by kid-A 37 Replies latest jw friends
1974-1977 4 days (last district ASSEMBLY in 1977—became convention in 1978)
1978 5 days
1979-1985 4 days
1986 3 ½ days
1987 3 days
1988 3 ½ days
1990 4 days
1991-1992 3 days
1993 4 days
1994-2005 3 days
Based on the pattern...perhaps they will try having 2 1/2 day conventions.
Blondie
Blondie, Was the 1/2 day sessions that you mention the day that the session started late so that we could all go out in service.
I remember those assemblies and WHAT A PAIN!!
I do believe so, NY. At least it was better than sitting down for a session. I just didn't go out.
Blondie
I was not smart enough to stay in the hotel. Back in the days when I actually believed this crap we went out as a family with a four-week old baby.
UGG - I can't believe I did that.
My first DC was the 5-day one in 1978.
Its extremely difficult for the dubs to get fridays off work.
Not really. It's just that they don't bother to try very hard. They don't want to waste a vacation day on it.
The last full DC that I went to, back in 03, I noticed that a lot of people were keeping their cell phones on, especially on Friday. Most of them didn't ring, but were either on silent or vibrate. You could look around the arena at any given time, see someone bend over to pick up a phone or grab it out of a purse, check the screen, get up and hurriedly run out to the concourse to either answer it or return a call.
So even those that came on Friday were staying in touch with their work, probably to save having to take a day off and shortening their other vacations.
Back to the topic...I read that same post about the possibility of the DC being eliminated. It would fulfill the modern day prophecy of this being the last DC that the dubs would be attending, but I don't see it happening myself. They need these "special" events to keep control over them and it does bring in some bucks.
Maybe they're going to change the way they operate them, or where they hold them. I could see them renting fewer bigger outdoor arenas in select cities instead of the many smaller venues in smaller cities. The attendance looks pretty bad when you've only got 8,000 people in a 14,000 seat coliseum when just a decade or so ago, you could almost fill a 20,000 seat arena. So, to make it look like there's an increase, and to make the dubs work harder to attend, thus keeping a level of control over them, you send them all to the big city baseball/football stadiums, fill them up to capacity and everyone comes away thinking what a special occasion they were a part of. And if it plays out right, the attendees give more money because, darn it, they announced how expensive these places are to rent and we have to do our part to support the Kingdom work.
They drawback to that: more and more JWs are making less and less money, thus making that kind of travel a hardship and even if they make that trip, they can't afford to donate much. But that's never stopped the WTS from making them feel guilty for not making the ultimate sacrifice to attend.
NO, the Society move the District Conventions from the SUmmer to the Winter, think of the money they'll save renting Yankee stadium in the dead of winter. The bottom of the programs will read "Bring your own blankets."
RR
I would be extremely curious to see the gross amount they spend each year, worldwide on the DCs, relative to the amount of donations they receive.
Given that the vast majority of JWs are shall we say, financially challenged, I would still bet they dont even come close to breaking even.
There have been instances of them receiving the use of the facilites free of charge. In those cases, any money brought in was basically profit.
I'll use the Astrodome in Houston as just one example. Back when they still used it, the WTS had an arrangement in place with the city for the jw's to clean the Astrodome from top to bottom - just before the DC, and right after. The city got the 'Dome back in better shape than any 'paid' cleaning crew could do before or after any sporting event. The cleaning day was a BIG deal. It usually happened just a few days prior to the DC starting - sometimes on a weekend. Boatloads of jw's would come out for the Big Clean.(hell, it was always in the newspaper. why not show up and "give a good witness?") Mind you, none of these jw's get paid to clean the 'Dome.
In other towns, the WTS worked deals with the cities to receive facilities free of charge or at a very deep discount due to the amount of $$$ that would be brought in to the local businesses(hotels, restaurants, etc). In those larger cities where there would be multiple weekends held for the DC's, the city could actually bring in more money through taxes than haggling over the price of the venue. You see, the WTS holds the city's balls in a vice. They have the bargaining power - the city doesn't. The WTS can threaten to move the DC to another city which offers more favorable terms. Let's say the city receives a 6% tax from the local businesses. If the jw's spend a million bucks over a few weekends, the city gets a $60k cut. That's better than only getting maybe $5k-10k per weekend. And this is when the WTS threatens to move cities!
The WTS knows how to play this game. It is in their best interest to find a city that is willing to give them the venue for free. The city still makes money, and the WTS can make their money too. It's a win-win situation for both parties. And most business owners would love to have such a large convention in their town. They could care less if it was a convention of satan worshipers - they still would make more money than if there was no convention happening.
So is the DC going away? I would think not. It is a money generating scheme that works well for both the WTS and the cities in which they are held. It's especially good for the WTS when they get the venue for free. Just think of all that money coming in and them not having to pay for the convention site. Just throw out the ol' -- "Friends, we have a deficit of X dollars" line, and the bros will dig deep into their pockets without even questioning the amount.
AS far as i know most JW's are not exicted to go to DC. I never looked forward in going, the expense and dragging along 3 kids and sleeping in hotels and eating out every night, but you always have to put on a smile and make sure you show how happy and excited you are because it is the faithful and discreet slave provisions, food at the proper time, so you do not dare to complain.
Those that verbalized their complain, the elders made sure they received a few reminders of their lack of appreciation.
I was
