I developed a theory around the age of 11 (when it completely hit me that there was a glass ceiling at about 3 1/2 feet for the female types in the WTBTS) that the note taking was posing, rather than meaningful. None of the men took notes....why? Because they held the power, and didn't need to jockey as much for position. The women had no power so they did the one thing they could in front everyone to show how important they were, they took notes. The only women who held actual power (not position, like pioneers, who got dumped on more than listened to) were the elders' wives. And lo and behold, they rarely, if ever, took notes. I did a case study on two couples, when I was in my teens. When the husbands first started to reach for "privileges," the wives started to answer more and take notes. When the husbands were appointed MS, the wives took notes furiously. When the husbands became elders, the wives toned down the notes, and within a few months quit taking notes altogether. But the wives sure lorded their position over everyone else. I felt really bad for one of the couples, because when they first started coming around, they were a really nice, down to earth couple, with a couple of wild little kids. The kids turned into robots and the wife eventually slipped into a very sad and meloncholy state.
Don't know why I remembered tracking those two couples, but, like everyone else, I was bored at meetings and needed something to do. I followed the power shifts.
Shoshana
