Apparently the “ideal Ideal Org” that is the model for ALL other Ideal Orgs is not so ideal.
LA Org was declared “St Hill Size” MANY years ago. But the intervening years of straight up and vertical expansion under the magnificent leadership of Captain Miscavige seems to have missed Los Angeles.
Amazing how that expansion has been occurring everywhere OTHER than where you look for it….
So now, out of the mouths of babes comes another of the “OTC Truths Revealed”.
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2014
From: PAC OTC
Subject: Chairman’s Update: Getting LA Org Saint Hill SizeChairman’s Weekly Update
Hello to one and all,
Firstly, a VERY BIG THANK YOU to all of those members getting people onto services at all the orgs. Our start stats are in a new higher range.
Secondly, most of you know that we are about to open the newly renovated AOLA and ASHO. We want to have a huge showing of the PAC OTC at this opening. Stay tuned for the exact date and time. Also, shortly after these orgs open, we will be opening the new Scientology Information Center on Hollywood Blvd. Again, no matter what group you work for on the PAC OTC, this opening affects you.
LA Org is one of the biggest resources for sending public to the higher orgs. With the new Scientology Information Center open and bringing many new public to LA Org, we need your help to get the LA Org to St Hill Size ASAP. This will mean that LA Org will have the correct number of staff to train and process the huge numbers of newer public so we can send them over to ASHO, AOLA, Flag and the Ship to go all the way to OT.
It is the correct sequence to have a huge booming OT Committee getting LA Org to St Hill size and flooding the org with public. Remember the purpose of an OT Committee is to help LRH organize and channel OT forces, interests and resources for the greatest good for Scientology. We need to channel the OT forces, interests and resources to get LA Org to St Hill size. There is a lot to do and we can help!
Please come to the Monday meeting at 6pm in the field activities area on the 1st Floor of LA Org. We have urgent projects that need to be done and your help is very much appreciated.
Thanks for all you do!
Sue and Nick
PAC OTC Co-Chairs
It’s always amusing to see them telling people to “come to events” and then “we don’t have a date for it yet.” Only in the warped world inside the RCS bubble is this considered “normal.”
Seems that what they really need is STAFF. Of course Nick can’t join staff because he supports his wife who is on staff. It’s the sad truth that like every other org on earth, the model Ideal Org doesnt pay its staff enough to live on ramen noodles, let alone pay rent.
The “solution” to failing orgs of getting new buildings has GOT to be wearing thin even for the most avid KoolAid guzzler.
David Miscavige’s “Witches Brew”, (The hole, the torture, the sadism and physical abuse) aired rampantly through the media. I bet he blames others that it has leaked across the planet and feels no remorse whatsoever for his crimes, abuse and the out P.R. it has caused for ALL Scientologists.
“Secured with steel bars on windows and doors, defectors have alleged “the hole” was where members could be put under severe stress, criticisms, and be subjected to methods described as “torture” by defectors.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/church-scientology-runs-39-creepy-39-advert-during-163619605.html#vNKsxPD
Mr Tiny Boots’ Ponzi Scheme is fizzling…
Like blowing up a toy balloon, it takes some effort. But, when it pops, it takes no time to implode and revert back to a thin film of nothing..
David Miscavige fights on, in his investment for a license to dabble in domestic terrorism in Texas:
http://tonyortega.org/2014/02/04/its-a-make-or-break-day-for-monique-rathbun-vs-scientology-in-a-texas-courtroom/#more-13078
And I bet they will still only have one guy on estates in la org or recruit another homeless guy and previous drug dealer as they did with me and maybe throw a guy over to take care of the new test center, more likely the one guy over la org will have to do both somehow. I never understood how the clo management thought that every other department came way before their actual ability to keep thier space clean and maintained. I also think it’s amazing how all of this is also directly against the founders policy’s of never getting into lavish building purchases and upgrades that make it hard for the org pay their staff and in turn make them desperate to get weekly cash in.
In clo many of the execs were not good students, and the good students I knew of eventually blew. I realized too late that it was because as you learn more about what the founder wanted you can’t help but go what the bleep are they doing?
That brings another question to mind, who has to clean all of these monster buildings David is buying? Have any idea what it takes to clean that Super Power Building? These other Giant Buildings? Most companies this big have full time cleaning crews in there working all night long. People that joined staff to be course supervisors are probably working as maintenance crews as well now. Especially with so few auditors being made. With all of the out PR thanks to David Miscavige, setting up a practice as a Scientology auditor now would be like signing a death warrant.
A comment about “going Ideal.”
The COSMOD (Church of Scientology, Missions of Davis) Portland mission was about as close to ideal (as it’s defined today). It went up to 90 staff in 1980 and it had one of the best Div VI feeder system I’d seen. There were 8 staff in Div VI alone.
But then Miscavige came in and chopped off the mission system at the knees. That system was never allowed to continue so we’ll never know. But the missions seemed to understand how to get people in and be solvent and Miscavige DIDN’T like that at ALL. I’ve often said, why don’t they study the way the missions did it and THEN they might have an Ideal Org somewhere in the world.
But that would make too much sense – and cause a raise in statistic. Couldn’t have that…
You got it. We also built up the mission by training lots of staff on the old hsdc and up to class iv as a. Requirement to joining staff. Held the standards high. Marty started there. We had lots of word clearing. Lots of basic trs. Lots of basic books sold. Lots of real conversations and lectures with new public. Worked hard to get 6 new public signed up for comm course every DAY!. A real applied philosophy and helping people a lot. But then….
the mission holder got wiped out. Declared by finance police. Run by miscavige and Reynolds. Real awful times. Real terror tactics. Destroyed all the cosmos missions. Portland collapsed. Later became cc ptld then merged with Portland day. The place is a morgue. A pretty new building. So far from the vibrant fun activity we had going back then. Destroyed by powermad control freaks. I know I became one of them in the inner so elite. So corrupt. Sad story. I should write a book. MG
Yes, MG/Mission Guy
Sounds like you were right there. I wonder if we know each other.
You are so right! There was an electricity there when people were on course, in auditing and THEN, when it was BREAK time! Holy cow! Was there some COMMUNICATION going on!!
Besides the true hope of going up the Bridge and the very standard tech, the communication might be what I miss the most.
Yes on the “powermad control freaks.” Cut Martin off at the knees, after he’d done so much. Does anyone know how to reach Martin Samuels these days? Is he still with us?
Thanks again, MG
This was such a spirited, free, informed, passionate, lengthy discussion, that I almost couldn’t scroll through it all to make that lame observation.
Continue.
Huh?
Sorry for being obtuse. What I meant was I’m too lazy to read them all, but from what I saw, I was impressed by the level of discourse.
This is a good thing.
The orgs support a top heavy management, nowadays mainly DM who as far as I can see has control over all of the money in CofS with no accountability whatsoever. For a management body to justify its existence and be responsible, it would have to see for the care of those who support it as well as just benefit from their support.
In a normal organization, meeting payroll is one of the the highest priorities. CofS is purposefully exploitive in that the “actual intentions and activities” of CofS and Miscavige are not to make sure the staff are recompensed fairly like a normal group but rather to shut up any staff who speaks about it as being “1D oriented”, “spreading enemy line”, and “selfish” – for wanting to be paid a liveable wage for their work. Instead, staff are encouraged to not think of themselves or their families but to think of the danger the planet is in unless the staff keep working for CofS and ultimately Miscavige for free.
I have even seen HCO “Interrogatories” from CLO level or above looking for people who think the staff should be paid. Such actions are themselves oppressive, and were my among my first clues that the “ethics and PTS/SP techs” are about removing dissenters to maintain a status quo of poor exploited staff who are nevertheless eager to work for free – mind control 101.
In CofS, the highest priority is to attain more money under the unaccounted for control of Miscavige. Scientologists never ask to see the books or expect an annual report or any of the other aspects of accountability and transparency that exist in non-destructive groups because of similar “chilling effects”.
That is all scam behavior.
Channel forces, interests and resources…?
How can they not see that they are in some weird twilight zone MLM scheme?
I feel as sorry for them as I am disgusted.
Hi Mike…tks for the real data behind the St Hill expansion (or lack thereof) pgm…you have literally tens or even 100’s of Missions and Orgs etc that send their public to Flag whether ordered by (MMM) Minnie Me Miscaviage or by the Flag World tours especially for the infamous L’s briefings …so that is why Flag is a Mecca and maintains St Hill size..sorry for Nik Lekas ( I knew him as I was Richie Acunto’s close mate..and Richies story is a total joke and embarrassment).. anyway Nik is totally duped and easily controlled by the church morons..and btw please give my regards to Trish Conley…knew her when she was a little kid along with her parents who I knew very well and worked with at LRH PRO…cheers mate!!!…
So LA Org is going St Hill size yet again.
I can’t remember how many times they declared LA Org St Hill size. Just to have it slump.
Yeah sure you can say policy is at fault. I mean if its ever applied or applied in other way then suppressively.
But personally I think one of the reasons for this is that they never bother to hat, train and audit any of the staff and use ethics oppressively to “handle” them and they end up eventually blowing off the lines except the suppressive few who thrive in a virtual police state.
I mean how many former staff out there have gotten any other “auditing” other then endless sec checks or who have gotten full word clearing, hatting, product and post purpose clearing?
I’m guessing.
Not too many.
Mike, the last comment is so true.
It’s could be easy to get more staff. 1) Bring the unit value UP to something that can help a staff member combat inflation and live a life; 2) Bring the cost of auditing and training DOWN to where someone can actually afford a bunch of it and some decent GI comes into the org, and 3) Toss out everything from GAG I on and leave people alone to do their services and let them ASK for more because they liked it so much. You’d have a boom.
This could all be done with the money that is already sitting around. It’s already there! 1)start to pay the staff (and SO) out of all that money wages that actually exchange with them for all their work; 2) Get the promo designed and printed and distributed about the new fees at 1/3 of the prices, and a call-in about that would get you some people! And 3) just say that all the SPs who created all that new stuff that actually wasn’t LRH have been gotten out of the way and we’re all going back to what we had before the first GAT. And pay to get those materials reproduced since a lot of them were destroyed Hitler-style.
But of course the SP who is in the way wouldn’t want any of that happening. Just sayin’—it would be easy to fill all the new pretty orgs with activity and happy staff. You don’t even need any more money.
gato, If it could be done Indies would be doing it. The name Scientology is mud. As far as delivering the “tech”, that can be done in the open now.
Gato and Old School,
From my personal experience – and I have seen a frightening amount of strange things – in this world with its current perspectives and media slants, it’s really hard to TRULY turn a name into mud. Humanity seems intent upon never writing someone off completely unless they consistently demonstrate a total lack of humility or regret. Evidence the various churches, celebrities, and even consumer goods that have made miraculous comebacks.
The word Scientology and what it represents still has a chance at redemption. It will be accompanied of course, by some major mea culpas and an honest and deep-felt apology, but there is hope. However, the head of DM will have to reside on a pike outside of HQ, but that really is a small price to pay for redemption.
Otherwise Gato, I agree with you. There exists sufficient funds to pay staff a living wage that would enable them to function as real people. Policy, as an overarching concept that covered all aspects of SCN and its operations, was never feasible from the onset. Policy didn’t create the successes in Milan or Miami, OC or St. Hill — people following their hearts and their own common sense did. Ultimately people in the field created tremendous demand for the product and expansion occurred. It’s no more complicated than that. It’s what the Missions did as well. Huge Div 6s, accompanied by large Div 4s and a small cadre of admin people to support them.
Theory: Auditing and being an auditor, CS or other technical person, attracted compassionate, empathetic and sensitive beings who wanted to help. Admin attracted egotistical, self-important and self-centered SOBs (in most cases) who wanted to control others and prove themselves right.
Admin dominated Tech throughout my tenure on staff, no matter how hard I tried to reverse the effect. STATS fed the need for Admin people and created a dominant class who focused on easy products – which by “necessity” excluded auditing, training, word-clearing and other like services, because they took too damn long to produce.
That’s my instant why.
Odd
Every “recycle” of ideas fai!!!
St Hill size, downgraded to non-St Hill size (Berlin -false reports up lines) etc.
Why bring it up again? To make everybody else wrong!
The destruction of class V orgs runs on apace. I bet that these days IF they have any body routers on the street they will have to pick the most alluring young ladies (like in the early 70’s) to have even a chance of getting someone to pause outside let alone walk in to a RCS facility
The best thing that could happen is if their “church” status was removed by the IRS and they again became a self-help organization who’s entire purpose was to HELP people. They could do that by charging far less money, (think a couple of hundred for courses and auditing), pay their staff actual living wages and get rid of the RTC and all Int management and get back to basics. Just sayin…
“The best thing that could happen is if their “church” status was removed by the IRS and they again became a self-help organization who’s entire purpose was to HELP people.”
It’s a little late for that. A man named Russell Miller has published a biography of L Ron Hubbard, titled “Barefaced Messiah”
Now that there is an accurate biography of Hubbard, any pretense that Hubbard ever tried to “help” anybody can be pretty easily dispensed with.
I don’t think it is an accurate biography. There are plenty of errors and faulty conclusions in his book. But for those who see Hubbard as a demon it fits the bill as the perfect biography. It is no better than the hagiography the church puts out claiming everything about Hubbard was virtuous. The truth lies in between and is far more complex and nuanced than either end of the Hubbard hater/lover spectrum would care for anyone to believe.
If there was ever again any significant “inflow” of public in Scientology organisations of any form, the only thing it would accomplish is to finally spur the government into investigating it, and quickly banning most of it under the fraud statutes. So don’t hope for what will kill it quickest of all.
If LA does not achieve SH size in lets say twelve months, then i will sue Miscavige and get him to the nick!
Under Miscavige’s leadership we’ve seen the bridge and literature get recycled several times. It should be no surprise to see the push for Orgs to go Saint Hill size getting recycled. Declare an Org Saint Hill size, then after it crashes for a few years start a new push to make it Saint Hill size again. Of course the concept does rely on a certain amount of Gullibility of the “Shills” – (to borrow Mark Arnold’s term.)
AOSH EU is going to be the first ideal AO in the world. In February, no date yet.
Yes, I heard that too.
That is how they were promoted when they moved into their new building 20 years ago (the ideal AO). Wonder what is going to change? New dictionaries? A FART Div 6 for their “intro line”?
What can possibly make them “Ideal” suddenly?
180 marble tables and 64 tons of MEST, according to Advance.
Mike, Has anyone actually tried to run an org on policy only – without any interference from above, for a reasonable amount of time?
(Old St Hill, with Ron there, would not count, as no one would interfere.)
No, the management system laid out in FO’s and CBO’s requires daily oversight of orgs by the CLO and Flag management. Someone earlier commented that training people on principles and throwing out all the detailed and contradictory “you must do thises” would allow someone to run an org with good sense and without being constantly whipsawed on details. I do not believe that anyone who tries to follow all policy “to the letter” can possibly succeed, regardless of whether anyone is “interfering” from above. The only successful orgs have been where there has been a strong ED who has decided what would and would not be applied.
Note to self:
Success! Have now utterly ruined what was good in especially the lower levels of Scientology. Next steps. 1. Pack all legal documents, deeds of property ownership in my name, copyrights, trademark rights, and other documents, both digital and paper. I rightfully own everything.
2. Secure sole access to my billions. I rightfully own everything.
3. Start lawsuits against everyone who ever disrespected me.
4. Announce to the faithful that Ron has called me to move to a safe location where I can be his MEST universe contact while he continues research in an exterior state.
5. Move to South American country with no extradition treaty, but tell everyone I’ll be working out of the now dismantled Venusian and Martian implant stations that the Moxons overthrew while in intense reverie one night.
6. Hire huge security force of Amazon-tall Bare Naked Ladies singers who must salute my “dog.”
7. Live life — pura vida!
DM
PS Possibly consider getting audited and trained. Maybe even educated. (LOL — Nah.)
PPS Send Shelley a note before she is sealed into the vault like the other Pharaoh-worshippers of old.
ROFL
LMFAO!! Perfect!
Brilliant!
“Of course Nick can’t join staff because he supports his wife who is on staff. ”
AND, the company HE worked for for MANY years bankrupted due to the owner giving all the money to the IAS. Of course, only “OT’s” would be “able” enough to be able to tank a money printing machine like that. It was a self running gold mine.
Oh, but Old School, don’t you know? Bankruptcy due to going deeply into debt over one’s head and otherwise shunting all funds to the IAS and Ideal Orgs is a PLUSPOINT in the RCS.
I’ve heard public actually brag about this, and I listened, amazed, to the love bombing they got back: “Wow, awesome!”…”Whoa, fantastic spirit of play, there!” … VERY well done!”..
Only in the RCS does a parishioner get commended and showered with approval for being a willfully financially irresponsible stiff who can’t/won’t pay his bills..
This blows my mind. Always has.
Aquamarine that’s amazing! I didn’t know that it had gotten so insane in the public sector. I wasn’t around the church anymore but once I saw people on the OT levels dying at a rate several hundred % higher than the general population, I knew it was time to totally disconnect from the Church. What will it take for some people?
I know someone who went bankrupt and was rewarded with the ultimate honour: a post in the org!
The fact that LA Org is a Continental Org doesn’t help. I’m sure the CLO, CMO, etc are all over their lines, meddling and running their programs. Probably in a constant flux of musical chairs.
There really is no evidence that admin policy is effective in building a sustainable, viable organization. There is, however, 50 years of evidence that it is NOT.
Just because LRH says Standard Admin is the key to org prosperity does not magically make it so. Hundreds, if not thousands, of org execs have given it a go over the years, some with limited success, none with permanent stable growth.
If you are a True Believer, you will continue to flog the dead horse.
I have said in past posts that the OEC should be stripped of operational policy and condensed into a philosophic body of data. Execs can study it, gain a conceptual understanding of it, then decide how to apply it operationally. This would naturally involve incorporating modern technologies and trends in marketing, none of which would violate LRH’s admin concepts (as concepts).
But to do all this the church needs to unstick themselves from 1960 and move forward. Trust org staff members to do the right thing and allow them to create their org, instead of “Doing it by the book”, which has proven to be disastrous.
Agree with you 100% and have expressed the same views many times, much to the dislike of those who maintain that every word of LRH is unalterable gospel truth.
The overall view has always been “no one but LRH could have an intelligent thought, a newer and better idea or way to achieve a solution.” No technology can remain completely resistant to change and survive. It’s a form of organizational hara kiri.
A sound proposal. Now try suggesting the same about auditing. At least the fire will keep you warm for a short while.
Yes this is a grreat comment statpush. Another thing while we on the subject is using a para-military organization as your top control people. The army uses all that harsh discipline to make people kill in times of war, and prevent them from fleeing from certain death. What in gods name is doing as the control group for a religion? I can see it as LRH’s personal elite corps. But now that it’s DM’s elite corp you can see the level of abuse that this concept is open to. Even under LRH I am not sure it was great idea. Under DM it is a nightmare. A florishing Scientology religion woiuld not have a Sea Org, but rather a modern corporate office with 100% transparency, properly paid staff, properly elected board members and some form of membership voting system, even if it was like the catholic system of voting cardinals- perhaps the EDs of every org in the world could vote on an ED Int. The Sea Org is an idea thats time has long passed. Look at the charitable organizations in the world that that are persisting- none of them are run by a group of discipline nuts in para-military uniforms.
Totally agree Roy. In fact, ANY meaningful reform by the church will have to start with disbanding the Sea Org. Waaaaay past its sell-by date.
I’ve concluded that the true purpose of the SO is not “to put ethics in on the planet”, but to keep your average Scnist in-line and “with the program”.
Statpush: When I was at LA Org, LA Org was ALSO the place where OEC/FEBC interns from the ITO interned.
So there was yet MORE distractions and interference in the name of the Greater Good!
Bright spot: Nobody studies the OEC anymore, so maybe LA Org isn’t subject to this crap anymore.
Funny POT, I was one of the OECs 🙂 And you’re right, the students in their green smocks would always be in there messing about. Don’t know how the staff tolerated it.
“he huge numbers of newer public”
Can anyone in LA confirm or refute this claim?
“channel OT forces, interests and resources for the greatest good for Scientology”
At least now they’re being upfront about it.
Also, what are newEr public? As opposed to what? New public, newer public, public, old public, veteran public, SP public and/or dead public?
One thing the RCS seems to do really well is start things (or at least look like they are). They keep starting, it’s always “NOW we’re going to make it!” It is such a terrible trap to be caught in. What information storm is going to get through to them?
Scientology is a service industry and as such suffers when the founder/creator of the service industry leaves. Yes, of course, St. Hill boomed when LRH was there. He was irreplaceable and people knew it. Often his replacements could not duplicate the results LRH got despite intensive SHSBC training. One reason might be The Charisma Factor. LRH’s charisma and confidence in the tech could have very well very much to do with the results he obtained, though he, too, had his failures which he talked about in various tapes, etc., especially with resistive cases, sp’s and PTS. As years went by, I think he became remarkably adept in assessing cases and could easily veer off from the cookie cutter approach that most auditors are chained to. If Scientology could handle the public who walk through their doors, I mean, really HANDLE their problems, the orgs would be full to the brim. But the truth is, the corporate C of $ is not really interested in your problems. How do I know? Oh, I was told that repeatedly by Ethics Officers, Case Supervisors, D of P’s when I did services at Flag. “Just go up the Bridge and all your problems will be handled.” Yet I could see people who went all the way up The Bridge who had horrible problems in their marriages, with their children, finances, health, etc. Meanwhile many Indie auditors are flourishing because they are free to handle people and their problems, instead of making meaningless completion statistics by Thursday at 2 p.m.
I think it is even worse than you say. The orgs/staffs not only do not really help people to handle their problems, they actually continually create problems for their members – crush regging, ethics threats, unneeded and unwanted meddling in people’s lives, disconnection, telling them they have to re-do everything they already did because it was not done right (not the members’ fault) and having to pay to do it all over again. Orgs are actually problem factories for the people that enter them.
Here’s a perfect, if very minor example: several years ago, one Sunday morning I received a call from the Ethics Officer of my local org (who I did not even know) ordering me to immediately report to the org because I was preventing someone from going in session. I demanded to know who I was preventing from going in session and how. All the person would tell me is the name of the person I was supposedly preventing from going in session. I refused to come in to the org based on the unfounded generality thrown in my face, and the EO immediately threatened to Comm Ev me if I did not come in right away, which I still refused to do. When I found out who it was that I was supposedly keeping out of session, I called the person and told them what the Ethics officer told me. My friend was both pissed off at the EO and completely mystified as they had had a metered interview but said nothing about me that would have caused such a bizarre reaction, plus they had no plans to go in session anyways. He was in the org at the time and went in and got the EO off my case. A little problem, yes, and a little wasted time for two people. A small but typical example.
Oh, and if you don’t go along, you’re out ethics!
LRH couldn’t even spot SP’s as his direct juniors much less spot someone on a via.. It is a cult of personality. That personality is long gone. Once he was off the direct lines the whole thing started imploding. That was BEFORE DM grabbed control of everything. There is some true pieces of data he collected and collated.
“Just go up the Bridge and all your problems will be handled.”
The problem these days is that the Bridge isn’t being followed. In fact, in the mid-90s you couldn’t find introductory parishioners getting Life Repair any more, EVEN THOUGH IT’S IN THE TECH.
A Life Repair is inexpensive auditing CUSTOM-DESIGNED to address a person’s problems in life.
But it’s INEXPENSIVE, so you won’t find Life Repair on any rate card anywhere.
So a person is thrust up the grades without the benefit of having a correctly run Life Repair. And he loses interest when he attests to Grade IV and finds that he still has the problems he came in with!
See my post on this at: http://possiblyhelpfuladvice.com/?p=1378
Life repair is inexpensive? I’d better go tell that to my friend who paid $4000+ for 25 hours of the org trying to make him see his mother as an SP.
I think there is a whole blog posting (or more than one) that could be made on how Scientology really is pulling in its flippers, so to speak, to consolidate its remaining power and concentration on just the Sea Org bases, and on how the Class V orgs have been left to die.
It’s obvious in the stats and reports Mike has been providing that the Class V orgs are now going the way of the missions, left to flounder on their own and are cut loose from any real management efforts to expand them. Saint HIll size is an utter joke now. Not one org on the planet is even close to viability much less prosperity.
Class V org management has been a joke for almost 20 years now with no real effort being made to (a) manage standardly or (b) care whether the orgs are really surviving or not. Last I knew, there were only two people actually running all of the West US orgs, an impossible situation made worse because these managers are being actively prevented from doing any kind of real management function and just run from crisis to crisis like chickens with their heads cut off.
It’s all about the money now, and the only place real money is being made now is on the Sea Org bases. Even that won’t last for much longer. The dwindling spiral that is Scientology will soon be no more. Another 10 years of the way things have been going and Flag will be all that is left.
10 years? Gawd let’s hope it’s not that long. Since Orgs stopped making auditors it was only ever going one way – down to oblivion. The only ones who care if Class V Orgs exist any more are Class V Org staff, and there are precious few of those left. I think Roy’s analysis above is spot on – if there was ANY hope at all of keeping some sort of viable scene with Orgs you’d have to let them run it their own way, with massive emphasis on Div 6 actions, real people delivering real services, just like Milano and Brighton Mission in its heyday. DM’s never going to let that happen though.
“It’s obvious in the stats and reports Mike has been providing that the Class V orgs are now going the way of the missions, left to flounder on their own and are cut loose from any real management efforts to expand them. Saint Hill size is an utter joke now. Not one org on the planet is even close to viability much less prosperity.”
I was in PAC when BOTH LAD and LAF went “St. Hill Sized” in the mid-90s. (LA Org lost its Universe Corps in 1997. Thanks Dave.) Both orgs achieved a staff level of about 135 at the time of being named “Saint Hill Sized”. Within four months, both orgs had shrunk back to their pre-SHS staff levels. Conclusion: STAT PUSH, IGNORING STAFF QUALIFICATION RULES and especially NO FREAKING STAFF PAY!
I walked by the OIC every day in the 4th floor hallway on my way from ASHO to the parking lot. So I got to see the undeniable dismal-ity of the false report…that the orgs were Saint Hill Sized.
Paradox: LA Org is in an area of LA that is downtrodden and loaded with street criminals and illegal immigrants. That means the housing is cheap; it also means the environment is unsafe. The environment keeps people from coming to LA org or joining staff at LA Org! And this is where Davey wants to build a PAC auditorium that can be rented out to sensible, upstat people?
No way.
P.S. Find a space for Universe Corps operations on the “by the book, LRH policy” Ideal Org floor plans. I dare you.
“It is the correct sequence to have a huge booming OT Committee getting LA Org to St Hill size and flooding the org with public. ”
Dear Sue and Nick,
You are farting words out of your pie holes that have no significant meaning to anyone but the Operators and the Deluded.
The CORRECT SEQUENCE for LA Org would be to actually CARE for and SERVICE its public, as its first and foremost considerations.
Your PAC OTC is nothing but the talking head for a criminally parasitic organization.
Dear Mike,
You got that right.
Also the FSO has been a recycle of parishioners over and over; for many years the same public returned for the unprecedented “new releases” and very few new public arrived. Of these many have left and/or don’t want to step again into the FSO. Pity as it has good trained people that, I hope, still maintains a degree of decency and care for the public which was the original FSO’s hallmark (until the infamous GAG I appeared).
But your point is made, the SH size and expansion has been proven unworkable; it has been mis used to rip off money and increase the adjectives of why one must do so.
Hey, how’s this for an experiment: Leave a Class V Org alone.
Just completely disconnect from any form of “management”. Empower the org’s EC and AC to make their own decisions, spend their money anyway they want, make up their own policy, they can use LRH policy if they wish or not, set their own prices, hold events if they want to or not, etc. Absolutely no communication or contact with middle or upper “management”.
Just as an experiment.
It’s worth a try, ’cause what they’re doing now and what they’ve been doing for the past 50 years ain’t cutting it.
StatPush
Statpush: That’s the absolute antithesis of Scientology “management”! SOMETHING has to justify the huge money suck that comes out of the SHs, AOs and Cl V orgs! Wait…would your plan include reducing the tithes paid to Int to 1% of CGI? Now THAT would be a worthwhile experiment! Even if that was the only factor of org operations that you changed….!
Overall, I believe that’s how the old mission network became as big and successful as it did, give or take a policy letter or two being used or not used. Just disband the whole Sea Org, permanently.
I have to agree Good Fella. As an organizational experiment, the paramilitary religious dictatorship is a failure.
And the number of orgs and command channels, etc…geez, talk about a bureaucracy. Sometimes it feels everyone is busy telling everyone else what to do, like a Dev-T factory.
Disbanding the Sea Org essentially means taking down the Bubble…good riddance.
CL V Saint Hill size orgs have never been sustainable. If any really ever did achieve St. Hill size, it then did not last. Any that ever did temporarily achieve or closely approach St. Hill size only ever did so because of multiple SO missions and projects to stat push the org into that state, and they have always relapsed once completed, either very quickly, or a little more gradually, but the state has never lasted.
You are absolutely right.
But all that means is one of two things:
1. The whole theory of “St Hill Size” is a bust (and after all, SH didnt retain “SH Size” either even after it became an AO — SH was in fact more akin to FSO as the “only one” that could deliver various services)
2. None of these orgs were REALLY SH size to begin with.
I think both of these factors are apparent in all of these “SH Size orgs”. And there have been MANY — from LA Org to Munich and Stuttgart to CC Paris and Orange County. Not a one of them has maintained their original size, let alone continued to grow. The theory is that once past the “make-break point” it becomes a viable and continuously expanding operation. This has NEVER proven to be true. The “model” talked about in 339R is Boston. It was stat pushed by a bunch of people who had been declared and given a reprieve for crush regging — they DID make the org more productive. But once they were pulled out it sank back to its former size. So, that was not a good model either.
SH grew when LRH was there and it was the only place you could do the Briefing Course or participate in other “breakthroughs.” It slipped into decline once he left and other AO’s were opened after the UK immigration ban.
The FSO is the only org that parallels these factors and it is the only org that has not slumped into a state of non-existence because it continues to be propped up by the entirety of the corporate Scientology world.
This is all plainly observable to anyone who is willing to look.
Back in the day, Orange County Org under John Woodruff was flourishing and continued to grow for a while after making Saint Hill size. Their successful action was pulling in dentists and chiropractors from all over the country to do their lower Bridge. That was before Little Davey gave them a one-two punch to knock them out. First, he ordered them to focus on the Orange County public and send all those out-of-state businessmen to PAC or Flag where they belonged. Then, just to make sure, he pulled Woodruff out of the Org and sent him to LA. Orange County has never recovered.
Seems to me that any org that starts to do well, always gets ripped-off by the senior orgs. SO is notorious for this.
Mike, totally agreed. Also, re: theory of making a St Hill size org being wrong, I think it must be wrong. There is no such thing as a permanent make-break point for any organization or business, i.e. no point that once reached automatically makes it self-sustaining at that level and inevitably destined for continued expansion. Way too many variable factors, both internal and external, that can result in contraction or outright failure, no matter how going to concern is. It requires personnel in the organization capable of super competent leadership and skill to constantly deal with the factors involved and able to act on their own quickly and correctly in doing so, to keep an organization above a make-break point. And what it takes to keep an organization constantly above such a make break point changes over time, in ways that demand flexibility far beyond the flexibility allowed by institutional Scientology, especially institutional Miscavig-ology. Refusal to offer digital versions of materials is a good example of the hidebound nature of Scientology management and administration, but the flaws run much deeper than that, and Miscavige has made sure to infinitely worsen the business model to the point where it actually repels both existing and potential customers (ethics persecution, off-target bankruptcy-inducing dono regging, disconnection) while at the same time making sure anyone left in “management” is hamstrung so they cannot do anything to improve any of it). Scientology would make for a fascinating study of organization mismanagement and sabotage, and that is on top of what is a flawed theory in the first place.
Until staff are paid a real living wage there will be no sustained expansion. With each org responsible for its own viability its impossible to deliver auditing and training without sufficient, capable, stable staff terminals. And it isn’t as if people are beating down the RCS’s doors to join the Sea Org either. Frankly, I think these people have become simply delusional. They’re either new, ignorant and clueless, or, they’ve devoted too many years, made too many sacrifices and had too many failed purposes, and now they simply cannot or will not confront the inevitable.
Stevens Creek allegedly achieved “St. Hill Size” in 1990, but it very quickly reverted and the “Universe Corps” was gone by about 1992. It was stat pushed into “St. Hill Size” by the likes of John and Linda Allender. They each left (Linda blew), and some other key personnel left in 1991, and Stevens Creek promptly went into Non-Existence, which condition it has stayed in for the last 20 or so years. I think stat pushing takes it’s toll on staff and they get burned out, so any period of “expansion” (stat pushing and crush regging), is soon followed by a contraction, and it stays there until more stat pushing occurrs.
I have to differ SSOA. David Misavige uses a number of mind tricks to keep the faithful in line. One of them is the taking of a single datum out of it’s context and saying “this is the big why”. As has been said before, the guy should not be managing a lemonade stand, let alone a church. An org can maintain Saint Hill Size IF and only IF it has strong raw public inflow lines. It does not start with recruiting staff, it does not start with building a neat building. It starts with creating strong, easily flowing raw public inflow lines. There have been examples of this over the years – Miami org did it at one time. The true example that proves this in spades is Milano org. I am not up to date on this org, but in it’s heyday it had the biggest div 6 in the world, at one time I heard there were 60 staff in Div 6 alone. They used to drive buses out to outlying neighboorhoods and bring them back filled with people for intro lectures. Hell they had a local SO member, doing intro lectures on TV! And that org thrived and expanded. It boomed. It was HUGE. There were some other example of this here and there. But if David Miscavige is good at anything, its finding reasons to shut down field activities. “Not pure enough”, “money motivated”, “the lecturers talk instead of rotely quoting LRH” on and on and on. Anyhow, DM shut down the thriving mission network that could have easily supported huge orgs all over the world. He has shut down all field auditing world wide. He has created a PR repute for Scientology so horrific that no english speaking person would set foot in org. I believe that LRH screwed the pooch with Scientology “justice” tech. I think he really screwed the pooch with “keeping admin working” which prevents any modernization in admin tech (or justice). But the auditing tech has always been solid, especially at the lower levels. People’s eyes pop open when they get ruds or run an engram. That shit is the bomb. But the brand is so damaged now that I cannot see rapid expansion in any country in the western world. You would get more new people calling it the church of proctology. Places that are new to Scientology could do very well, as Hungary did. At this moment in time, there is not a snowballs chance in hell of any org in the west being able to achieve mission size, let alone Saint Hill org size. But not because the idea is inherently flawed, it is just that 6 flatscreens does not make a thriving Div 6. The orgs that got stat pushed up slumped down because they had no operational Div 6. And without one, these orgs are FUBAR- as is readily seen by the steady flow of leaked emails and ridiculously low stats. (notice in the email above they do not even mention new service starts. Only “starts”, also known as “canniblization of the existing field”. ) Anyhow, the Church of David Miscavigology is engaged in a massive effort to burn through its existing members, squeezing every last ounce of willingness and every last penny out of these remaining parishioners. They are 99% loser specators, watching their million dollar ad on the super-bowl and waiting for floods of people to come in and watch their ads on their flat screen TVs. The PR would have to be handled first, then some real div 6 gotten going, with real people, who can really talk and interest others. But the PR is not going to be handled because that would require removing the pope as step one. And that sucker knows it. Thats why a chunk of his entourage is paid security professionals packing heat.
:>)
Excellent points, Roy. You made the scam very clear, and what needs to occur for real expansion to ever happen again. Thanks.
Roy, brilliant commentary, and you’re right, the correct sequence is that demand via Div 6 comes first.
Engrams do not exist. They are a figment of LRH’s imagination, created to sell a self-help book which was never anything more than a con.
Roy and SSOA, you both really nailed it historically and factually. I am so bloody impressed with the brevity of your posts and your obvious knowledge and experience with the RCS. Should be a part of the Friends of LRH blog.
Thank you for putting it all out on the net for others to see.
Brilliant, Mr. MacGregor! I’ve spoken of the misplaced Ethics tech before. As set up and used, it flies in the face of Hubbard’s earlier dictum that it must be SELF applied. OTHER applied is “morals”, almost always forcibly applied. When I was wearing the EO hat, I simply got into good comm with the individual, found out what the situation was FROM THE INDIVIDUAL, then put the conditions in front of him/her and said, “You tell me where you are on that list.” It never failed to get the correct condition and an EAGER WILLINGNESS to do the work to move up. And screw that grey rag crap. We never needed it. It only shoves the person down further. Scio was supposed to be building people up, more and more. Denigrating them with forcible imprisonment, slave labor, dreadful food and, often, direct physical punishment is enough to gag a goat!
You got it Roy. What has dropped out is that orgs don’t really make Scnists anymore. LRH says it takes 25 books sold to make a Scnist, that’s probably not too far off. But that’s 25 books to new public. Scnists have to be MADE. They have to start by reading books, then spend some time with a Div6 reg, get some auditing, read some more books, take some courses, listen to some lectures, maybe get picked up by an intern, etc. The whole process takes time. He’s got to learn the lingo, etc. And it takes a lot of time by staff nurturing him along.
This all comes from Div 6.
FART was invented by someone who never worked in Div6. Their idea of Div 6 is:
1) Hand the public the FART remote control
2) Have the public watch a video
3) Sign them up!
Yeah, right. I’d like to see DM do that. He’d probably end up smacking the guy.
Anyone who has worked in Div6 – and has gotten a product – knows this is NOT how it’s done. You actually have to get in comm with the guy, build up trust, find out where he’s at, and truly seek to help him. That can take time. And it doesn’t always result in immediate cash in hand. But if you help him, be a terminal for him and you have no hidden agenda, he’ll stick around.
And the idea that you can take someone off the street, plop him down behind a desk and say “You’re now the Director of Indigestion. START!” is folly. Never seen it work. Its just a waste of time and energy. Yet, HCO around the planet will do just that.
Not only does it take time to make a Scnist, it takes even longer to make a good productive staff member.
Orgs have ceased doing both.
Spot on!
A truly great post that tells it like it is.
Roy,
Great summary – So many “nails hit on the head” you’ve pretty well sealed the coffin!
I can’t help think back to the huge flow of raw public onto basic courses in the ’70s missions – no “have to have before you can deliver.” The basic comm course – even with its 2 hour confront – all was such a revelation for people. Learning and practicing good communication, theta/mind/body concept – just what so many people needed & wanted. With some good intro lectures and conversations with genuinely concerned human beings (not videos) – these missions were flooded!
Roy,
Very accurate. Hard to read and accept, but right on the money. I was on staff at GO WW in 1976. I got weekly reports from Milan and watched them boom out the top. Their first 3 or 4 “city offices” all became future CL IV Orgs. It was a wild ride for sure. They couldn’t walk out the front door without tripping over someone and body-routing them in. It was the theta universe equivalent of a Vegas Hot Streak! Everything they touched turned to gold and it was a joy to watch!!
This lasted about two years as I recall – I’m talking the streak. The ability to turn common sense and great observation into clears and auditors. Then FOLO EU began riding them for stats and Flag missions started arriving that bit by bit, peeled away valued staff and turned Milan into an average Org.
They were well beyond St. Hill sized and staff members were surviving well. They achieved this, not because LRH was there, but because they FOCUSED on Div 6 and Div 4. Their tech/admin ratio was spot on. Everyone was auditing.
In their Premises CSW (requesting to move into a new space) I saw pictures of bathrooms being used as auditing rooms. Broom closets, spaces under stairs, storerooms in the basement, all re-purposed for auditing rooms. THIS is what created the boom. Standard tech applied in enthusiasm with no “management’ breathing fire and managing them into apathy.
Policy, sparingly applied with the SOLE intent on keeping auditors auditing, worked here. It worked anywhere, where it was an adjunct to Standard Tech correctly applied. It NEVER worked as an isolated subject because is was woefully incomplete. Policy + enthusiasm in the Tech + Spirit of Play + respect for auditing/training = Milan, Miami Org (early 70s) Orange County Org, (1980s) all the Orgs that bloomed.
Anyway, it was fun remembering Milan and what they created. Shoot, in its own way it was a renaissance.
Odd
” People’s eyes pop open when they get ruds or run an engram. That shit is the bomb.”
I assume you mistyped, and meant “reads” and not “ruds”. Or is “ruds” a Scientology term I am unfamiliar with?
Yes, it means “rudiments” as in “life rudiments” or those things that are causing current upset in life that would prevent someone from being able to focus on participating in the auditing process.