Letter to All congregation Secretaries, 2000-08-03: Pionneer service school
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COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 11201-2483, U.S.A. PHONE (718) 560-5000
August 3,2000
TO ALL CONGREGATION SECRETARIES
Dear Brothers:
We are happy to say that thousands of dedicated people have recently decided to expand their service to Jehovah by serving as regular pioneers. Many of these will be eligible to attend Pioneer Service School in the summer of 2001. To help your circuit overseer and the Society to begin making arrangements for the school, please fill out the enclosed questionnaire. Use this letter as a guide when doing so. Please mail the completed and signed form to your circuit overseer (not to the Society) no later than September 20, 2000.
Please follow through on the instructions in this letter right away. Review carefully the requirements and exceptions listed on page two of this letter. Be sure to include the following information as requested on the questionnaire:
(1) Name of each pioneer in the congregation, as indicated on their pioneer appointment letter (S-202).
(2) Date each pioneer was appointed, as indicated on their pioneer appointment letter (S-202).
(3) Whether the pioneer has attended the Pioneer Service School in the past.
(4) Whether any of the pioneers who are eligible to attend the Pioneer Service School prefer to attend a school conducted in another language.
As the service year progresses, you must promptly notify the circuit overseer of any pioneers who move into or out of the congregation or who go off the pioneer list.
OTHER LANGUAGES: If an eligible pioneer in your congregation prefers to attend a school conducted in another language, please provide his name, address, and distance he is able to travel to another school on a separate sheet and attach this to your questionnaire. Based on the information supplied to the circuit overseer, we will make arrangements to care for the special needs of these pioneers if possible.
If you have mailed a pioneer application to the Society for an individual who qualifies to attend Pioneer Service School next summer, but you have not yet received a response from the Society, please include his name on the list you mail to the circuit overseer. If the individual is not appointed as a pioneer for some reason, please promptly notify the circuit overseer.
After you have completed the questionnaire, the presiding overseer should review it for accuracy. Then both you and the presiding overseer should sign the questionnaire and mail it to your circuit overseer.
May Jehovah continue to bless your sincere efforts to assist new pioneers to make a success of their full-time service. We send herewith our warm Christian love.
Your brothers,
Walthower B. V. Society OF NEW YORK, INC.
REQUIREMENTS FOR ATTENDING PIONEER SERVICE SCHOOL DURING THE SUMMER OF 2001
A basic requirement for attending the school is that the pioneer is currently serving and has completed a minimum of one complete year in regular pioneer service, including the month in which the school is held. Therefore, only those who have been appointed by the Society to regular pioneer service on or before September 1,2000, are eligible to attend the school in 2001.
No one may attend the school a second time, and no one may sit in on classes or make up for classes they missed when previously enrolled.
There are a few specific exceptions, and these are outlined below:
(1) A pioneer who is assigned to attend one of the classes in July will be allowed to attend the school if his pioneer service began on or before September 1,2000, even though he may be one month short of the one-year requirement.
(2) If a pioneer attended the abbreviated Pioneer Service School course at Bethel or Gilead and he has not previously been through the entire course, he may be enrolled.
(3) If a member of the Bethel family leaves Bethel and is appointed a regular pioneer within three months of his departure from Bethel and has been in full-time service at least one year (including Bethel service), he would qualify to attend as long as he has not attended the entire course before.
(4) If a pioneer was previously enrolled and missed a complete week (five entire days) of the school because of sickness or other unexpected emergency, he may attend again, preferably for the entire two-week course if that is possible for the pioneer.
Each pioneer should be informed that he is permitted to attend a Pioneer Service School only once. If he is eligible and plans to attend, he should understand the language in which the school will be conducted well enough to benefit fully from the course. If this is not the case, the body of elders should encourage the pioneer either to wait until he has a better grasp of the language or to attend a school conducted in a language he understands. It must be acknowledged, however, that arrangements cannot be made for Pioneer Service School to be conducted in all languages each year.
Each pioneer will receive a textbook in the language in which the school will be conducted. Additional textbooks in other languages will not be provided.