This is an excellent summation of the process that took place in the "districts." I especially wanted to add a comment regarding the next to the last
bolded line below.
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sushigrl
Once after I left the org, I attended a "special" womens' division meeting designed to attract people to the org. I had not been practicing for a while, but decided to give it a shot again. When I attended the meeting, I was assigned to a new member who had recently been appointed to a Jr Group Chief. She had been chanting 6 months. I instantly remembered why I left the org in the first place. I did not want to participate in tiny jr group ra ra meetings led by my new jr group chief, nor did I want home visits from her or to be badgered by phone calls. Neither did I want a person I had not even met properly delving into my personal life to see if chanting could "fix" something. This is the way of life in the Gakkai. Information gathering for the purpose of membership control and manipulation. No code of conduct crap will ever heal the "information about members" driven organization that is the SGI.
The org had and I think still has a structure dividing areas in the country in to Areas of course, and then it would be territories within those areas, then Headquarters, Chapters, Districts, Groups, Jr Groups, individuals. Each level of the org had mens' division, young mens' division, womens' division, etc. Often as a jr group "chief", you were given a list of "taiten" members in your division to chant for and recruit back to the org. I have heard lots of stories where well meaning new members would call older non practicing members because it was their "responsibility" to "help" them.
"how ARE you?" "I'd like to invite you to a meeting we're having about blah blah blah that's going to be really great. Blah Blah is going to be there...we miss you! (I've never met you)
Each level of the org would have meetings designed to encourage that level to progress in their propagation efforts. It was a well oiled machine. Often though, the districts were comprised of more leaders than membership warranted, all because certain members were able to stick to the regime long enough and were rewarded with position. This is where things got really hairy and boring. At times, certain non producing districts would be absorbed into larger districts, more leaders made, some positions lost, even to the point of telling members which meetings they could attend as residents in a certain area.
Friendships got ripped apart in the name of organization and efficiency, especially in the early 80s with the grand organizational reorganization brooha.
I could never go back.
One thing I remembered while reading this, was how groups would be separated, even when they didn't want to be, and "rearranged", sometimes leaving some people to the point of tears.
Certain "districts" would want certain stronger, well performing members in their
own districts. There was also always an unwritten code and constant "competition" going on between the "districts" in each "chapter" to outdo each other - in terms of meeting attendance numbers, subscription numbers, shakubuku numbers, guest numbers, zaimu numbers, daimoku toso hour numbers --> numbers, numbers, numbers, always a numbers game.
If one district "lost" to another, there would be renewed determination and fervor to "win" the numbers game the next time around. If you "won", then you had to maintain your "district pride" and surpass your current winning numbers with even higher numbers next time, or risk "backsliding" in your "district practice."
Up all of this another dimension and you have the same scenario and strategy playing out on the" chapter" and "headquarters" level, and so on.
Eventually, when big convention time came around, it would be official "RAH! RAH!" time to demonstrate which HQ/Area/Territory could have the best numbers and enthusiasm on display and outdo the other "groups" - with everyone maneuvering to receive the coveted praise of the next level of gakkai leadership, all the way up the ladder. Once the self-laudatory and congratulatory speeches were all completed (militaristic, yelling, and vacuous speeches that always left me wanting to bang my head on the nearest wall, same theme/type of talks over and over again), everyone could then go back to their respective areas/districts, breath a collective sigh of relief and then start prepping for repeating the process from step one again.
Of course, it was all for your own welfare and fortune, not for the cult. What an enormous waste of time and energy it all was.