Theos-Talk Archives (January 2011 Message tt00104)

Membership drop and apparent unconcern about it

Recently, I was able to access a copy of TSAâs 100yrs history by Joy Mills,
published in 1987. It is a book anyone interested in the historical
developments in the TSA should read.

When I browsed the book, a key fact jumped out of it. It is the fact that in
the past, there were many well-known National and International lecturers
traveled and lectured at lodges and study centers. Surely it should have had
a good effect on the membership.

With that backdrop, in the last two administrations, rarely we found
traveling lecturers visiting lodges. When you look at the most recent Form
990 (a Governmental Form required to be filed by all tax exempt groups), a
very paltry amount was spent on field work when compared a six figure fees
paid to outside accountants probably to check the books.

Human beings have not changed in a million years. They have been known to
and continue to respond to personal contact. That is why, even President
Obama, who has access to all the media such as TV, Internet, etc travels and
lectures to sell his vision on various political matters.

When looked at the situation in TSA, we find no leader is willing to talk
about the hot potato - continuously dropping membership. On the other hand,
we have seen much talk about the Rules and Regulations at Adyar.

This may be a clever attempt to distract the attention of the membership
from membership drop issue or there may have been an unspoken policy to
shrink the membership. We do not know. Even if we hear anything about
membership, it would be fog-speak. Let us see what develops in the near
future.

MKR


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