100% for

JH

I havn't been to a meeting in years, but I can still remember when we had to vote on something, it was always 100% for or 100% against. Didn't it bother you to see how everyone looked around to see if someone dared to vote against the general trend? Why were they so radical?

metatron

There are RARE exceptions - such as when you have a maverick elder object openly
to the congregation wasting money on an unneeded building project.

Most of the time, they vote yes even if they don't agree
It's the Witness Way

metatron

maxwell

I guess my father was one of those maverick elders at times. I remember him voting against some resolution to spend some money. I don't remember what it was for, but I know they didn't know how much it would cost, so they were resolving to spend an undetermined amount of money. He's still very much a JW, but no longer an elder.
Maxwell

Vivamus

Yes, I remember one congress in 1998 [i think at leat it was that year]. There was a vote, and everyone jumped up and said "yes". They didntt even sit down quietly and thought about what they were agreeing to. [me included].

Welcome to the board, Enjoy the ride.

Gopher

When such votes were taken, our presiding overseer (in one hall I attended) had a person standing in the back, taking count of the votes "yeah" and "nay". And NAMES were taken of those who voted NAY. I'm not sure what that P.O. ever did with the names, but maybe if someone was constantly resisting the brilliant minds of the elder body, perhaps they might get a back-room interview from the friendly elders to see what the problem was.

teenyuck

Sounds like Iraq to me....Saddam just got re-elected with 100% of the vote! Amazing

troucul

metatron, you hit the nail on the head. That happened in my old congregation. Elders wanted to remodel the hall at a cost of about 20-30 thousand. The vote came, and about 30 hands went up against the resolution. A couple weeks went by so they could seduce others into seeing it their way, and when the second vote came up a few weeks later, about 15 hands went up against the resolution. They went ahead and got the loan from the society to replace a carpet that didn't need to be replaced, pay someone to redo the chairs, and redo the walls. They wouldn't even do any of the work themselves to save on labor costs. The hall had been paid off too. Wasteful bastards.

Hey why not?, let the idiot r/f pay for it

Sentinel

I too, remember when it really didn't matter if we"supposedly" had an opinion. It seemed to me to be just a fake set-up to make us believe that we could think for ourselves.

They ignored the nays and did what they wanted anyway.

JH

In my first congregation in Dallas, I noticed how this was always a 100% for. Black and white thing.

Buster

I had a really good one. The PO, Prescott Adams, was presenting an elder group reccomendation regarding the mortgage on the Hall. I was 16 or 17 at the time, my dad was not a dubbie, my mother wasn't at the meeting (don't remember why). Anyway, I had an opinion on how to handle the money issue - and I was the only opposing opinion i the room. But I wouldn't let the issue just roll the way the elders wanted it to. You see, my family's contributions were a significant part of the take in the box.

I'll never forget how alone I stood. I'll never forget how Prescott jumped down my throat during the discussion. But they never got their unanimous decision. But to be fair, he came over after the meeting and apologized to me for it.

Edited by - buster on 28 January 2003 19:18:3

100% for

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