"Country office" [from Asia Branch Report video]

[Brandon]

I know we've been reducing the number of bethels over the years, sometimes converting some into RTOs (remote translation office).  The Office &Tours section of our website lists 85 tour locations (I think I counted correctly).

 

I've sometimes wondered if there is a difference/any importance between terms like "the Canada Bethel family" vs the Canada Branch.  I have noticed terms such as these have sometimes been used in our publications in contrast with each other, as though they aren't the same.

 

And then I heard the term "country office" at about 7:35 in the new video.  Has anyone heard that term before?

[Alexa]

I can't search the country of Nepal in jw.org, I was thinking it isn't planned to be a official branch office brother brandon

[Thesauron]

I know we've been reducing the number of bethels over the years, sometimes converting some into RTOs (remote translation office).  The Office &Tours section of our website lists 85 tour locations (I think I counted correctly).
 
I've sometimes wondered if there is a difference/any importance between terms like "the Canada Bethel family" vs the Canada Branch.  I have noticed terms such as these have sometimes been used in our publications in contrast with each other, as though they aren't the same.
 
And then I heard the term "country office" at about 7:35 in the new video.  Has anyone heard that term before?

Every country without a branch might have such an office, as well as one RTO or more, which are not open to visitors. Anyone working at such establishments might be called bethelites. Not to mention the remote volunteers. The branch is really the building itself, the bethel family live and work there or at other offices.


Any day now...

[jwhess]

A Country Office has oversight of the country whiles the Branch may have several countries to oversee.

 

*** yb11 p. 255 Estonia ***

A BRANCH ONCE AGAIN

Between 1926 and 1940, an office operated in Tallinn. Then, beginning in 1994, a Country Office functioned in Estonia, under the oversight of the Finland branch. Much was accomplished, and many wondered if Estonia would again have its own branch.

 

*** yb12 pp. 191-192 Rwanda ***

PLANS TO ESTABLISH AN OFFICE

At the end of March 1994, …the Watchtower Study was attended by an enlarged translation team, the Country Committee, the missionaries, and Brother and Sister Ellis.

Having completed their work... Brother Rwakabubu phoned the missionary home to say that the Russian embassy had relinquished its claim to a plot of land on which we had been hoping to build a country office…

…about October 1995, the translation team moved into a much larger. This rented building was used as the office and living quarters until a new branch office was built in 2006.

 

[Brandon]

Ah okay, very good.

 

So does Puerto Rico have a country office, and also the small islands that used to have branches? 

 

Taking a quick look at WOL, it appears the number of "Branches of Jehovah's Witnesses" went up by one or two nearly every year in recent times, peaking in 2009 at 118, before going down each year since.

 

I wonder if they were sold or mostly all converted to country offices.

[jwhess]

5 hours ago, Brandon said:

Ah okay, very good.

 

So does Puerto Rico have a country office, and also the small islands that used to have branches? 

*** w16 August p. 7 How I Found Happiness in Giving ***

Then, in 2013 the Puerto Rico branch was merged with the United States branch, and I was asked to serve at Wallkill, New York.

[Thesauron]

Ah okay, very good.
 
So does Puerto Rico have a country office, and also the small islands that used to have branches? 
 
Taking a quick look at WOL, it appears the number of "Branches of Jehovah's Witnesses" went up by one or two nearly every year in recent times, peaking in 2009 at 118, before going down each year since.
 
I wonder if they were sold or mostly all converted to country offices.

The branches were merged, and usually the branch office buildings sold. Left were country offices and sometimes RTOs.


Any day now...