A few more random thoughts on the new Kingdom Hall design meeting

by sir82 20 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  sir82

  • Left completely unsaid at the meeting: Who is going to be the owner of the property & building when all of these new KHs are built? In the current arrangement, in most cases, a local trust is set up to hold ownership. Of course, the most likely answer is "The Watchtower (or whatever shell corporations they set up) will own the land & building". But no one even hinted at ownership issues.

  
  

  • I was also quite puzzled by the hard, hard, HARD sell on quelling "negative talk". Who cares if the new buildings are more "commercial style" instead of "residential style"? What additional points are they going to spring on unsuspecting JWs that will cause this avalanche of "negative talk"?

  
  

  • One of the big "selling points" was the "glass vestibule" that each new KH will have. The pitch was that passersby would be able to "see into" the building, and the "mystery of what goes on inside" would be eliminated.

  
  

          However, virtually every KH I've been to is in a residential area (zoned for church property, of course). So,         in order to look through the "glass vestibule", a random person on the street would have to:

          1) Drive up to the building's driveway

          2) Drive 50-200 feet down the driveway to a parking spot

          3) Walk 50-100 feet to the front door

          4) Peer inside the "glass vestibule"

          Who the fruitcake is going to do all that, just as a random stranger passing by?

      This seems to indicate to me a wholesale selling of virtually all KH properties and relocation to new zones,     closer to commercial properties (strip malls, areas with medical buildings, semi-urban zones) - places     where at least a modicum of foot traffic may be expected.

      Maybe this grand (yet unspoken) plan to sell thousands of residential-area KHs is the anticipated cause of     all the "negative talk?
  

  
  
  
• 

  DesirousOfChange

  So much of their reasons for doing this are obvious BS.  The entire meeting appeared to be a huge Infomercial.  A sales job.  Get all or most of the Elders on board (rah rah) so they in turn go out and sell the plan to the R&F and squash any negative murmuring before it even starts.
  

  It's all about the money.

  Doc
  
• 

  Socrateswannabe

  Sir82, there was no mention of ownership of the Halls and I doubt that there ever will be. It is the elephant in the room whose presence is felt but not discussed. It was certainly implied though. There was no question as to who will make all of the decisions from now on. Locals will no longer decide when to sell, when to remodel, when to build, or even which Hall their congregation is assigned to. That's all LDC now.

  I agree with you about the hard sell on negative talk. These guys are builders so what should they care? Build a residential style building or build a commercial style building--it shouldn't matter. All I could read into this is that this is a complete shake up in personnel and that the negative talk might come from the old RBC powerbase complaining that they no longer have the chops they had under the former regime. 
• 

  DesirousOfChange

  All I could read into this is that this is a complete shake up in personnel and that the negative talk might come from the old RBC powerbase complaining that they no longer have the chops they had under the former regime.

  Good point. Pioneers & Elders could make their "time" by working on QuickBuilds & remodels in lieu of having to go D2D in FS.

  Doc
  
• 

  steve2

  Talk about the Witnesses' narcissistic reasoning (e.g., passersby will be able to see inside). These features are always of huge significance to the Witnesses but of course, no interest to "passersby".
• 

  brandnew

  What is wrong with the residential style ones they have now? To the average thinker....theres nothing wrong..they actually give the place a warm ambiance.

  Commercial look, for a commercial religion.  Easy to sell a store front, than a house o the hill.
• 

  Pistoff

  The reason for the front door style, the literature trolleys, is just a BS smokescreen; it is a commercial design, not a church design.

  How dumb are witnesses if they believe this crap?
  
• 

  joe134cd

  What I find sad are the ones who really deserve to know are the most in the dark. Wake up witnesses!!! This is just an excuse to cash in on existing residential halls, rebuild again with free labour, probably burden the congregation again with a society mortgage. In a few years time there will be another excuse to sell these halls.  It's always the same rinse, dry, repeat and the R&F just gulp it down.
• 

  sir82

  probably burden the congregation again with a society mortgage

  Oh it's worse than that. A mortgage would be paid off in 15 or 20 years.

  With the new construction funding arrangement, congregations are expected to make mortgage-sized donations forever. Whether or not they actually ever get a new building or not.
  
• 

  JWdaughter

  I don't think they are benefitting the folks inside-or harming them particularly. JWs will put up with the greenhouse(!).

  The thing is that this is a carefully contrived plan to benefit the organization(NY Bethel/WTBTS) rather than the individual congregations-many of whom are fine now with locale and setup as they make sense to the people using them. In my mom's congregation (and a couple I know of besides) halls are in fairly residential areas, down a drive that is not readily seen from the street at all and has a park like situation with lots of trees. Off the beaten track. It serves two small towns filled with a lot of retired people. One town is rich, the other is scraping by, barely. They recently remodeled. I wonder what will become of that hall? It goes against the new guidelines in about every way, plus, there are only two congregations meeting there from about a 30 mile radius. Both towns are small and in the one that is struggling, commercial property can be found cheaper than that nice big residential area lot. Hmm. The hall I grew up in is in a borderline residential area on a main-ish road, but not commercial at all. It's been there for 50 years at least (my whole life).