Contributions ,how the Society CONTROLS the funds of a congragation

by raymond frantz 22 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  raymond frantz

  I'm not sure if anyone has started a post about contributions recently ,but if there is an Accounts Servant here please free to correct me or shed some more light .What I'm about to say is 100% accurate and applies to congragations in Britain (don't ask me how just ...join the dots)

  The Society controls all the funds that are coming in the Kingdom Hall all of the time .The way this works out is as follows :You put any money in any of the contribution boxes and in the end all money are added to together and deposited to the Congragation's Bank Account .The Worldwide donations leave the account as a direct debit to the Society every week and the rest stays in the Account .Now comes the interesting bit :Once the account goes over £5000 we are instructed to send the rest to the Society as a cheque and is held in their account for as long as the Congragation doesn't needed back .This way all but £5000 are held in the Society's Account .Any other experiences ?
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  MaybeSo

  Some of the funds not being used (usualy in the thousands of dollars) are kept in secured savings with high rate of returns (CDs).

  A circuit or district may have funds for a new kingdom hall and as they look for land or a building they place these funds in such accounts.

  I handled some accounts while I was working for a financial institution a while back, not specifically for the Borg, they were just part of the portfolio
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  sir82

  Once the account goes over £5000 we are instructed to send the rest to the Society as a cheque and is held in their account for as long as the Congragation doesn't needed back

  This is an optional arrangement, at least in the US.

  I don't know how strongly they push to do this though. I imagine that if the circuit overseer, in reviewing the congregation accounts reports, sees the congregation sitting on lots of cash, he may "strongly suggest" the elders send the "extra" cash to the Society.
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  pontoon

  So if the congregation wants their money back they will get it, but who earns the interest of that big pot of money in those CD's? Sounds like a crafty way for the borg to earn money off the congregations' funds. I was still attending when that letter was first read. Thought it smelled fishy back then and was hoping our body would not do it.
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  St George of England

  RF you are fairly correct in your description for accounts in the UK.

  There are 3 contribution boxes, World Wide Work, Society's Kingdom Hall Fund and Congregation Funds. Each meeting these boxes are emptied, recorded and then deposited in the Congregation's Current Account, each week.

  At the end of the month the World Wide Work funds and the Society's Kingdom Hall Funds are forwarded to the Society by Bank Transfer. Cheques have not been used for a long time. The Congregation Funds remain for paying bills and expenses.

  If the Body of Elders feel that there are more funds in the congregations account than is needed for several months expenses, they will place some of this "on deposit" with the Society. It is likewise sent along with the other funds by electronic transfer. About two years ago congregations were asked to pass a resolution to allow the elders to place these funds on deposit as they felt without taking a resolution on each occasion. If the congregation requires the funds they are supposed to be readily available but I do not know of a congregation that has tested this as yet!

  I think the financial turmoil the Society is in has added to the insistence from the Society and the CO that money is not left in low interest congregation accounts while the Society can use it and get higher interest. A read through the Charity commission's financial reports for the Watch Tower Society of Britain and the Internation Bible Students association will show that this is a complete fallicy. Last year their investments ran at a loss of over 4%.

  George
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  raymond frantz

  The congragation gets 0% interest out of their "deposit" with the Society .Now ,we know the Society is playing in the Stock Market and attends Hedge Funds meetings ,so I'm pretty sure they make more than 0% interest on these funds .The congragation was never asked if that was ok ,it was only announced every time the accounts were read ,but there was no Resolution
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  Juan Viejo2

  Several congregations that have asked for some of their excess funds to be returned to them have been urged by the Society to find other ways to get the funds they need. This should have been expected - once the money is firmly in the Society's accounts, they are loathe to release them back to the local Kingdom Halls.

  I recently received an email from one of my contacts who is an elder. He told me that the plumbing in the KH bathrooms was damaged during an earthquake and that some of the porcelain was cracked and pulled away from the wall. They'd gotten an estimate from a local plumbing company that came to about $3000. The accounts servant contacted the Society and asked for $3500 to be returned to their active Kingdom Hall expense account.

  The response he got was to refer the problem to the local RBC and have them resolve the issue. The RBC could probably find a JW plumber in the area who would do the work for free and that anything needing to be replaced could be purchased at a local Lowe's or Home Depot. The RBC also had access to otherwise good replacement or leftover plumbing parts removed from KHs that had been remodeled.

  Bottom line is that the Society did not want to give the KH their money back. Sounds like a scam to me...

  JV
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  raymond frantz

  ...It gets worse .The money donated to C.O. are as follows Traveling Overseer Arrangemt Fund (=£3 per publisher ) from a congragation of 100 ,that is £300 a week per congragation ,on top of that ,he gets food paid ,hand outs and weekly expenses paid for,total £1500-1800 a month (=maybe even more) .In this time of Global Recession ,they sure live above the average Jw and do nothing all day but telling us how not to go to university
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  St George of England

  The congragation was never asked if that was ok ,it was only announced every time the accounts were read ,but there was no Resolution

  RF - Ask your Accounts Servant or the Congregation Secretary to see a copy of the resolution. There had to bea single resolution taken to allow the elders to send money on deposit. Having said that, in my congregation, most resolutions get passed without any objections. If they cannot find one they need to apologise to the congregation and take the resolution.

  As regards their investment record, have a look on the Charity Commission site and see for yourself, they LOST over £900,000 last year in the UK alone.

  George
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  Splash

  Couple of corrections:

  There are 3 contribution boxes, World Wide Work, Society's Kingdom Hall Fund and Congregation Funds.

  The SKHF was renamed to Kingdom Hall Construction Worldwide (KHCW) and a letter sent to the congregations instructing the donation box be likewise renamed.

  Traveling Overseer Arrangemt Fund (=£3 per publisher ) from a congragation of 100 ,that is £300 a week per congragation.

  This is a yearly contribution, not weekly.

  Getting the money returned from the Soc is via a bank instruction the same as depositing it.

  Splash.