Does Anyone Else Remember

by drahcir yarrum 11 Replies latest jw friends

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  drahcir yarrum

  It's been a long, long time ago, but I remember as a youngster attending the meetings and there was a huge bulletin board next to the platform and every month they would post the field service statistics on it, i.e. hours, return visits (back calls), mags, books, etc.

  I was wondering if this was common practice in all Kingdom Halls back in the 50's and 60's and if so, when did the practice end? Given Nathan Knorr's interest in marketing the JW teachings and putting a guilt trip on those who didn't perform up to snuff this recollection makes sense. It reminds me in retrospect of sales meetings and monthly sales reports.
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  Englishman

  I remember that!

  It was a board about 6 foot high by 4 foot wide, mounted on an easel

  Each vertical column represented a month of the year. Each horizontal line showed; Publishers -shown as Pubs much to the amusement of UK witnesses -, hours, magazines, back-calls, books, bible studies. Each line also displayed the targets to be reached and the average for each PUBlisher. It was right at the front - next to the organ / piano and an object of much amusement to visitors.

  Englishman.

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

  dannyboy

  dy, I remember.

  I too, was a youngster when I last saw this, my recollection is that this board was called "Quotas", then changed to "Goals", then elminated entirely. I think it was trotted out during the Service Meeting only, but maybe I'm wrong on this. I don't immediately recall when it was eliminated.

  Yeah, a lot like something you'd see at a sales meeting, now that I think about it.
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  ChuckD

  That had to be referred to as an INFORMATION board not a bulletin board, remember? The use of the word "bulletin" was one of those non-issues that they got all atwitter about since the root of the word involves Papal Bull. Months and days of the week named after Gods was ok, but "bulletin".... never.

  cd
• 

  gsark

  I don't know about field service stats, but at my KH there are 4 congregations. There is an information board 'holder' on the wall to the left as you walk in, and all four congs have their own 'board'. For each meeting, that particular Cong's 'board' is moved forward for display. On if there are the meeting schedules and locations, letters from the WT (the public ones) the assembly/convention and CO schedules, KH cleaning scedules and assignments, that sort of thing.

  Life is a roller coaster. Get in, sit down, shut up and hang on!
• 

  Francois

  I remember that, too. The Kingdom Hall in Savannah at the time was lodged in an ex-Baptist church of some kind on the corner of Barnard and Duffy streets. It was on the wrong side of the tracks then, and it's on the wrong side of the street now.

  But they had such a message board at the front of the hall. It was one of those kind that you could slide thick cellophane letters and numbers into, so it was neater than a board you had to write on.

  And the speaker would point to that board and make all sorts of comments about the progress being made. The board contained a running average, a cumulative total, and the current month's figures.

  The meetings back then, in the mid-fifties were on Friday nights, and I was there to catch a ride to my grandfather's home for the weekend with my grandmother and uncle. That's how I got involved in this shit.

  Anyway, the answer to your question is yes.

  Francois

  NOTE TO GOVERNING BODY: You've been challenged to a debate, boys. Dont you have ANY balls?
• 

  blondie

  Around 1973 the 10-hour quota for publishers was ended...thus no need for the quota board.

  *** km 2/73 1-6 Branch Letter ***
  Some have said: ‘But we have no quotas now.’ Though the hour requirements for the various branches of pioneer service have not changed, it is true that congregation publishers have no set goal of, say, ten hours per month. Yet the question might be asked: Is this a valid reason for decreasing the amount of time spent in doing the will of Jehovah God in the field service? Really, in past years we were not going in the field service simply to meet a goal of hours, were we? We were interested in preaching the good news of God’s kingdom, to magnify Jehovah’s name and to give others the opportunity to hear. And we still are. Now that we do not all have a set goal of hours we are not to conclude that our field ministry is any less important. Our message is urgent. This is something to think about, don’t you agree? Jehovah’s requirement that our service be whole-souled has not changed.
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  drahcir yarrum

  ChuckD:

  Oh yes, I remember! Similar to the issue of not using the term "luck". "Fortunate" was somehow considered acceptable where no other word would do, but "luck" was S.O.L. as it were.

  My how the world has fallen into "Societythink" when it comes to the use of certain words.
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  TMS

  This was done until about 1969, I think. Publisher and Pioneer stats were separated, so, if you were the only Regular Pioneer, your figures were public knowledge. This was one of the duties of the Assistant Congregation Servant, which was my "privilege of service" in the mid-sixties.

  The elimination of this large chart may have related to the semantical shift from "quota" to "goal" with the advent of the Lamp book. I can't recall.

  TMS

  Now I see some are saying above that this practice continued until '73. I honestly don't recall it going on that long. That would have put in into the elder era. No. It was discontinued earlier than that.
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  blondie

  Not much earlier, TMS, because it was still going strong when I was in high school in the late 60's. Elder arrangement was announced in 1971 at the convention...So it was around the late 60's to early 70's.