Special Seating at the Convention

by mann377 28 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Spiral

  jws, some of it is that, but I would gather it's also a way to make some people feel special, not like the rest of the poor drones who have to fight for parking, fight for seats, wait in line for the bathroom, etc.

  For many years before I dropped out, if some privilege was "special" (as in you had to apply to the elders, for instance) I hated it. Just a way to have a caste system, without the poor publisher drones understanding what is really going on. They go along with it, and in the meanwhile, get disrespected.
• 

  Wakanda

  ExJW Critical Thinker on youtube has talked about this; I just don't know which video. They used to sit in those "special" seats. They said they didn't pay attention and schmoozed the whole time.
• 

  Sour Grapes

  Just wait until after the Great Tribulation. Do you think the dividing up of who gets to live in which mansion will be first come first serve? I am sure that the prince elders, ministerial servants, and regular pioneers will get the pick of the litter. Any regular JDub publisher squatters will be told to find a house on the other side of town and don't forget to pick up your shovel in the morning to start burying the decaying dead bodies.

  I guess that it is just too bad that there isn't going to be an earthly paradise anyway.
• 

  Doctor Who

  I was told by a friend that served as a "key man" at a convention that they had all the brothers download a special messaging app and 'certain appointed ones' were seated in the boxes to 'survey the crowd for possible apostates who would/could rush the stage.' I couldn't make this shit up! He even showed me the app. I think it was called groupme? (I was thinking, more like grope me!) But anyhow....they were to watch for that and missing children etc....
  
• 

  Finkelstein

  There is status level within the JWS whether one accepts that or not.

  Even if some attendants get to sit with some elders or CO's in the more comfortable seats in the special box suits.

  They would try and keep what their doing to themselves for themselves.

  What they should be doing is letting the handicapped people sit up there or the elderly.
  
• 

  sparrowdown

  Oo special. God, how JWs love that word and anything that differentiates them from regular run of the mill JWs. Even oo aah ...special seats!

  See what happens when people aren't allowed to celebrate birthdays.
• 

  Simon

  I remember at our district conventions there was special parking right on the convention grounds - very convenient but obviously limited so most people had a long, long, LONG walk in the heat to a rather sketchy car-park miles away.

  The brother who organized our KH parking tickets just happened to get a ticket to park on the convention grounds.

  Probably just random choice ... right?
• 

  sparrowdown

  It's like being at the most pompous wedding ever and your value as a guest is determined by how close you are seated to the bridal table LOL.
• 

  stuckinarut2

  YUP!

  Great thread.

  Those "special areas" certainly exist. I often got to sit there if I was assigned some sort of duty like attendants, or accounts etc...also when I was in Bethel. (most bethelites got to sit in the special Bethel Lounge)

  It is real "status" thing. Those that sit there, then get to invite their selected family or friends to sit there.

  There is NO DOUBT that this prestige spot goes to the heads of many JWs who sit there....
• 

  startingover

  This really brings back some memories. My dad was always prominent in the organization, Gilead grad, Missionary, CO... We used to go 2 weeks early to conventions because he did pre-convention work. Early on he was in the News Service Dept., or was it Public Relations? Either way I got perks as a child that I never realized. When the PR department was no big deal anymore, he was in Administration. Being raised around this, I accepted it as normal. What brought back memories was this post, and a time when i was about 17 and was at a convention in Sioux Falls SD. I must have had some preferential seating because I was up high and watching this really cute girl. I'm not talking the nosebleed section, this was what I now realize was a privileged seating. FYI, I worked up the nerve to talk to her sister, and a year later, apparently this sister figured things out, and the girl I was interested in saw me at a Circuit Assembly she approached me. It never worked out, but I now realize the privilege I never quite appreciated before this post.