Will they Eliminate the District Convention?

by kid-A 37 Replies latest jw friends

  • Warlock
    Warlock

    How can they eliminate the D.C.?

    The big news was supposed to be something that the majority was NOT going to like. If there were no more D.C.'s that news would be WELCOMED by the majority.

    Warlock

  • Mulan
    Mulan
    Districts conventions have gone from eight days, with sessions starting in the morining and ending late at night, to the current 3 day version.

    They had no morning sessions, (except Sundays) other than a brief meeting for service each day. The afternoon session started at 1:30 PM and the evening session ended about 9 PM. Everyone came early in the morning though, to get a decent seat, so you were there ALL DAY.

    As I said before, the 8 day conventions were only every few years, not a regular thing by any means. In the 50 years, we were JW's, I only went to 4 of the 8-day ones. I missed the one in 1963 because I was VERY pregnant and wasn't about to travel to Southern California from Seattle to go to a blistering hot convention in the Rose Bowl.

  • Berean
    Berean

    The Borg will eliminate the DC only if it does not provide lots of DOLLARS! That is the way a corporation conduct business.

  • Arthur
    Arthur
    They will never get rid of the DC.

    It is one of their primary fund raisers and control mechanisms. Every year they use it to whip the JWs into a "Loyalty to the Organization, the End is Near" frenzy. Without it they will loose too much control over the rank and file.

    I totally agree. They would never get rid of the D.C. because this is one of the biggest and most effective indoctrination tools. It is a very effective tool in maintaining conformity and control over the r&f. In the minds of most JWs, the information that is presented at the D.C. is considered just a sacred as the Bible itself.

  • SirNose586
    SirNose586
    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.

    We have the same deal down at Qualcomm. Probably why we have it so good with the City. The contract is good until 2010. I'd feel bad for anybody having to drive up to Long Beach or LA!

  • Jourles
    Jourles
    We have the same deal down at Qualcomm.

    I went to the majority of my DC's at Jack Murphy (now Qualcomm). I don't ever remember hearing about getting the stadium for free in exchange for cleaning it. But then again, all the times I was there, we had food service too(a while ago). I would have been one of the first in line to sign up and clean it, but maybe it was a different ball game back then.(like that pun?)

    I kind of miss the Umbrella City DC. Park your umbrella over you and take a nice nap in the Field Level. God knows that ALL of the shaded seats in the Plaza level were taken even before the gates opened.

  • jayhawk1
    jayhawk1

    A little off topic...

    Anyone remember the tickets you had to purchase to get food... the little 10 cent stubs you had to use instead of money to purchase your Shasta pop and ham sandwiches...? Whatever happened to those and why did they use them in the first place?

  • blondie
    blondie

    The procedure cut down on the number of people handling cash. Instead of every person at the stands (cafeteria lines from the old days) having to take cash and dispense food, only the sisters by guarded tables would be handling cash exclusively. You can guess what job I had at the conventions.

    Blondie

  • AnonyMouse
    AnonyMouse

    Rumor has it that Raleigh NC will be giving up a place of some sort for free to use for DCs. For free cleaning.

    My family always treats DCs as sacred. My mom sacrificed her job to go to them every year. Maybe that played a factor in her getting fired...

    But I suddenly called to mind a scripture that said that all people working in the 'temple' should be paid. I can't quote it (I've trained myself to hear the scripture, turn to it, ignore what was being read, and imediatly discard all assosiated knowledge ;) ). But it was one of those little counters to the insults they give the church, saying that "we clean it for free, so we are better."

    I think it was when they built or rebuilt the temple. I dunno, seems like they built the temple at least a thousand times over.

  • choosing life
    choosing life

    Just this summer they quit using a facility they had used for many years. I asked an elder who helped arrange the district assemblies and he said it was because the city would no longer let them use it for free. So they arranged to use another facility that would offer free use. The fact that they are non-profit and bring much business to a city helps them get it free. They were not the least concerned that the brothers would have to drive much further with extreme gas prices. And to think we used to give them money to help pay for the facility for years,at their encouragement. I think they take in a tidy profit.

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