Assemly food tickets - WHY??

by home_and_dry 23 Replies latest jw friends

  • home_and_dry
    home_and_dry

    I was laying in bed last night thinking how lucky I am that I havent had to undergo the mental torture of attending the District Convention. Then I started reminiscing about the old days and I suddenly remembered those ridiculous tickets you had to buy to pay for food. Do they still have them?

    They were those brown cheap cardboard type efforts with I think 10 tickets per sheet. I cant remember how much each ticket was worth, was it 5p or 10p or something like that?

    Anyway, just what was the point of those?? I think it was a very clever rip off. You would always buy loads more than you would need for the duration of the assembly, so youd end up with loads left at the end. So of course that leaves you out of pocket. If you had paid cash for things you would only have to cough up for what you actually bought, but this way the Society get an extra few quid out of you.

    And you couldnt even stash them and use them at the following assembly because I think they were either dated or had different colour print on them for each assembly.

    I just dont even get why they had them in the first place? Was it for security reasons? So everyone would walk around with a wad of tickets feeling oh so safe whilst leaving their bags under their seats full of the cash that they still had to bring to buy the tickets. Yep. Makes sense!

    Was it because this was going to be the planned currency in the new system? Id like to buy that nice detached house in the middle of nowhere, yknow, the one in the live forever book, please. Certainly, that will be 20 million tickets please. The mind boggles.

    I have to admit the best thing about them was volunteering to sell them. It was a good excuse to miss some of the sessions because you had to go and get into place ready for the lunchtime rush. And they were also quite handy when the boredom set in during the sessions. You could make nice little fans out of them and all sorts of little things.

    But what was the point????

  • Matty
    Matty

    Since we don't have food at the conventions anymore the tickets aren't necessary. I think they were created basically because it brought the money in before the convention even started, rather than bringing the money in during the convention. We were encouraged to buy all our tickets weeks before the convention. They could use this money to pay for the facilities. They were a boon for audit, because they were intrinsically worthless, and so security problems were reduced.

  • Matty
    Matty

    Yes, it was crafty that they changed the colour every year to stop you using your old tickets! The circuit assembly ones were different too!

  • Dismembered
    Dismembered

    Isn't it interesting how the GB arbitrarily decided to do away with those flimsy food tickets after guilting us for years to eat the shit food at those lame assemblies. My kids stood in line many years to get my wife and I a bag of the soggy crap.

    Remember how they guilted us, and put us under compulsion to buy those damn things. Now you have to fend for yourself when you go to those useless assemblies. Now its "Bring your own food bruv vers, do not to go eat at Saintins wordly food establishments. Stay inside and enjoy the wonderful spiritual association." What a waste of time!

    Edited by - Dismembered on 26 June 2002 6:16:54

  • Beck_Melbourne
    Beck_Melbourne

    "Bring your own food bruv vers, do not to go eat at Saintins wordly food establishments

    LOL that was funny! Yeah meal tickets were a rip off....when I was a kid I always wanted to be one of those ladies with the white sash and hats who used to sell them....and then when I was old enough to be a lady in a sash with a white hat...they did away with it - bastardos!!

    I used to work in the food department every assembly...what an honour...what a privilege...what a drag!

    Beck

  • Pathofthorns
    Pathofthorns

    Yeah the food ticket thing was a bit funny. Maybe it made for a bit of efficiency at the food stands and those in full-time service got an alotment of free tickets.

    I remember my old man and others would put unused tickets in the contribution boxes at the end of the sessions which would irritate the hell out of those in audit..lol

    I think the switch to bringing/buying your food was a better way, but we had long been sold on the benefits of the old way which means the reasons they used to justify it in the first place were never valid reasons.

    The last thing that pissed me off was that you were expected to bring a lunch but then take your own garbage home with you. How bad is it when you don't want to provide garbage bags? That is beyond "simplification".

    Path

  • Jim_TX
    Jim_TX

    Just a thought on this...

    Yes, I remember these 'tickets'.

    I think that part of the reason for them, well... besides the WTBTS trying to be a 'control-freak' org. was that they may have been trying to eliminate the actual handling of cash by the 'workers'.

    Perhaps, there were cases where not all of the cash was making it to the cash drawer?

    Perhaps, their 'help' didn't know how to count?

    Perhaps, in the 'heat' of the rush - there were several poor workers who paniced?

    I think that sometimes, the WTBTS tries 'experiments' on membership 'control'. This may have been one of those.

    Regards,

    Jim TX

  • Lady Lee
    Lady Lee

    Maybe they just didn't want anyone to know just how much they were taking us for in

  • Kenneson
    Kenneson

    I was a pre-meal ticket Witness. But I remember attending a convention in Houston, Texas where a robbery occurred at one of those concession stands. If I remember correctly, one Witness was killed. Maybe it was that type of occurrence that paved the way for the meal tickets???

  • waiting
    waiting

    During the red/green/yellow/blue ticket years, I had 3 little kids and a doper for a husband. Thus, not a lot of extra cash around the house. I worked hard at the jw universal job of cleaning houses to get extra money to go to the assemblies - after I bought groceries. Therefore, I paid for the food tickets ahead of time for 4 people - just like I had been *encouraged* to do.

    One time the elders gave me the wrong colored tickets (2 assemblies that summer) - and when I found out about a week before the assigned assembly that I had the wrong color (which means no food for 4 people) - I went to an elder friend of mine. He said "No problem, just buy some more and save the other color for the upcoming assembly."

    I was just dumbfounded. "Don't you get it?!" I DON'T HAVE ANY MORE MONEY RIGHT NOW! I NEED THE RIGHT TICKETS RIGHT NOW!" Then he was dumbfounded - he traded his tickets with me - and he, having more money, then bought some of the proper ones and saved the others. Btw, he was df'd some years later and has been out of the org. for about 25 yrs now.

    Perhaps ONE reason for the paper tickets was to get an obligation of paid expense from the millions like me who didn't have the money to spare. So it was added encouragement for us to go - who's going to waste the little money they have - and already spent?

    "By god, I have a new dress and I'm not going to waste it!" - that mentality.

    waiting

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