Female JW parking "attendants"

by neat blue dog 35 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  respectful_observer

  Interesting. I was recently chatting with a brother who's the head of the Attendant Dept for his RC this year and he's only been about to recruit about 30% of the brothers needed; apparently many were telling him they were either unavailable or had already committed to working in Parking. So he called the Parking Dept Overseer and it turns out HE is way understaffed, with many telling him they'd already committed to working as Attendants!

  At this point the Attendants Overseer is very discouraged and doesn't understand why the younger brothers (18 - 45) just refuse to step up and help. He and the Parking Overseer even escalated to the Convention Overseer and were told that the other conventions being held at the same venue on other weekends are facing the same issue.

  All of this is rather amusing to me, as I know for a fact that in certain countries sisters are used as Attendants (yes, with badges), however it's just not allowed here (...yet...until NooLite of course).
• 

  Wild_Thing

  One of my friends attended a concert out of town recently, and she was picking up her tickets just as a JW convention was letting out. She said there were JWs crawling everywhere! She said there was an old man with a badge that was posted on a corner of the street. She asked him if he knew where the Will Call office was. He said, "I don't know where anything is! They told me to stand here so I just stand here!"
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  pale.emperor

  I used to be the sound desk guy in my old congregation. It was supposed to be on a rota basis but the other brothers on the list would never turn up. Sometimes I'd be running the sound desk, roving mics, and platform mics. In the end I shown my then-wife how to work the sound desk and she did it while I did mics.

  Next thing you know the elders started volunteering to do mics just so there wasn't a woman (shock horror!) working the sound.

  Little did they know she'd been running the sound desk perfectly capably for weeks while I sat next to her following the meeting taking it easy.
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  smiddy3

  Sorry but i do wonder what is wrong with the women and even the intelligence of the women in the organization that allow themselves to be demeaned in this way and they quietly just shut up and put up with it ?
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  DesirousOfChange

  My reaction, for years, is that its a totally unnecessary job. People park every day without someone pointing... its amazing

  Morpheus, haven't you seen JWs drive around and around in circles in Walmart parking lots looking for the attendant to direct them to their parking spot?

  OR, maybe it's just because they get used to driving around and around and . . . .

  
  
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  ToesUp

  T
  
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  pale.emperor

  Who remembers one of the sisters reading the group study book with a tea towel on her head? I do!

  How demeaning.
  
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  steve2

  I'm not sure where I read it, but it quoted a JW item directed at CO's wives and admonished them to be humble and not to be try to help their husbands set up technical equipment for presentations. It featured a photo of a CO setting up equipment whilst his wife talked to the side with sisters - illustrating she should not be seen as helping with set up presentations but remain humbly available to encourage sisters.

  Can anyone verify this is correct and its source?

  If correct, it again shows the fierce patriarchal nature of the organization - obsessed with appearances and keeping "proper" role boundaries.
  
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  lastmanstanding

  All available brothers have been diverted to attendant duty. They have 6 men to a door, scanning incomers for BUNKERISM

  Nobody left to point for cars.
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  Spiral

  Sorry but i do wonder what is wrong with the women and even the intelligence of the women in the organization that allow themselves to be demeaned in this way and they quietly just shut up and put up with it ?

  Smiddy, I agree with you. Some are just so happy to be (finally!) able to "help". They can't seem to see how demeaning this is to them.

  Looking forward though, I think younger people are having a hard time buying into the archaic structure of the religion. Hopefully, this trend also shows that younger guys (the smarter ones) are tired of begging for position, and are caring less and less about being a MS or Elder.