Assembly Attendence

Riley

I am in Western Canada. We use to have our assembly in Saskatoon. Our assembly has moved to Medicine Hat. They are saying that maybe 3500 people were in attendance. I saw a lot of young families which was kind of depressing.

Then I started to do a little asking about how far people had travelled and the assembly was basically Calgary, Southern Alberta, Western Saskatchewan and the East part of BC. Man, this seems to be an awful lot of terrority for 3500 people.

I think there might be a little bamboozling going on. If this religion is shrinking, how much more travelling and time and money are we going to shell out so we can be standing arm to arm with 5000 people.

DesirousOfChange

Since Covid, for Regional Conventions in our area there has only been one larger venue at a small local sports arena where only had a couple congs were assigned from each of the several circuits in the region. All other congs attended numerous smaller conventions at the local Assm Hall, which seats less than 1600.

Prior to Covid, there were always multiple weekend events at that arena -- at least three, and only foreign language conventions were held at the Assm Hall.

WT is reaping the most they can by keeping the Assm Hall full every weekend and charging $$/publisher for those assigned to attend there.

blondie

DOC, here too, using the Assembly Hall, keeping the rental fee in their own pockets, as well as asking for more money.

Riley

The question I had was Calgary alone is 1.3 million people. Are only selective congs going to this assembly ? 3400 people in an area with a population of maybe 1.8 people doesn't seem that great.

Now a lot of the older ones are no attending anymore. JWs are covid and you follow the numbers and hope things are trending down.

NotFormer

"...and charging $$/publisher for those assigned to attend there."

"...keeping the rental fee in their own pockets, as well as asking for more money."

Let me guess: "... to cover costs!"?

JW GoneBad

I'm hearing that most 2024 English JW Regional Conventions held at the Long Beach Convention Center in Southern California are averaging in the low 4,000s even though the Convention Center itself can hold upwards of 13,500.

I've also heard that many of the JWs who are attending these conventions and viewing all the empty seats are asking themselves: "Where Is Everybody!" 🤣