Witness Carts - A Vehicle for Significant Decline (page 7)

jookbeard

the so called "tried and tested" reason that the D2D was pushed for so ling because it kept the R&F busy is another myth as well, cracks had been appearing in this for decades,after the millennium of the 20th century came to an end I think it sealed its fate, how many times have we worked with anyone form ordinary publishers to hard nosed pioneers and called the entire thing off after a couple or even less hours because we were bored/hungry and thought it was simply a waste of our time.My own data of living away from the territory of my home town for over 20 years show that from 1995-2002 I was called on once by them yet more times by the Mormons who I requested they stop, from 2002- 2007 not one single attempt, from 2007-2012 nothing , from 2012 till now nothing so in over half a dozen different addresses in over 20 years I've been contacted once, a rather feeble attempt? not even a leaflet or tract has ever been dropped awaiting me as I entered, and I've resided in suburban, densely populated residential areas close to Greater London throughout all this time and still do, they are shrivelling up to absolutely nothing, wait for the carts to slowly disappear , they will.

slimboyfat

Steve is that you stalking me now, with sporadic snot? ;-)

freddo

@Slimboyfat

I suppose Edinburgh being the capital gets tourist trade and so more cart spots for the Japanese tourists!

steve2

SBF, I would never stalk you; if I had occasion to follow you, I'd be much more direct.

jookbeard

my recent monitoring of their cart activity definitely seems to show some slowing down in their cart presence in the areas that I frequent, in these last couple of weeks the cart has been out far less in my local town, I'd see it every day from about 9 onwards and it seemed that way for as long as I can remember, I've not seen it much at all in recent weeks, I've just popped out and its not there today, in the adjoining town with a far bigger shopping area and high street I've not seen it at all in recent months, the last time I saw it about a year ago I was able to speak to the young guy manning it, I mentioned the ARC, he told me his group are from a local Portuguese congregation, on my way to work I pass two very busy Tube stations and would regularly see the carts on a weekly occurrence, nothing there at all now for some months, maybe the apathy is really hitting the R&F.

ttdtt

But now I wonder if the effect of the carts might be to produce noticeable decline in JW numbers.

For sure it HAS and will continue to. The baptism and hrs in service numbers were down last year, and one of the factors is this Cart witnessing crap. It is got to be the least effective way to "preach" they have ever thought of.

P.S. look for the Hrs for Aux Pio to drop since so few people are doing it now. They will want to bolster those numbers:)

slimboyfat

Sorry Steve it just occurred my comment above appears pretty random out of context. I was referring to a funny typo in your message on the previous page, following as it does from my typo you pointed out in the first post.

slimboyfat

The funny thing is that the cart witnessing fiasco seems to have weaned JWs off doing regular door to door. Many may never go back. What an unmitigated disaster of Watchtower strategy.

scotsman

slimboyfat
I reckon they've got more carts in Edinburgh than Glasgow. I've seen them at Waverley station, Charlotte Square, the Royal Mile, Nicholson Street and Bruntsfield.
In Glasgow I've only ever seen them on Great Western Road next to Oran Mor and under the cavernous highland man's umbrella at the central station.

I think they're reducing here: they've disappeared from Middle Meadow Walk and the roof of the Waverley Market, rare at the West End, sporadic on the Royal Mile and on St Andrew Sq: I've spent the last 2 days working on the latter and watched the JWs and the carts and there was zero interaction with the public. It looks mind numbing but at least they've topped up their tans this week.

Vidiot

slimboyfat - "The funny thing is that the cart witnessing fiasco seems to have weaned JWs off doing regular door to door. Many may never go back. What an unmitigated disaster of Watchtower strategy."

Unless, of course, weaning JWs off the D2D work is, in fact, the long-term goal (WT reps have recently suggested as much in the media).

I'm sure they've crunched the numbers and reached the same conclusion as everyone else; that D2D work doesn't actually recruit people.

Not to mention the WT leadership would absolutely want to mitigate the steadily increasing cries of "pedophiles are knocking on your doors trying to recruit your kids to their religion!!!".

However, they still have to keep the R&F busy with something, so what else is left?

By framing cart duty as a "privilege" for an elite few, they've made it a job for WT loyalists to aspire towards, and also made it easier to be said loyalist once they've achieved that status.

From that perspective, who (amongst the WT leadership) would give a flying f**k if it's boring, depressing, or no more effective than the D2D work?

Witness Carts - A Vehicle for Significant Decline

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