Posts by oppostate

22

Bible printing, a loss of money for the WTS

by oppostate in

so i brought this up in another thread... but i think it needs its own discussion.. having had one of the new grey leatherette and silver edged bibles with the new appendixes in my hand.

i immediately thought of all the custom covered nwt bibles you see some publishers sporting at meetings.

also the fact that the co's and wives who'd been given one had to turn it back in seemed very off-putting.. .

oppostate

The new NWT editions (the greys) with silver edging are straight from Bethel.

If you've seen someone with one of these greys then that tells you they're well connected at Bethel.

There are ... ehem... pictures of Guy Pierce with one of the greys at Bro Ferguson's Facebook page.

nuf said about where you can get photo proof if you want to search for it.

So... yeah, the plasticky editions turned out to cost cheaper to produce and were treated like the cheap binding issues they were, the publishers didn't donate enough to cover their cost in producing them. A lot of these are placed without much thought about requesting a donation.

So they saved some money in producing them as compared to the cardboard hard cover with leather grain imprinted on paper, of course the one that really costs a lot to produce are the gold edged red/maroon and black pigskin leather ones, which are special request items.

The leather on the greys is supple and smooth. The Bible itself is thicker since it includes the indexes which appear in the reference Bible. The text in these editions was the same as the one we can get now minus the [brackets].

That's my recollection in having had some of these to thumb through.

11

SUNDAY and my last illusions

by Terry in

don't we all try to reconnect with old friends?

faded jw friends?

all those memories and years gone by....... .

oppostate

Thanks Terry for sharing this experience.

You definitely have a nice way with words that makes it easy to envision what you're sharing.

I'm sorry about your friends life being so filled with troubles.

May your bond of friendship with her continue to be a positive in her life and yours as well.

22

Bible printing, a loss of money for the WTS

by oppostate in

so i brought this up in another thread... but i think it needs its own discussion.. having had one of the new grey leatherette and silver edged bibles with the new appendixes in my hand.

i immediately thought of all the custom covered nwt bibles you see some publishers sporting at meetings.

also the fact that the co's and wives who'd been given one had to turn it back in seemed very off-putting.. .

oppostate

So I brought this up in another thread... But I think it needs its own discussion.

Having had one of the new grey leatherette and silver edged bibles with the new appendixes in my hand

I immediately thought of all the custom covered NWT Bibles you see some publishers sporting at meetings

and I can say that I was not very impressed.

Also the fact that the CO's and wives who'd been given one had to turn it back in seemed very off-putting.

Why did they have to turn them back in? Was there some error in printing? Did thousands of Bibles get printed only to be shredded?

No? Well then...

Did they make a business decision that it would be too costly to print them en masse?

This seems to be the case. There have been too many folks "giving" away Bibles with the plasticky covers.

I admit I was one of those, rather than place the magazines I'd put 8 or ten NWT's in my bookbag and sometimes place all of them in one day.

Somehow I felt this was better than placing WTS study literature. Why? I dunno... maybe because it is a translation of the Holy Scriptures even if heavily slanted towards WTS beliefs.

I think that not enough contributions were donated for these cheap Bibles.

The new covers were supposed to cut down the price by a US dollar per copy.

Or so we were told.

The Friends didn't even contribute a dollar per copy when all was said, printed, shipped, picked up and placed.

In other words, Bible printing was losing the WTS money and that was a big "No, no!".

So the new grey Bibles underwent a trial run to see what publishers thought of them and the question was: Would they contribute enough to make money on the new Bibles?

Obviously the answer is "No!" Not unless all the cheap Bibles were all gone. The fancy features of the new Grey Bible weren't enough to make publishers prefer them to the cheap plasticky cover issue.

So the plasticky covers had to go. No more printing of these cheap NWT Bibles.

Now the publishers would be "forced" to use the new versions.

When the only Bible you can get is the new one, it simplifies matters.

And when the new Bible is introduced there'll be a lot of "encouragement"

to donate what a real retail leather covered Bible would cost at a bookstore,

so every publisher should own one and also place these new Bibles with every call.

Then, the WTS hopes to make some good bucks on the ol' Scriptures once again.

Have you seen one of these trial-basis Grey Bibles?

7

Watchtower Apple (Bible delete) and Tract Society (Delete Bible0

by Slidin Fast in

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oppostate

Having had one of the new grey leatherette and silver edged bibles with the new appendixes in my hand I can say that I was not very impressed with the fact that the CO's who'd been given one had to turn it back in.

Why did they have to turn them back in?

Was there some error? Did thousands of Bibles get printed only to be shredded?

Or did they make a business decision that it would be too costly to make them currently?

It seems the latter is the case. There have been too many folks "giving" away Bibles with the plasticky covers.

Not enough contributions were donated for these cheap Bibles. The new covers were supposed to cut down the price by a US dollar per copy.

Or so we were told. The Friends didn't even contribute a dollar per copy when all was said, printed, shipped, picked up and placed.

In other words, Bible printing was losing the WTS money and that was a big "No, no!".

The new grey Bibles underwent a trial to see what publishers thought and would they contribute enough to make money on them.

Obviously the answer is "No!" Not unless all the cheap Bibles are gone.

When the only Bible you can get is the new one. There'll be a lot of "encouragement" to donate what a retail leather covered Bible would cost at a bookstore. Then, the hope is to make some good bucks on the ol' Scriptures.

30

Merrimack New Hampshire KH Project denied credit by WT seeks $ from others

by bnybyt in

jw
friends

the merrimack congregation in nh is seeking to buy land and build a new kh, the nh rbc has plans to build a $750,000 (that's right a three quarter million kh).

"the branch" has wanted to build a kh between the cities of concord and manchester nh for quite a few years now.

unfortunately the wt has looked into their resources, local bank account is over $100,000, and they can contribute $2,000 monthly towards a mortgage.

oppostate

Vote with your pocketbook.......

Indeed!

Well said.

28

Where are all the new members?

by Captain Obvious in

with the changes in doctrine being fully unveiled at the dc this year, i expected many to wake up.

the dcs have been going on for a month now, i fully expected to be welcoming new members by now!

am i just being impatient?

oppostate

The ones I've spoken to don't have a problem with the FDS change.

One of them said straight out "Well, that makes more sense, doesn't it?"

I don't expect much of an exodus at all. I do hope I'm wrong, though.

30

Merrimack New Hampshire KH Project denied credit by WT seeks $ from others

by bnybyt in

jw
friends

the merrimack congregation in nh is seeking to buy land and build a new kh, the nh rbc has plans to build a $750,000 (that's right a three quarter million kh).

"the branch" has wanted to build a kh between the cities of concord and manchester nh for quite a few years now.

unfortunately the wt has looked into their resources, local bank account is over $100,000, and they can contribute $2,000 monthly towards a mortgage.

oppostate

Thanks Blondie,

Basically, the KH buildings are a means of hiding money. When the WTS decides they want to, they can disband the congregation, send publishers to another KH and all the money from the sale of the building and land gets pocketed by the WTS. It's happened several times up here in New England. There's already two more projects I've heard of, like Greenfield Mass Congregation, and North Adams Mass. Congregation, where congregations have already bought land, btw North Adams just had a remodel worth beaucoup thousands of dollars for building repairs, parkinglot expansion and grounds revamping with heavyduty machinery.

28

at the DC right now,disgusting talk

by losingit in

tortured by this talk where they are attempting to legitimize the division/ separation of family.. "sadly friends some will refuse to have courage in this matter.is it not in our best interests to abide the arrangements of the christian congregation as set by jehovah?

accept the torture stake involved in confessing union with christ.

then they cite the example of a brother who is thankful to his wife for persisting in preaching to him.. now they are talking about disfellowshipping, lay serious guilt trip .the brother talking about his baby sister getting disfellowshipped, how his father cried for the first time.

oppostate

Well, this District Convention has been a lot easier for me to put up with!

I've now slept through most of the talks.

The only times I catch some of the dribble is when my wife elbows me because she hears me start to snore loudly.

30

Merrimack New Hampshire KH Project denied credit by WT seeks $ from others

by bnybyt in

jw
friends

the merrimack congregation in nh is seeking to buy land and build a new kh, the nh rbc has plans to build a $750,000 (that's right a three quarter million kh).

"the branch" has wanted to build a kh between the cities of concord and manchester nh for quite a few years now.

unfortunately the wt has looked into their resources, local bank account is over $100,000, and they can contribute $2,000 monthly towards a mortgage.

oppostate

Funny thing is the 3 times as big parkinglot isn't for an assembly hall.

It's for a KH in the middle of nowhere, with nothing close by but woods, for a congregation that already happily shares a building with another congregation 15 minutes away by interstate highway.

Oh btw, said interstate highway has tolls in and out of Merrimack. It's the only town in the whole interstate that still has toll booths.

Most of the growth in New Hampshire is in the more populous areas like Manchester and Nashua. Not in between cities in a rural township, the only attraction and big employer in Merrimack is "Anheiser-Busch's" smallest of its breweries.

30

Merrimack New Hampshire KH Project denied credit by WT seeks $ from others

by bnybyt in

jw
friends

the merrimack congregation in nh is seeking to buy land and build a new kh, the nh rbc has plans to build a $750,000 (that's right a three quarter million kh).

"the branch" has wanted to build a kh between the cities of concord and manchester nh for quite a few years now.

unfortunately the wt has looked into their resources, local bank account is over $100,000, and they can contribute $2,000 monthly towards a mortgage.

oppostate

Apparently the NH RBC has been working full steam ahead on the Merrimack KH.

Yup, it's a pricey KH. They've already invested over 150,000 on the ground site and the preliminary landscaping of the heavily wooded area.

The neighbors were so upset at the extra truck traffic, noise and deforestation that Brooklyn sent in "appeasers" to meet with each of the neighbors.

The town of Merrimack is demanding hundreds of thousands go into landscaping. Also they had to put a sidewalk for hundreds of feet that goes along, starting from no place in particular, all in front of the property to... you guessed it, coming to an end in no place in particular further down the town road.

The parking lot is three times that of most KHs in the New England area (why so big? no clue, that's what the Bethel Architects came up with. They've had to do all kinds of rainage and drainage studies and present these at the town meeting but no explanation for the obviously oversized parking lot).

Several congregations in New England have taken loans 30,000 to 50,000 to help the new build. These congregations are taking loans from the WTS but the ownership of the Hall will be in the hands of the WTS when everything is built and paid for.

One congregation that took a $30,000 loan on behalf of the Merrimack project is situated an hour and 15 minutes away and the median age of the congregants is in the low 60's which means most of the publishers are retired and on Sundays the attendance is around 70, not a child is to be seen, in this mostly elderly but very generous KH. I visited a couple of meetings there and sitting through their "Wednesday" meeting was like pulling back molars, I'd rather they pulled teeth than sit through one of those again. Booooorrring! It was like the whole KH was one tired crowd that went along with the mechanics of the meeting.

Another congregation that took a loan from the WTS on behalf of the Merrimack KH Build project is way over in the State of Vermont, over two hours away. They had sent letters to quite a few congregations and these sent in responses to the Branch about whether or not their BOE felt they could help by taking out loans to finance the project.

Unfortunately the original costs for the project now seem underbudget. There's already plans to appeal for more financing since the materials have gone up and there have been quite a few snafus.

I plan to go to the dedication when all is said and done and take a few photos if all goes well.