At a recent circuit event, one of the carefully scripted interviews was with a young lady who had recently moved from NYC. She has been baptized as a JW for about one year.
She made a point, and the interviewer re-emphasized, that her Bible study had been conducted by Geoffrey Jackson (GB member) and later by Mark Noumair (Gilead instructor).
It seems the primary reason for the interview was name-dropping, with perhaps the idea that even "prominent Bethelites" conduct Bible studies "just like we are supposed to". The young lady rambled on about being "grateful for their patience" or some such. She also mentioned that she was "still impressed" by the local elders in her new home (far far away from the ivory towers of Bethel).
She seemed very poised and quite articulate. She didn't mention her occuaption, but it was clear she was viewed as a "trophy".
Anyways, it struck me - how exactly does someone "rate" to get to study with a GB member or someone else with a high degree of visibility & prominence, such as Mark Noumair who gets his name in a WT article on Gilead graduation twice a year?
Clearly these guys don't have time to spend more than a token hour or 2 in real "field service" per month, placing literature, "cultivating" return visits, etc. Someone must be "feeding them" with Bible studies, which allows their field service report to look better.
But who has the task of doing so? How does one determine what kind of study a GB member will get? Clearly, someone like that isn't going to get the typical "problem" study, who is maybe bipolar or is a single mother with an abusive boyfriend and 6 kids under the age of 10.
Who has that task? And what is the criteria for determining who is a "worthy" study for someone so prominent? Any ideas?