Posts by SnakesInTheTower

beginning september 1, there will be a change to the way attendance is recorded at congregation meetings.. currently, attendance is counted at 4 of the 5 meeting (public talk, wt study, congregation "bible" study, and service meeting).. but after sept. 1, meeting attendance will only be taken at 2 of the meetings - during the "first quarter" of the wt study, and also at the cbs.. .

no reason in given for the change in the letter, and i can't figure out why myself.. the numbers are not published anywhere - the only "official" record is a 6 month average the co puts together during his visit.. why request less information from the congregations, especially when it "costs" nothing to accumulate it in the first place?

SnakesInTheTower

letter:

In due course, a revised Report of Meeting Attendance (S-3) will be made available.

Translation: Use up all those forms before we print anymore, this is cost-cutting....and don't go using those forms for scrap paper either!

Also, anyone ever notice how unnecessarily "wordy" and grammatically awkward Society letters are?

In due course, a revised Report on Circuit Overseer's Visit With Congregation (S-303) will be made available.

Good grief, I had forgotten how many of thos "S" forms there are/were. When I went to MTS, I was shocked at how many additional forms there are/were. As if the CO doesn't have enough forms/reports. Soooooo......sooooo glad I did not continue with my goal of becoming a CO!...

...oh wait...I didnt continue with my goal to stay a Jehovah's Witness either.

Snakes (Rich )

123

Swimming Lessons Are Definitely On My To-Do List

by snowbird in

http://www.startribune.com/sports/99785534.html.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38533071/ns/us_news-life?gt1=43001.

for all of us.. syl.

SnakesInTheTower

sylvia...

ironic that toni and i were talking about me taking adult swim lessons at the community college I graduated from (and that she is going back to school this month).... swim lessons are on the same night as one of her classes...red cross instructors i think... i might just do it... I drove along a levee road the other day in a local park and it about freaked me out because the water was nearly to the road .....toni worries about me and suggested lessons last week and now again tonight...

I used to love to swim...took lessons at that same college as a kid... but almost drowned in a public pool...havent been swimming since.... ironic, because i used to help a JW family get their pool ready every year...then i would only put my feet in it when it was ready....no matter how hot...

we have a small water park nearby and a six flags water park an hour away...and I have been to either...havent been back to the original pool where I nearly drowned (lifeguard pulled me out and CPR'd me).... even though the original pool has been replaced with a fancier new one...

BTW...I didnt click through to the link...I really dont want to know...drowning stories freak me out....

Couple of years ago my family had talked me into going out on a catamaran in Grand Cayman to go snorkeling with the stingrays.... bad weather forced a delay...and i had to leave the next morning ahead of the rest of them.... but i was willing to bite the bullet (or the mouthpiece) to get that once in a lifetime experience....now toni and i want to go back there ...maybe for a honeymoon?,,,,, but i need swim lessons...no doubt...

Snakes (Rich ..of the "doesn't like deep water" Sheep Class)

21

zombies at the door

by WuzLovesDubs in

jw
friends

i left to go out for my morning walk this morning and saw two men in ties with briefcases walking with an umbrella.

(it is south florida after all) and of course i knew who they were immediately.

i passed three more "groups" on the way out of the complex walking their baby carriages wearing their long dresses and practical shoes with their hair up in buns going maybe 1mph....and i couldnt leave fast enough.

SnakesInTheTower

marking...

moshe....clever....

and i copied it to Word, englarged the size to 8x11 and printed it...thx... my fiancee (nonJW) will love it..

Snakes (Rich... of the "always recycling, glad not a dub anymore" Sheep Class)

113

More Society cutbacks - Society says "screw you" to the publishers yet again

by sir82 in

jw
friends

at our service meeting it was announced that there is a change in the manner in which magazines are now to be delivered to the congregations.. up until now, magazines were sent to each kingdom hall via ups.

in years past magazines were sent to each congregation po's home address via ups.. going forward, magazines will be sent only as far as the assembly hall.

it is the responsibility of each kingdom hall to send brother(s) twice a month to drive out there, pick up the magazines, and return.. this of course saves a little bit of money for the society - shipping larger packages to fewer addresses will cost less.. however, what about the expense to the local congregations?.

SnakesInTheTower

scully:

You can get around anything in Watchtower World™ if you put a Theocratic™ spin on it.

"What do you mean I can't own this iPhone? Look at all the apps The Society™ has for tracking my Field Service™, my Bible Studies™, and my Personal Study™. I can even download my PDF Study Edition right from The Society™'s Official Website™ and highlight my answers in any colour I want with this awesome multicolour fibre-optic stylus."

too funny....all said tongue in cheek of course. heh heh,... I knew some bethelites that had all of the publications downloaded to their PDAs long before the WT had a CD. According to a couple of bethelites/exbethelites I knew, there is/was an intranet (internal server) at Bethel and apparently instead of bethelites ordering bound volumes, etc, they could download and/or print it out there.

The Society reminds me of a bi-polar, maybe even tri-polar person....or someone with multiple personality issues.... one side wants to remain hardschool..... the other side wants to use (and brag about) all of the latest technology the society is using...meanwhile legal, service, and writing are all having fights among themselves as to what the hell they want to do....

you got to love it.

man am I glad I aint doing that $hit anymore.

Snakes (Rich )

113

More Society cutbacks - Society says "screw you" to the publishers yet again

by sir82 in

jw
friends

at our service meeting it was announced that there is a change in the manner in which magazines are now to be delivered to the congregations.. up until now, magazines were sent to each kingdom hall via ups.

in years past magazines were sent to each congregation po's home address via ups.. going forward, magazines will be sent only as far as the assembly hall.

it is the responsibility of each kingdom hall to send brother(s) twice a month to drive out there, pick up the magazines, and return.. this of course saves a little bit of money for the society - shipping larger packages to fewer addresses will cost less.. however, what about the expense to the local congregations?.

SnakesInTheTower

scully:

If they were really smart, they'd start offering PDF and audiobook subscriptions.

mwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha..... breathe.....mwahahahahahahahaha...

sorry.... this is Watchtower Bible and Tract Society™ we are talking about, right?

Remember, The Faithful and Discreet Slave™ doesn't want the rank and file Publishers™ to get on the evil internet..or have jobs that would allow them to buy electronic gadgets such as MP3 players and computers. How would they access a PDF or audiobook?

Snakes (Rich )

113

More Society cutbacks - Society says "screw you" to the publishers yet again

by sir82 in

jw
friends

at our service meeting it was announced that there is a change in the manner in which magazines are now to be delivered to the congregations.. up until now, magazines were sent to each kingdom hall via ups.

in years past magazines were sent to each congregation po's home address via ups.. going forward, magazines will be sent only as far as the assembly hall.

it is the responsibility of each kingdom hall to send brother(s) twice a month to drive out there, pick up the magazines, and return.. this of course saves a little bit of money for the society - shipping larger packages to fewer addresses will cost less.. however, what about the expense to the local congregations?.

SnakesInTheTower

THERE WILL BE HUGE PUSHBACK ON THIS. take it from someone who used to run a literature depot.

cbb:

from here in mid mo...it's 122 miles to the st louis convention center...(that i was there when it was built)....there are alot of congregations around here that makes it even further.

CBB...you guys were "Pallet A" if I recall from my days there...LOL.... about 6 or 7 congos in that group.

blondie:

How close is St. Louis?

Jehovahs Witness Assembly Hall 953 Laredo Avenue St Louis Missouri 63138

I was the literature depot servant there, with a couple of gaps, for over 15 years. We only had literature coming through there. Magazines were talked about, but there was huge pushback from the congregations. Some congregations were coming from 3-4 hours (as far SW as Springfield, MO and as far SE as Metropolis, IL and as far west as where CBB is....and as far north as Urbana, IL.

As you can imagine, some brothers (and sisters) resented this, others seen it as a chance to get out of going out in service.... until we reduced the hours hours to Saturday afternoon or Friday morning only (I got tired of spending 8 hours there only to have hardly anyone show until after 12noon)....so the brothers could go out in service first.... Interestingly, if it was a young MS and his pioneer GF...there was no field service.... they would come with a 3rd person (so as to be chaperoned)...or another young couple, and they would come to St. Louis from the boonies and make a day trip of it to sightsee and shop...they would show up in jeans and tennis shoes and be real casual and you couldnt tell them apart from a so-called "worldly" person...

Before Romeoville opened (up by Chicago), we had congregations from where Troubled Mind was talking about come down once a month. What usually happened was a group of congregation (as an example "Pallet J -- Springfield IL" group, I think it was 12 congregations...5 in Springfield, and 7 surrounding congregations) would get together, one PO would coordinate who would get it each month... so the burden was only once a month.

Other congregations it was just too far...I was in Carlyle briefly...that was 75 miles each way.... they hated making that trip...they were too far north off the beaten path from the group that was just south of them....too far south from the group north apparently... eventually (esp after I left from my 4 month tenure there), they asked the Society to ship to them since it was outside the 50 mile radius.

Some congregations were bad about sending someone and their literature would sit until the next month....others would beg the assembly hall overseer (Tom Quinn at the time, retired to Cape Gireaudeau, MO recently I heard).... to let them get it outside of depot hours....

I can tell you that sorting literature used to be a huge undertaking...during the early days of the arrangement we would get a WT owned truck and 15 pallets of literature and other things (convention sound equipment, returning bethelite personal belongings, etc).... that was over 1500 boxes of literature...it would take 4 of us 6 hours to sort that out,,,,and that was after I had finished updating the sort list. There were times I had to it by myself....and it would take me 6 hours (it was easier to do it myself than work with some of the volunteers).

Before I left, they were down to less than 100 congregations (down from 150)..and maybe 2-3 pallets a month.... 200-300 boxes of literature...huge reductions in people ordering special orders, bound volumes especially.... people just used the WT CD....at the end it was local LTL (less than load) commercial carriers dropping off the pallets ....

I am so glad I am out of all of that...it used to take up tons of my time, both on the literature depot end...and on the literature servant end. I met some decent people during that time....and some as$holes.

Snakes (Rich )

22

End of Pioneer Assist - real reasons?

by freddo in

i reckon that the sentence at the start of paragraph two of the letter to elders that says "in view of the good results and for other practical reasons, it is now felt that the pioneer assist others program has accomplished its purpose.

" (italics mine) is legal cya because if a pioneer goofs up and injures (while driving?

) or molests an assistee then there is a direct link to the wts because a pioneer is society appointed.. follow the dollars ....

SnakesInTheTower

Pioneering is not the glory title that it used to be.

(1) No reduced price literature because one does not pay for it anymore.

(2) No free lunch tickets because one must bring one's own lunch to the assemblies.

(3) The meeting with the CO has been watered down by allowing auxiliary pioneers and wannabe pioneers to meet the first half hour.

(4) No meeting at the CA anymore and the meeting before the assembly for pioneers is down to what, 2 or 3 hours?

(5) Pioneers are not making a real sacrifice in the eyes of the rank and file...down from 100 hours every month to 90 hours a month (1,000 hours a year) to 70 hours a month... the old timers scoff at the newbie pioneers and their reduced load.

The PAO program was always a joke.... hadnt heard the change about pioneers being locally appointed.... that sure reduces the glory factor.

my goodness...I am so glad I aint piosneering anymore....

I wonder how long before Gilead and the missionary program is shut down... or more local Gileads (ie Mexico) are set up...

Snakes (Rich )

69

People Who Refuse to Tip at Restaurants are Embarrassing!

by White Dove in

jw
friends

egg and i were treated out to dinner three times last weekend by out of state visiting relatives.

just found out last night that they don't believe in tipping, at all!

we suggested the places to eat and frequent those places ourselves.

SnakesInTheTower

It depends on the restaraunt. 15-20% is standard..25% in the high end places (that I cannot afford). I figure if a meal is $10 (for ease of figuring this math example), sales tax is 8% (80 cents) and tip is 20% ($2)...I figure if I cannot afford $12.80 for my meal, I better not go out to eat...and sometimes this does figure into my decision to eat out or not. My soon to be stepdaughter was a driver for Pizza Hut, so if I order delivery, I would make sure I tip well. I rarely use delivery. I can cook myself or go get what I want for carry out.

I dont tip at those Carside to Go things.. I dont use them....waste of effort...I can go inside and pick it up myself. Same with pizza...I live close enough...I go get it.

If I know someone in my party is not tipping, I call them out on it (and remember not to go out to eat with them again). I understand the whoe large party gratuity being added in ahead.... large parties take a lot of effort.

If a server is not doing their job... and I am certain it is the server's fault, I call a manager over...and request a new server that I can tip properly.

Snakes (Rich )

23

Circuit Overseers, their roles, and their spouses

by garyneal in

my wife and i took a trip yesterday to deliver her camera to her mom so she may take it with her as she goes to kentucky where the need is greattm.

her mom is currently still in virginia staying with some brothers there while she gets schooled in giving talks (at least i think that is what she is doing).

i met the co's wife at the petersburg kh and after we dropped the camera off, my wife and i went to have dinner before returning home.. i ask about circuit overseers and their role because i was intrigued to learn that the kh we went to had an apartment for the co.. apparently, co's have no job of their own outside the watchtower activities and while my wife insisted that they did not 'take a vow of poverty' like the catholic clergy do, they technically do.

SnakesInTheTower

CO's are part of the Special Order of Full-Time Servants. This was a religious order set up in response to the Internal Revenue Service (US) and SSA (Social Security Administration) and Department of Labor. They do take a vow of "poverty and obedience"...basically the equivalent of "barefoot and pregnant" ...with the CO and their wives being reliant on the Society and the local yokels for everything.

Society does not pay them more than a monthly stipend, plus an annual allowance for clothes,etc. Because they are part of an officially sanctioned Religious Order per IRS rules, the Society does not pay payroll taxes on them and no state or federal taxes are taken out. Neither are OASDI or SSD (retirement and disability) payments.

I wonder how this works if a single MTS (Ministerial Training School) graduate goes into the circuit work (or goes to bethel) early in life, never works a paying gig where he earns SSI credits, then gets hurt or eventually retires. What happens at age 62/65/69...where is their pension. And heaven help the poor sap that realizes the truth about the Truth and wants to leave the Lie.... no skills, no retirement....nothing but the street.

Glad I woke up before it was too late. I went through MTS...before MTS, I wanted to be a CO....after MTS...I thought hell no. How do I get off this sinking ship. Left the MTS program 4 months after graduating....left the WT 5 years later.

Snakes (Rich )