My wife and I were longtime JWs. I was an elder for over 25 years and we had two stints of pioneering totally 14 years. While we considered ourselves loyal witnesses, looking back on it we had some independence working:
Lapel Cards: Sometime in the 80's we stopped wearing lapel cards, not only AFTER the assembly program, but during it. If I had a talk, I would wear the card on stage only if it was mandated.
Assigned Convention, Rooming: Not being able to get the correct week off work once, we were not able to attend our assigned district assembly. We enjoyed the one week of freedom from the congregation while they were at the designated convention AND the appeal of attending in a different locale an alternate week. That became our regular routine for our last years as JWs. If I had an assembly part, we would attend our assigned convention for that day only using a personal day from work, then get the rest of the program somewhere else. Since it was not our assigned assembly, we found our own rooms through a motel chain's discount program. We had clean, inexpensive rooms and were usually the only JWs at the motel.
Yearbooks, Calendars: While we always ordered the yearbook(1), we stopped ordering Watchtower calendars. We found them impractical because they did not show worldly holidays. While we didn't celebrate the holidays, that was important information with a child in school and at my job. "Worldly" calendars also had more room for notes, appointments, etc.
Convention Food: From the mid-70's my wife ALWAYS made a lunch for us even if were out of town. The instant the session ended, we said a prayer and ate our lunch. We then spent the rest of the lunch break roaming, visiting. This was a practice that some in our congregation noticed and copied. We never ate convention food during the hoagie, pastry, Shasta era.
Quickbuilds, remodels: I was never a fan of replacing suitable Kingdom Halls with a quickbuild or remodeling a perfectly fine building. Sometimes, I was the only dissenting vote on a circuit overseer mandated remodel. My favorite line was that I would support using the money for a third world hall, but not remodeling for the sake of remodeling a functional Kingdom Hall.
Kingdom Melodies recordings: Not a fan.
Were we bad or what?
tms