Yes, I too have wondered how an assembly that is held in a fully paid for assembly hall, with no food service, could possibly have $10,000 in expenses. I suppose the bethel speakers have transportation expenses - maybe $1000 or so. As for rent on the assembly hall, well you have already paid for it once, why pay again?

I suspect that the society levies an expected contribution, based on attendance.

I used to be the assembly hall account overseer- and i will tell you exactly why you are ALWAYS IN THE RED-

they use some wacky formula to come up with a PER PUB RATE it varies---

when the accout overseer gets to the hall at about 6;30 7 AM on sat he meets with the assembly hall overseer who has a form ==

DAMN I SHOULD HAVE KEPT COPIES OF ALL THAT SH!T- I JUST WANTED to get the He!! out of WT when i got ready to leave= ANYWAY

It will show the number of pubs in the circuit "X" the rate let's say $11.25 per pub

975 pub X $11.75 = $11,450-+

and at this point before the assembly even starts

YOU ARE IN THE RED BEFORE THE DOORS EVEN OPEN with a deficit of over $11,000

and since you sent all the left over money to the society from the last assembly YOU DON'T HAVE ANY OPERATING CASH for the most part, yea we kept a little in the account, but it was NEVER USED TOward deferring the current expense

anyway on sat pm we meet with all the elders and do, and co,

then they leave the room AND we reveiw any expenses they have and we take thAT VOTE LIKE THE RUSSIAN PARLIMENT AS TO whether to pay their bills

HELL YEA WE ARE GOING TO PAY IT- SMILE

so this expense is attached as well--- so now we are getting up into the cash

DO $500 for car CO $600 for car

over $12,000

we count the money during the session and it has to come out to the PENNY-

wE CONstantly have to give the assembly overseer and the assembly hall overseer and the DO and CO the lastest $$ count-

then on Sundy usually the assembly overseer would go out and read the status

as we used to say

"USING ASHES AND SACKCLOTH" HE WILL SHED TEARS

we actually used to laugh at the friends in terms of how they will GIVE OUT THE YINGYANG-

once this annoucement is made

SO he would give the accounts report and and let;s say it was $3,000 short

at the end of the sunday meeting when we would count the money it be $5000+ so that leaves us with about $2000 and THAT GETS SENT TO WT BECAUSE at the elders meeting on sat it was agreed by all elders AND I MEAN ALL ELDERS anything left will go to the world wide work0 $$$$$$

now I made the mistake of asking

WHY ARE WE CHARGING SO MUCH PER PUB SINCE THE ASSEMBLY HALL IS PAID FOR

I thought they were going to take out a "CAN OF WHIPA$$" ON ME- SMILE

THE wt will never REDUCE THE RATE PER PUB AS LONG AS IT GENRATES THIS MUCH CASE

Lady "C" used to come home with me from the assembly hall scared to damn death why

cause I would have anywhere from $12-15,000 dollars and most of it in CASH

WE USED TO laugh can you imagine being a black man with $12,000 in cash and explaining that to the cops- smile

i recall the first time i went to the bank to deposit it on that monday- i had this briefcase full of cash- there was a line in the bank and when i told the girl i needed to make a deposit and dropped that suitcase on the counter

she almost Sh!t bricks as well as the folks standing inline, cause she had to COUNT EVERY SINGLE PENNY so she got this other lady to help her with the money counting machine and the folks in line were Pissed cause i was there a good 20-30 min

well at any rate this is why wt will never change as i have told folks over and over STOP looking at wt as some bible fullfillment of some damn prophecy wt is a BIZ PURE AND SIMPLE

PROBLEM IS we were all used and didn't even know it

how sad

just my 2