227 District Conventions in U.S. - Some Ideas

by TheListener 15 Replies latest jw friends

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  TheListener

  Ok so on the watchtower website it says there are 227 district conventions to be held in the U.S.

  By my count:

  54 Spanish

  3 American Sign Language

  3 Korean

  2 French

  2 Portugese

  2 Japanese

  2 Tagalog

  1 Chinese

  1 Vietnamese

  1 Greek

  1 Armenian

  1 Polish

  1 Russian

  That is a total of 74 out of 227 that are in a foreign language. That's 33% of the District Conventions. Last year, 2004 there were 68 out of 211 conventions that were foreign language or 32%. In 2003 it was 53 out of 200 or 26.5%. ((note: even though the number of conventions has risen I didn't check out the size of the convention centers; it's possible that the average attenance was higher in years past due to larger venues)).

  Does anyone know what kind of attendance the foreign language conventions have? For example it seems as though 9,000-12,000 is pretty average for English. Is it the same with foreign language?

  If there are 153 English conventions with an average of 10,000 in attendance that puts the mainly english speaking total attendance number around 1,530,000. Much higher than publisher counts, which would be true with children and inactive family members and bible studies in attendance.

  If we assume the same attendance for foreign language conventions (which seems high) they would have a total attendance of 74 * 10,000 = 740,000.

  1,530,000 + 740,000 = 2,270,000 witnesses (super rough figure)

  If the society is looking to get a 1% baptism rate (as has been stated on a previous thread) then they would be looking for about 22,700 to get baptized. Last year and the year before they had about 30,000 get baptized. Even with this their overall increase remained at 0% last year due to deaths and leavings.
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  upside/down

  Knowing the WTS "bean counters" methods...I wouldn't be surprised if a 3 day convention is listed as 3 conventions.

  As we ALL KNOW how the Dubs attend FIVE weekly meetings...when it's only really THREE.

  u/d (of the hate number crunchers class)
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  TheListener

  They list each convention city and date (with language) on their website. There are in fact 227 scheduled district conventions.
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  greendawn

  No matter what the numbers tell it's the quality not the quantity that matters these are all cult members without any truth in their hopes or dignity, the same as all other cult members. In the western world they are on their way down.
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  TheListener

  yes, I agree. But, I posted this mainly to show how the foreign language groups are becoming more and more central to the WTS. At the current rate of increase it won't be too long until foreign language groups make up over 50% of the WTS in the U.S.

  Also, to show that they 1% for baptisms at a convention still seems like to low a growth number to me. Unless, as I said in my previous post, that the average attendance at the districts isn't 9-12,000. Or if the average attendance at the foreign language conventions is much lower than the english.

  Anyone ever been to a foreign language convention?
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  Zuko

  The DC's I used to attend only had around 5K worth of dubs there at the most. That was shrinking when I left. Less people per DC depending on the area of the country.
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  TheListener

  Thanks Zuko. Was that attendance amount recent?
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  Zuko

  I left for good 6 years ago
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  ezekiel3

  I would say that average DC attendance is 7000-8000. That is current observations.
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  upside/down

  I would say that average DC attendance is 7000-8000. That is current observations

  The question I ask is...How many of these 7K-8K are AWAKE!!!

  8K people all sleeping or in a near coma state...I would call it a non-event.

  u/d (of the there is no substance anymore to the WTS...class)