Ever been to a "quick-build"? (page 2)

TresHappy

Does anyone know if a lot of matchmaking went on there at those quick builds? (Or as ex-JW's called them, the one-day blunders...) I know several couples who met at those things.

Edited by - TresHappy on 13 December 2002 12:28:10

Fe2O3Girl

Hi City Fan. It waas Atherton (near Wigan).

About matchmaking......I met my fist husband there, but we did not get together till I was 17, 3-4 years later. YUK.

City Fan

Atherton - I was there too!! If you remember it poured down all weekend.

I met a girl there who I ended up writing to for about a year. Was your future husband from Atherton cong??

Told time and time again at all of the QB's I was ever involved in: "And remember not to wear any sort of shirt that has worldly slogans or ads on it. You never know when the press may show up and take pictures. It may give the wrong impression and make the organization look bad.

One time, an elder from my hall made me leave to go change my shirt because I was wearing one of my work shirts that had my company's name and logo on it. Thinking back, that was sooo lame.

And the same went for shorts - never allowed. Can't have those wandering eyes and folks thinking impure thoughts.....

roybatty

I have belonged to several congregations that did quick-builds, but no one EVER invited me to participate.

What kind of invitation were you looking for? A few years back another elder and I lead the quick build of the local hall. As far as inviting locals, there was simply an accouncement from the plateform saying "we're going to be doing so & so this weekend, we need as many helpers as we can get." There was a list of "brothers" & "sisters" that the regional committee had which they'd suppliment your labor with people from around the state.

Though being a lot of hard work, I have good memories of building the hall. I'll argee with the comments about using sub-standard help (and it shows!). We had one or two people who actually knew masonary but we used 20 people who "learned as they went." The brickwork looks like a group of high school kids did it. Added to the fact that there aren't any windows, makes for an below par building. The brother who organized and did the landscaping did an excellent job. He pulled up the looks of the building 100%.

I found that the people who weren't local basically didn't give a rat's ass about the quality of work they were doing. For example, a brother who is a "professional" painted did the staining of the wood work in the Hall. Jeez it turned out like crap! We had to go back and do it all over again. JWs are no differnt then the rest. Most were there just so that they could skip field service.

Blueblades

Hi Wingcommander,been to a couple of them.I remember how some sisters who were pioneering were allowed to count their time while they were hanging out at the QB.The sisters who were not pioneering were not allowed to count their time,even though they were providing food, and actually working at the QB.Blueblades

ugg

after reading all of this,,,,,,what matters most is the rules and regulations of the organization.....i have been to several hall buildings....worked my ass off cooking!!!!!!!! now,,,,i cannot even drive by a hall without my stomach going into knots...(ugg,,,of the i can't take these people class!! )

Skeptic

I have both good and bad memories of Quick Builds.

The ones I didn't enjoy were mainly because my construction skills suck bigtime. I actually have insecurities about such things. I did learn alot, especially about plumbing, heating systems and gyprock.

After a quickbuild, it felt good to having pushed myself to the limit, working all weekend with no sleep.

I still chuckle at not being able to shovel up a pebble that was ruining the look of the landscaping. The more I shovelled around it, the bigger it got. I felt terribly inadequate at not being able to do such a simple task until someone brought in a backhoe to take it out. It almost tipped over the backhoe! Turned out, it was the size of about half a car.

The ones I did enjoy were the ones where the skill and exhaustion limits were within what I could handle. Like security, parking, coordinating suppliers and office duties. Supervisory jobs. Yeah, I know, the soft jobs, not the real work.

BTW, the value of the sisters is underrated at those sites. I found the sisters to be very hardworking and cooperative. And the sisters were 100% reliable. They showed up at the time they promised too. The brothers were almost completely unreliable and rarely showed up at all. I suspect this is because they were working on other stuff and didn't want to stop.

For those wondering about the policies changes. At one time, anyone could work at a quickbuild. Later, they wanted only skilled tradesmen. The official reason was safety and efficentcy. I didn't know you had to apply to work on the sites, but it makes sense. Does anyone know if there was a clause in the application waiving all liability if there was an accident?

Richard

LB

Yep I've done several not so quickbuilds. I was always in charge of the painting. Getting materials and manpower. Arguing with bigwig idiots when they wanted something painted before it was ready.

I didn't enjoy it. I was a professional in the field and had to work with people who didn't have a clue.

Alexis_Hart

Hi, I just wanted to make a quick comment regarding some of the above posters mentioning there being an issue with shorts and them not being allowed. Was this a recent change? When I was part of a QB in 1985, everyone was wearing shorts (myself included) and no one ever mentioned a word. Not as many brothers were in shorts (although some were) but the vast majority of the sisters showed up in t-shirts and shorts.

Ever been to a "quick-build"?