I read this letter four times when it came in. I cannot for the life of me understand what they are saying. This looks like a letter that got washed through a dozen committees and ended up saying nothing. I end up doing this a lot lately...I get a letter like this from the branch and I have to put it through a decoding sequence where I apply what I know about how the organization operates to try to decode what the original message actually was supposed to say.
In any case, I'm convinced by some things I observe right now that they are having serious cash flow difficulties. I'm not entirely convinced that it is as a result of child abuse litigation, although that contributes to the issue. I think that the donations are subtantially decreasing for two reasons. One is that people just don't have any money any more. The news folks can talk all they want about how the economy is getting better. It is not. The other is that some folks like me just stopped contributing. I have plenty of money. I refuse to give any to support any of this. I haven't contributed anything at any function at any time for about two years now. My belief is that this organization will disappear partially because it just won't be able to afford to continue and they have done away with the one mechanism that would have enabled the organization to survive if all of its corporations and properties are gone: people's homes. They took away the book studies and the field service groups are very poorly supported. So when this finally collapses from the big financial failure that is coming, logistically there will not be a mechanism in place to keep going.
Sorry for the rant. This was the worst letter ever.
CC
