The numbers don't lie...or do they?

by stillin 9 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  stillin

  At a recent CA, the CO was commending the r&f about mid-week meeting attendance. He said that it was up 4% since he first began working in our circuit. I was listening as some were patting each other on their backs about that at last nights meeting and it occurred to me that there were MANY empty seats. Among the seat-taker-uppers were several like me, (inactive,) and several babies. The attendance is expressed statistically as a percentage of the congregation's publishers.

  So in a congregation with 80 pubs, the attendance was 50, 10 of which really don't count because they aren't publishers, the actual percentage of publishers in attendance is 50%, but the bean-counters get to say that there was a considerably higher percent.

  the figures don't lie, but liars can figure.

  There must be lots of examples of this sort of dishonesty.
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  poppers

  As noted by Mark Twain, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics.
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  Phizzy

  There are lies, damned lies, and WT Statistics.

  The C.O is careful with his words too, "Up 4%", I bet that is not 4% of total Pub. figures plus possible others, but 4% up on the pathetic meeting attendance figure itself.

  I used to calculate that at any one Meeting at least 25% of Pubs. were missing, plus their non-pub kids or whatever, which usually meant at least 35% of possible attenders were missing.

  Even back then, when I asked an Elder why he thought so many missed Meetings, he honestly replied "Because they are so boring".

  Since the dumbing down of recent years they are more so. Don't expect a year on year increase Mr C.O
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  OnTheWayOut

  Attendance is counted as just a number of seats filled. If there are babies and non-publishers, they get counted.

  Someone could have changed the way they count- make sure to count people in the corridor and bathrooms, include babes in arms- and you could easily get a 4% or more increase.
• 

  OnTheWayOut

  Even back then, when I asked an Elder why he thought so many missed Meetings, he honestly replied "Because they are so boring".

  I bet they are not "MISSING" the meetings.
• 

  mynameislame
• 

  Gayle

  just means CO was able to 'guilt' a couple to come while he was there, then after he left that week ,, they will continue to skip the meeting.

  The COs don't figure out how 'relieved' everyone is when he leaves.
• 

  adamah

  Stillin said- Among the seat-taker-uppers were several like me, (inactive,) and several babies.

  Which only begs the question: why are you still supporting the WT with your body, your mere presence? They can't count you to create their inflated attendence numbers without those who walk into the KH under their own 'steam' to sit in those chairs and be counted (even if they're only napping during the entire meeting)...

  Point being, in the end, the only thing that matters is when people actually vote with their feet, having the courage of their convictions in order to act and NOT be counted.
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  leaving_quietly

  Our C.O. totally dissed our cong his last visit. He said we were at 96% meeting attendance. Apparently, that was bad. I was totally ticked off. He failed to realize that our normal attendance was near or over 100% most of the time, but we had an in-flux of people doing Kingdom Hall shopping between the previous visit and his last one, and they showed up a few weeks before he did. Of COURSE the attendance was lower than the normal because we actually had FEWER PEOPLE! Duh!

  Normally, this is a really nice C.O., but it just shows the fallacies of looking at numbers alone without regard to context. Then again, that's what this organization is good at... taking things out of context.
• 

  DesirousOfChange

  .

  Figures lie and liars figure.

  They can make it look however they want it to look.

  Any of us who still occasionally go can tell you that meeting attendance is WAY off.

  They have closed down congregations and merged them. Is that because TOO MANY are showing up for meetings?

  Doc