The assembly hall in St. Louis is not used 52 weekends a year. I know that from mid Nov to 2nd week of January it is not used for much. Over the summer, from mid-May to Sept 1 it is also not usually used except for a pioneer school and the Korean district assembly.
Other assembly halls, such as West Palm Beach Florida, are used almost every week except for 3-4 weeks to do major maintenance..otherwise it is is used for circuit assemblies, special assembly days, AND district conventions.
To the expenses...most has been covered. In Society owned facilities, the previous years expenses are totaled, an inflation percentage is factored in. That total is divided by the number of publishers in all of the congregations using the facility. That is where the "rent" for using the assembly hall comes from. And those expenses are not just for utilities...a lot of money goes into the upkeep of those facilities... I have seen the receipts myself for St. Louis..and that is an old facility. So those amounts are usually fairly reasonable for a commercial facility..and without the setup and take down hassle of using an outside facility. The problem of course is the "business meeting" where the other "resolutions" for donations are made. That last bit is what bugs me...the forced donations to the Society... the rank and file don't get a vote..and the elders better not buck the decisions of the assembly overseer and the CO/DO.
I presume that the publisher count is all publishers not just baptized. So even if it is $5-6 per publisher, do you think the 5 year olds or the 90 year old pensioners are donating their portion?
I just don't like the way the whole thing is presented. And of course the accounts are read before all the funds are brought in...if they waited until the last minute and announced a deficit (albeit smaller) they wouldn't get so many donations.
Snakes ()