The Literature Counter

by the_classicist 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  the_classicist

  At your congregation did it ever seem that the literature counter had nothing in stock except for a lot of the basics (armageddon revelation book, evolution book, brochures, cheap NWTs, and what's being studied). What made me think of this was someone saying posting about how the elders wait until the last minute to hand out the KMs. Do you think they do the same kind of thing with the literature?

  Also whenever you ordered something, it took well over two months to get there. What's up? You'd think that Jehover's (you know, I knew an NZ elder who used to say Jehover all the time ) organization with its light planes and semi-trucks would be able to haul all this in a timely matter. It would be interesting if someone with inside experience as to how this works would post.

  The Classicist
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  blondie

  Your experiences at the literature counter probably depended on which brothers were in charge of ordering and manning the counter and how involved and capable the service overseer is.

  If you have some guys that are not very organized or motivated, then literature was not ordered in a timely fashion, that is, in time to be used in the literature campaigns as outlined in the KMs for each month. They have a procedure outlined in a booklet as how to look at what is on hand, how much was placed in the last "campaign" using that publication, and how many more publishers there are this time. As to personal items such as CDs and books like the Insight books, it depends on the ordering deadline and the capability of the brother doing the ordering. Then there is the possibility that the WTS has those publications on back order and then you just have to wait until they print more.

  The WTS also ships the cheapest way not the quickest way.

  Blondie (unofficial literature assistant for several years)
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  euripides

  It's really all at the discretion of the literature servant, as long as their isn't an astonishing backlog of stuff not moving. In my experience, the brothers and sisters were usually excited to see some unusual titles, and I prided myself on ordering as many "esoteric" literature items as I could, like the Tanakh Bible, Greek interlinear, brochures for Moslems and Hindus, you name it. In my hall there were four congregations sharing the same hall, and I secretly prided myself on being the absolute completist library out there. Yes, you'd look behind those glass doors of the other congregatinos literature stock and it was total lame-o compared to mine.Kept foreign language titles of a few things also where I thought I might move them. In fact, I seem to recall that sometimes the literature servant from another cong would sometimes hang out and wait for me when I came in to buy one of the more unusual titles from me! This is a pretty pathetic claim to fame, but I was trying to be earnest in keeping a well stocked library.

  Euripides, former literature servant
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  eljefe

  Euripides is correct. I was Literature Servant for a number of years. There was never any instructions that said only order this or that. The CO's really don't like a huge amount of a piece of literture that doesn't place well (i.e. 100 Revelation books).
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  blondie

  I remember a brother who ordered several boxes of one book that never moved well when it was first printed. That was 20 years ago; those books are still there.

  It is true that the WTS does not "tell" what to order but in theory the suggestion is to check the KM and see what is the offer for the month and make sure you have some on hand..

  For example:

  ***

  km 12/03 p. 7 Announcements ***

  Literature offer for December: The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived. As an alternative offer, you may use The Bible?God?s Word or Man?s?, My Book of Bible Stories, or You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth.

  The "suggestions" were drafted around what was gathering dust on the WTS shelves. The NWT used to be the featured publication in November before the change in the donation arrangement in 1990. Can't be giving away Bibles, eh? I always thought the WTS was trying to cash in on the Xmas giving spirit.

  ***

  km 11/89 p. 3 Announcements ***

  Literature offer for November: New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures and the Trinity brochure for $4.30.

  There would always be some "obedient" pioneers that would follow this "suggestion."

  It's all merchandising....

  Blondie
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  IP_SEC

  There is kind of a new proceedure in place now.

  Each congo no longer takes care of its own order and liturature stock. Rather all the stock is combined and a coordinating congo is chosen. This coordinating congo is in charge of actually stocking and placing the order. One hall-One order regardless of how many congos or languages use the hall. The SO of the coordinating congo checks off on the order.

  The direction from the branch is not to stock more than 3 months supply of any one item. I can see some anal SO in a coordiating congo who looks at the inventory and doesnt stock any pulications that dont move with in 3 months making it a control stock item in a sense.
• 

  Midget-Sasquatch

  IP_SEC

  Thats similar to how the literature counter is being run now at the KH I'm on record with. The servants from the 3 congregations there all coordinate through the literature overseer of the title holding cong. and place one order. They even share the same shelves. While they all keep their own records of publishers' requests, only the servant from the title holding cong does the inventory (of so many given out, still on hand per month etc.). I thankfully never was the literature servant, I got the easier job of the magazines.
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  Elsewhere

  I helped behind the counter, but I was not the one ordering the literature.

  As I recall we had to basic overflows... one was a HUGE stack of very old books brochures that were no longer used... the other overflow was all of the recent magazines and other orders that were never picked up.
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  lawrence

  I had the "privilege" of Lit. Servant for a few years in different congos and the C.O. once dressed me down for too much stock on hand, too many esoteric titles, and special orders that weren't picked up - hell the "friends" were Dfed, be hard for them to pick up their orders. Eh?
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  BluesBrother

  When I did my stint behind the lit counter the books all had a monetary value although the cong had not paid for them and there was a real feeling of "Looking after the Society's property" . If stuff would not move, I would put my montlhy contributions to the lit instead of the box and take some of the stuff away.

  Blondie is right about the shipping . The service from Bethel was awful. They would never survive as a private company. One could only order monthly and weeks later the lit box arrived but so many times stuff was "Placed on a back order"

  Lit Servants fall into two categories. 1} The keen young one, anxious to impress and move on, or 2} The dear old chap who has not got a clue. Nowadays there seem to be more of the latter