By Mike Rinder
One of the tragedies of the reign of Miscavige is the utter disregard for staff well-being.
There have been LRH orders extant since the late 70’s to resolve staff pay. He identified it as a major reason for orgs not expanding and later as a key block to accomplishing the objective of LRH ED 339R – Saint Hill Size Orgs.
If you cannot afford to live as a staff member, you either moonlight or leave staff. Many dedicated individuals have joined staff thinking that they would be able to contribute to expanding the org and as a result, make a viable living through staff. But the problem is the finance system that orgs are forced to operate on leaves so little for staff pay that even when the org grows, the percentage of income devoted to staff pay is so small, and so much comes “off the top” that the increase in the number of staff needed to deliver what is required to sustain increased income simply divides the staff pay sum by more people. There is a fault in the SYSTEM. It’s well known.
Why didn’t this ever change if LRH said it should? Back in the early 80’s there was a project called “The Staff Pay Project”. It was not completed before LRH went off the lines. And from that time forward, Miscavige has had literally hundreds of submissions on staff pay, none of which he would approve. There are probably hundreds of pages of transcripts of rambling meetings Miscavige had with International Management and Finance personnel (back in the “good old days” when they were nominally on post) where he pontificated at length about what should be done. Problem is (as others have described) the “direction” that he gave was invariably confusing and often times contradictory. And then any submission to him would be rejected because it didn’t “comply” with some line in a 50 page transcript of his ramblings. Tens of thousands of hours of executive time have been spent M9ing the endless transcripts from DM, then putting together submissions to him attempting to satisfy all his dictates (literally an impossible task as one day he would say one thing and then the next it would be the opposite). So, why isn’t there a workable staff pay system? Because to this day Miscavige refuses to put one out. (In case someone out there saw a Staff Pay system in 2004 that was “done personally by COB” that he PR’d as being a solution to staff pay, I ask you – did it work?
THE CANCER OF THE IAS
There is a second problem with staff pay: the takeover and dominance of Scientology by the IAS and the proliferation of building and library donations. Funds channeled into these endless sinkholes do not go on the regular org GI and Financial Planning lines. So, funds that could be being donated for services (which are part of the org GI and FP) are being siphoned off. Miscavige doesn’t want to interrupt these Condition 0 Exchange activities (after all, all you need to “deliver” for a hundred thousand donated to the IAS is a pin, a trophy and some imbecilic title). You can’t increase staff pay or build orgs while still having the IAS as the “senior organization” in Scientology. Hence, Miscavige’s decision was easy, if shortsighted: pour the coals on the IAS and org staff be damned.
Just as an aside on the IAS – it is a Third Dynamic engram by definition. It was an arbitrary implemented at one time to solve the problem of creating an untouchable pool of money out of the reach of the IRS that could be used to pay off the IRS if they did not grant the Church tax exempt status. After 1993, it had served its purpose and should have been disbanded and the public should have been informed that it was no longer needed. But, by that time it was a cash cow for Miscavige that was too good to discard, no matter the havoc it would wreak on organizations.
If you have read the LRH article “What Your Fees Buy” you will be familiar with the fact that LRH intended the fees for SERVICES to not only support the local organization, but to fund the defense of the religion, to finance projects to bring LRH tech into different sectors of society and to promote Dianetics and Scientology. Following are quotes from “What Your Fees Buy”:
It costs money to bring cases up to the US Supreme Court level as we have. The legal defense expenses we have in a dozen countries is not small.
So a portion of your fee goes to keeping the subject available to you and to the world.
Your fee supports a long and complex set of communication lines by which tech and admin can be cared for rapidly.
A portion of your fee just the other day began a survey of a backward country to introduce high speed educational processes to bring their people quickly from the Stone Age up to present time. The “Peace Corps” was also there on cushy government funds building houses for a big construction company at a nice profit. But we, unsupported, began the effective work actually needed there to help the people.
A tiny bit of your fee neated up an area ruined for the Americans by the American Navy.
Small parts of your fee heal up a lot of things over the world.
But the biggest part of your fee stays right in your area. It is used to make training and processing and data available to the next fellow first by keeping the org there and second by letting him know about it and third by making as sure as possible that the training and processing he gets is standard and effective.
Your fee keeps the nearest org alive and functioning and the environment safe.
Anyone who has ever been approached by an IAS reg will find a lot of this eerily familiar. This is exactly what those IAS regges say the money is being spent on. So, one may ask, if this is what the money is being spent on WHY HAVENT THE COST OF SERVICES BEEN REDUCED? And as a side note – IAS funds are ONLY spent when Miscavige wants them spent. Those massive “campaigns” that are announced at the IAS events have a few bucks thrown at them to show at the event, and then they die, and just to dispel another lie that has been repeated forever, the IAS had NOTHING to do with “The Battle of Portland,” NO IAS funds were ever used for legal, PR or Crusade activities.
Instead of pouring the coals on LRH’s purpose and LRH ED 339R by having the correct single finance channel (through orgs) and making it possible for our staffs to live by implementing the appropriate staff pay system, Miscavige diverted and channeled those funds to the IAS, his off-source ideal org strategy or his latest and “greatest” scheme leaving staff destitute and orgs bereft of the energy they so vitally needed.
THE FINAL NAIL IN THE COFFIN OF STAFF
But there was something beyond even that. LRH ED 339R was written FOR STAFF. It gave them the Birthday Game and the target of building their org to the Size of Old St Hill. And something else in 339R was even MORE IMPORTANT.
LRH knew that an average staff member could not attain OT. Even if they received enough staff pay to be able to live, they still would not have enough disposable income to pay for OT levels. And many could not afford to go off to LA or Copenhagen or St Hill for months to do their OT levels – their posts would suffer. He had a brilliant solution – the UNIVERSE CORPS. It made it possible for staff to be real Scientologists and achieve the gains of the OT Levels. LRH ED 339R says that EVERY org that reaches the size of Old St Hill would be rewarded with a Universe Corps sent from Management that would move all staff in the org up to Clear and through the OT Levels. It wasn’t something available to public, it was a reward for the dedication of being a staff member. Right in their own org they would be able to do the OT Levels. This was a massive change. Never before had OT levels been available outside AOs.
But, there was a problem. This required training staff and sending them out to the orgs.
And of those orgs back in the day that were awarded St Hill Size – Tokyo, Orange County, LA Org, Tampa, Hamburg, Munich, Joburg etc. – how many of them do you think have a Universe Corps today? When they were sent (some orgs back then actually had a Universe Corps) they were soon ripped off. Tampa were told that their “Universe Corps” was the FSO!
And today? LRH ED 339R is forgotten. Replaced by Miscavige’s Idle Org strategy. Perfect. Idle Orgs don’t require stats. And certainly don’t require a Universe Corps. They don’t require a Management to recruit and train a Universe Corps. Idle Orgs – Miscavige’s brilliant solution that buries 339R (and the staff along with it) under a pile of PR bullshit. LRH ED 339R is a distant memory, along with the concept that an org is a friendly place where people can find help and like-minded individuals, not just a gathering place for vulture regges waiting to pounce on anyone who walks in the door.
Where has the compassion for people that is the very hallmark of LRH and his technology gone? It’s sure hard to find in the Church of Mestology.
Moving On Up a Little Higher 