The Astrodome Was Half Empty or Half Full?

by Big Jim 8 Replies latest jw friends

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  Big Jim

  The District Assembly in Houston TX last weekend was a trip!
  First of all I was obliged to go because my daughter was babtised.

  It was the longest day that I have had in some years now. I guess the longest day I have had since I quit the non-truth 5 years ago.

  There was about 15,000 plus in attendance,for anyone who knows how big the Astrodome is you would understand what a small group it appeared to be in that big dome.I attended a International assembly there back in 1975 I believe it was,and the Dome was packed.

  I have also been to many District Assemblys there and there was always at least 20,000 plus in attendance.

  I made good use of my waisted time and made some observations that I thought I would share with you.

  Here They Are:

  (1) Out of the 15,000 in attendance around 5 in every 10 were asleep.

  (2) I counted on one floor over 300 walking the hallways. There are five floors.

  (3) There were at least over 200 sisters per floor in the restroom line.

  (4) Of the 15,000 in attendance I would say 40% were children.

  (5) Then there were probally around 3 in every ten that went and did not really want to.

  (6) And of course do not forget the number of 15,000 that was announced was probally inflated by at least 20%

  (7) Another observation was that only about 4 out of every ten were even looking up the scriptures.

  (8) A final long term observation is that I believe that these Assemblys are nothing more then fund raising schemes. They are and always have been a big hassle not worth the effort. For some JW familys these convention are there only vacation and you can bet the Society likes that.

  So The Question Remains Was The Dome Half Full or Half Empty?
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  Englishman

  Good Evenin', Big Jim:

  Tell me, was YK at the assembly? He's been missing for a few days now.

  Englishman.

  ..... fanaticism masquerading beneath a cloak of reasoned logic.
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  Princess

  I was at a convention at the Astrodome in 1990 and it was so packed they had brothers walking around with signs that said "Keep Moving". We found that pretty amusing since we were all in the middle of a crowd that couldn't possibly move. Must have been someone's brilliant idea of a great idea to keep the herd of sheep moving along. Didn't work.

  Sounds like a perfectly miserable way to spend your day Big Jim. My husband grew up in Austin in the 70's and 80's. Do you know any of that crowd?

  Princess

  PS...was Daniel there?
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  Fredhall

  Big Jim,

  Your brain is half empty and half full of crap.
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  joelbear

  The keep moving signs had nothing to do with crowds, they were designed to keep people from socializing during the program.

  yawnful hugs

  Joel
• 

  hippikon

  “Keep Moving Keep Moving” Don’t go anywhere just “Keep Moving Keep Moving” They been doing that for 100 years. Sums up the WTS nicely.
• 

  Amazing

  Good post Big Jim. And I might add very true of the last assemblies I attended, except back in 1992 the attendance was still higher.

  You noted,

  6) And of course do not forget the number of 15,000 that was announced was probally inflated by at least 20%

  When I served in the Attendant Dept., we did not actually count people. We counted empty seats and then counted everyone walking or standing in the corridor in our section, and in the restrooms. We would send a sister in to count the women in the girls bathroom.

  The theory was that they could count empty seats faster, then deduct those from the total seats available in the stadium. Then add this to those counted walking around, etc. Also, if I was assigned to count the bleachers at the far end of center field, then again we counted people rather than seats, since bleachers have no specific chair seats. Also, some attendants were outside the stadium counting those walking or standing around, because speakers were mounted so that the program could be heard there as well.

  The empty seat theory is fine and it is faster, so your count is fairly accurate. The problem is with those walking aorund. If the Attandants are not perfectly timed in their count, they may count someone twice who walks between sections during the count. Also, in large stadiums, where there are sections near the third level that are mostly empty, the Attendant will count the people. If he is not careful, his data may be inadvertantly counted as empty seats. So a Section that seats 250, has 50 people there, and he reports 50 people, those tabulating the results might mistake this for empty seats and state that 200 were in that section.

  All in all, however, I think that the counts are somewhat accurate. I am not sure if your 20% estimate of error is accurate. But, maybe 5% to 10% error is more likely. I do agree with you that generally, the error is more often inflated if it is in error. - Amazing
• 

  metatron

  I wondered if there has been a subtle change in counting
  meeting attendance, over the years. I noticed that the
  CO wanted "100 percent" at Sat field service. He achieved
  this demand by counting every human present (babies).

  I don't know about conventions but brothers used to
  count only kids old enough to listen.

  metatron
• 

  sawthelight

  metatron

  counting children old enough to listen sounds like something a pharisee would dream up.

  Fred hahall

  Big jim is absolutely right. when i left 3.5 years ago attendance at local circus assemblies had drooped to 450 from 600 in only 3 years.

  sawthelight