2012 & 2013 MEMORIAL ATTENDANCES LOWER THAN 2011: Strategies for Beefing up the Numbers

by steve2 16 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  steve2

  Worldwide attendances at the Witnesses' annual Memorial in 2012 and 2013 were lower than in 2011. In 2011, 19,374,737 attended, whereas in 2012, 19,013,343 and in 2013, 19,241,252 attended.

  True, attendance does fluctuate from year to year - but it is less common for the numbers to show decline for two consecutive years.

  Given the Memorial is touted as the most important "display" meeting on the JW calendar, what additional push will be exerted this year to get the numbers up?

  Reports of attendances at meetings, memorials, District Conventions are incredibly vital to the organization's image of itself as a successful answer to Christendom's allegedly nominal membership and poor attendance. When you criticize other religions in terms of their reported apathy and/or state of decline, you've got a lot of money on your own religious "health" - as shown by numbers, numbers, numbers. They absolutely need to look healthy and in the expected direction (increases on every single indicator, with one exception - partakers should be in decline).

  We've already seen that the March Kingdom News raises the dumb ar*e question, "Will this be the last Memorial?" (as vacuous piece of speculative nonsense as has ever been spouted by this attention-grabbing organization). But we know how Witnesses respond to this kind of drivel. What if this is the last Memorial? That means the end could be this year? Wow! We better make sure all the dregs and drags who once attended meetings get to this year's momentous memorial. It would not be a coincidence if the end came in 2014 - a full 100 years since the time of the end began. And on and on and on.

  Reputation is on the line. It would be a PR disappointment if memorial attendance in this year is not better than in 2011.

  The end of the world may not be around the corner. But, by hell or high water, our reputation is on the line. Get out there and drag as many people as you can to this year's memorial. Starting now!!
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  runForever

  You nailed it. I was sort of wondering why they put that statement in the km. Nice post thanks.
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  RubaDub

  Maybe re-direct the traffic on the street through the parking lot of the Kingdom Hall, hand them an invitation, and count them as having attended.

  Rub a Dub
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  steve2

  May be they should invite all the old-timers of yesteryear - that large army of hard workers who were the true backbone of the organization. Oh, I forgot: All those old timers died decades ago.
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  prologos

  If they would only know and count all the "after-the-empty speech" private partaking, observations, it would show the truth about the truth.

  Jesus' celebration was actually a private, hidden, even clandestine event too.
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  steve2

  Numbers don't mean a thing unless you make them public. Of course, they need to be selective: They don't want to give impression numbers are fluctuating downwards.
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  Crazyguy

  take into consideration that only Baptised JW's are counted as true members but at the memorial they count their children and anyone else filling a seat. So with that in mind do that many non JW's worldly people really attend the meeting????
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  steve2

  As others have commented, memorial atendances has an unknown proportion of those half out of the organization and those half in the organization. It's the "pool" if you like of potential recruitment and growth for subsequent years.
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  WTWizard

  They were warning us that we had better take a good look at the table because this could easily be the last REJECT Astaroth Party. Back in 1989. Typically lousy attendance is a result of consistently lousy material presented. You want better attendance, you better give better material. Otherwise, people are not going to waste their time listening to a boring 45 minute talk (much of which is about who is not to partake), passing stale crackers and spoiled grape juice, and a sales (and hounding) presentation to get everyone to regularly attend all the boasting sessions.

  As for downward numbers, if you are giving a bad product, people will not buy. No different than the free market. Such as those squiggly things called "light bulbs". That is another example of a bad product--and people are either hoarding incandescent bulbs, getting halogen incandescent while they still can (in the United Tyranny of Stupidity, those will be banned in 2020), or waiting for LED light bulbs to come down in price (or going for LED even now). If they want squiggly things to sell, they need to drastically improve the safety and efficiency, and quality of light produced, of these things. If they want Supreme Boasting Sessions to sell, they need to drastically improve the quality of the material presented therein.
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  steve2

  Bluntly but well said WTWizard. Even when I last attended the memorial in the early 1980s, I wondered why the elders presenting the talk invariably sounded bored and boring.Back then, the memorial was for many new ones their first taste of the Witnesses' meetings. What an uninspired and tired introduction! Do the Witnesses really want to bring new ones in and want them to stay? Do the Witnesses not try to put themselves in new ones' shoes? To me, the memorial epitomises how self-absorbed many Wtnesses are - sure they feel pressured to get out in field service more to whip up interest in the memorial. But their own interest in ensuring the memorial presentation is compelling is quite low.

  it's hard to know what other tricks the organization has up its sleeves to increase the attendances over 2011's not-yet beaten high. But speculation of the cheap and sensational has reared its lazy head in the Kingcom Ministry with the dumb-ar*e question, "will this be our last memorial?" The mentality within the organization is such that, any speculation is viewed as special knowledge shared from the GB.