The Bristol assembly hall scandel

by sleepy 27 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  sleepy

  Is there anyone from the area who remmbers the story of the 30,000 spent on trees for the vist of a GB memmber.
  I dont know the exact story as it is now about 7 or 8 years ago but I heard it from several people that worked on the hall.
  Apparently a GB memmber was to come to Britian to dedicate the hall (I cant remmember which one).
  The brothers in charge wanted the hall to look nice for his vist.But the land around was yet to be landscaped.
  So brothers enquired as to the viability of planting some trees but were informed that it was the wrong time of year and they would die.
  The cost of the trees was around the region of 30,000.Plus the amount of free labour from the brothers in planting them.
  Anyway the big bosses of the scheme decided to ignore the professional advice and planted them anyway.
  They all died.
  30.000 pounds of money from old ladies, pioneers and little children as well as ordinary publishers went down the drain for the GB's visit.

  Nice to know they used our money wisely.
• 

  ballistic

  I actually think the trees were part of the deal made to get the planning application through. As to what time of year they were planted and why, I don't know.
• 

  DIM

  reminds me of when the Turnersville, NJ assembly hall was being built. no direction and wasted alot of money. One day they had some sisters dig a hole and then fill it back in. What a bunch of idiots.
• 

  bboyneko

  Wait a second, that sounds like an urban legend or a real peace of history borrowed from somewhere...I remember reading about a soviet official who visited a factory, loved the greenery so the soviet army had them plant green trees even though it was the wrong time of year along a road that stretched from the landing pad to the site of inspection. The trees all died so they ended up painting them green. This was during world war II or so...I will research it and find out. It looks like more than one important offical gets his way with trees.

  -Dan
• 

  ashitaka

  DIM are you in the area with me? I'm in Jersey....give me a mail, my address is open. When you mentioned turnersville, i knew you were close. I read that you're moving to seattle, but I'm interested anyone.

  later

  ashi
• 

  sf

  "One day they had some sisters dig a hole and then fill it back in."

  BwahhhhhhhhhhhhROFLOL
• 

  Englishman

  Sleepy,

  I must have missed out on this one, Bristol is 18 miles away and I have only just realised that it has an assembly hall situated at Almondsbury, just off the M5.

  Almondsbury is one of those god-forsaken places with a service station and little else, so maybe they did import some trees. Here's a pic of the assembly hall being built:

  Englishman.

  Nostalgia isn't what it used to be....
• 

  sleepy

  This aint no urban legend as far as I know.
  Lots of people I know worked on the hall and told me about it.They weren't happy about it themselves.
  As to the trees being for planning permission that is true but they were told by experts to plant the next year and the only reason they went ahead too earlly was for the GBs visit.
• 

  metatron

  I can't give figures on how much money was wasted in regard
  to the Turnersville or Henrietta Assembly Hall. However,
  in the later, they installed floors of expensive polished
  marble - over the objections of some brothers with common
  sense. Then, they discovered that old folks could slip and
  break their hips on this stuff - so they covered it with
  carpeting. I have no idea how much money they threw away
  on this idiocy.

  metatron
• 

  mommy

  I don't even want to talk about the idiocy in the Henrietta NY assembly hall. There were alot of mix ups on that site. I was a regular there, and LDH was as well, she can tell you some of the things it was amazing!

  One thing that bothered me, was the food. So much was prepared for everyone to eat, but I was in the kitchen many times, when it was being tossed because there was too much, or bro's and sis's were making "trips" out to fill up their trunk with the extra.

  How about the state of the art kitchen only to have it deemed useless when meals were no longer provided!
  wendy

  Blind faith can justify anything.~Richard Dawkins