Theos-Talk Archives (June 1996 Message tl00817)

>>Do we have an accurate head count as of a given (recent) date,
>>by any chance?

My most recent census for the Adyar TS is for December 1992.  The
worldwide total was 31,315 members and 1,101 Lodges.  This total
was taken after the Canadian Section expulsion.  I don't know the
totals for 1995, but I've heard that it has gone down since 1992.
The largest section in 1992 was India with 10,925 members.  The
US had 4,748 in 1992, but this has also gone down.  The growth
for the Adyar TS is in New Zealand and the So. American
Countries.  The other countries remain stable, go down or get
expelled.

TS Pasadena and ULT are problematical because membership
statistics are not published, nor is membership an issue in these
organizations as it is in the Adyar TS.  The ULT does not have a
membership, but an "associateship."  You sign a card and you are
on the mailing list for life.  But there are no dues or follow up
to see if everyone on the list is still interested.  But it is up
to the associates to send in change of address cards etc., so
their mailing list does have some meaning.  Technically, if you
count everyone that is still alive who signed an associateship
card as "members" and stayed in touch, then the "membership" may
be around 5,000.  If you count the number of people who actually
attend Lodges worldwide, my guess is that the "membership" my be
closer to 1,000.

The Pasadena TS is harder to join.  They still want sponsoring
members like in the days of HPB.  They have no apparent desire to
expand their membership at this time.  They also don't collect
dues nor do they publish their membership totals.  I would guess
(this is just a guess) that they have over a thousand members
worldwide.

So giving 30,000 for the Adyar TS, 5,000 to ULT, lets say 1500 to
Pasadena, you still have under 40,000 worldwide, but I believe
that there are at least a thousand times that many people (40
million) who would happily be a part of the TM if it wasn't so
pathological, small minded, or let us just say, limited by its
terrible karma.

On the other hand, we can critically look at that 40,000 and say
that it is over blown.  Of the 5,000 ULT'es perhaps only a 1,000
are active in Lodges.  Of the Adyar TS, with its 30,000 members,
probably their are only 6,000 active members.  I pick this number
based upon my experience that Lodges typically only have 20% of
their total membership to be really active.  When you consider
that half of the American membership is "at large" then world
wide truly active membership in the Adyar TS could be as low as
3,000.  It all depends upon how you want to play with the
numbers.


JHE
------------------------------------------
   |Jerry Hejka-Ekins,                      |
      |Member TI, TSA, TSP, ULT                |
         |Please reply to: jhe@toto.csustan.edu   |
            |and CC to jhejkaekins@igc.apc.org       |
               ------------------------------------------