I remember when i was in and serving as elder a few years back, one of the biggest concerns I would hear discussed by top brass was regarding the ever shrinking pool of young brothers reaching out for assignments. From my conversations with others in similar positions and in areas far from mine, it became apparent that such concern was not just limited to my locale.
District Assemblies now being held at Circuit Assembly locations?
by ShirleyW 68 Replies latest jw friends
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Doubter
A “PIMO” is not merely a brother not reaching out — a “PIMO” is a jw in name only.
As a person who didn’t reach out last year, it was because I didn’t feel like working at the convention, to be honest with you. I fully worked this year.
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Sanchy
My citing the concerns I saw while in was only to show that one's perception on whether the level of apathy is increasing/decreasing depends on where one looks.
Also, apathy is not limited to "PIMO" individuals, as your own "not reaching out" experience reveals.
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Doubter
Who knows? I am certainly not apathetic. I am In full swing. I wasn’t apathetic last year either.
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Rattigan350
"They've been using both the Holt and Belleville assembly halls for District Assembly for years in Michigan"
They have never used the Holt MI assembly hall for DC's. In the 80s to 1996 DCs were in South Bend IN, Toledo and Pontiac. After 1996 the state went to Pontiac, Toledo and Cicero. After Pontiac stopped used, it was Saginaw, Belleville, Toledo.
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DwainBowman
TH DC'S/RC's have been down sized for a number of reason, and I don't pretend to know all the reason's.
The one I do know, has to do with Home Land Security, and large gatherings. Any over a certain size, have a hugh amount of external security, including armed guards, inside and out, screening of everyone coming into the building with REAL armed security personal, and so much more is involved. And the Very High Dollar cost is paid by the Org holding the event!!! Can you see the ten's of thousand's of dollar's it would take from the borg's grubby little finger's.
I have a few long time friends that moved over to Home Land security a few years back, and they have told me about the size trigger's. I have also seen it on news sites!!
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dozy
Whatever the reasons , its a sad trend.
For me , one of the ( very few ) special things about being a JW was the annual convention in a big outdoor stadium with tens of thousands in attendance , the tent cities , food service etc. I still have vague memories of the Wembley , London convention in 1969 where over 2,000 were baptised. It surely can't be the same kind of experience having just a few thousand in attendance in a purpose built indoor arena or one of those soulless windowless JW assembly halls.
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_Morpheus
Thats an interesting perspective, dwain. I wonder what the trigger is in terms of size. It would go a long way towards answering why rc’s are smaller now in USA even though there are more witnesses, strictly by head count anyway.
The slim ‘they are going broke’ theory just dosent make any logical sense.
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Londo111
In regard the Richmond Coliseum, I was surprised to learn that this year, the convention was held across the street at the Convention Center. Evidently it is smaller and had uncomfortable seating.
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Londo111
Facilities at conventions are often discounted or essentially free as many cities are all too glad to have thousands of people show up downtown for several weeks during an otherwise slow time of year. Conventions are good for businesses (hotels and restaurants especially) and the tax revenue is good for local government. I have seen where a few places are reassessing whether or not to continue this practice or whether cities can look for alternatives.
With little overhead, conventions have been revenue generators for Watchtower with donations going straight to "mother".
On the other hand, circuit assemblies have the "we have a deficit" announcement that spurred conscientious attenders to feel bad and donate more. With the new per publisher math Watchtower uses, these "deficits" for a one day assembly of one to two thousand people are somewhere around ten thousand dollars or more. And it doesn't matter if the assembly hall is paid for or not.
This FAR exceeds the "deficits" in the 80's and 90's at two day circuit assemblies at rented facilities where the attendance was well above 2000 people. This makes me wonder what is a bigger cash cow for Watchtower, three day conventions where people have to use some of their money into travel and hotels, or one day circuit assemblies at prepaid facilities where Watchtower sets the "deficit" to whatever they want.
It seems conventions used to be for releasing new print publications. People used to feel inclined to put money in the contribution box...and before 1990, they would have to outright pay for the book. Conventions used to come with people having to pay for food tickets and parking as well. All this is in the past.
The recent leaked Watchtower video showed they are looking for any means to cut back and save costs to stay afloat. Whatever changes they are making is in this regard.