Why doesn't the GB come out with specific rules on counting time

by trujw 35 Replies latest jw experiences

• 

  Roddy

  That's how I "officially" heard it too. You time-in at the first door and time-out when you are done with the last door.

  Don't feel bad because it wasn't clear to me at first either. No one actually told me. I just assumed time-in was when you leave the meeting for field service to time-out when you go back to your car.

  I'm sure there are a lot of inflated hours out there. And maybe there is a bit of field service report padding going on too. But the lack of written rules on the subject leads to this situation.

  I found out the "official" version when I was working with a pioneer one day and I mentioned that I got 30 minutes already traveling time. I was a little annoying losing those 30 minutes. LOL
• 

  eyeuse2badub

  Ever notice that when talking to 'pioneeers' that the first and most important topic is; "How are you doing with your time?" When I was an elder and we would meet with the pioneers once a year, it was mostly about how we could help the pioneers to "Get there time in".

  eyeuse2badub
• 

  blondie

  Start your time and keep it going....

  1) Make an appointment with an rv or make sure they will be home from your house

  2) Make another call on the way to field service meeting. (yay cellphones)

  3) Meeting should be 15 minutes, not enough to stop time, right. If not make another call keep time going.

  4) Drive to territory, make first call at door, NH no problem.

  5) Knew sister who would talk to her kid to keep time going

  6) Make one last phone call just as you walk in the door, or keeping trying as you make lunch.

  *** km 3/79 p. 4 Pioneers and Their Reports ***

  May coffee and lunch breaks be counted as field service time? The “Organization” book (p. 126) says that the time to be counted on our reports is what we spend actually in Kingdom-preaching and disciple-making, witnessing to persons who are not themselves baptized Witnesses. Are you witnessing to someone while you have your coffee or eat lunch? Then count such time. If not, it might be better to start counting time again when you make your first call after lunch.
• 

  tim hooper

  Has it changed much?

  When I was a kid we had to do 12 hours, then it was reduced to 10 in the mid 60's.

  There were some weird quirks. A Bible study also counted as a return visit, although back then they were called back-calls.

  There was a huge chart hanging at the front of every KH with all the targets and achievements listed. Totals and averages, everything. Pioneers were on the chart too, if there was only 1 pioneer everyone could see how he was performing.
• 

  DesirousOfChange

  They have.

  However, if it was followed or enforced, field service reports would drop by 50%.

  That would look bad in the Yearbook.

  Doc
• 

  blondie

  No, not the hard core expectation, it is now a suggestion.

  The hardcore ended in the early 70's.

  Actually, there was a required 10 hour quota for publishers up until 1970 or so. There was a quota of 12 magazines/month, 6 RVs (BCs)/month, and 1 bible study/month. They used to post a large chart up by the platform with each month's congregation totals and averages. Congregations were quite competitive and comparing and judging each other. They finally stopped that about the same time.

  So the national average is a replacement for that means of juding others by the numbers. JWs would not be appointed as regular pioneers unless they had maintained this quota for 6 months and were conducting 1 home bible study.

  When it changed, the talks centered around the concept that now some publishers would do more than the obligated 10 hours each month and that those who could not make ten hours would not be discouraged. Horsepucky. It was to cover the fact that the zeal of the average was waning and putting that info up publicly in the congo was too revealing.

  *** km 2/71 p. 3 A Letter from the Pioneers ***

  First of all, before you can enroll as a regular pioneer you must have been baptized for at least six months, and during the past six months you must have been a regular publisher reporting at least ten hours and six back-calls on the average each month. You must currently be conducting at least one home Bible study.

  *** km 2/73 pp. 1-6 Branch Letter ***

  How about congregation publishers? They are increasing in numbers, from 389,555 for the previous year to 401,519 for the first three months of the 1973 service year. That is good to see. But their report of hours is down from 9.9 to 9.6 per month, on the average.

  Some have said: But we have no quotas now.? Though the hour requirements for the various branches of pioneer service have not changed, it is true that congregation publishers have no set goal of, say, ten hours per month. Yet the question might be asked: Is this a valid reason for decreasing the amount of time spent in doing the will of Jehovah God in the field service? Really, in past years we were not going in the field service simply to meet a goal of hours, were we? We were interested in preaching the good news of God's kingdom, to magnify Jehovah's name and to give others the opportunity to hear. And we still are. Now that we do not all have a set goal of hours we are not to conclude that our field ministry is any less important. Our message is urgent. This is something to think about, don't you agree? Jehovah's requirement that our service be whole-souled has not changed.

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/227881/1/Is-the-10-Hour-Per-Month-Requirement-Still-In-Force

  *** w71 6/1 p. 335 How to Succeed in the Pioneer Service ***

  It is not easy to jump from a pace of ten hours a month as a congregation publisher to one hundred hours a month on the pioneer track.

  *** w65 9/1 p. 524 What Comes First in Your Life? ***

  Surely the suggested minimum goal for this, twenty minutes a day, two and a half hours a week or ten hours a month, is a reasonable one for a mature Christian. Jehovah's witnesses try to devote at least ten hours a month to their field ministry

  It has been 10 hours from my memory in 1962 and eventually they dropped it.
• 

  sir82

  There are rules, as pointed out in the posts above, but absolutely 0 enforcement.

  Why?

  Because if they were enforced, virtually every elder, MS, CO, DO, branch committee member, etc. would be a "low hour publisher"! Pioneers would get 1/2 of the time requirement.The "billion hours per year" that the Society so proudly trumpets would shrink to a couple hundred million.

  It would become even more clear what an utter sham the "lifesaving preaching work" is.
• 

  outsmartthesystem

  Because such strictness would make them sound like a cult! They allow just enough "personal" freedoms amongst the R & F to convince said R & F that they aren't a cult. This is one they can point to. I discussed this with an elder once. He was so happy to be part of the organization because "although you have to have faith in Jehovah's arrangement of counting time......the arrangement isn't strictly policed".

  And there you have it. Control the minds and actions of the sheep. Then give them back a little bit of meaningless "freedom" and then they won't even recognize they are being controlled.
• 

  DATA-DOG

  The WTBTS does not make rules for counting time. They only supply " guidelines ", as there are no hard or fast rules in the truth.
• 

  Apognophos

  I was pretty naive as a believing Witness. I never paid much attention to how the pioneers stretched their time as much as possible. I hadn't heard of the concept of the pioneer shuffle until I joined JWN, but the last time I worked with a pioneer, having read about the shuffle, it was suddenly obvious that he was wasting time on purpose.

  One thing I did notice, that bothered me, was the time spent on mid-morning breaks. Now, I was all for having breaks, I needed one too. But it often seemed that a group had no sense of urgency once the break started; they would chat at length with each other, order foods that took a long time to prepare, etc. If the break went over 15 minutes, I would stop counting my time. I sometimes wondered how the other friends in the car group were handling 30 minute breaks when it came time to fill out their time report.