An initial reason to have conventions of the Rutherford style was and is the potential to attract media attention. The conventions I attended as a group member always had a press desk. I understand it was more of a promotional item than a information center for inquiring media. My wife worked at the media desk for a number of years. Press releases were generated by the Witnesses and distributed to the media in hopes of generating coverage for the Society or maybe even a feature article.
The district assembly here in Sioux Falls in 1971 made headlines in the local daily paper. I have never seen a circuit assembly attract that kind of media coverage. It's very possible I have just missed the headlines for the small conventions but I rather doubt they exist.
We used to canvas the neighborhoods during the assemblies with promotions and publications and assembly day time was allocated for "service". I understand that feature was not very popular and may have been discontinued. An active Witness can bring this up to date for me.
The convention "service" times were used by my family to go site seeing as tourists. I suspect we were not alone.
I follow the Watch Tower Society rather closely and I have noticed over the years that the Society's managers do not stay with something that is not generating profits (and / or new members who can be used to generate more profits) for very long before they have "new light" on the practices and procedures. That tells me the Society is achieving it's objectives with the convention structure as it is.
The conventions also require more effort than meetings and service and are a sort of loyalty exercise that the elders can objectively observe. It's sort of like the Memorial held out of town three times a year. The circuit assemblies are a way for the district managers to evaluate the circuit managers and the district assemblies are a way for headquarters to evaluate the district managers.
It looks to me like it's all about money and business management strategy. Good topic, thanks for the thread.
change to Special Assy. Days, CA's and DC's
by TheListener 19 Replies latest jw friends
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garybuss
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diamondblue1974
We used to canvas the neighborhoods during the assemblies with promotions and publications and assembly day time was allocated for "service". I understand that feature was not very popular and may have been discontinued. An active Witness can bring this up to date for me.
Although definately not active and neither have I been for some considerable amount of years I do remember these days when an afternoon was devoted to the ministry and it was awful; I do remember it ceasing though and that was when i was still active; i think it changed when the days changed from 4 days to 3 days for the DA.
Hope that helps.
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Mary
I've got an even better suggestion as to how they could save money: get rid of all District and Circuit Assemblies.
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TheListener
Gary, I agree with you about the media coverage. That is a large reason why the DC may never go away. It may be in the near future however that they cancel the Friday session since the attendance is so low. Perhaps they would save money by using the stadiums one less day. It would be interesting if they returned to the days of large DCs and not the medium one like we have now. Back in the day most conventions (that I remember) had 30k - 50k in attendance. They were massive events. Now the average seems to be around 10k - 15k. Much smaller. By increasing the number of delegate at a convention site they could generate more media and hold a fewer number of DCs around the country. Perhaps it would be cheaper to gather up 3 smaller venues into one large venue?
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Scully
TheListener writes:
It would be interesting if they returned to the days of large DCs and not the medium one like we have now. Back in the day most conventions (that I remember) had 30k - 50k in attendance. They were massive events. Now the average seems to be around 10k - 15k. Much smaller. By increasing the number of delegate at a convention site they could generate more media and hold a fewer number of DCs around the country. Perhaps it would be cheaper to gather up 3 smaller venues into one large venue?
In theory, that's a great idea. Unfortunately, many of these larger venues and other merchants (hotels/restaurants) that would be used in a convention city are already aware of the WTS's tactics - not using the venue's concessions, advising JWs to bring a bag lunch, not having meals at restaurants close to the assembly site - and are no longer giving the "deals" that used to be enjoyed by the WTS, because the conventions do very little (if anything) to support the local economy.
The WTS is being forced to use smaller venues who may not be aware of the tactics that are designed to put more money in WTS coffers than into the local economy. Eventually, I can see them Simplifying TM even further and using only WTS owned facilities, and having more Special Assembly Days as opposed to larger conventions.
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Oroborus21
Sorry Scully,
Even if the impact is small, the conventions certainly have an economic impact. Perhaps not so much in big cities like Los Angeles where I am but when I grew up in New Mexico and the DC was in Amarillo or Lubbock TX. NOt only did we have to stay in a hotel but we often went out to eat or even to catch a movie in the evening.
So there is definitely some benefit to hotels and to the local restaurants when a convention is held nearby.
-Eduardo
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blondie
The group around here go out to eat after the session, and drinking, hiring some little JW sister to babysit. Some like to stay where a restaurant is in the hotel, no driving. Many around here have the dollars to spend though. So go shopping after the session (some get a head start too). Since the session doesn't start until 9:30 to 10, many eat out for breakfast as well. So the only meal the businesses miss out on is lunch. But then if the convention site is far enough away, it is hard to bring food from home so delis, sandwich shops, etc., make money. In a way, I think they make more money off JWs than when they used to make or provide their own food on site. People can party more since their hubbies aren't working late into the night or early in the am.
I thought at first that JWs would impact less on the tourist end of it, but not so. How do I know; well, I have an old workmate that is in the tourist burea here.
Blondie
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TheListener
It's just my opinion but if you bring 40k - 50k to any city LA or Detroit that's a big enough number to generate $ for the local economy. Eating dinner out, hotels, lunch supplies. Plus media coverage.
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tijkmo
why not a 2 day district convention and 2 1-day s.a.d....that way keeps them parallel with jewish festivals..but no one has to take week working days off
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Scully
Oroborus:
Even if the impact is small, the conventions certainly have an economic impact. Perhaps not so much in big cities like Los Angeles where I am but when I grew up in New Mexico and the DC was in Amarillo or Lubbock TX. NOt only did we have to stay in a hotel but we often went out to eat or even to catch a movie in the evening.
So there is definitely some benefit to hotels and to the local restaurants when a convention is held nearby.
Maybe it's just the local conventions, then. I can see a minimal benefit to being a community that welcomes the JWs for conventions. However, it's nowhere near what it has the potential to be - which seems to be at least part of the reason why conventions have moved from a venue that had been used almost annually for more than 20 years. The convention centre has replaced the JWs with events that don't haggle over whether guests will use the concessions (and the employees who man the concessions aren't screwed out of several days' work), the local businesses that JWs avoid because they don't want to be seen by other JWs entering the restaurant across the street from the convention centre get more traffic.
Where we used to go for conventions, there was a guy who would park an ice cream stand outside the convention centre at lunch time and after the sessions. I watched from across the way one day as he stood there as thousands of JWs walked past him as though he wasn't there. Nobody bought anything from him. The JWs certainly make an impression on these folks, and it's definitely not a favorable one.