JWTom

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Posts by JWTom

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  16

  U.S. Announcement at CLAM w/o March 3 - Donation of Trailers Needed

  by JWTom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  at our clam meeting this past week there was a rather lengthy announcement asking for the donation of travel trailers.

  needed to be at least 22 feet long and not older than a 2005 model year.

  lots of other details were in the announcement about what was desired related condition of the trailer, etc.

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  JWTom

  Oops, week of May 3, 2021. Sorry about that.
  
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  61

  Awake Magazine - No Longer Being Printed?

  by JWTom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  someone made reference in another post that the awake magazine had ceased publication.

  maybe i missed it since i have not been on here as much in the last 6 months.

  is this true?

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  JWTom

  Someone made reference in another post that the Awake magazine had ceased publication. Maybe I missed it since I have not been on here as much in the last 6 months. Is this true? Nothing on JW.org to indicate this other than the missing 2021 issues. Last publication of Awake was in June 2020. I have not missed many meetings since Covid-19 started....have not heard one word from anyone that Awake is officially history?

  Anyone know more?
  
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  16

  U.S. Announcement at CLAM w/o March 3 - Donation of Trailers Needed

  by JWTom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  at our clam meeting this past week there was a rather lengthy announcement asking for the donation of travel trailers.

  needed to be at least 22 feet long and not older than a 2005 model year.

  lots of other details were in the announcement about what was desired related condition of the trailer, etc.

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  JWTom

  At our CLAM meeting this past week there was a rather lengthy announcement asking for the donation of travel trailers. Needed to be at least 22 feet long and not older than a 2005 model year. Lots of other details were in the announcement about what was desired related condition of the trailer, etc. No explanation was given as to what this was for. Possibly to house volunteer workers in separate areas for building projects in New York??? Back in the day when I was at bethel...they purchased modular housing for use during construction projects at Patterson, Wallkill and other locations. I am guessing modular housing is pretty expensive these days and possibly getting free trailers donated is a cheap way to house people.....just a guess.

  Anyone know more about this?
  
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  36

  Drastic Upcoming Changes? (accelerated by the pandemic)

  by JWTom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  good to see you again!

  much discussion now about the fallout that is coming due to impacts of the pandemic combined with the long-term downward spiral of jw.org.

  i am active as a pimo and my wife is pimi....much of our personal conversation and conversation with others in jw land focuses on how things will play out for jw.org in the next 12-24 months.

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  JWTom

  Hello All! Good to see you again! Much discussion now about the fallout that is coming due to impacts of the pandemic combined with the long-term downward spiral of JW.org. I am active as a PIMO and my wife is PIMI....much of our personal conversation and conversation with others in JW Land focuses on how things will play out for JW.org in the next 12-24 months. A few thoughts of mine and interested to see what you think. Some of these have been mentioned by others on here already and are spot on. Enjoy!

  1. Permanent Ending of In-person Meetings

  2. Sale of all (or most) Kingdom Halls
  

  3. Massive consolidation of circuits: Current circuit size based on ability for a CO to visit twice a year and for the group to fit in a local auditorium facility - you no longer need all these crazy circuits and boundaries.

  4. Massive elimination of COs: Remaining COs become fully remote and operating from a branch location via Zoom only. With an adjusted schedule using virtual meetings only, a CO could cover 2-4 congregations per week easily by having meetings on different days of week.
  

  5. Permanent Ending of Door-to-Door Ministry: To be replaced by phone, letter writing and limited cart witnessing where possible. Note: Here in the middle of the U.S. cart witnessing is very limited - not something that would be a major focus.
  

  6. Disfellowshipping/Shunning Ends Permanently: This would be replaced by something similar to the Public Reproof concept from days gone by.
  

  7. Your thoughts?
  
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  21

  Headship and WT's Changed Understanding

  by Bobcat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i don't think anyone has mentioned that the february 2021 study wt (p. 15, 16; par.

  8) changed wt's long standing view on headship within the congregation.

  wt used to view all baptized males as being the head of all baptized sisters.. this view led to such absurdities as a sister having to wear a head covering on a bible study because her baptized 10 year old son was sitting in on the study with her.

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  JWTom

  All: What is insane, is that in the middle of a pandemic that is going on and on with many JWs experiencing significant financial and health impacts........JW.org is publishing things like the "finer points on why a head covering is or is not needed in varying circumstances with nuanced changes from previous beliefs related to women within the religion". Most don't remember anything about the old policy and do not care (and will not remember) anything about the new policy! LOL

  Vidiot: I agree that the Book Study was killed simply due to overall liability. We hosted the BS for many years and even had to deal with the local BOE assigning a convicted molester to come visit our house for BS. Which we had to force them to correct since they were evidently clueless to even know they should not do that.
  
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  38

  What Do Today’s Jehovah’s Witnesses Really Think?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when i was a witness i knew what my beliefs were and could defend my views, even if it really was wrong.

  i understood jw doctrines .

  i could define what the faithful and discreet slave was.

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  JWTom

  Hello All! I have not been on in awhile. Good to catch up on topics! All of these posts are spot on.

  In my ~50 years as a witness from birth :( I would say few people that are JWs today have any idea what they believe. And could not defend any of their beliefs if a gun was put to their head.
  
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  34

  Are there more Bethel layoffs in the immediate future?

  by LongHairGal in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just saw a post on reddit: ‘wt are prepping the r&f for changes in the march/april meeting workbook’.. in the post the person noted what they read (for march 8) and it mentioned bethel adjustments and reference was made to 2015 when bethelites were let go.. if this happens (yet again) another bunch of people are being sent home to fend for themselves in the big bad world at an advanced age with little to no preparation.

  even though this doesn’t surprise me, it could not come at a worse time with a global pandemic and massive job loss everywhere..congregations are already in turmoil because of so many who reached retirement age totally unprepared because they were told armageddon would be here before they reached that age.

  this is in addition to all the other ‘needy’ and troubled types in the congregations looking for as$istance.. i hope any bethelites there have a plan and some people they can contact.

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  JWTom

  Faded4good:

  When I was there (1990s), there was so much fat related to people resources it was shocking. I came from working for a big company where they were constantly trimming departments to only have the needed people. Back then I estimated they could eliminate 30% of the total U.S. bethel population and still maintain the same level of services - mainly due to the fact that redundant roles were every where and also people that basically did nothing but live/eat at bethel.

  Going all digital as some have suggested will happen very soon would allow for the elimination vast swaths of the current org structure. I still know quite a few were laid off back in the late 90s or early 00s - some that are SPs and others that simply had to restart their lives on their own.
  
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  41

  A Salute to Petra/Atlantis

  by Slidin Fast in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  whilst i have never quite understood whether petra and atlantis are one or multiple entities i recognise the value of their work and web of contacts.

  i think it is fair to say that no-one has consistently contributed more solid gold intelligence to this site.

  no one has reliably passed on more bomb shells and solid news as well as day to day minutiae.

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  JWTom

  Yes. Thanks YOU!
  
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  13

  Meeting Workbook - I am your inheritance - April 5-11

  by JWTom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  similar to the bethelites being dismissed topic for march/april 2020 is the article for april 5-11 related to the idea "if you just do what jw.org says....then someone is going to slide cash under your door and it will all be good related to your future finances" (link below).. i know current jws that believe this and have pimi family that believe this.

  they believe these even though they have endlessly challenging finances even struggling to pay bills.

  the reality is that anyone struggling financially as a jw is going to be in a state of poverty just trying to survive.

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  JWTom

  Similar to the bethelites being dismissed topic for March/April 2020 is the article for April 5-11 related to the idea "if you just do what JW.org says....then someone is going to slide cash under your door and it will all be good related to your future finances" (link below).

  I know current JWs that believe this and have PIMI family that believe this. They believe these even though they have endlessly challenging finances even struggling to pay bills.

  The reality is that anyone struggling financially as a JW is going to be in a state of poverty just trying to survive. No financial security will come from JWLand. That has been proven true...again and again and again....
  

  https://www.jw.org/finder?wtlocale=E&docid=202021095&srcid=share
  
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  34

  Are there more Bethel layoffs in the immediate future?

  by LongHairGal in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just saw a post on reddit: ‘wt are prepping the r&f for changes in the march/april meeting workbook’.. in the post the person noted what they read (for march 8) and it mentioned bethel adjustments and reference was made to 2015 when bethelites were let go.. if this happens (yet again) another bunch of people are being sent home to fend for themselves in the big bad world at an advanced age with little to no preparation.

  even though this doesn’t surprise me, it could not come at a worse time with a global pandemic and massive job loss everywhere..congregations are already in turmoil because of so many who reached retirement age totally unprepared because they were told armageddon would be here before they reached that age.

  this is in addition to all the other ‘needy’ and troubled types in the congregations looking for as$istance.. i hope any bethelites there have a plan and some people they can contact.

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  JWTom

  Thanks for the tip that this was out there. Likely some changes are coming....exactly what is hard to say from anything in the meeting workbooks.
  

  I was at Bethel during the first real "layoffs" in the 90s. These work in fairly predictable ways: 1) Over 50 and <10 years bethel service typically end up with as SPs as mentioned; 2) Under 50 and >10 years bethel service were given like 1-3 months to make plans to leave, get a job, etc. Of course there were lots of exceptions to the above but that was a general theme. The "dead wood" was at the top of the list regardless of age/seniority and also people with consistent/chronic health problems.

  During this time there was a younger couple (40ish) with professional skills that filed a lawsuit related to being dismissed after 10 years of being at Bethel. They won a judgement of $175,000 related to their case that the "Living Together in Unity Bethel Manual" basically says "come here and make a career of being at Bethel", "stay forever, make this your home forever", etc, etc. And in the 90s it did say that. The couple alleged they did what was encouraged and after many years devoting their professional skills to Bethel they were being booted or something to that effect. Most Bethelites that are getting booted do not have the balls or resources to do something like this - but it was a legitimate complaint especially if you had valuable skills and were thinking you could stay at Bethel forever.

  Fortunately my wife and I left on our own terms after less than 10 years. We did not need help getting back into the job world or making money. However, this discussion is a cautionary tale on what the JW.org will do to you after it has decided you are no longer needed.