The Apprentice - Watchtower version

by catchthis 14 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  catchthis

  Being a fan of the TV show The Apprentice, I love to "play along" to see if my ideas would work with what the teams are tasked to accomplish. Many times, their ideas are totally off. Other times, the executives they are tasked with providing a presentation to feel that they had 'hit a home run.' On some occasions, the apprentice's ideas are incorporated into the marketing campaign of the company represented.

  Let's play our own version of The Watchtower Apprentice. Mr. Trump has been given the green light to work with the WTS. The task is to come up with ideas to reduce operating expenses company wide, but to keep the amount of "spiritual food" flowing roughly the same. Spiritual food is exactly what it means - the Awake(fluff) reduction to once a month is an example.

  I'll start off. Back in December, I ran through a few ideas of what I would do if I were in charge. One of those ideas was actually used by the WTS recently....and I have no ties to Brooklyn for insider information, I swear!

  Should we cut back on the magazine distribution timeframe? How about combine the WT and Awake into one magazine? Instead of twice a month, how about just once? This alone would cut expenditures on printed materials by almost 50-75%.

  Here were a few other ideas I had:

  • Electronic Distribution - Allow downloads of the magazines/KM's from WT.org? How about letting those who have the means to pay for it distribute the magazine articles/KM's to the brothers and sisters that would like to help in keeping printing costs down for the Society? This could be a positive. Many brothers and sisters love to make meeting and assembly binders and then distribute them for free. This gives them the feeling of being important, needed in the congregation. Competition between brothers to "print first/distribute first" could be a problem though. E-Books? Pages can be printed out for personal or book study use. Shipping costs related to magazines and books could also be reduced exponentially.
  • Magazine Placements - Since no known exact ratio exists with regards to magazine placement and to what ends up in the trash, I think it may be safe to guess that if 20 million magazines are printed, roughly 13-15 million are dumped within a 3 month period? Why not just scale back magazine production to cover one per publisher and roughly 1 or 2 for field service use - primarily for return visits or bible studies ONLY. If electronic distribution is used, 'encourage' the publishers to lower their magazine orders per month. Instead of focusing on magazines in FS, use tracts. Magazines are practically given away in FS without ever mentioning the donation arrangement anyways. Tracts are more to the point and generally give the reader the reason for the visit. Most witnesses offer the Awake by briefly mentioning an article, but then barely show the cover of the Watchtower and then they mention "and we're also offering it's companion, The Watchtower." The Watchtower is usually seen by the householder as a freebie with the Awake.
  • Books - Keep the smaller format coming. The larger size chewed up too much in printing costs. Going paperback was brilliant. The small size also helped reduce weight related shipping costs. Instead of offering one new book each year at the DC's, mix it up a little and offer a brochure(already doing this). Every few years bring out a new book to excite the publishers. A brochure can say just as much as a book can when it comes to "new light."
  • Kingdom Hall for Sale - In larger cities, if the KH is not already being used by 3 or more congregations, think about consolidating the region/area to do so. Dedicated publishers will drive a little extra to be at the meetings. Real estate is where the money is at. KH's, with property, can be sold for $200-300k in most areas. If the money crunch really comes, then do as other religions do - meet in people's homes. Book study groups could remain the same for all meetings. A new meeting format would need to be created if this were to happen. If congregations are instructed to sell off their KH's, then that will be the sign of the end for the WTS.

  So that's a start. What other ideas would you come up with to cut expenses?
• 

  diamondblue1974

  Make the volunteers at bethel buy their own food each week from their expense allowance; the congregations can then open up a new contribution box entitled 'supporting our brothers in the printing work'. This creates two streams of income, one from the bethelites and two from the R&F....genius...cut me in for 20% of the profits.

  DB74
• 

  ezekiel3

  1. Forget about marketing "the Truth" to the general public. Instead focus on your captive market, the "publishers". Sell to them and let them do whatever they want with the crap.
  2. Publish as much QUANTITY as you can in smaller, cheaper packages. The numbers are bragging rights.
  3. Conduct regular rallies with old recycled subjects, but convice the delegates that the cost is $5000-10,000 per event. Great revenue source.
  4. Buy, buy, buy prime real estate with voluntary contributions. Set up separate donation programs for each project so that you don't have to touch your general fund.
  5. Build, build, build with all volunteer labor. Get volunteers to contribute or provide materials at wholesale prices.
  6. Sell, sell, sell land and buildings at peak market opportunities.

  Damn, I thought that was original for a sec.
• 

  lawrence

  Sell indugences! Sell prayer cloths! Sell Little Flock slots! Sell! Sell!
• 

  iiz2cool

  Get rid of kingdom halls completely. have virtual meetings using yahoo conferencing.

  people could save $$ on meeting clothes this way too. I once suggested this to the elders but they didn't seem too enthusiastic.

  Walter
• 

  IT Support

  Make the volunteers at bethel buy their own food

  Be more radical

  Get them to do secular work part time like pioneers to support themselves financially, but then work in Bethel instead of knocking doors.

  The advantages are:

  • They find and pay for their own accommodation and food.
  • WT can sell all the expensive accommodation buildings.
  • All the Home staff can be sacked, as they'll no longer be any need for cooks, waiters, laundry, hairdressers, etc.
  • All the real estate previously used for Home departments can be sold / redeployed.

  As an even more radical alternative, WT can keep their expensive accommodation buildings, but rent them out to Bethelites at "the going rate"...

  (Edited to add)

  There's no reason why this principle can't be extended to travelling overseers, special pioneers and missionaries. Just think of all the lovely money that could be saved!!
• 

  AlmostAtheist

  Since the R&F dubs make contributions regularly to "cover printing costs" that are far in excess of what the costs actually are, do you think there would be a commensurate drop in contributions if the printing levels dropped? I can imagine one side of the house saying, "Woohoo! We saved 300 million dollars in printing costs this year!" while the other side says, "Oh no! We lost 750 million in contributions this year!"

  YOU'RE FIRED!

  Dave
• 

  BluesBrother

  Cut back on circuit cars. Make a real guilt trip out of having to accept a car of off the Society. Most could fund their own if really had to. Or a genorous donor may give him one . If a car is essential for a c/o, make it .say , a Fiat Panda .

  Double the interest rate on loans for Kingdom Halls. Double the premiums on Kingdom Hall Insurance fund (the faithful would still pay)

  Reintroduce food and drink at Assemblies. but at market ratesor franchise it out at a profitable rate
• 

  tetrapod.sapien

  • drop the pathetic "no blood" doctrine and save themselves the lawyer expenses.
  • start turning in pedophiles to the police and save themselves the lawyer expenses.
  • have dubs recycle their old books and unplaced mags (there has got to be a tonne) back to the WT, by making them feel that they are doing good to the environment (those ruining the earth...)... (okay, dumb idea...FIRED!!)
  • write a computer program that just recycles and recompiles old articles from the WT database and fire the writing dept. it wouldn't be that different from what they do now.
  • sell officially sanctioned wine and bread before the memorial to congregations.
  • roll all their computer systems over to opensource solutions like linux, and save themselves the huge operating and ROI cost of running windoze and macs.
  • fire the demons. their benefit packages are horrendous.
• 

  Eyebrow2

  fire the demons. their benefit packages are horrendous.

  HAHAAH that is a riot.

  Tell them that just like they need 10 hours a month to stay a pioneer in good standing, they will also need to attend at least one day of each assembly/convention per year, and change the dress code at assemblies to purple triangle polos and kakhi pants for males and purple triangle blouses and skirts for females.. Tell the brothers and sisters that in order to gain entrance to the meetings, they must be wearing the dress code. And the only appropriate clothes to meet the dress code is sold through the society. That way, when we wander around town, all can pick out all the faithful witnesses. Adult shirts for $15, pants for $15 kids for $10.

  Then, start a new drive where if you don't place a certain amount of magazines each month, you have to donate $1 for every magazine you are short. There will be a lot more mags floating around doctor's offices and laundromats hahah.