i know i am late to this, but i still want to share something with you. I used help out with counting attendance on both assemblies and congregations. my rule was, count a kid if it is old enough to give a comment. always my numbers were not trusted by the responsible elders and they would increase them. i bet that happens more often than we think :-)
nevaagain
JoinedPosts by nevaagain
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26
Reports of lower memorial attendance
by thedepressedsoul ini have heard a lot of reports from kingdom halls in the area that there was less than last year, for both time slots.. we had the first time slot and we were down 50+/- compared to last year.
last year we had the lobby full of people standing and this year we had empty seats and no one standing.
we ran out of parking last year and this year we made it.. like i said i am hearing quite a few reports of this from halls in our area.however, somehow the number seem to inch up every year.
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There is a reason the mass exodus hasnt happaned yet
by nevaagain inbefore i was fully awake (i was never really) i would use the time at the meetings for day dreaming, for solving work related problems (in my mind) or just simply not fully listening to the talks.
after awhile everything just sounds all the same to you, nothing new.
think about it, i was really disappointed when they got rid of the announcements part, because actually thats the only part, where you could have heard something new (when the announcements where not from the kingdom ministry of course).
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nevaagain
Before I was fully awake (I was never really) I would use the time at the meetings for day dreaming, for solving work related problems (in my mind) or just simply not fully listening to the talks. After awhile everything just sounds all the same to you, nothing new. Think about it, I was really disappointed when they got rid of the announcements part, because actually thats the only part, where you could have heard something new (when the announcements where not from the kingdom ministry of course)
my dad has been a watchtower conductor for several years (more than 30, with a few breaks in the middle) he used to tell me that he is dissaopointed with the brothers because not enough ppl raise their hands and for him the reason is that not many are prepared. and i told my dad point blank that the reason is that the brother just dont care about reading the material and commenting about and they just want to get it over with to get their life back.
A couple of meetings ago we had a program point just discussing numbers from the year book and comparison with our numbers! i thought to myself, this program point offers exactly zero "spiritual food"! Every witness who is fully aware should see that for the Watchtower it is just a numbers game.
anyway, my point is that most publishers dont even listen to the program and they keep coming and just endure the chore. they want to get it over with so they can associate with their friends again after the meeting, which seems to be the most fun part of the meeting. (just like the break is the most fun part of assemblies and the music before the assembly starts is the most sad thing, because this means that the fun time is over)
if more witnesses would actually listen to the program, more would wake up
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A Green Handshake
by dgp ini just learned that sometimes people give "green handshakes".
is this the same as bribing your way up?.
thanks for any posts..
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nevaagain
when we joined our actual congregation, there was a brother who had his own business. he was neither an elder nor a MS which seemed to be odd to me. I dont know his story before but anyway, after he sold his business (he is in his 50s) he almost immediately became a MS. one year later he became an elder.
Our old CO in my former congregation, always bragged about the gifts he would receive in other congregation (with wealthy members) as far as I remember it was not unusual for him to get laptops, phones and even a new car. our congregation was not so wealthy so i guess he didnt like coming to ours.
few years ago we went to visit the bethel in brooklyn and patterson, thanks to somone we knew in the NY area who knew ppl in Bethel, they took us inside for dinner. so after the dinner when they took us outside we said thanks hugged them and wished them jehovahs blessing for their efforts ... they also said thanks but then there was an akward silence ... like they expected to get something in return for taking us inside. so this happaned both times, for brooklyn and for patterson so i guess it is not unusual to give something to them.
the last two CO couples my wife liked very much so and the end of their visit she wanted us to give them some money and i said yes, so far my status hasnt changed so i guess it was not enough ;-)
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How Scary Are Circuit Overseers Now?
by minimus inback in the day, when the co came to the congregation, it was quite stressful for the elders and often, the rank and file.
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is it as big a deal as it used to be?.
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nevaagain
in my last congregation the CO prevented us from having the sunday meeting at 1pm, saying the congregation needs to go out in service more on sunday and the meeting would prevent that. still nobody wanted to be out in service on sundays and when the CO changed the meeting was finally moved from 5pm back to 1pm.
its so funny, the day that every witness has free time and at the same time its most likely that you will find people at home, nobody wants to be out preaching.
Also I was a literature servant at that congregation and the days before the CO would came, my elder boss wanted the binder where i keeped the literature documents to be in perfect shape. Rest of the year there was no need for that I guess.
There is a lot of work and a lot of micro management going on for something you do voluntary.
You are also supposed to count the remaining literature every month and fill the form for that. Man nobody has time for that!
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WT is shorting literature orders by congregation with a problem contributing enough for literature $3500 just for mags
by oppostate inat our meeting last night there was a talk about having run out of magazines for the last three months.
it's expected this will continue to happen.
the "branch" has not sent the requested number of magazines.
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nevaagain
I am a literature servent in our congregation and this has never happaned to us, we always receive the amount ordered. The only problem is that when ordering magazines someone has to keep in mind, that if you adjust the numbers, the effect will only be visible in three months and not immediately with the next shipment.
Even though the new magazine arrangement means less work for the servants to do the job, this also means that jws who take a lot of magazines at the beginning of the month dont leave any for the end of the month. I saw a lot of brothers/sisters being annoyed by the fact that they had no magazines to place at the end of the month.
Then there was a special magazine issue and somehow our elders thought especially that magazine would be placed like hot cakes and cranked up the order of that magazine ... i got the special task to get rid of them months later because we still had a big pile of them, funny that our CO always tells me to be discrete when throwing them away.
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GB member and 17000 US$ iWatch !
by sp74bb inone member of a similar spanish speaking forum has found something quite interesting.. it is quite funny to see that gb members do not really realize how their belongings are really showing them as a fraud.
do you expect to see a gb wearing a 17000 us$ iwatch when answering to a court.
geoffrey jackson does !.
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nevaagain
this is half off topic, but i just wanted to mention that this is to be in the culture of those higher ups.
we used to have a couple of COs which would always flaunt gifts from rich congregations hoping we (as a congregation) would be equally generous. which most of the time never happened because our congregation members were poor.
Our CO would tell us stories that upon mentioning that his laptop were broken, the congregation bought him a new one plus a new printer. The wife was notorious for dragging her service partners to department stores in hope that the service partners would buy her something fancy.
Then we had another CO, whenever you would invite him for lunch, he would come late, eat and then leave unless he had a cash present coming his way.
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Canadian branch getting rid of their trucks and drivers
by wannaexit ina recent letter to the elders outlined the new arrangement for delivering literature to the congregations.
the canadian branch will be downsizing by eliminating drivers and trucks and utilizing commercial carriers to bring the boxes of monthly literature .
more outsourcing and more lay offs.. the funny thing about it is that they want to have the literature delivered to various private homes of the rank and file rather than have the literature delivered to the kingdom hall.
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nevaagain
I am in europe and this happened 6 months ago here.
The brothers here dont seem to be too happy about this new arrengement. For example, a big congregation near our is being used a big hub where aprox. 30 other congregations have to pick up their literature, so whenever literature is getting delivered a huge swarm of bros/sis have to sort them out for the 30 congregations. Previously the bethel truck would deliver the literature on a Friday and they had the weekend to do the job and starting with Monday we were able to pick up our literature. Now UPS delivers the literature a couple of days later on a Monday so everybody has to wait one week to pickup the literature because the bros can only do the work of sorting out the literature for the congregations on a weekend.
The brother who signs up on the delivery papers is not too happy either, previously he was good friends with the bethel truck driver and because he had a long route, he even stayed there over night. Now the communication with UPS is not existed, they even arrive at different times so the bro signing up the deliver paper has to stay there a whole day waiting for UPS.
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... and keep fighting
by nevaagain inlast week we had the cos visit and i wanted to share my experiences with you.
some background info on me, i knowttatt and am fully awake, my wife also knows my doubts and read a few things on the internet but she is still 100% commited to the truth, saying everything on the apostate sites are lies.
so right now i am in just to keep the status quo.
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nevaagain
TheListener yea I can see where you are coming from. But being a born in, baptised now for 20 years it might be easier. I dont have any other friends outside of the WT, I dont have family outside of the WT. I am not ready to leave everything behind, be shunned from my family and friends ... still working on the exit plan
sad thing is, i have known the TTATT since before I got married, forgot everything when I moved away from home because it was easy to make new friends in the WT then i met my future wife in the new congregation ...
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23
... and keep fighting
by nevaagain inlast week we had the cos visit and i wanted to share my experiences with you.
some background info on me, i knowttatt and am fully awake, my wife also knows my doubts and read a few things on the internet but she is still 100% commited to the truth, saying everything on the apostate sites are lies.
so right now i am in just to keep the status quo.
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nevaagain
the first lunch was private at our place, the second lunch was at a restaurant after the sunday meeting with everybody from the congragation who wanted to join. maybe i should have added this information into my posting, sorry.
anyway I dont think i was being setup and if yes i dont think i said anything which could incriminate me.
this whole thing seemed surreal though ... i had to pinch myself because i thought i am still dreaming
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... and keep fighting
by nevaagain inlast week we had the cos visit and i wanted to share my experiences with you.
some background info on me, i knowttatt and am fully awake, my wife also knows my doubts and read a few things on the internet but she is still 100% commited to the truth, saying everything on the apostate sites are lies.
so right now i am in just to keep the status quo.
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nevaagain
i know, i would have never brought up that topic on my own! all i want is to fly under the radar and appear to be a normal brother who just doesnt make enough to be considered as a MS, but still more than the minimum so he cant be bothered.
but i can only imagine that the CO would ask the substitute moments later when we werent around, what was he thinking bringing up that topic before a lowly brother.
maybe in a few years when they want to try me for apostacy, and they asked me how everything begun i can cite exactly that moment, that made me to start questioning everything haha