We took all your money. We showed you fancy new KHs. Now we tell you that "auditorium utilization" is under way. Buhahahaha.
They did a Doc Brown, took all their money and gave them a shoddy bomb casing full of used pinball machine parts.
New letter, re: Fully Utilizing Kingdom Hall Auditoriums
by suavojr 113 Replies latest jw friends
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Splash
Merging two low attendance congregations together will have one effect.
Those that have to travel further than before will not go as often, and those that need constant hassling to be at the meetings will get less attention and attend less often.Two low attendance congregations will eventually become one low attendance congregation.
Imagine how far some of the congregation will now have to travel in order to reach the edge of the other congregations field service territory!
Imagine how far some, who live on the furthest edge of the territory will now have to travel to get to a kingdom hall, maybe having to drive past where the old hall used to be!
Impoverished, tight-fisted publishers will not be happy.
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sir82
Looking at it another way....
Given the May broadcast ("we will never beg or petition for money, thus we'll spend the next 45 minutes begging and petitioning for money"), maybe they are doing this as a result of lack of cash flow?
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Fencing
How often does this happen? Standing room only at a K.H.? I remember this in the early 1970s locally, but when I stopped attending meetings in 2006 the K.H. was 2/3 empty for mid-week meetings and about 1/2 empty on Sunday; I doubt there has been a boom in meeting attendance since.
I was in a congregation in the 90s that had a hall which seated at least 140, and every sunday the main auditorium and the library were full, and we were having to put out rows of folding chairs behind the regular seats in the auditorium. They were split shortly afterwards.
But you're correct, I haven't seen attendance like that at a hall ever since.
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ScenicViewer
Splash: Two low attendance congregations will eventually become one low attendance congregation.
Now that's funny!
But think how much richer Watchtower will be in the end.
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DJS
This looks more like the work from a G.E. Welch inspired consultant in re-tooling the Dark Tower's business design. Maximizing KHs and DC halls makes good business sense.
It should enable those fading and wanting to fade. Changing halls is a time honored method for faders to avoid targeting.
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pixel
This is legit. -
tim3l0rd
To play devils advocate... I have been told by close friends that they are actually building kingdom halls in south Florida. Some kingdom halls are actually overcrowded in that area and there is a need for more.
I'm sure, though, that those in Small Town USA will not be all that pleased to be merged with another congregation, drive farther for the meetings, and have the kingdom hall that they paid off be sold in order to "equalize".
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umbertoecho
Over here in Australia, in the West. There is going to be a greater emphasis on using the auditoriums for assemblies, which in turn will be smaller assemblies held with greater frequency. I think it will be up to seven assemblies (all the same of course) to make sure everyone gets the same information.
The reason given, is that the the venues are way too expensive to rent for the large assemblies we used to have. I asked if there was some problem with money. "Yes" I was told. I kept a low reaction rate to this as I don't want to raise suspicion. This did come from an elder though.
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ScenicViewer
I was in a congregation in the 90s that had a hall which seated at least 140, and every sunday the main auditorium and the library were full, and we were having to put out rows of folding chairs behind the regular seats in the auditorium. They were split shortly afterwards.
I too remember a slight bump in attendance in the 1990s. It was about the time the Berlin wall came down, which divided East Germany and West Germany. Watchtower played that up as...
"Whenever it is that they are saying: “Peace and security!” then sudden destruction is to be instantly upon them just as the pang of distress upon a pregnant woman; and they will by no means escape." 1Thes 5:3
It was another 'Armageddon is just around the corner' push, which usually results in some growth, but In our local congregations attendance never reached capacity as happened in the pre-1975 years.