During the late 90s my congregation would pass a yearly resolution to send our prorated share of the CO's car lease/health inurance expense. It was usually in the neighborhood of $800. Invariably, the congregation would not raise enough money to cover it.
I was assistant account servant at the time and it was pretty typical to collect somewhere between 20-40 dollars each meeting. Every now and then a borderline inactive publisher would write a check for $100 (as a way to atone for their "weakness?"), which helped make ends meet. The hall was paid for and was shared by 4 congregations, so monthly expenses were in the 300-400 dollar range if I remember correctly.
Since the congregation never could come up with the money to pay the $800 or so for the CO expense, panicked meetings were held because the elders would have to cover the expenses out of their own funds if the congregation couldn't come up with the money. There were 3 or 4 of them and all of them lived paycheck to paycheck. They didn't have a few hundred dollars lying around to cover it. I believe the elders and ministerial servants ended up agreeing to share the expense among themselves (which would amount to about $100 a piece).
In short, it was a huge burden, but no one ever suggested not passing the resolution in the first place. It just wasn't something that crossed your mind. Eventually headquarters started paying that out of worldwide funds and stopped making the local congregations cover it. It was a huge relief for all involved.
I suspect a scenario like the above will play out on a much larger scale worldwide as a result of this new arrangement.
...OUTLAW