OldSkool

He had other matters to attend to....so many women so little time

When that doesn't do it I usually talk to Johnny Walker. It sorts it all out!

My old goof-ball fellowship coordinator used to say "What if the Catholics are right and we're wrong?" (Oldskool enters serious mental monologue) mmmm......uhhhh.....(oldskool puts on waybrain)....oh I know answer a question with a question....(Oldskool ends serious mental monologue) "well what if Catholics are right and we're wrong?"

Yes I do. I am still trying to sort it all out.

As bad as da Vicster was at citing his references, LCM was certainly worse.

My luck I would land on the outskirts of the "buffer zone" in Sydney Ohio...

Yep.

Well, think of it as one very long excellor session - lo shanta

Bolsh, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck---it's probably a duck.... Which I think is what you are saying.

I had no idea until the scandal broke. I came to HQ the very same year and then I found out all the gory details. So it must have been common knowledge amongst HQ and Gunnison, but that is my guess. Anyone confirm? My section coordinator at the time told me of the wife swapping going on in the family corpse in the mid to late 90s.

From my experience, most people that want to go bad enough are given a field assignment. I was offered a branch but it was many miles away. It was a good fit for the way international but not for my family. So I received a "punishment" assignment. I got set up in my new city and then we disassociated ourselves with the way international. Best thing we ever did. I can't speak for Harve, but I would guess he got what he wanted.

Well that's a good question that is really an personal decision. However, for me, I decided that I was going to be honest and not really care what anyone else thought. I would rather not be way corps and not be in the way international than to be made to live as an unhappy hypocrite. Plus my situation was a tough one where we had financial hardships from medical related travel. So I guess a person has to decide what they need to do to be happy and be willing to sacrifice their corps status if the directors want them to stay and they want to go. To me thats the worse that can happen. There is always the chance that they will get the assignment they requested anyways. Once someone realizes there is really nothing to lose but bondage to the way international and in the end the way international does not care about them then decisions are real easy after that.

I am really sorry you were treated that way. My treatment was bad enough but it pales in comparison to what folks have been put through in years past. The Allen lawsuit managed to make them into a toothless lion. In my opinion anyway. When I was fighting with the directors I really didn't care so from my perspective I had nothing to lose.

Well, I lived what I am talking about. I guess once a person realizes that the way international only has authority over you if you consent to their rule then that freedom opens a new perspective. As for the placements process and people signing the consent forms for their assignments that is the way it is and why it is done. Should they be called on the carpet in court they have it on file that the assignments were accepted by consent giving plausible deniability. Now I never said that they would not lean on a person or hammer you with senseless cliches and way speak. Also, thats why I said to keep your cool and be respectful. They don't have the way corps anymore to discard them like used tissues. So they are trying to hang on to the remaining few. So in essence, most times when a person does not accept an assignment they move on to someone who will. They only have a few hundred way corps remaining. They used to graduate way corps classes larger than all the active way corps. Something to think about.

Same old same old. They rely on people attending fellowship to do the work. They still consider themselves a "grass roots" movement. They go door to door, stalk malls and other stores, depend on grads to infect their friends, family, and fellow-workers, send out way duhsciples to troubled areas to scurry up some new classes. And a resounding yes. I have known many a branch / fellowship coordinator to witness to people who were really excited with all the promises! However, the subsequent follow-up went ice cold after the person had a chance to google the way international. But at HQ they are ignorant of this and refuse to do anything to counter what's online. Rosalie hates the internet and considers anything not for legitimate ministry business to be nothing more than dirty communication. Serves em right.

Thanks! And yes, I have heard that line first hand used against people who were on staff and would bring up things they read on Grease Spot.

The way international that once was a multi-campus, air plane owning, many many thousand strong ministry is dead. In it's place is a little ole' preservation society, dedicated to all things wierwille and maintianing how we did things in the past. It's on life support for sure but will remain in some form into the foreseeable future.

Well, they would save a lot of money that way...lol

Preservation society comes to mind.

Oh, how considerate of them!

Well, I almost forgot that this time of the year is quite a tremendous time around ye olde' cornfield. Yep this is the time of year that Placements are held. At one time I was mystified by the way speak regarding this event. To paraphrase: "Placements is where every way corpse and staff assignment are considered in light of whats best for the individual and the ministry." Like most everything else in the way international, the talking points and what really happens are two entirely different things. O.k. first for some background. Placements is officially considered one of the longest running events in the way international. It starts in December (or perhaps before) and concludes roughly in August when everyone is in their new assignment. In December the department coordinators at headquarters are asked to conduct "informal" interviews with staff, I am not sure if these informal interviews are conducted on the field. Anyways the informal interviews are designed to pick up on any "needs." The most immediate needs I usually found were people planning to leave staff...lol Next comes the placements interviews that happen in January. Directors interview cabinet, cabinet interview department coordinators, department coord. interviews everyone else, the cabinet running the way of the usa interview the region coord,, the region coordinators interview limb coord., limb coord. interview branch coord., and so on. The interviews are pretty lame overall and information has a way of being left off of / filtered from the PAF papers that are used to gather the info and sent to the way corps department. Next comes pre-placements. These are cabinet meetings usually held once every couple weeks or so that work like this. First the cabinet review the information that is on the PAF files, this is done partly in the meeting and partly outside the meeting. The second meeting is another review session of open positions and the paperwork again. The third reviews potential hires. Most time people who submit an application to work on staff, and few there are, are first considered by the board of directors and then go into que for consideration and assignment during placements. Anyways, pre-placements can be thought of as a series of copy edit sessions performed by people who don't know how to copy edit. The importance of these meetings is STRESSED to the participants underscoring how incredibly boring the meetings really are. In the interim many closed door meetings happen between cabinet and directors and directors amongst themselves to get a bead on who can fill what position. Typically, if a way corps person requests no change then it's likely they will be left in their current assignment unless their "boss" wants to change them around for whatever reason. Occasionally, someone will come to mind who would be able to fill a certain position so they would be considered for an assignment change. My point is there are lots of back room ramblings between individual cabinet and their director. In essence the cabinet represent the entire way international to the directors, even though the cabinet have little meaningful authority. Well, each year it's inevitable that May will roll around and with it comes Placements. The meetings usually run from Tuesday to Saturday in the mornings, afternoons are for phone calls etc, and then re-convene in the evenings. By this time all the cabinet have notebooks with all the assignments, potential new hires, graduating way corps, etc. It's basically the same mundane information sorted several ways. And during these meetings the notebooks are sifted through frontwards and backwards, sideways and then back again. It is EXTREMELY boring. The cabinet read their respective areas and when it comes to a possible hire they state "I would like to consider Joe Blow be the bolt counter in Transportation." As the days progress people are moved from considered, to proposed. Once they clear the proposed status then they will not be approved until the directors can scurry off to their private meetings and put the stamp of approval on the proposed assignment. Even though the proposed assignment would already have been approved by the respective cabinet's director. Yes these goofs re-approve things they have already approved. I guess you can never have too much approval! And finally, the last meetings are where the entire notebook is read aloud front to back. Each cabinet reads each and every assignment aloud to catch typos and other potential errors. Now let me say this. In the end it's the directors that make the changes, hire new people, etc. The cabinet half heartedly represent tiny pieces of information concerning the individuals who are being considered for a new assignment. If a person is not being considered for a change then very little if anything is considered about them. If a person is being considered then it's almost always slanted towards what they can do for the way international. VERY little consideration is given to their individual situations or needs. Also, I have personally known people who gave specific requests in their interviews only to have it filtered out as the information travels to the top of the pyramid. So, as boring as this thread is, I thought I would put it out there. It exposes the farce that this supposed "spiritually significant" event really is. It also show the complete lack of biblical teaching during the meetings. These meetings are administrative in nature and are conducted with a task oriented approach. It is said amongst those in the way corpse or on staff that the assignment is where God wants them to be. Well, sorry to break the news to you. Your assignment is where Rosalie wants you to be and if you trust her as God then you may want to consider what you are accepting in your life. But I am going to let a dirty little secret out of the bag. Listen up lurkers! Since the Allen lawsuits the nature of assignments has CHANGED. You cannot be ordered what to do. In fact you can refuse and they can't do anything. I have seen many way corpse refuse assignments and there is nothing the directors can do about it. The exception would be staff positions where they control hire/fire. In other words if you were asked to go on the field that is a little different because they are your employer. However, you must consent to what the directors would like you to do. If you keep your cool and tact then you can simply state what you are going to do. Once you accept an assignment you will receive notification by mail that your assignment is so and so. That letter needs to be signed and returned to headquarters. And that is in essence your contract with the ministry and proof in writing that you consent to what they want you to do. How do you like that, Bible fans! I could say a lot more but will not for brevity sake. This is long and boring enough as it is.

Thanks for the link, waysider. I have never heard of any of that. Now that I have it's just bizarre.

ROFLMAO!!!

Oh, that explains it! I guess I had a carnal mind attack or something.