker I really didn't care at that point.
If the TC said "no you'll have to find a replacement yourself" then this was my reply:
OM: "OK, that's fine. I'll just make a note of it in my file that your congregation handles cancellations by having the hall RECEIVING the speaker arrange for a replacement, is that right?"
(Long pause.)
Other TC: "Uhhhh, welllll, ummmmm. "
(After enough time has passed for a certain amount of discomfort to build.)
OM: "Hey, it's no big deal, I just want to make sure we're on the same page as to how cancellations should be handled. So in the future, if one of our speakers has to cancel, we'll be sure to let you know ASAP so that you can arrange a replacement. No problem."
Of those who let it go this far, about half decided to do the scramble themselves, and about half said "Yeah, OK, that's how we'll handle it." I made sure to let my successor know of these convos.
Good times.
om