by EyeDrEvil 39 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
If an assembly hall is being built..the people pay for it with their donations..and if those same people want to use it?..They have to pay to rent it!!..
How's them for tricks?
And where does all the money go?
Just like in the beginning of the JW religion..some smart guy is living for free in a big mansion somewhere and driving a big fancy car..and wants for nothing!
That's why the JW's are called "Sheep"..the dumbest animal around...
Golden Girl..
It's those stage flowers and plants! You have the initial outlay, and then the cost of plant food. You don't realize how much those fertilizer spikes cost!
They always recouped that cost too by selling the plants at the end of the convention. What a joke!
exjdub
I thought from reading other threads that the WTBTS have themselves registered as clergy , now you are saying they don't want to look like a paid clergy ? What's the difference? I don't know why they feel it important to spend alot of money on plants either , if all they are good for is the duration of the assembly . You are right that is a joke because they include all of that in the numbers to cover expenses . Man this organization is way more screwed up than even I ever thought .
I didn't see anyone else comment on the flowers, but in all of the conventions I have ever been to, you had to pay a "suggested donation" for ANY of the flowers/plants. The last DC in CA that I attended, the brothers formed a long line from the field up to the seating area out to the open air plaza where other brothers and sisters had contribution boxes conveniently set up. They passed the flowers and plants from the field up to the selling area. I noticed the bros and sisters reading from a sheet of paper that described the type of flower and what the "suggested" donation would be. No donation, no flowers for you!
I wondered if the price they asked for the flowers was for the actual cost of them or if they padded it a little to make a buck or two. They probably padded it I'm guessing.
My guess: Because the GB have a long way to fly their private airplanes from the Alaskan fishing lodges to Ohio...and in between they won't stay at a Super8.
LOL at gerard, and his running airplane story.
Swan said:
It's those stage flowers and plants! You have the initial outlay, and then the cost of plant food. You don't realize how much those fertilizer spikes cost!Others have mentioned, that the cost was recovered by "selling" them at the end of the assembly. But how much do you think they paid for them to begin with. If they weren't bought at a haggled bargain charity rate, they were probably donated by some dub who planted them themselves, or worked in a nursery.
I used to wonder why whenever the "deficit" would be announced with the monthly accounts report, or even at conventions - they would give a dollar amount needed and "suggest" everyone to dig deep to come up with it - why didn't they take the attendance count and then divide the amount needed by the number of people there to contribute and just come right out and say " O.K. - if everybody puts in 1/2 of a cent, we will have what is needed?" Instead, they hope everybody is lame enough to think they need to put in a $20 bill !!
I might be wrong but it seems to me that they have NEVER declared a surplus at an assembly. They always needed more money in the end to overcome their deficit position. When they used to serve meals at the convention I remember the old joke that "we can eat our way out of the deficit" Guilt seened to go a lot further with raking in extra profits rather than being honest about what was really going on...an extra skim off the top for the boys in New York.
This is a subject that is near and dear to my heart. I worked in the finance department at the circuit assemblies for about 5 years. Man! did I learn some stuff there. Here are a few things in no particular order.
The WTS does not support the circuit assemblies at all - zip, nada, zilch. In fact the circuit assemblies are a good money maker for the WTS. Our little circuit sent $2000 to the WTS each assembly. $1000 each to the worldwide work and the kingdom hall building fund.
They make the announcement at noon on Sunday about how far behind they are. They usually are pretty far behind. The Sunday afternoon contributions are always the largest by far. Only once did we end up short.
Each circuit's assemblies have to be accounted for separately. IOW if you run over on one, you can't carry the surplus over to the next one. The one time we came up short, we were told that we could not just take the money out of the circuit's bank account to cover the shortfall, but that the money had to come from the congregations. So a letter went out to the congregations telling them what their part of the shortfall was. All the while the circuit had money in the bank and several thousand dollar "on deposit with the Society" - meaning we were giving the WTS an interest free loan.
Circuit overseers are reimbursed for their expenses by the congregations. If a congregation declines to reimburse him, he must report it to Brooklyn.
All of this is the way it was when I stepped down in 1995 here in the U.S. Your mileage may vary.
All of this is the way it was when I stepped down in 1995 here in the U.S. Your mileage may vary.
That's kind of the way I remember things. One thing that I recall, on Saturdays after the program, there was usually an elders meeting with the CO. There usually was a comittee of elders who took care of the assembly hall. We'd discuss things that needed to be done (i.e. new fencing, replace AC, etc.). We'd also discuss the "surplus" from the previous circuit asembly and propose sending the monies to Crooklyn. Someone would make a motion, second the motion, motion passed. It was then presented to the circuit on Sunday. This didn't happen all the time but more times then not.
I also recall that as a circuit we kept about $100,000.00 to $200,000.00 in the bank for emergencies. The CO would always ask why we needed so much. The reason given was if the AC or something else expensive went out, we could replace it ASAP without having to ask the congregations for money. Just about every CO "requested" that we reduce this amount by, surprise, surprise, sending something extra to Crooklyn.
