HomeARC ML 1212
CHECK THAT TRF!--We're a Bus, Not a Taxi! DO1212 2/10/81
--By Father David
1. DID YOU HEAR THOSE EMPLOYEES COMPLAINING ABOUT THEIR BOSS? I WAS ASTONISHED! I said to Maria, "Why, that's exactly what I would do if I went in there!" I'd start going through the whole thing with a fine-tooth comb & find out what everybody's doing & what they think they ought to be doing & their plans!" And I've done that sort of thing, you know that! I don't think that's bad at all about Ashley, I think he had a few very good traits. I think he's really trying. (Business hero of a So, African TV series "Westgate.")
2. HE'S A PLAYBOY, WELL SURE, SO AM I!--HA! BUT AT LEAST IT SEEMS HE IS TRYING TO DO HIS JOB & he seems quite forceful & he seems quite decisive & he looks to me like he's got quite few ideas. But why should they complain because he goes through every office & all the personnel & makes them make out a report about what they've accomplished & what they hope to do & all that? I thought that was great! Why should they be griping & grumping about it?
3. WELL, OF COURSE, NOBODY LIKES WORK--AT LEAST AT IT SEEMS A LOT OF PEOPLE DON'T LIKE THEIR WORK. I like mine, Maria likes hers, I hope you like yours! I haven't found anybody around here complaining about their work that I know of. But of course, that Form was the last straw: "I'm already overloaded & now I've got to make out a report on top of it!" I thought that probably our homes felt like that: "Here I'm struggling to get by & do all this, & now on top of it I gotta report it!--Make out this Report every month!"
4. SO I WAS TRYING TO MAKE THIS AS PAINLESS AN EXTRACTION AS POSSIBLE, & TO EXTRACT AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE. We need the stats to know what we're doing, where we're at, what we're not doing, what we're accomplishing, & I think it's extremely encouraging to me everytime I see them & I can hardly wait to get'm! Because just like the financial report, how do you know where you're at if you don't get a report?
5. I GO THROUGH THAT 15-PAGE FINANCIAL REPORT WITH A FINE-TOOTH COMB, AS YOU KNOW! I check every little item in there. I may miss a few, but I often find out that even as good as our bookkeeper is, he once in awhile makes a mistake & often find out that there are things that need to be corrected once in awhile & their procedures or persons or amounts or what's done with this or that needs to be attended to, right? I almost always have questions or things to be changed in every report.
6. I MUST ADMIT, EVERY TIME I FACE THAT THING I GROAN, AS MARIA KNOWS! I put it off as long as I can until the poor people are waiting for their cheques, & I think, "Well, I gotta do it now!" Because I feel I shouldn't even send the cheques until I've checked the reports to see what's happening, & see if we can even afford to send them. Well, the Lord's been good to us & we've been able to.
7. WHY REPORTS? WELL, EVEN THE FAMILY NEEDS TO KNOW. I wouldn't be surprised there might be some people dumb enough to wonder why they have to make out a Monthly Report! Only once every three months they see the stats & maybe then they weren't even interested & they just passed them by, I don't know. Jean certainly makes them look attractive & I'm real proud of her! She's quite artistic & it's amazing the talent we find even our statisticians have! I never expected them to be such beautiful stats, almost like looking at pretty pictures, in fact, some of them are pretty pictures!
8. AND I WOULD SAY THAT MOST OF THE MONTHS OR QUARTERS OR WHATEVER, THAT THE STATS LOOK VERY ENCOURAGING & ARE VERY INSPIRING & WE CONTINUE MOST OF THE TIME TO GROW. There was a little drop in population & Homes this past month, these latest stats. I think the moving is finally showing up. I don't think it showed up in the one or two before, that I expected it to show up in, but I think it's beginning to show up. When people move, probably some of them are missing their Magazines, therefore they're missing their Report Blank & they don't know how to report without it etc. Of course, they've had these in every past Magazine & they probably use them, but what if they miss a Magazine & they don't get a Report Blank? What are they going to do? How are they going to report? Are they going to make out their own? I think we ought to send them a few extras, don't you? (or xerox'm yourself!)
9. I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF SOMETIMES THEY GET AN EMERGENCY MAYDAY CALL FROM SOME OTHER HOME: "We can't find our Mag or we didn't get a Mag or Report Blank & we don't have any Report Blank to report on!" I wouldn't be surprised that's a common Home emergency! What do they do? Sit down & try to recall the Report Blank as best they can? Or maybe they handcopy it from the other guy, I wouldn't be surprised! I'd like to ask WIM if they get any handmade Report Blanks! (Xerox some extras yourself while U have one!)
10. (MARIA: WOULDN'T IT BE BETTER SECURITY IF WE SENT THEM IN A SEPARATE MAILING EVERY ONCE IN AWHILE & SENT THEM A WHOLE BUNCH. Because look at that girl that gets her Mag in China, she said, "Oh, we wouldn't dare send a Report Form!"--But it comes to her in her Mag clear to Peking that the authorities probably look through & someday they may get ahold of it!) They probably write just a handwritten letter & maybe kind of selah incidentally mention these figures or something like that. (Maria: But the Report's right there in her Mag that comes into Peking!) Well, as long as she doesn't fill it out & send it, it's not going to do any harm.
11. WELL, I THINK WE OUGHT TO PUT'M IN THE MAG EVERYTIME TO MAKE SURE THEY GET ONE! (Maria: If you give them a whole stack then they'll have'm.) Honey, we have people coming & going & new people & everthing, & what if suddenly somebody wants to join the Tithers? Here you've got the LAF & maybe there's another Home that's been backslidden for awhile & hasn't been making out reports for a long time: "Hey, we want to tithe this month! We want to send in a Report! Have you got a Report please?" What are they going to do? What I've been saying is that they haven't had extra blanks! (You can Xerox'm!)
EACH TITHING HOME GETTING A MAGAZINE ONLY GOT ONE REPORT BLANK & NOBODY'S HAD ANY EXTRAS, & if anybody misses a Magazine or somebody wants to join the ranks of the Tithers, how do they do it? (Maria: I'm saying if all the kids get a stack of blanks then they could share with them if somebody needs one.) All right, Fine! I'm not objecting to that, Honey. For a woman who's got the measles you've got more spunk than anybody I ever saw with the measles! (Maria: No, I'm just wondering if it wouldn't be better security than putting it in the Mag.) You mean you don't ever want it in the Mag? (Maria: No, if we send them two times a year 12 or 20 or 24 TRF Form then they'll be well-supplied. They could share them with other people like you said.)
13. WELL, THAT MIGHT BE A GOOD POINT, BECAUSE I WOULDN'T BE A BIT SURPRISED THAT MOST OF OUR MAGS ARE ALREADY CIRCULATED AROUND, especially with good friends & kings & fish & they loan it to them to let'm read it even if they're not yet Tithers. Most of the stuff in there we don't have to worry about, we expect our enemies to be reading it anyhow. Well, all the kids have to do is rip our the Report when they're going to loan the Mag out, & they want that anyhow so that's maybe one of the first things they do is take that out.
14. WELL, I'M NOT GOING TO SPEND TIME ARGUING THE ADVANTAGES OF SENDING THEM BATCHES OF REPORTS OR NOT. It was my idea to put the Report Form in the Mag to make sure if they got the Mag at all they'd also get a Report From to remind them of making their Report. Loose Report Forms can get lost, strayed, stolen, forgotten or left behind in their packing & moving & a lot of other things, whereas they're sure to get their Magazines! They want to get their Mags, & if they get the Magazines, at least they get one Report Blank, & they don't have to leave it in there when they loan it out to strangers or other people. It's right in the middle, all they have to do is yank it out! You don't even have to open the staples to yank it out.
15. BUT I THINK YOUR IDEA HAS SOME ADVANTAGES! I'LL COMPROMISE WITH YOU, I WILL AGREE TO DO BOTH! I want to see it in the Magazine every month to make sure they know there's one place where they can get it even if they've forgotten where they've stuck the Reports.
16. I THOUGHT & PRAYED ABOUT THIS A LONG TIME AGO, THE ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES OF HAVING A REPORT BLANK IN THE MAGAZINE OR NOT, & I finally came to the conclusion that the advantages of having it there are more than those of not having it there, even if our enemies get it & read it to everyone! I hope they fill one out! They'd have to if they get the Magazine! And one reason, believe it or not, for a lot of these stats that we put in here, is just to remind the Family to do those things. It reminds them, "I guess we're supposed to do'm if we've got to report'm" And also it may even remind them to report things that they forgot they did. They did do'm but if we don't remind them of every little thing, they will forget some things. So the Report Blank is to remind them of all these things, right?
17. AND THESE ARE ALL STATS THAT WE NEED, TO KNOW THE CONDITION OF OUR BODY. Like a doctor takes temperatures & blood pressure & all this sort of thing in a physical examination, we give our body a physical examination once a month to determine our condition & to know exactly how we are. Do you think that's important? We give our body a physical checkup once a month! Probably a lot of other people would be a lot better off if they did.
18. I DOUBT IF THERE ARE VERY MANY ORGANISATIONS OR CULTS OR ISMS OR DENOMINATIONS WHO KEEP SUCH A THOROUGH CHECK ON THEIR PEOPLE AS WE DO! I know when I was a pastor of a denomination I was not required to fill out a report like this every month at all. I can remember that quarterly, I think it was, we filled out a little short one-page thing, but it was almost nothing, & it seemed to have more to do with finances than anything else, as most denominations are most interested in that! Ha! And I think we were supposed to put down how many members we had in the church or something like that. As I recall, we didn't have to report their names & addresses, nothin'! That's a pretty sloppy way to run a denomination, I think!
19. I THINK ASHLEY'S RIGHT, THEY OUGHT TO KEEP REAL CLOSE CHECK & THEIR FINGERS ON THE PULSE & look at the colour of their eyes & see what's going on! I haven't heard of anybody that keeps as close stats as us, & not only that, I don't know of any denomination or organisation whose employees or families or homes or members would put up with it as much as our kids do! Let me tell you, I believe that ours are probably the most dedicated there are, number one, & therefore willing to be the most obedient & willing to obey & do what we tell'm to do even if they don't like it!
20. AND EVEN IF THEY DON'T LIKE IT & DON'T WANT TO, & even if it's not because they want to obey, they're going to do it just to get their Magazine if nothing else! Right? And we've found it works--no tickie, no laundie! So that we probably do have a tighter grip on our folks than the average denomination or church. I'm sure we do, 'cause I never heard of any other church that I know of that kept as strict stats & requirements for Membership as we have! (Pauses to make sure everyone's comfortable.)
21. IF YOUR AUDIENCE IS SO UNCOMFORTABLE THAT THEY'VE GOT THEIR MIND MORE ON THEIR DISCOMFORT THAN THEY HAVE ON WHAT YOU'RE SAYIN', THEY'RE NOT GOING TO GET MUCH OUT OF IT! That's one thing I didn't care much about the Pentecostals, those long hours on your knees at the altar or cold hard floor was not very conducive to my spirituality, because I was more conscious of the pain in my knees & my toes & my body than I was of the Spirit! Ha! I could pray better in bed than anywhere else! Of course, sometimes it has a nice soothing sedative effect of putting me to sleep!
22. BUT ANYWAY, I HAVE GOTTEN MORE THINGS IN BED THAN ANYPLACE ELSE, HAVEN'T I, HONEY?--Where I'm totally unconscious of my body, it's like floatin' on a cloud! And I'm not in pain, I'm not in discomfort, my bodily, physical comforts are taken care of & I'm comfortable. I'm not conscious of my body so I can be much more conscious of the Spirit! So same to you! There's a motive always in my madness somewhere & it's bound to be for the good of the work & to help me somehow to accomplish what I'm trying to do.
23. ANYHOW, WHAT'S ON THE BACK HERE IS VERY IMPORTANT TO REMIND THEM TO TELL US & makes some very encouraging news, & Maria spends most of her time reading the results of Page 2, which means all the latest news good & bad. And of course the New Friends List reminds them to send us the addresses so we can keep after them if you don't or can't. And of course, finally we want to know how much they say they're tithing & whatever other gifts they want to designate for missionaries or other projects. (Watching TV:)
24. THEY GET THOSE PICTURES FROM THOSE SATELLITES OR FROM THOSE SPACE PROBES. I hate to disillusion anybody in case you think they've just got a TV camera stickin' out the window or something & they're taking nice pretty big colour pictures of all those planets & stuff. Those pictures are gotten by radio signals just about like our telefaxes are made, one little dot at a time, & the nature of the dot also tells the colour it should be. Because they don't get'm in colour, they get'm in black & white just a dot at a time.
25. THEY'RE SORT OF COLOUR-CODED LIKE THOSE OLD PICTURES YOU USED TO GET AT THE DRUGSTORE that you could fill in according to the numbers of the colours. Well, that's about what these things are they take of those planets, they have to colour them then according to the colour code that's received, according to the shape or nature of the dots. So as you can see, there could be an awful lot of slips 'twixt cup & lip! Not only the form of the picture but also its colour.
26. I'M SURE THEY TRY TO BE AS ACCURATE AS THEY CAN, BUT JUST LIKE OUR STATS, WE GET THESE STATS A DOT AT A TIME & the nature of the stats determines the colour, & we have to finally fill in the whole picture by statisticians to get the whole picture of the whole planet, right? But every little dot's important & the nature of the dot etc., to get the right colour & the right picture.
27. ALL RIGHT NOW, I DON'T THINK THERE'S ANY DISAGREEMENT ON PAGE ONE & PAGE TWO OF THE STATS, RIGHT? I knew this was going to shock WIM & some of those boys when they got this & it said they didn't have to fill out this personnel list every time. Because everything is right there on the change blank, isn't it? The very same items that are on the list above! In fact, it's an exact copy, except about the time in the Family, which I didn't think was important on the change, do you? That's only important maybe as a stat on the original in case we should ever want that stat. We don't have it on the World Stats, right?
28. AND WE'RE NOT MAKING ANY DISTINCTION ON WHETHER THEY LIVE IN OR OUT REGARDING MEMBERSHIP. Of course, some haven't gotten the Membership Letter yet, so they're still quibbling about that, & we'll get to that in a minute, how there are Tithers who live out & there are non-Tithers who live-in & all that stuff. So I don't think that in a change that it's important to note whether they live in or whether they live out as long as we count them as Members of that Home! As long as they're fellowshipping with them they're just as much Members as any church I ever attended where the people that just came there once on Sunday were counted as members of the church & they all lived out!
29. SO WHY CAN'T WE COUNT PEOPLE AS MEMBERS WHO FAITHFULLY ATTEND THEIR CHURCH OF LOVE & GIVE, whether they tithe or not, or live in or out, as long as they count themselves as Members of that body & they are of one heart & in agreement & they even witness & litness & help them? They may not be as good Members, they may not be Tithing Members, who know, may be they're even better members!
30. IN MY CHURCH WE HAD BOTH GOOD & BAD MEMBERS, BUT THEY WERE ALL MEMBERS! We had tithing & we had stingy members, & we had some people that practically supported the church! They did far more than tithe. We had all kinds of members, but we counted them all as Members. For God's sake, when we've got practically a captive Membership, why can't count as Members the few who come in & are really with us & attend our meetings like it's their own church?--It's their church!
31. THAT'S WHY THE LORD HIMSELF WAS THE ONE WHO ORIGINATED THIS IDEA OF THE CHURCH OF LOVE, I HAD A DREAM OF IT! (No.617.) It was as clear as anything, just like in "Open the Door for the Children" (No.588), We weren't doing enough for the children. In "Church of Love" we weren't doing enough for the people who wanted to be Members & who wanted to come to our meetings & wanted to hear our teachings & wanted our fellowship, had no church of their own. The first original burden came when we were in Tenerife, & then I got a specific dream on it in Lisbon! I even remember the place where I was, that apartment after we fled those two damn Germans!
32. SO THERE ARE LOTS OF PEOPLE WE'VE WON TO THE LORD, THEY'VE GOTTEN SAVED, THEY'VE READ THE LETTERS, they like us better than their old church & have no desire to go back to the old church. Why should they? They never gave them anything, not much or not as much as we have. They like us & they want to fellowship with us, so what are we going to do? Send them back to their church? Say, "Well, I'm sorry we can't count you as Members here because you don't live in the house & you don't tithe." Now what kind of love is that? What kind of fellowship is that? Huh?
33. WELL, I'VE BEEN OVER THIS ONCE BEFORE, I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO PREACH THAT SERMON AGAIN! But see, I don't think that sank in yet according to their questions. All they can see is we're saying, "Well, it sounds like he's counting people who live out as Members. How can these strange things be?" They're almost as unbelieving as Nicodemus!
34. IT'S GOOD TO HAVE DIFFERENCES OF OPINION, I MEAN, IT REALLY HELPS YOU SHARPEN YOUR WITS! I get more inspired when I get mad! The kids like these Letters that I write when I'm angry & bawlin' people out & defending my faith & my stand & my conviction & really really sockin' it to you! Some of the best Letters I ever wrote were sockin' it to Maria! (Maria: Honey, I'm gettin' all inspired.) Right. Even as to defend my viewpoint, which is why I'm into this this morning.
35. I HAVE A LITTLE DIFFERENCE OF OPINION WITH WIM & I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHETHER YOU CAN GET THE POINT! Of course, they haven't spent two-&-a-half weeks thinking about it & two-&-a-half weeks working on it like we have, so I don't blame'm, it's kind of hittin'm cold & they don't notice everything & they don't think of everything. But let's take a theoretical situation, a hundred Homes, & keep books on this like you'd think that the stats are all that accurate to begin with.
36. WE CAN'T DEPEND ON THE HOMES BEING THAT ACCURATE, WE CAN'T EVEN GUARANTEE THAT OUR STATISTICIANS ARE NOT MAKING MISTAKES. If Homes make mistakes, so can our statisticians. People make mistakes! We have to trust that everybody's doing the best they can & accurate as they can be, & frankly, considering the thousands of stats that we get, I would say that the percentage of error is possibly just as likely with the statisticians as it is with the Homes, although they are bookkeepers & more accustomed to it. Maybe you don't like me saying that about WIM, but it's possible.
37. BUT I DON'T THINK THAT'S GONNA MAKE THAT BIG HELL OF A DIFFERENCE IN OUR STATS if they accidentally make a mistake of one or two people in one Home, unless they make that many mistakes in every single Home of nearly 3000 Homes! Now, if they're going to make a percentage of 10, 15 or 25-percent mistakes in the stats of every single Home, well, that would make quite a bit of difference in our stats! But I don't think that high a percentage of mistakes is likely.
38. I HAVE ENOUGH CONFIDENCE IN THE SMARTNESS & INTELLIGENCE OF MOST OF OUR HOMES & THEIR HOME HEADS that most of their addition is pretty good & that they will get most of their stats right, & if WIM on top of it has checked their original listing of personnel & its addition etc., that's a double check, providing WIM doesn't make a mistake. Then why should the poor Home have to list the whole personnel again which they've already listed & they can refer back to, right? But what for? Once the Home has made the list & added it & WIM has checked it, why does WIM have to check it again unless there's been a change?
39. OUTSIDE OF MEMBERSHIP, I CONSIDER THIS ONE OF THE MAJOR CHANGES & ONE OF THE MAJOR SAVINGS OF TIME, both for the Members of the Homes & for the statisticians. Because personally, even if there are some mistakes made, I don't think it's going to be sufficient to make any significant changes in our total World Stats, which is what I'm interested in. I don't think there's going to be that many mistakes & that many changes. (Peter: No, it's not there, but in Mags missed & people missing their Mags.) Honey, they will soon learn that if they forget to make that change on here & they come up short on their Mags, they're going to remember why! They forgot to report their additional Member.
40. IT REMINDS ME OF HO WHEN I TRIED TO GET HIM TO EAT THIS VEGETABLE. He said, "I know I don't like it, Daddy, because I never had any!" He's never filled'm out this way, & that's the point, it's something new. We're all inclined to be that way, we're like the eagle. It's easier to jump back in the rut because we're used to it & we're familiar with it & we know how to walk around that rut even if it's more work than flying! We don't know what flying is like because we haven't flown for so long or we've never flown before or something, & therefore we'd just rather take the safe route, & the route is the rut, & not try anything different or anything new because it might be more work, & maybe again it might not be as much work!
41. PEOPLE REALLY RESIST CHANGE, THEY REALLY RESIST PROGRESS. It's difficult to get people to change their system, people really get stuck in a rut & a habit & they resist change even if it's an improvement, & my God, if I hadn't been willing to make people change whether they liked it or not, there would be no Revolution & no Family! I'm just saying that I believe this is not only going to save the Homes trouble, but I believe it's going to save WIM trouble whether they believe it or not! Even whether you believe it or not!
42. IT'S GOOD TO GO OVER THESE THINGS BECAUSE IT COULD CHANGE YOUR WHOLE FILING SYSTEM! When I was with Fred, that was the biggest problem, getting enough typists to re-type cards, re-type stencils, re-type this, re-type that, & my God, they can make so many new mistakes on the re-typing that it's a almost unbelievable! I mean, when we pulled cards out of that file I just couldn't believe typists could make so many mistakes! They couldn't spell the names of cities right, they couldn't spell the name of the State right, they couldn't even spell the names right, hardly anything! I mean, it was so ridiculous!
43. SOME OF THOSE ADDRESSES WERE JUST UNBELIEVABLE! Along with the normal changes of address, Fred had hundreds of returns that we had to go check the files to see what was wrong with the address: Was the stencil right? Did it have the right address on it? And about nine times out of ten, somewhere along the line somebody'd changed the address & the stencil was wrong & wasn't according to the address on the card, or the address on the card was obviously ridiculous or something wrong with it, & so of course the stencil was wrong!
44. HERE THEY'VE GOT THE ORIGINAL, THE REAL McCOY! NO RE-TYPING BY ANY TYPIST IS ADDED TO THE NUMBER OF ERRORS! I've seen this too often in our own work here with the Letters, everytime something is re-typed. For example, sometimes our typists have decided it was just easier to re-type the whole paragraph, or it was necessary to re-type the whole paragraph to make the changes necessary to make room for whatever I added or subtracted or whatever. Do you know what I have to do then? I don't just check the correction, I have to read the whole paragraph or passage or column over again, & at least one time out of ten I'll find new mistakes in their re-typing!
45. HUMAN ERROR IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM! Just like they said in the recent accident report, human error is responsible for most of the accidents. And every time you go through another typist, let's face it, be honest, there's chance of more errors. Everytime it's re-typed there's a possibility of more errors. The less you have it re-typed, the less you have it copied, the more you leave it as is, the more chance you have of it being accurate!
46. NOW WHAT'S SO DIFFICULT ABOUT THAT? I think that'll take a lot less time than them re-adding the same old list again which, let's face it, I would say that 99 times out of 100 the list is exactly the same if they haven't sent in a change. And if it isn't then it's the Home's fault, not the statistician's fault, not our fault, & the Home is going to wake up to it sooner or later: "Oh, we only got two Magazines!" (Maria: Then they're going to blame it on the Reporting Office.) No, they're not! "Oh, I forgot to add your name as a change in our listing!"
47. HONEY, IF THEY'VE GOT A NEW PERSON & ALL OF A SUDDEN THEY WAKE UP TO THE FACT THAT THEY NEED AN EXTRA MAGAZINE & IT'S NOT COMING, you mean that Home Head is that dumb that he can't remember that he never sent in a personnel change notice for this new person when he's reminded every single month by this form: "Have there been any personnel changes in your Home this past month?" Ok, he thinks back, he doesn't remember the new person, he forgot. But when they get their Mags or they don't get their Mags, I'll bet that's going to prod his memory & he's going to remember real fast! "The reason you didn't get your Magazine is I forgot to report you!"
48. SO IF THE NEW MEMBER MISSES ONE MAG, THAT'S TOUGH! THAT'S HIS FAULT, NOT OUR FAULT!" I feel sorry for the poor Home Member, but that's his fault, & maybe we could just let these new arrivals know to jog the memory of the Home Head & put it in a special LNF. Say, "Hey listen, if you want to get your Mag, you'd better he hanging over the shoulder of your Shepherd while he makes out the Monthly Report & be sure that he puts your name on the bottom there if you want your next Magazine!"
49. I DON'T THINK THEY'RE EVER GOING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT GETTING TOO MANY MAGAZINES IF SOMEBODY LEFT. They might even neglect to report it in some cases or conveniently forget it. So all right, they do. If they're going to be that dishonest, well, OK. I'm still for saving work for the honest ones & our very scrupulously honest statisticians who want to recount everything every single time in order to make sure that they didn't make a mistake last time.
50. THAT'S WHERE WE FOUND MOST OF THE MISTAKES, WE WENT BACK TO THE ORIGINAL CARD, & in-between typing that one & the change & the stencil the typist had made the mistake. The original card was right, in fact, we found out that on many of the returns, bad addresses, that the card was wrong. I'd been in nearly all these towns & countries & States & whatnot & I knew the names, this was before the days of zip codes. And the typist couldn't read the writing of the person right.
51. I HAD TO READ MAIL FOR MY MOTHER & FOR US TOO IN LATER YEARS, AND YOU ALMOST HAVE TO HAVE A GIFT OF INTERPRETATION even to get the person's name & address right! But I noticed time & again obvious mistakes when the person had typed even the original address card from the original letter, the typist had made a mistake. Or between the card & the stencil the typist had made a mistake. I daresay that most of the mistakes were made by typists re-typing.
52. THAT'S RATHER REVOLUTIONARY, ISN'T IT? WHOEVER THOUGHT OF KEEPING THE TRF AS A FILING CARD? But look what a help that would be! Here we've got the original name & address & the original personnel listing & it makes it not our responsibility but the Home's responsibility to change the number of the personnel if there's any change in the number of Magazines they're going to get. It's their responsibility to keep us updated on the address. "Listen Buddy, look! I'll send you a Xeroxed copy of what you sent us, there it is! Right there, that's what you told us." "Oh, oh! I forgot!"--& the Home knows that it's their fault.
53. IN A LOT OF CASES THEY'VE GOT THAT RIGHT THERE, THEY'VE GOT A STOCK-PRINTED ANSWER to these guys who got themselves a little mixed up between last month and this month etc., and all they have to do is stick the original TRF right in the Xerox & pull it & send it back with the answer. "Look, if you've forgotten who you had on your personnel list, here it is." How many times did we tell'm to always make copies? At least two carbon copies of every Report? I can remember saying that specifically when we organised the Chain & we required Reports from everybody. We specified how many carbon copies they were supposed to make & who they were supposed to send them to. Right? Make a carbon copy of this for your record, I think that's good idea! The simplest thing to do is, they can even make a carbon copy while they're typing their report if they type it.
54. WHEN I USED TO SEND FRED REPORTS, MANY TIMES TO SAVE TIME I DIDN'T WANT TO WRITE OUT THIS LONG REPORT WHEN I GOT HOME WITH A TYPEWRITER, so I made it by hand with two carbon copies right then & there, one for myself & one in case he ever questioned or claimed he didn't ever get the report or something, a copy to send to him to prove that I wrote & sent the report & I made it out. I can remember to this day sitting at hotel desks or even on the plane, & I would take my one sheet like this & I would put the carbon paper under it & the other sheet under that & I'd always have a clipboard or hard surface.
55. I'D PUT A PAPER CLIP UP HERE & A PAPER CLIP DOWN HERE TO KEEP'M IDENTICAL & in the same position & do it by pen, ballpoint pen, & you can get a good carbon copy with a ballpoint pen! They don't even have to have a typewriter, just tell'm to use carbon paper & make carbon copy, & of course, if they're such an advanced office they've got a Xerox or one handy, they could make a Xerox. So I think that's a good addition! PTL!
56. ANYBODY THAT IS SO STUPID WHO WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND THIS WHEN THEY FIRST SEE THIS--"Be sure to make a carbon copy or Xerox of your TRF for your records"--doesn't know how to fill out this form & they shouldn't be the father of a Family or the head of a Home! We can't insulate ourselves from the idiots & the morons & the totally stupid. I mean, any intelligent person that is the head of a Home & able to make out this thing at all certainly ought to be able to understand that: "Be sure to make a carbon copy or Xerox of your TRF for your records." First thing on the list, that'll help'm even if they're grabbing this thing & starting to make it out, to grab a piece of carbon paper & another piece of paper we hope. Very good suggestion!
57. FROM NOW ON WE'RE TRUSTING THE PEOPLE TO FIGURE RIGHT, THAT THEY SEND THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF TITHE. They put down how much tithe it is right there & that's that. I don't think if anybody wants to cheat there's any way to stop'm from cheating. I don't think they can't even figure that, that there are going to be that many people who don't know what 10% of something is!
58. MY QUESTION IS THIS: MY FIRST CONCERN WAS THE HOME, WHY SHOULD THEY HAVE TO REPEAT A LIST THEY JUST GAVE LAST MONTH? I'm sure they wonder why they've gotta keep repeating that list & keep repeating that list & keep repeating the same figures & requesting the same number of Magazines when there's been no change & all they have to do is just say, "No change." Why? I disagree with WIM. I think it's going to cut their work in half if they don't have to check this whole personnel list & their figures & number of Magazines every single time! I daresay at least half of the Homes there'll be no change. I'd like to see & find out.
59. WE'LL NEVER MAKE ANY PROGRESS, WE'LL NEVER IMPROVE ANYTHING IF WE DON'T TRY IT, IF WE DON'T EXPERIMENT! I've wound up taking a lot of wrong turns & short cuts I didn't have time for by trying, but once in awhile I hit the right combination, the right formula, & it works! And I would say most of the changes I have suggested for the Family, most of the Revolutions, most of the changes in everything have been an improvement in the longrun and have saved time, saved trouble, saved personnel!
60. ALL I CAN SAY IS THIS, I WANT'M TO TRY IT & I BELIEVE THAT THEY'RE GOING TO BE PLEASANTLY SURPRISED THAT IT SAVES THEM WORK! Once WIM has gotten the Home's list & double-checked it that it's right, if the Home is so stupid that they forget to put somebody on there, I daresay that person will help jog their memory next Report to make sure they get their Magazine! Why then should WIM have to re-add & go through that personnel list every single time? I think it's going to cut their work almost in half!
61. IT SURE TAKES A HELL OF A LOT OF PERSUASION TO GET YOU GUYS TO AGREE WITH ME! See how difficult it is? We just naturally resist change! We can't see why or wherefore. Well, I'm not blaming you, you haven't spent as much time & prayer on this as I have. But it's going to save the Homes time & trouble, & I'm sure it didn't take me too long to fill out this list, especially since I didn't even put their whole name, only put their initials. And I just made guesses at ages & it wasn't hard to remember sex or even their nationality or whether they're single or mated. Time in the Family, I just made guesses at that.
62. THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE ACCURATE & TO GET THAT LIST ACCURATE. THE FIRST TIME IS TROUBLE & TAKES TIME, & why they should have to do it every single time when they've already done it, I am sure I don't know!--And I'm sure they don't know, & it is probably an aggravation! I'm trying to trim this thing down & cut out work & simplify & abbreviate & not be repetitious!--And I am determined to try it whether you like it or not & whether they like it or not!
63. I'VE NEVER FOUND ANY REVOLUTION YET THAT THEY LIKED NECESSARILY, THAT WASN'T EXTRA TROUBLE & took extra time & trouble to get used to it & get started in it & do something differently! You have to make an extra effort to get out there now & try to fellowship & organise these LAFs & DAFs & all that. It's extra trouble, extra time, extra effort! But is it worth it? Usually it's only the original effort that is any effort, after that everything goes better & smoother & easier than before!
64. I'M SURE EVEN THE OLD TRF THEY'VE BEEN USING IS ONE HELL OF A LOT EASIER THAN THE EIGHT-PAGER THAT DEAR JETH USED TO PUT OUT TO'M!--Or the six-pager that Ho used to put out to them.--Or the four--pager that we boiled it down to finally, or this one right here which amounts to a four-pager with all the instructions & blanks. They've got three pages of blanks & at least two pages of actual figures. My Lord, we have boiled it down to two pages here of not only just the answers & the figures but the questions! Now, if that isn't shorter & simpler, I don't know what is! Is it or is it not?
65. COME ON! WE JUST NEED TO GET OUT OF A RUT! We need to quit saying, I know I don't like it 'cause I never did it before!" My Lord, it is a problem to be a revolutionary, especially to be a revolutionary leader! People love ruts, they like ruts, they like to stay in ruts! It doesn't require any thinking, it's all been memorised, it's automatic! They don't have to change their minds or even think anything, they don't have to do anything new!
66. THAT'S JUST LIKE MY FATHER-IN-LAW SAID: "MY LORD YOU MAKE SO MANY DECISIONS EVERY DAY! I never have to make any decisions, I just do the same thing every day. I get up at the same time, eat the same meals, same breakfast, same time, do the same work every day, go to work, do my work, come home, read the paper, watch television, go to bed. I do the same thing every day, I don't have to make all these major decisions you guys have to make every day about doing this or that or something else."
67. I MEAN, YOU COULD LIVE THAT KIND OF LIFE ALMOST WITH YOUR EYES SHUT & HARDLY EVER HAVE TO THINK! Everything's just automatic, you've done it so many years that it all comes automatically--no decisions, no change, no change, no nothin'! I found out even in my getting up & going to the toilet & washing my face & hands & combing my hair that I've gotten into a rut where each movement even becomes automatic! I may start to forget, but I don't forget! If I start to forget to comb my hair or something, my head reminds me! All of a sudden I have a feeling like I'm supposed to have my head combed. I mean, it all comes automatic, I just go through a certain routine like an automaton & every movement is automatic!
68. BUT LET ME TELL YOU, WHEN WE MOVE FROM ONE PLACE TO THE OTHER & we change where I hang my socks or where I hang my underwear or where I put my radio or my tools or my briefcase, I have to make a whole raft of new decisions on how to do things, & usually it's an improvement! But once I'm in that rut, which I am here how, I can do it almost without thinking! I know right where I lay my pen & I put my papers & grab my coffee & whatever.
69. OF COURSE CHANGES ARE A PROBLEM, OF COURSE THEY'RE TROUBLE! I could do all this & just ride roughshod right over your heads & say, "That's the way it's going to be done!" I don't have to spend hours explaining it to you trying to persuade you to see why & know why & persuade you to be in agreement. But I think it's good for you! I'd lots rather have you cooperate willingly & willing-spiritedly & cheerfully & see why.
70. JUST LIKE I USED TO EXPLAIN TO MY CHILDREN WHEN THEY SAID, "WHY DADDY?" Well, if I was in a hurry I didn't explain it, I said, "Just 'cause I said so!--I'll tell you later!" But it was a lot easier to get them to do it cheerfully & willing-spiritedly & obediently if I would explain why & they saw the point.--Especially teenagers, they get to that point & have to have an explanation for everything. It's part of the teaching process, it's a part of their learning process & parents should explain. And you need to explain to dear WIM & all the rest if them why. OK?
71. ALL RIGHT, NOW IT TOOK ALL THAT TIME & HOW MANY HOURS WAS THAT TO EXPLAIN WHY I WANT TO DO THE PERSONNEL LISTING THIS WAY! It's not my fault that I'm long-winded, it's your fault for being so thick-headed!--Ha! If I didn't have to explain it all to you it wouldn't take any time. I thought this was going to take us about ten minutes! Well, anyhow, we've gotten a lot of good lessons out of it & I guess this is another one. I think if they think & study & see, I think they're going to see that it's going to save'm time!
72. IT'S NOT OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO SEE IF THE HOMES MADE A MISTAKE OR NOT IN NUMBERING THEIR PERSONNEL & their addition & their subtraction & the number of their Magazines. That's their job! Not ours! They can be thankful they get it, & if they give us the wrong figures, that's tough, because that's their fault, not ours! We go by the Personnel List they give & any changes they give us which we have double-checked! And if they didn't get it right & they want to complain about it, we'll send them back a nice little Xeroxed copy of what they sent us:
73. "NOW, HERE'S WHAT YOU SENT US & NOW WHAT THE HELL'S THE MATTER WITH YOU?! What's your beef? This is the way you made out your address! What do you mean you didn't get it? We got the address wrong? There it is! That's the way you made it out!" What better answer for it than to stuff it back in their mouth? Show'm that's exactly what they sent us, it's their fault, not ours!
74. AND IF WE FIND THAT WE MADE THE MISTAKE IN GLUING THE LABEL RIGHT ABOVE THE NAME & ADDRESS THEY GAVE US & double-checking to make sure it's right at that time when we do it & make out the labels & we find out that we did it wrong, well, we can send them a letter of apology. If we find out we didn't add up the figures when we double--checked their figures, well, I don't know if we need to apologise if they got the figures wrong themselves. But anyhow, we'll say, "So sorry, but look, you made a mistake & we didn't catch it." Right?
75. I THINK THAT THEIR OWN FORM WILL BE ONE OF THE BEST ANSWERS TO SOME OF THESE PEOPLE WHO WRITE IN & GRIPE that they didn't get the right number of Magazines & blah blah! Just show'm what they sent us! Like the old lady that found out she wound up in a shack in Heaven: "Well, that's all you sent us!" "What the Hell do you expect us to do? This is the information you gave us!"
76. THEY SAY HERE "PERSONNEL LISTING." ABOUT NOT LISTING PERSONNEL--THAT REMINDS ME ABOUT THE "NOT RAISING HOGS SCHEME"! You can't tell me it's not cheaper to not raise hogs than it is to raise hogs! They want to raise hogs! I'm trying to show'm that they'll make more money out of not raising hogs. we're trying to pin it on the Homes & not our government. We can work with it, but some say it will make the stats-work each month go a lot slower because of having to refer back to old Reports, etc. Why?
77. WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO REFER BACK TO THE OLD REPORTS FOR? Why should they have to refer back to it at all if there's no change? It's not our responsibility to check on their figures & their changes, especially when they don't report any change. That's not our responsibility, that's their fault, not ours! We don't have to go back & baby them like that! That's babying them! If they make a mistake, let'm suffer for it & they'll make less mistakes next time!
78. (PETER: I THINK THE WHOLE POINT FOR WIM IS ...) GETTING USED TO A NEW IDEA! (Peter: Right, & they're looking at it from their work, they're trying to make their job with them as easy & automatic as possible.) Of course! And every change is not automatic Every change is more work, more effort, more thought, they've got to wake up & break with the old & make do with the new, & that's going to be a hard job! I don't doubt if the first few times it's going to be a lot more work in some ways just because it's different! Just because "I never had any before."
79. (PETER: THE INFORMATION'S ALL THERE, EVERYTHING!) MORE COMPLETE THAN A FILING CARD! Why throw away this valuable thing when they've got all their information right on it? Let's use this for the filing card! That's going to solve a whole lot of problems & questions. Also their Membership List, that's going to solve a lot of their problems. (Peter: Right. They're looking at it in terms of the way they're doing it today.) Exactly. It's ol' Mr. Flatlander all over again! I mean, there couldn't be any third dimension because I've never seen it! Right? GBY!
80. THE QUICKER YOU AGREE WITH ME THE QUICKER WE GET THIS OVER! Ha! The quicker they agree with me the quicker they'd get on with it! OK? Let's try it! I don't doubt that maybe they can find some shortcuts but I have usually found that I have had to force people to take shortcuts before they would believe there were shortcuts & before they got to liking the shortcut! Did you know what I have found out for years? It used to amaze me as a teenager driving my mother's car.
81. I CAME TO A TOWN THAT WAS TOTALLY STRANGE TO ME, SO THE FIRST THING I DID WAS GET A MAP to find out exactly where I lived & where the church was & the best route to getting there. You know, never seen a map of the city were in such a rut they always took the same route every time no matter what, just because that's the only route they knew! They'd never even been on the back streets, they never even tried any shortcuts, they never looked at a map to see how much shorter it was & easier it was to go another route! They could drive this one with their eyes shut, without thinking, without change, by habit.
82. WHEREAS I WOULD ASTONISH THEM BY SHOWING THEM THE MAP, SAYING, "NOW LOOK, WHY DON'T WE GO THIS WAY INSTEAD OF THE OTHER WAY?" "Uh, I've never been that way before. I don't know. I'm not sure you're right, I'm not sure it's easier." "But I've been over it, I've tried it." "Well, I don't know. I've never been over it. I don't know. I've never tried it. I think I'd just rather stick to my old rut, my old route, because I just don't know about this map whether it's really right or not, & well, I know it couldn't really be shorter! I have driven this for years, it couldn't be shorter!" I said, "All right, come on. Clock it with me. We'll go your way & test the mileage, & then I'll go my way & test the mileage." "Oh, there must be something wrong with the speedometer!" They just couldn't believe it! I mean it!
83. BOY, I'LL TELL YOU, WHEN I DROVE A 30-MILE BUS ROUTE 30 MILES EACH WAY, 60 miles a day with a bus full of 50 screamin' hyenas back & forth to school every day, I figured that out scientifically so I did it the easiest possible way! And when we constantly had changes in students, I would immediately re-estimate, reanalyse my map, reorganise my route pickups & everything & notify everybody of the changes rather than go one block out of my way just because I was in a rut. Boy, I'll tell you, I trimmed down that route! They had planned the bus route to stop in front of everybody's door, & because the kids were used to being pampered & babied that way, they'd wait till I got there to eat their breakfast or get their clothes on because the bus was sittin' right outside there waiting!
84. I BOILED DOWN A TWO-HOUR ROUTE TO LITTLE OVER ONE HOUR! Because I said, "Listen Buddy, you can walk a block & you be on that corner at that time, & we'll be running ten minutes late according to the time I tell you to be there, & if you're not on that corner, I won't even slow down! I'm not even going to look down the street to see if you're runnin'!" Well, I was a little more merciful, but that's what I told'm!
85. I SAID, "I'M NO MORE DRIVING UP TO YOUR DOOR & WAITIN' FOR YOU TO GET YOUR COAT & GALOSHES ON & ALL THE REST! You're either on the corner or you're not, & if I see you, okay, I slow down & stop & pick you up. If you're not there I don't even slow down, I go zoomin' right on by!" Any I organised my route like a regular city bus route! I was no taxi cab! And we got a flood of complaint: "Oh! You're not driving by & picking us up any more! You don't stand out there waiting at the door for 15 minutes while Johnny gets his coat on blah, blah, blah!"
86. AND I HAD TO TAKE BROTHER WHEELER & THE PASTOR WHO WAS MY PAY BOSS & ALL THE BUNCH OF OTHER MEN, the whole faculty practically, & sit'm down & show'm the map & show'm why we had to make this change! Before that, everybody was screamin'! The parents were screamin', the teachers, the boss was screamin' at me: "You've got these parents crawlin' down my back & ringin' that phone off the wall because you won't pick their kid up anymore. They said you don't come by any more."
87. THE KID HADN'T TOLD MAMA & DADDY THAT I WASN'T GOING TO STOP AT HIS DOOR ANY MORE! He was ashamed to tell'm he was late & he didn't make it to the corner. So he just kept quite & said "Oh, the bus didn't come by this morning, I don't know why. Too bad!--And he was tickled pink because he didn't have to go to school! But Mama & Daddy had to drive him 30 miles across town to bring him to school if they wanted him to go to school that bad.
88. WELL, I HAD TO ARGUE WITH THOSE OFFICIALS & THE PARENTS TO SHOW'M WHY IT WAS NECESSARY to have little Johnny & little Suzy learn how to walk a block to the corner, so I stayed on the mainline just picked them up instead of going special delivery to their door & furnishing taxi cab service instead of bus service! "Well, I'm tired of the taxi cab business! We're not in a taxi cab business, we're in the busline business & I'm going to stay on the mainline! if a few people get left behind, I don't give a damn! I'm sorry! I'm sorry for them, but it's their own fault, not mine!"--If they don't give us the information, If they're not out there waitin' on the corner with it right here in their TRF!
89. I'M NOT THAT CRAZY ABOUT STATS & I DON'T MIND IF THERE'S A SLIGHT MARGIN OF ERROR & I'm not going to be that helpful to baby them to do their figuring for them if they don't get enough Magazines! That's their responsibility! That's why I put these extra things down there, "They want to know how many Magazines here? I'll put it down for them."--A nice little convenient box to put exactly what they need. If they don't fill that out right, that's their fault, not ours, & WIM shouldn't spend their extra time figuring it for them every single month, I don't believe! And I mean it!
90. HE SAYS, "THIS MIGHT BE A PROBLEM FOR THE LARGER SPANISH LIM OFFICE." Well, just hire him an extra business manager & stat man & pay him an extra salary to help him do it, so they don't even learn that probably. So God help'm. "Also it could help the stats possibly to be more accurate if they did list the personnel each month, but again, we could of course do it." We've covered that & I don't want to explain how the cart of apples got turned over because my language might get a little rough!
91. "CONCERNING THE TOTALS BOXES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PERSONNEL SECTION, it'd be a good check to have this, but again, just to mention it, we never totally take the Homes' word on this." Here's the baby again! They're going to go by & pick'm up at the door instead of taking their word for it: "You be on the corner or else!" "We okay their personnel listing & add it up ourselves, as we found that many times Homes do make mistakes."--My god!
92. I LEFT A HELL OF A LOT OF KIDS BEHIND THAT FIRST MORNING! I got there with about half my load because so damned many of them made the mistake of thinkin' that I would still sit down there on the corner & wait for them even if I didn't come by the house! I said, "Nothin' doin'! You're out there standing on that corner & I'll whiz by if you're not there!" I'm tellin' them, "Nothin' doin'!" If their stats are aren't here on their corner, we're not going to figure them for'm, we're gonna whiz by a send'm the same amount of Mags they got last time! It's their look-out to change that, not ours. We shouldn't have to add up all these stats every single time! What are WIM trying to do? Make work for themselves? (Then Dad talks about Capetown, So. Africa blacks:)
93. THEY OUGHT TO WATCH HOW THESE BLACKS WORK DOWN HERE! I could've built this little restroom myself single-handed in the first two weeks to a month & laid all those bricks! My God, they could pick those bricks up with one hand! They must not weigh more than two kilos apiece. My blocks weighed 40 pounds each, 20 kilos, & I had to lift them up backbreaking with two hands & put almost as must mud between'm as I had blocks! And yet I built that whole Church almost single-handed in two months!
94. WELL, IT TOOK A HELL OF A LOT MORE TIME PLANNING & MAPPING & DRAWING BLUEPRINTS & WHATNOT & staking it out & digging the footing & pouring the foundation & forms & all that stuff, & nobody ever hardly saw that. It looked like I wasn't making any progress, they said, "When are you going to build that church!" But boy, when that work was all done & the foundation was laid & the foundation wall was up & all I had to do was lay blocks, it went up like that, several courses a day! That's a whole row of blocks that you lay all the way around & after we did that we worked on one section.
95. THERE ARE TEN GUYS WORKING OUT THERE ON THAT RESTROOM, TEN MEN! I've watched them through the binoculars! There are three guys standing out there on the sidewalk watching the others, probably to supervise, then there are about another three or four guys standing down around & inside the restroom, some of them just watching the scenery while there are about two to three guys inside the restroom actually moving around & laying bricks! No wonder they have a housing shortage here! No wonder the cost of building is going sky-high when they take ten men to do a job that's taken them all Winter that I could have done single-handed with my own hands in about two months!
96. IN THE RESTAURANT LAST NIGHT THERE WERE AT LEAST TEN GIRLS STANDING BACK THERE & there were hardly that many customers! Most of them were just standing there most of the time, weren't they? There were two or three girls working behind the counter cooking & there were a couple waitresses, & the rest of the girls were standing around doing nothing! Apparently it's cheaper to pay these cheap waitresses & let them stand there & do nothing than it is to hire competent personnel, or maybe they just can't get it! That's what they're used to doin', they're used to payin' them the minimum wage & have a lot them there in case they need'm! But most of them just stand around doin' nothin' most of the time because most of the time they don't need'm!
97. I DON'T SEE ANY POINT IN HAVING ALL THESE STATS JUST STANDIN' AROUND HERE EVERY MONTH all the time just in case we happen to need'm, & having to have'm there & pay'm all the time when all need is a few in case there are any changes! I could hardly believe my eyes watching them build that thing down there! Then I go down there & walk there & count how many courses they've laid, come up that day, & if they do two or three courses a day--that means layers of brick--they're doin' what?
98. I MEAN, MY LORD, I COULD LAY THREE OR FOUR COURSES OF THOSE HUGE BIG HEAVY BLOCKS MYSELF A DAY! These guys can't lay three or four courses of those little-bitty bricks a day! mean, they do three or four a day around a little building one-eighth or one-tenth the size of my church! That, to me, is a waste of labour & a waste of time & it doesn't look to me that at the rate they're going they're even going to get the thing finished by this Summer! Most of them stand around talking doin' nothin'! I guess it's political job because it's for the city & they probably hired them figuring: "Vote for me! Remember, I let you stand around & do nothin' for your salary all these years!"
99. I'M SORRY! I'M A REVOLUTIONARY! I'M FOR CHANGE EVEN IF IT'S HARD TO MAKE THE CHANGE, & even if it doesn't work I'm ready to make another change! If this doesn't work, we'll change it! I'm sorry, I got to preachin' again. "In this case, it's all right to have a new TRF, Dad, if you just hadn't said that. Now you've quit preachin' & gone to meddlin' with our old system!" so since the Homes don't wake up early enough in the morning & get out there on the corner & have themselves ready to be picked up by the bus line, dear WIM's going around & giving them taxi service, picking them up at their door & waitin' while they put their cloths on!
100. NUMBER 4, "IT STILL SEEMS THAT WE NEED TO HAVE TITHERS & NON-TITHERS DISTINGUISHED as there are cases of live-ins that don't tithe, or live-outs that do tithe, & this would affect the number of copies sent to Homes." Now what's wrong with that? Well, at least when they get the Membership Letter they'll know better. But I don't see why they don't know better now! There's only one class of Tithers that I know of who would get their Mags at somebody else's house, & that we've specified as the underaged TRFers. If it is an underaged TRFer, that underaged TRFer still has to fill out a TRF, if he's a Tither, even if he gives the Home's address, some other address for his Home address. Right?
101. (PETER: NO, HE COULD GIVE HIS 10% TO THE HOME THAT HE FELLOWSHIPS WITH & NOT FILL OUT A FROM! They could put him on their form.) Ho, ho, ho! (Peter: And therefore, that would be a liveout Tither, someone who maybe was underaged or for some reason couldn't receive the Mags at home.) So why do we have to know? (Peter: Well, for the number of Mags.) Honey, if he is listed here as Member of this Home, this Home reports as a TRFing Home, right? (Peter: right?) Alright & their gonna list the number of members right? So here we've got the number of live-in adult couples, the number of live-in singles, total number of Mags needed. in other words, as a result.
102. I DON'T SEE WHY ANYBODY SHOULD BE A LIVE-OUT TITHER WHO IS LISTED IN THIS HOME'S REPORT WHO DOESN'T MAKE OUT A SEPARATE REPORT. I don't even see why an underaged Catacomber who is a Tither cannot make out his own Report. Why not? If they're not a live-in & they are a Tithing Catacomber, they're now a TRFer & should make out a separate TRF for themselves to get their separate Mag as a separate Home. Unless they're underaged, they still need to fill out a TRF From it they're a TRFer, but they request specifically, "Since I'm underaged, please send my Mags to such & such Home, at such & such an address."
103. I HAVE AN IDEA THAT THAT GUY WHO IS AN UNDERAGED CATACOMB TRFER WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE SEEING THAT WE KNOW THAT HE'S A TRFER, that we send him a separate special mailing but to the same address with him name on the outside & he knows that he gets his money's worth. So it wouldn't hurt a bit if we had to send him a separate copy to that address. That's a special case, & very unusual case, I think, that he is a TRFing Tither but wanting to get him mail at a Home's address. In that case, all right, we get him TRF, we've got him name, we make him out a separate label & we send him a separate Mag & separate Books in his own name, in his own envelope but to that Home's address!
104. MAYBE THAT WILL HELP REMIND THE HOME THAT THAT'S NOT THEIRS, THAT'S HIS, & THEY ONLY GET THE ONES THEY LIST AS LIVING-IN. If they are an over-aged TRFer or Tither, if they want to get the Mag--& certainly if they read the Mags at all they'll want to be a Tither & get their own Mags, won't they?--If they have read time & again that in order to get their won Mags they're got to be a Tither & make out a TRF, surely they would! Even if they didn't want maybe their wife to know that they were getting it, even if they got it at the Home.
105. TRFERS ARE NOT TRFERS JUST BY TITHING, THEY ARE THE ONES WHO MAKE OUT THE TRFS & TITHE because we want the stats, their personal stats of their personal Home. But if this particular Home wants to get the credit for them but doesn't want them to tithe separately to us--is which case we'd get 100% of the tithe instead of 10% of it--how are they going to finagle the Magazines to satisfy'm? Well, they're going to have a hard time doin' it because they're not going to be able to order any extras any more, which is one of the plugs we're going to put in the loophole. Which I wouldn't be a bit surprised some of them have been doing!
106. THEY'VE GOT THIS NICE RICH FISH WHO NOW TITHES TO THEIR HOME BECAUSE HE DOESN'T KNOW ANYWHERE ELSE TO DO IT, & even though he read in the Mag that he'd supposed to tithe & all that, maybe he never read that he's got to make out a TRF From to get his own mag, maybe they hide that fact from him. But he knows that it he tithes he's supposed to get his own Mag, so they simply send in an extra $10 & order an extra Magazine for him.--Whereas he gives them $500 a month tithe! So if they send in $10 & keep the other $490, I wouldn't be surprised it happens! Well, that's gonna be no more.
107. NOW TO GET ANY EXTRA MAGAZINES FOR AN OVER-AGED LIVE-OUT CATACOMBER WHO WANTS HIS MAGAZINE FOR HIS TITHE, we have made it plain enough that he has also got to fill out a TRF as well as tithe, in which case we send him a separate copy in his own name even if it's the same Home. They don't get a copy of the Magazine unless they are a TRFer, they give their tithe & they fill out an extra TRF Form, & if they do that, they're no longer Catacombers. If they fill out a separate TRF From & they get a separate Magazine, they are no longer Catacombers. If they're a TRFer they're not a Catacomber. So I think when they hear that, I think they'll understand.
108. HERE'S SUE, SHE MUST'VE READ THIS THING DOZENS OF TIMES & TYPED IT SEVERAL TIMES & WHATNOT, but she still didn't get the point & it just now dawned on her like the light of day, "Oh, I understand!" Like the woman who sat in on my mother's preachin' for about five years in the Tabernacle who came rushing up to her one day & said, "Oh, I made the most marvellous discovery! Do you know what you need to be healed? All you need is just the faith, that's all you need to be healed! It's just faith!" My mother had been telling her that for five years but it didn't dawn on her until she finally got it on her own from the Word or the Lord. It was like a bright light suddenly turned on, something my mother had been tellin' her forever!
109. WELL, I FOUND OUT THE SAME WITH OUR KIDS! I have been tellin'm some of these things for years. I am just dumbfounded! I'd nearly crack up if I didn't feel more like crying when I read some of the things they say in their little comments & News Briefs etc. & ask questions that I answered years ago! Now the only reason I can see why they ask them is they're new & they haven't read all the Letters yet, in which case I can understand. So I patiently try to either refer them to the Letter Number or simply answer the question, since I don't know, maybe they are new.
110. BUT I SUSPECT THAT PROBABLY THEY'VE BEEN AROUND FOR QUITE A FEW YEARS & JUST NEVER BOTHERED TO READ THE OLD LETTERS which are our basic foundation, standard principles that have never changed. I'm amazed reading these Komix how little has changed! About the only thing that's changed is some of the prophecies have been fulfilled. Basically everything I have taught them & told them to do about mail & everything else is just the same, no change.
111. THERE'S BEEN CHANGES IN TRFs & CHANGES IN PROCEDURES & A LOT OF THOSE THINGS, BUT NOTHING IN THE BASIC PRINCIPLES. And when they go to askin' me questions about the basics: "What do we do about so & so?" & I've answered that question usually dozens of times in dozens of Letter before, it is a little aggravating. It's just exactly what I've told'm, & I think I used this illustration in a Letter. I said, you know what I found out when I was teaching school? The reason a lot of kids ask questions in a class which were already answered in the textbook is because they didn't want to take the trouble to read the chapter & they found out it was a lot easier to just ask the teacher!
112. SO DO YOU KNOW WHAT I DID? I FLATLY REFUSED TO ANSWER SUCH QUESTIONS. I said, "Did you read the Chapter?" Usually they'd either lie & say they did, & I knew they didn't or they'd stumble around & confess they hadn't. I said, "Well, you just read the chapter, you'll find it. That answer's in the chapter. I'm not going to answer any questions that are already answered in the chapter. Now if you want to ask me a question of something that's not clear in the chapter or which wasn't in the chapter, all right, I'll try to answer it. But if it's in the chapter I'm not going to answer it. That chapter was your homework, that's something you're supposed to do, not me!"
113. THAT'S SOMETHING OUR HOMES ARE SUPPOSED TO DO, NOT WIM, & I don't see why WIM is babying them along like that & going over their stats every time, the very same personnel list every time, no change, adding up the same numbers again, blah blah, blah blah!--Just to make sure the dear little darlings didn't make any mistakes at home or miss the bus! Agreed? Well, Beloved, I hope you're agreed, because agreed or not, we're going to send out this TRF & see what happens!
114. IF IT'S A BOMB THAT BLOWS THE BOTTOM OUT & CUTS OUR STATS IN HALF, well, we'll know there's something wrong with it!--Either that or something's wrong with the intelligence of our Homes or of our statisticians. I found that every major change always causes something. We always lose some Homes or stats or something & we probably will again! If the right one doesn't get you, the left one will! If the movin' doesn't do it, maybe this TRF'll do it. w/ev major chq I've wondered if we'd mk it.
115. EVERY TIME I'VE HELD MY BREATH WONDERING IF IT'S GOING TO DESTROY US, just waiting to see the bottom fall out, wondering if it was & just walkin' out on nothin' by faith trustin' the Lord that I did the right thing! And what's happened most of the time? (Peter: It always worked out better!) It's usually worked out in the longrun to the better! Sometimes it cost us stats, cost us money, cost us people for awhile, but then it finally turned out to be an improvement & they finally had to confess that things were better.
116. WHEN WE DECLARED THE RNR, THE BOTTOM DROPPED OUT OF PERSONNEL, LEADERSHIP, INCOME, ORGANISATION, EVERYTHING! Our in come dropped 25% & it kept dropping 25% for a couple of months until it was down about 60% of what it had been. Our stats were cut in half & it looked like the bottom had dropped out! But we're up now above those stats with almost ten times as much income & producing about ten times as much food for them! Has it been an improvement or not? (Peter: Yes, Sir!)
117. DO YOU THINK THINGS ARE NOW BETTER THAN THEY USED TO BE? Was it hard to make some of those changes? You went through some of them with us. I didn't know what was going to happen to us when we decided to split the ante with the LIMs. I thought that was going to make a big dent in our income. Instead of that it increased our income! The more we obey the Lord & do God's will & help the Homes & feed the people, no matter what we share, what we do, God blesses it!--The more we do the right thing. And I think He's going to do the same about this TRF!
118. I AM DOING THIS FOR THEIR SAKE TO HELP THOSE POOR LITTLE KIDS, dumb & stupid as they may be, to make it as simple as possible & as easy as possible & to cut their work in half, & at the same time I believe it's going to cut WIM's work way down too. They don't know it yet, they can't see it because they haven't tried it, they never had any. They never had to run down to the corner & meet the bus, they prefer to pick'm up at the house & be the taxi service.
119. WE'RE NOT PROVIDING ANY MORE TAXI SERVICE! We're making it very simple, very simple, they don't even have to give us their address any more, just let us know what corner they're near & we'll stop there, but they'd better be there! It's their job to be there, not ours. We just drive the bus & we'll pick'm up if they're there. If they're not there, well, so the stats drop off & we only have 25 kids on the bus instead of 50. The first morning of the new route I got to school with half as many kids as usual & the teachers & everybody were screamin'!
120. I SAID, "LISTEN, I NOTIFIED ALL THOSE PEOPLE, I NOTIFIED THE KIDS!" I didn't notify the parents directly, but I told the kids & I took'm right to the corner. When I took'm home that night I showed'm the corner where they were to be picked up from then on. I told'm when they got on the bus in the morning: "From now on, look, see this corner? This is where we're going to pick you up!" And when I took'm home I said, "Remember? This is the corner now, & you be here at such-&-such a time in the morning!"
121. IF THEY DIDN'T MAKE IT THAT WASN'T MY FAULT! If they failed to tell their parents because they thought they'd still get babied because they were late & they didn't want to confess that they had to run down to the corner because they forgot to tell'm or didn't want to tell'm or whatever & their parents screamed at me, oh well, that wasn't my fault either & I finally got the caboodle straightened out! I fought for it & I fought until I won!
122. IN FACT, IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW I WON, I JUST FLATLY SAID, "EITHER THAT'S THE WAY I DRIVE THIS BUS ROUTE OR YOU GET YOURSELF ANOTHER BUS DRIVER!"--And they knew I was right! "This is the way I'm gonna drive the bus & they can either be there on the corner, or if they don't like it, then they can get themselves another bus driver or go to some other school!" PTL! Hallelujah! I believe they're gonna like it! And once the kids finally got used to the idea & the change, let me tell you, they were down there everytime!
123. AND HONESTLY IN MERCY, I WOULDN'T WAIT FOR'M BUT I WOULD SLOW DOWN IF I DIDN'T SEE THEM ON THE CORNER, & many times I'd even slow down & all the kids on the bus would be look'n for'm. They knew who we picked up there every morning & if they saw'm a block away runnin' like mad tryin' to get there, they'd scream & holler: "Hold it! Stop, stop, stop! He's coming! He's just down the block! Stop!"--And of course if the guy was all ready & he was just a minute late & was runnin' as hard as he could to make it, I stopped for him! I wasn't going to run off & leave him if he was in sight--like I've had some buses do to me just because I didn't do it their way. I was always merciful.
124. I MEAN, IF THEY MAKE A FEW MISTAKES & THEY YELL & SCREAM & SAY, "WE DIDN'T GET ENOUGH MAGAZINES, " well, all right, we'll see what the problem is & straighten it out. We'll check your list & either you don't deserve'm or you weren't on the corner or you didn't send us the right stats or whatever! OK, we'll straighten it out! OK? So I guess we learned a few things. When will I ever learn that every time I call you in here I've got to preach you a sermon for some reason! I don't know, I guess it's for the sake of the Family!--Ha! I'm sure it's not just for your sake, but I'll tell you one thing for sure, it's for my sake. It does me so much good!--Because I think we've straightened out a few things & I think that's about got it!--Amen?
125. SO ARE YOU GONNA BE ON THE CORNER WITH YOUR TRF & ON TIME? If not, we may miss you & you may miss a Mag, sorry. But it'll be your fault, not ours! We're not gonna baby you any more! You figure your own stats & give us the right figures, or we pass you by! Savvy? Sorry, but your stats are your job, not ours! We do the Worldwide Family Stats!--Surely you can do your own, amen? PTL! GBY! WLY! See you on the corner right on time first of next month, amen?--Amen! TKS!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
