Oh, ok. So they did have a chance to go in the building. Interesting.

They always kinda were treading water, anyway. Sometimes getting some new people, but then others were leaving. Both staff and public.

I'd guess it's gotten worse now from the sound of it.

Fluff:

How crowded was the Seattle Org & parking lot during the first year or two you were onlines there?

Well, they've only had their own parking lot a couple years. They moved into the building that has one attached just around the time I was going off lines.

Before that, their building was adjacent to a pay parking lot and most people parked on the street.

And before that, they were down the street with similar situation.

I would say, though, that when I was on lines, I'd see ebbs and flows in student population. I sometimes saw several students, 3, 4 or even a couple more- in the KTL/LOC courseroom, maybe a dozen or more in the Academy (evenings, I'm talking about) and anywhere from 3 to 10 in the basic course room.

Daytimes - which I rarely went in there- maybe four or five people in the Academy and either none or one or two in the other courserooms.

Weekends, less than on week nights but more than in the day.

But I had also seen times when there'd be nobody in the KTL/LOC courseroom and just a few people in the Academy at night (Foundation hours) which is usually peak time for students.

I also saw staff member population ebb and flow.

A very very good friend of mine who'd been hanging on FOREVER on staff who we all thought it would take a stick of metaphorical dynamite to get him to leave, left staff right after I got expelled. I have often wondered if the two events were related. I dunno. I'm not in contact with him.

I saw Seattle Org (and NYC when I was there) tread water for so very long but given all the criticism and not just the criticism but most especially the church's ABYSSMAL handling thereof, it seems that sooner or later it'd catch up to them and they'd have a real honest to god drop in attendance (and staff population, too!) rather than a temporary ebb.

http://www.seattlebuildingproject.org/

......................
and here the email send out by the guy who runs the fundraising:

Subject: LATEST NEWS AND FUNDRAISING STATUS UPDATE

Last night (Monday evening) the magic amount needed to close this building was reviewed and at the beginning of the evening (given all pledges and projected cycles occur), we needed an additional $711,000. After some new donations and some pledges being paid off, the figure is estimated at about $680,000 to go.

The fundraising team and many-many volunteers are working on this all out and going for the win. We need you doing this too, for only an all-field all-out tone 40 over the top assault will spell WIN. This is our time, we all win if each and every single Scientologist does his utmost. And by utmost we mean the amount needed done by each person to get a purchased building - this is of course - what it takes. We have 5 more days of fundraising to go.

Fortunately, we now have things worked out so that all money must be in by the end of Sunday as overnight Sunday to Monday the amounts must post so that Monday we can transfer the money to Escrow for the purchase on Tuesday. This is happening. Join us in creating this Win.

Contact everyone you know to donate every last cent possible.push yourself to do this and more, and on Saturday evening be at the new building at 7 pm for our final evening of this massive OT Achievement.that will surely rock the entire Scientology World.

Contact every single Scientologist in the entire field and get them all there for this Saturday final evening and the big Win. We need you doing this all out from this moment till done 5 days from now. This is the way we win this game.

"Courage could be summed up in: one, being willing to cause something and two, going ahead to achieve the effect one has postulated against any and all odds. There doesn't happen to be any such thing as failure. There just doesn't happen to be any such thing.

But of course, you all want to agree there's such a thing as failure so that you can have a reason to fail so you won't have to be cause. That's another thing. But there isn't any reason to fail. There's no excuse for any failure that ever occurred anyplace in history, except this-except this: There was just not quite enough carry-through and push-through.

There isn't even such a thing as 'carrying on too long in one direction toward the postulated effect.' There isn't even that. There isn't even such a thing as 'there are too many odds.' That doesn't exist. Nor there isn't such a thing as saying, 'Well, what I postulated was unreasonable and therefore I have to abandon that goal now because it was unreasonable,' and so forth.

Chris Finn

Very interesting. I am going to drive by there to see what it's like. I'll do a little impromptu public record search, too. It won't be a complete one as I'm not a title officer but I do deal with real property and can find out a couple things, probably.

another mail on the subject said:

"Monday we can transfer the money to Escrow for the purchase on Tuesday. "


Is Escrow a real estate agency?

No. In WA, when it's time to close on a real estate transaction, an escrow company is used. In some states, it's an attorney or title company that does it. In WA, however, it generally goes from title co to escrow co. The buyer and seller go to the escrow co, sign the documents, provide any proofs of insurance and anything else they've been asked to bring, fork over any funds they've been asked to bring.

Escrow is also a generic term for monies being held by a recognized third party prior to a transaction or other event. Attorneys have escrow accounts.

When a person puts earnest money down on a house, that money is held in escrow until the closing occurs.

If they are about to go to Escrow, they are about to sign closing papers.

thanks. Another word to my vocabulary.

Escrow can also be used for things other than money.

Escrow is just an in-between party that receives the "things" from each of 2 parties SO THAT, in absence of their service, one side delivers and the other side doesn't - so then one side gets cheated. Escrow prevents this from happening.

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/escrow

Escrow is a legal arrangement whereby a thing (often money, but sometimes other property such as art, a deed of title, or software source code) is delivered to a third party (called an escrow agent) to be held in trust pending a contingency or the fulfillment of a condition or conditions in a contract. Upon that event occurring, the escrow agent will deliver the thing to the proper recipient, otherwise the escrow agent is bound by her or his fiduciary duty to maintain the escrow account.

Real estate agents are in some jurisdictions considered to act as escrow agents when they accept deposits for the purchase of real property.

Software source code escrow agents hold source code in escrow in the event that the creator of the source code refuses or is unable to release the source code to the user of specialised software if that software no longer functions or in certain other events.

The word "escrow" is derived from the Middle English word "escrowl", meaning "scroll".

I went in and looked at the link some more. First they were about 600 or 700k down. Then they got a million dollars. What happened was 3 Scn families- two of whom I know, one slightly, one pretty well- went in and coughed up a million. Out of their own pockets. These are very nice decent (though party line) people who really love Scn, love their org and want to go up the bridge. And the thing is, this money would have paid for the services they've not yet done. And I really doubt very much that they have a/p'd all the OT levels at the AO they plan to go to. I really doubt that.

CofS has had building funds for orgs for years. They supposedly cannot be withdrawn from without int management signatures. But I know that they were looted earlier because even with putting 10% in this fund, they had far far less in it than they would have,had 10% been going in with no withdrawls.

So public were asked to make up for the shortfall. 3 families- none of whom are millionaires- coughing up a total of one million.

I know some people won't like to hear this but I liked that Org and I'm happy for them that they have this building. I really am. But I do not approve of their method of paying for it. Int Management should have bought it for them or assisted with the purchase of it, with matching funds or something. And these people should be "comped", so to speak, with a lifetime of auditing or courses or something.

I feel that members are asked to give and give and give- sometimes for no exchange, not even horribly priced auditing and meters.

And I know that if any of these people pissed off CofS, the contributions they made would be quickly forgotten. I know this.

Ball Of Fluff,

It is my understanding that Int Management will not match any funds.

It is up to the "Public" to raise the funds for a new building, as it is the "Publics" responsibility to "have & create" a new building. That was my experience.

There is no true exchange. It is all based on give, give, give.The exchange from Ron/Co$ point of view is that Ron provided the knowledge to "The Total Bridge To Freedom" where one can achieve immortality. They justify that there is no true price for the secrets to endless life so one must constantly and persistently give to achieve the goal. That is what I saw, experienced and even told when I was involved.

You stated...
------------------------------------------
And I know that if any of these people pissed off CofS, the contributions they made would be quickly forgotten. I know this.
------------------------------------------

I agree with you and I'm sure many others will as well.

I wish there was fairness in this system. But there is not.

Are they moving to a new building, or just purchasing the one they currently occupy?

Oh, I know they wouldn't match- I was just kind of pipe dreaming- saying what I'd like to have happen. Sure, you're right.

Although they DID claim to buy a bldg for Hamburg Org around- what- the mid 90's I think??

Oh you guys, if you knew how nice (if indoc'd and party line) and idealistic those people who ponied up w/ the dough are...and they're not getting their bridges out of it or anything...

They are going from renting to owning. They have wanted to do this for a long long time. I used to talk to some of the people there about that.

It's a goal of most, if not all Orgs. If they don't already own the building, they want to be able to do so one day. And they don't get any help from uplines.