Question about monthly hours, timesheets, etc.

by Alleymom 27 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Alleymom
    Alleymom

    I googled "Jehovah" and "field service report" and found the following article in the MBA Jungle magazine. It's interesting to see how the writer admires the JW's record keeping.


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    MBA Jungle magazine, March 15, 2004

    "Business Lessons from Jehovah's Witnesses: God's Sales Team "

    By Dan McGinn

    Their product: salvation. Their mission: conversion. Why Jehovah's Witnesses are the world's scrappiest, most dedicated sales force -- and what you can learn from them.

    [ …]

    LESSON ONE
    PLAN YOUR ATTACK--AND LEAVE A PAPER TRAIL




    If you’ve ever observed Witnesses wandering from block to block, you’d think they’re no more organized than a Girl Scouts troop pushing Thin Mints. You’d be wrong. As Collier and his wife Susan begin an afternoon’s work, they consult a laminated map showing Territory No. 39--three blocks of well-maintained homes in this Boston neighborhood. The map shows that this area was visited by Jehovah’s Witnesses the previous December, May, and August (the group tries to cover most neighborhoods four times a year). The Witnesses have proprietary maps like this for just about every neighborhood in the country. Their records contain details that census takers wouldn’t dream of noting and that marketers wouldn’t know how to compile unless they wore out lots of shoe leather themselves. The Witnesses track homes where residents work the late shift, so the pioneers don’t wake them up by visiting too early. On their maps, they mark the homes where residents seemed receptive during previous visits, as well as those where people reacted so negatively that the Witnesses should avoid calling on them in the future. Although the federal government only recently instituted a Do Not Call registry, the Jehovah’s Witnesses have kept one of their own for years.


    As the Colliers progress down the block, they fill in a "House-to-House Record" card, noting the gender, age, and name of everyone who answers the door. The goal is to turn today’s "cold call" into tomorrow’s "warm call": "Hi, Jason, we spoke a few months ago about the Bible and your search for a new job. Has God helped you with that?"


    Back at Kingdom Hall, the Witnesses’ house of worship, each pioneer fills out monthly field service reports, detailing how many brochures they distributed, how many hours they spent visiting homes, and how many repeat visits they made to people who seemed interested.


    Good record-keeping is central to the Jehovah’s Witnesses goals--and it’s how the group charts its progress. At the group’s world headquarters in Brooklyn, statisticians can tell you its U.S. members spent exactly 184,842,031 hours preaching in 2002, and that they conducted 463,249 Bible studies. As a supervisor, Collier uses the documents the same way a retail manager uses a daily sales report. "I might notice that [one pioneer] is putting out a lot of literature, but making very few return visits," Collier says. "That signals to me that they need some help learning how to go back and cultivate the interest they’ve created."
  • Alleymom
    Alleymom
    Some, by overlooking the turning in of their reports, are now counted as irregular publishers,

    So what happens to an "irregular publisher"?

    I keep reading about how people here manage to fade away quietly, and I wonder how that is possible, when such close tabs are being kept on everyone.

  • blondie
    blondie

    Miss turning in time for one month--irregular

    Miss turning in time for six "consecutive" months--inactive

    Once you are inactive, your publisher record card is separated out and put in the back of the secretary/service overseer's box. Usually, next to the cards of the DA'd and DF'd. Every six months the circuit overseer (CO) is suppoed to look at those cards to assess everyone's status. He may schedule time to call on some of the inactive.

    Also, in reality, most JWs keep very undetailed records of the people they called on. They when and if they return, it is usually 6 months later and they have forgotten what they wrote down.

    The fact that there is no real incentive, monetary wise, etc., there is no reason from JWs to be productive or effective. The pay is the same whether they bring someone in or not....everlasting life on a paradise earth.

    Blondie

  • Alleymom
    Alleymom

    Blondie and Leo ---

    I'm ready to log off for the evening, but I wanted to say "thank you" again for all your help tonight.

    Marjorie

  • Ténébreux
    Ténébreux
    If one does not witness, he is not one of Jehovah’s witnesses.

    At the end of one Service Meeting, I remember hearing an elder go one step further by warning the congregation that they must hand in their service reports tonight "...because what if The End were to come tomorrow and you had forgotten to put in your report? Well then you wouldn't have been a publisher of the Good News this month, would you?"

  • blondie
    blondie

    They keep close tabs just for numerical purposes not that they care about the "sheep." The WTS is very big on numbers and records

  • Dansk
    Dansk

    Hi Marjorie ((((((((((()))))))))))))

    Elders and Ministerial Servants (apprentice elders - I was of the latter), can also count time by giving public talks. These are usually 45 minutes long, so 45 minutes is counted.

    I assume she is counting her time on the board.

    Most likely! Other ways of counting time are writing letters, telephoning people (this may have stopped now but I can't be sure??) and incidental witnessing, e.g. if you're having your hair done why not bring the conversation round to the "Truth". Next time you get your hair done and get the same person who did it last time, providing you bring up theocratic stuff again, you can also count a return visit!

    Love,

    Ian

  • Terry
    Terry
    Without exception each witness of Jehovah is aware of his obligations in this regard, as set out in Ezekiel 3:17-21. If one does not witness, he is not one of Jehovah’s witnesses. To call ourselves witnesses of Jehovah and then to refrain from witnessing, which is ministering, would be taking Jehovah’s name in a vain or worthless way. Never may that happen, and it will not so long as a proper view of the ministry is maintained.

    My best friend (use to be) who is still a Jehovah's Witness is very proud of the fact that he goes door to door and that JW's are about the only religion so required.

    I said the following to him:

    "Johnny, do you ever ask yourself what it is you are actually giving the householder over the course of time?

    All those books and magazines with crackpot predictions of the end were wrong. So, you gave the householder false prophecy and phoney predictions.

    All the flip flops on scriptural "meaning" were changed and often changed again. What good did those interpretations do the householder?

    The time you and millions of other JW's have wasted in neighborhoods spreading nonsense, speculation and outright falsehood--if devoted to charity in helping the disabled or dying--would amount to a helluva lot more Christianity than the doorknocking! Think about it--will you?"

  • Poztate
    Poztate
    I keep reading about how people here manage to fade away quietly, and I wonder how that is possible, when such close tabs are being kept on everyone.

    I believe that they are making it increasingly difficult to just fade out of sight. A missed meeting brings a call to inquire as to how you are and the old "we missed you"™ line. A Saturday missed in service brings an expression of concern about the need to "support jehovah's arrangements"™ in view of the times we live in.

    This might just be my wife's congo. A bunch of gung-ho dubs.The only way to fade around here easily would be to move out of town.

    Was there ever a time when they wanted you to turn in weekly FS reports since service was supposed to be an every week event??

  • poppers
    poppers

    Just today I was talking to five young women who were passing out "invitations" to the upcoming DC (I only talked to them because the youngest one recognized me from the elementary school she attends). I asked about going door-to-door and was told it was totally "voluntary", and one, the leader, even joked about stopping at the local rest home, which was having a party on their front lawn, and party with them. They seemed to be trying hard to give me the impression that they really wanted to do the d2d work. My impression from being on JWD is that the d2d work is central to the tenets of their beliefs and is not voluntary. So, did they blatantly lie to me?

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