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Post by wondering on Sept 2, 2007 14:15:25 GMT -5
I know many of them are getting older and nobody lives forever. But does it seem like there is a growing number of workers unable for the work and passing away? I wonder if the declining numbers is putting more stress on existing workers i.e. larger fields?
In the last 6 months, we have lost 1 US overseers...Ken Lerwick and Charles Steffen. Sam McCracken, Barry Barkley, Leslie White, and others have gone through serious health problems.
I wonder if the system isn't slowly unraveling.
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Post by wingsofaneagle on Sept 2, 2007 14:24:36 GMT -5
it would be interesting to see a graph of the ages of all the workers. I wonder if there are more offering for the work than there are aged?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2007 14:44:02 GMT -5
Another interesting statistic would be of the average length of time that new workers manage to stay in the work. I don't think that declining numbers of workers is so much because of fewer starting -- but because of 'years to disallusionment' has become much shorter. 'The numbers on the 'resting status' section of workers lists has become longer -- If a person checks it out, those moving to other fields often get moved off the lists altogether after a few years.
Edgar
I think of 20 workers in the same general period I started out in the work -- As far as I know 5 are still in the work.
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Post by ranman77007 on Sept 2, 2007 14:46:49 GMT -5
Phm 1:9 Yet for love's sake I rather beseech [thee], being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. www.youtube.com/watch?v=W69SSLfRJho life goes on.
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Post by wingsofaneagle on Sept 2, 2007 14:50:23 GMT -5
Another interesting statistic would be of the average length of time that new workers manage to stay in the work. I don't think that declining numbers of workers is so much because of fewer starting -- but because of 'years to disallusionment' has become much shorter. 'The numbers on the 'resting status' section of workers lists has become longer -- If a person checks it out, those moving to other fields often get moved off the lists altogether after a few years. Edgar I think of 20 workers in the same general period I started out in the work -- As far as I know 5 are still in the work. Yes indeed! One would need their age at the time they entered the work, then their age when they left the work. Thats a lot of data to pull together but it sure would be interesting! How many workers are there in the world approximately do you know?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2007 16:48:09 GMT -5
i too am fascinated by statistics
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Post by wingsofaneagle on Sept 2, 2007 16:54:38 GMT -5
I'd love to do it if i knew all the names, dobs, and dates of entering and leaving the work!! Cherie, is it possible to get this kind of info?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2007 16:59:01 GMT -5
The aggregate number of workers hasn't changed much for some time now. It's true that a steady number of old ones are dying and retiring. Also, I suspect the drop out rate is higher than it has ever been. However, there is a greater proportion of young people starting out in the work than ever before, even if they don't last as long.
I expect though that we will see a 30% drop in worker numbers in the next 10 years as there is a bulge of young people out there right now (children of baby boomers) who are moving through the worker offering years and that group will drop precipitously over the next 10 years.
That being said, the fellowship can survive in its current mode with considerably fewer workers since they are mainly occupied by doing what can be done by elders, deacons, and friends.
Gospel meetings are now fill-in work between the main activities of church tending, elder appointing, convention preps and special meeting rounds. As it is right now, we could get by with just a few workers doing convention speaking tours and special meeting rounds. Perhaps quarterly special meetings plus conventions is all that we need workers for, and for speaking only. The rest can be handled by the friends. That means about 25% of the current staff at most is all that is needed.
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Post by wingsofaneagle on Sept 2, 2007 17:02:59 GMT -5
However, there is a greater proportion of young people starting out in the work than ever before, even if they don't last as long.
I didnt know that. Why do you think there are more young people starting out now than before?
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Post by CherieKropp on Sept 2, 2007 17:29:54 GMT -5
RE: I'd love to do it if i knew all the names, dobs, and dates of entering and leaving the work!! Cherie, is it possible to get this kind of info? ***Nope. Sorry. All we have is SOME of the workers lists. No dobs, no dates entering or leaving. A good project would be for someone to continue and maintain the index Bob Williston has started showing the location of workers indexed by NAME, taken from workers lists. Current workers lists are by state/country/field. You can't just look for a workers name on a master list somewhere, (except on the index below, which is unfinished) and find out all the fields they have been in. You have to pretty much know what states they were in before you can track them. Williston's index is at: www.friendsoftruth.us/workers.htm
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Post by wingsofaneagle on Sept 2, 2007 17:41:21 GMT -5
Phew! Thats a LOT of work just for the workers in the US alone!!!!
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Post by guest5 on Sept 2, 2007 18:23:01 GMT -5
That is one big job as I started it once with just the many workers list I have and once I got to California, that was enough for me. Just looking at his list there are many errors just for the workers I looked at. Not criticizing at all. It is just too big a job.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2007 19:26:04 GMT -5
However, there is a greater proportion of young people starting out in the work than ever before, even if they don't last as long.I didnt know that. Why do you think there are more young people starting out now than before? Because there is now less stigma attached for leaving the work. That is, there is less risk for a young person to start knowing that they won't be treated badly if it doesn't work out for the long term. In our area, the young workers come and go quite frequently. Having several start out each year is normal, but the overall numbers never go up, in fact we are down one pair out of 20 or so over the last decade.
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Post by CherieKropp on Sept 2, 2007 20:45:58 GMT -5
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Post by Missing on Sept 2, 2007 20:52:14 GMT -5
I know of 3 of my relatives who were workers and they are not on the list-----They were workers around 1925-1930. Are they not listed because they were not on a worker list or another reason. (TEXAS)
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Post by wingsofaneagle on Sept 2, 2007 22:30:25 GMT -5
That has got to be some job to collect all the worker lists for every state in US and Canada, and every country around the world!!!
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Post by CherieKropp on Sept 2, 2007 23:49:24 GMT -5
To Missing - the 1991 list is of workers who were in the work in 1991. If your relatives were not in the work in 1991--no reason for them to be on the list.
The FOT list is just an index/list of any and all workers since 1897 who have been on a workers list that Bob came across. It's not all inclusive. There are many lists he hasn't been given or run across; so he couldn't put them on it. He doesn't take word of mouth...it must be in print on a list.
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Post by ii on Sept 3, 2007 4:00:19 GMT -5
here is one that might interest: LEWIS, Brad - OR-1991
there is a list that has all from A-Z from irvine to today but a few
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Post by two on list on Sept 3, 2007 7:57:20 GMT -5
There are two on the list that are no longer in the work because they left and married each other.
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