What was your experience of working at an assembly hall build?

by Heartofaboy 21 Replies latest jw friends

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  Heartofaboy

  I volunteered to help out at an assembly hall build about an hour away from where I live.

  I thought it would be an amazing experience & was looking forward to it very much.

  When I went to reception I was asked if I had any trade skills, it was just about then I began to realise because I had no 'blue collar' trade skills I would be treated as a lesser person.........maybe even a slight nuisance.

  As all the 'brothers' busily carried out their 'manly' tasks it became quite a discouraging experience because I found other 'unskilled' JW's guarded their jobs very closely & said they did not need any help.

  If it was a place of christian joy I did not find.
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  Girlie

  I served mainly on some of the quick builds of congregations instead of an assembly hall. I just served food or may have helped with the cleaning and painting in doors. It was a good experience as I got to meet some people, cut-up and put my hands to good use. Sorry to hear your experience wasn't a joyful one.

  I did know that when they were in the process of rebuilding the assembly hall in my neck of the woods (it has since then been completed, but I haven't bothered to visit since I want nothing to do with JW) they mainly requested the assistance of those who have experience in some form of trade labor to take the lead of the work and for those who are unskilled to be more on-call for small projects.
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  NomadSoul

  I never got the chance. When I got my trade I was not a witness anymore. But I can imagine about what you say about the brothers who guarded their jobs very closely. I don't think it's just in the JWs but in general. I think the older a person gets they more they're willing to show a new guy the ropes.
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  james_woods

  We built our own hall in Yukon, Oklahoma in the 1970s - mostly with local members who were in construction. I drew the building plans.

  It took about 2-3 months of weekends one summer to finish it.

  I can tell you that it was a lot more fun than going out in field service.

  This was before the common use of "quick builds" or assembly halls and having everything officially organized, though.
• 

  undercover

  There's another thread asking if there were cliques in the congregations.

  Your experience, which is similar to mine when it came to quick builds and other construction projects provides an affirmative answer to that question.

  The 'brothers' who were tradesmen banded together in their 'all-he-men-of-the-construction-trade club' and guarded their position and territory like a junkyard dog. I think one reason was that if they were busy building/remodeling then they could rationalize not going out in service. It was as if their attitude was, "Let the soft-handed and computer geeks go out in service. We have hard he-man things to do".

  I worked in the construction industry at the time but didn't really go out of my way to offer my services for every RBC project, even though I got the letters. When I did show for a local one, they didn't use me in my particluar trade. One time I showed up at a quick build with my tools and was put on the brick line... you know, the line where the kids and sisters stand in line and hand bricks one by one from the pallet to the bricklayer.

  Another time, after developing another trade, I was actually put on a task that used my new skills...except the so-called 'brother' in charge was a grade A large asshole. He went around barking orders and yelling when he didn't like how things were done. A substitute CO had to pull him aside and remind him of where he was. He toned down...until the other brother left and he went back to his slave driver ways. That was my last quick build. If I'm gonna get yelled at while working, I'm gonna get paid for it. I ain't doing it for free.

  To be fair, my experiences were from the earlier days. The early quick builds were a free-for-all. Everybody - skilled, unskilled, coordinated, uncoordinated, smart, stupid, adult, child, man, woman, showed up and it was a clusterfuck. People in each others ways, painters in the way of electricians, etc. People not used to being on a construction site and getting in the way. Kids running around. Over time, they refined the process and by the time I had left they were using only people skilled in the trades needed, plus a volunteer group to feed them.
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  life is to short

  Undercover your experience of the "brother" in charge barking orders and yelling when he did not like how things were done could have been written by me in my experience of being at Bethel.

  I had no skills in construction at all yet they put in my construction as my job at Bethel telling me that Jehovah never gives us things we cannot handle. I was a sister. My overseer told me to my face that he expected me to do the same job a brother would, meaning lifting and strength of a man. He told me women were every bit as strong as men all we had to do was buff up.

  This Bethel elder would come around yelling intimidating anyone who he thought was not working hard enough which was me. It was horrible, and at the time I blamed myself for not being able to work harder.

  LITS
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  agent zero

  i participated in a handful of builds, local and away. also grounds upkeep. in my particular experience i always did find them rather fun and exciting. BY FAR preferred it over field service, and while there was usually some ambiguity over wether we could count the time or not, i always just did count it anyway, figuring that i felt i was sacrificing my time to J-ho and that was good enough for me.
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  agent zero

  also, in contrast with field service, at the end of the day i actually felt i accomplished something
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  clearpoison

  I have only experience from KH and Bethelbuilds so cannot say if it was different in Assembly hall buildings, guess not. I am absolutelly not skilled in construction thing, but I had been following one nice brother earlier in hallbuilds helping with one specific area of construction. So I had experience in that and was always accepted as part of the group doing that part of construction as I could do the simpler jobs for them and they could concentrate on more important things.

  There wasn't sufficient amount of work for whole time so I had lots of idle time in hall builds, there were small ad-hoc things that I was then invited from coffeetable. But I must say that in general people were in good mood in hall builds, not least for food and coffee service. Then the rules changed that you had to be in good standing and approved by local elders, that was end of it to me. On the other hand my lifesituation wouldn't let me do lots of building anyway.

  But it was very different in Bethel build, most of the people there were real professionals in their area, and to be honest, not very humble in many cases. I was temporary unskilled helper there and boy those pro's could curse and look badly if you missed something they knew by heart. It was much easier to do lonely things like giving directions to cranes. What I really couldn't understand was the amount of time that was lost for changing gears for food and back. There was arrangement made for lazy types that they were served food outside the premises and they did not have to change. I needed some rest so I did the whole showering/clothing thing couple extra times each day, most of us did. I admit that I also wanted to feel the atmosphere in dining room during those weeks I worked there.

  CP
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  Heartofaboy

  It's interesting to read what you all have written.

  Nomad, one of the older plumber brothers I met was very kind & didn't make me feel stupid, however there is a hell of a lot of hairy testosterone flowing at the quick builds & assembly hall builds.

  It seems so ingongruous to see the same men come together for the day's text or prayer thanking Jah for all the love & then go back to the He-Man ball breaking attitude.