Who has had their District Convention seats stolen by other Witnesses?

by ÁrbolesdeArabia 33 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  ÁrbolesdeArabia

  Over the years I have had to deal with this problem personally and as a Attendant covering my section at various Convention Centers.

  I had people who were suppose to be decent Jehovah Witnesses pick up all the books, bags and coolers belonging to brothers and sisters who arrived at the appropriate time and picked them up and dumped them all at the end of the seating row. So here is what goes down, the sister runs up to me panicking and saying "Dear brother, I had all those seats reserved for my family and now look!" I look and see a pile of all the families belongings thrown on the end of the row, so I head over to the seats and ask them "What is going on?" The Witnesses who are now sitting down fifteen minutes while the music is playing, now say "We got here and these seats were empty!" I blew a gasket because I saw that sister put those items in the row I was monitoring and she had all her family with her next door with special needs situations.

  It was disheartening to hear the Witnesses lie but I was not new to their game, this same B.S. happened to me in Long Beach, Ca once and Cow Palace another time, so I boldly say, you moved their stuff and you need to find your own seats. The situation now is getting overblown because the freak shows who desire those seats start getting loud, lying more boldy and the family says "If you make us move, we will leave the Convention!" Three elders are now standing there trying to solve this puzzle while I blurt out "Go ahead, if you feel the need to steal these seats from this family, maybe you don't belong with Jehovah's people because they do not lie or steal their brothers seats!" She took down my name and said she was going to write the Society, she said she personally knew the Governing Body and President of the Tower and promised me a life of Hell!"

  The lack of unity with the elders at the Convention blew me away, some felt she and her hicks should keep the seats and dump this family who got the seats the right way. The solution by "Goofus and Dufus" my helper elders, the sister who had the seats first, should move to the "disabled area" or "senior section". I thought she should keep her seats and stand her ground and our sister and her family now wante their seats and said they would leave if we did not fix the problem. What a mess this was becoming as the sister and he family are getting snotty, now becoming loud to gather the attention of other friends sitting next to them. Making a scene and being lead by two of their elders, the theives of seats, moved down to the elderly section, with better seats because they screamed the loudest.

  Show up late, take all the belongings of your brothers and sisters and throw them down the end of the row and lie through your teeth. Reward after making everyone around you uncomfortable and shaking with anger and stress, you get better seats and screw with the people who are doing the job for the friends. Often, the Convention Center brought out the worst qualities of the Jehovah's Witnesses who behaved badly at eateries, Hotel help and the public they pretend to be good while treating their brothers and sisters like dirt! Has this happened to anyone you know?
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  zeb

  I had a family refuse to move in front of us when an injured sister (post op) begged them to move as they had the required 'leg room'. She wept saying this is the most selfish time for Jehovahs witnesses."(conventions) and she with family left. Her husband was furious!.

  The 'steward's there did nought.

  There was plenty of seats the selfish ones could have moved to and their bored the death offspring didnt need the 'leg room' seats. The "sick peoples" seats were all filled up with the all hale and hearty who for some reason needed to fill them.

  I wrote to the wts and never received any reply.

  and they think they jw could live in a post apocalyptic world in peace? ..

  B & S are as bad at parking at conventions as well. Just roar up and stop never mind you have killedspaces by your lousy parking. At a convention with very tight space I protested this too in writing and actually received areply (rubber stamp signature) saying it was because 'there were no white lines.' This i replied is weak as everyone who gets a drivers lisence knows how to park. No reply. I also suggested that 'stewards' should be men of mettle and be prepared to say to erant drivers "now back out and come in again!"

  no reply.
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  Laika

  Not quite the same, but there was one elder who used to reserve the same seats at the Convention every year, it was on the front row center of the tiered seating at the back of the site, they were the best seats as you get no restrictions on legroom. He was head of the attendants so was usually first there and able to pick his seats, but occassionally some of us on the car park team would get there before him and take the seats to annoy him. He would then show a righteous rage, complaining that we had saved seats for people not in our house or car as per Watchtower guidelines, one year he even complained to the chairman about it. Yet every time his kids saved seats for their mates to sit with them as well and he knew it and never stopped them!

  He eventually solved the problem by banning anyone from entering the Convention site until he'd completed his 'health and safety checks'.
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  GoneAwol

  I was an attendant at the Metro Radio (was telewest) arena. My job was to stand at the heavy door upstairs that led to the arsembly bigwigs rooms and also look after that section of seating. One year, Dan Sydlik was due to give a talk. His extended family wanted to sit in my section to be near the bigwig rooms, but were late arriving. So they 'politely' asked me if a family could be moved to accomodate them. I said no, the families were all settled and listening to the indoctrination session. They then told me who they were, to which I replied "Thats nice! If you want, you can ask one of the families yourselves." I was 'politely' told to do my job or the arsembly coordinater would hear of it. I asked them to wait where they were. I went through the heavy door and went to the arsembly coordinaters desk. I told Glen Mcfarlane what had happened and that I didnt wish to be spoken to in a manner befitting a turd.

  He said he would handle it. After speaking to them, they filed into the bigwigs rooms after which I didnt see them again 'till after lunch. Guess where they ended up sitting after the intermission? Yep, my section. I learned later that a family was asked (told) to move to another section so that the entourage could get a better view. I kept giving them the cold stare the whole afternoon.

  Being an attendant at that arsembly guarding that particular door from the rank and file did more to wake me up than bad doctrine ever did.

  GA
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  EmptyInside

  This wasn't a convention,but a Circuit Assembly. It was during the program,and I was in the restroom. I came back to my seat to find my coat stuffed under the chairs and my seat taken. Some stupid attendant sent some late arrivals to my seat. I was more mad about my coat being stuffed under the chair.

  It was funny,but the family came late,and never came back after lunch. They might as well have stayed home. They slept through the whole program too. But,now,looking back,they probably were on to something there.
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  Kool Jo

  HAHA!

  Well, when I went to convention, there is usually a big rush at the doors, no matter how early you arrive. I remember one occasion a sister had a bed sheet and just tossed it over a few "end" seats for her family....despite the "no-saving" seat policy.

  Once I placed my bag and books on two seats (I like to have an extra seat between me & the next person), a sister moved it over and said "oh sorry".

  I remember a couple years ago, waiting in line for them to open the doors to the convention...a brother asked, why they can't just let us in regardles of how early we come in? A sister replied "It's Jehovah's instructions"...we looked at each other in a WTF moment!

  Peace

  Kool Jo
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  blondie

  By the time I left the attendance was down so much that you could find a decent seat. But I remember those days. We always left someone to guard the seats and our belongings. As a jw said years ago at a convention "We are not in the new system yet." A brother cruised in once and started moving things and got called on by our "guard" but kept moving their stuff. He was the husband of the sister, not a jw but a cop. He flashed his badge to the brother who quickly scurried away. After the session he went back to the administration area...he had written down this man's name from his badge, and congregation and said he was going to charge him with a crime unless they did something. (I worked in administration then, just a peon). An announcement was made that moving stuff not your own or your family's (unless you were an attendant) could result in being charged with a crime. If you needed help finding seats, talk to an attendant. The real issue here was he was not a jw and a cop. If he had been a jw, I'm sure nothing would have happened.

  I once came back and our stuff had been moved and we found it in Lost and Found....the people in those seats said someone else must have moved it (those were my evil days) I watched for them the next day, saw where they sat, had a friend take their stuff to Lost and Found, and reversed the event on them. They had no doubt but could not prove it.
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  molybdenum

  I got a good seat in an assembly, one that I could easily get up and go out for

  a break when it all got too much.

  I left my books, a Bible and a songbook + notebook on the seat, as was the custom.

  Marking my place.

  When I came back just few minutes later I found a sister not only sitting in the seat

  but sitting ON the books.

  I said to her... this is my seat..... but she didn't budge and I told her ....you are sitting on my books.

  She reluctantly fished them out from under her but there was no move to give me back the seat.

  So I said ...this is my seat, you know, the one I want to sit in to listen to the talks that's why my books were on it.

  No budging.

  Gave up... went off saying good grief..and tried to find another seat to my liking.

  Couldn't, so I sat somewhere else muttering death threats under my breath.

  Shouldn't have worried, I don't even remember what the assembly was about now.
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  AndDontCallMeShirley

  I've had seats stolen many times. I love it when the seat stealers don't just pile all your things into one seat at the end of the aisle- no! They're nice enough to bring all your things down to Lost and Found for you! It's bad enough your seats were stolen, but now you have to figure out where all your things disappeared to, then when you check lost and found you have to sift through piles of stuff to find your items.

  Of course, the seat stealers are all ignorant of where your things went to, and the 'entire row was empty when they arrived'... 5 min. before the session started. How convenient for them.
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  LisaRose

  Yes, I've had that happen. I also hated it when people rush in and save a hundred seats for everybody they know, no matter how many times they were told not to. And even if you got there when the doors open, the better seats were already taken. It was obvious that some brothers had early entry entry privileges, and they all seemed to have a really large number of "immediate family". It was very frustrating as a mom with two small children, to get there an hour or two before the start only to have to sit in the sun and at the very top row, while there were empty seats every where, but I had no one to watch my kids while I got up really early to to go save seats. After a while I stopped caring, I got there fifteen minutes before the start and sat in the nosebleed section and didn't care. It was better than being stuck there for an extra hour or two. It seemed like a kind of greed to me, which was the opposite of what we were told, no spiritual paradise here, it was every man for himself, screw the widows and orphans. The same with the hotel arrangements, you could never get a reservation at the "official" hotels, nope, all taken. The last few years I just gave up and skipped the whole thing, it was way too much time, money and effort, just to be bored stupid and made to feel guilty because I wasn't a pioneer. I didn't even feel guilty about it.