It is a system that produces elders who are rigid, inflexible, and woefully unprepared for a role of providing spiritual guidance and moral support. It should be no surprise that many of them let it get to their heads, as it is the first --and possibly only-- position of authority that they have. They are utterly unqualified for the most important task that they will be asked to perform. It's recipe for disaster.
Hi TonusOH - this was 100% the situation here. Newly appointed elder, custodian in the school district (nothing wrong with that), on an elder body with educated/USC grad/HS teacher/executives. This guy corrected someone when they said "podium" instead of "speaker stand". I don't have time ATM to write this crazy story, but in the end, years later, this guy turned out to be flaming alcoholic, and I think I even heard he had to apologize from the platform.
In this situation, my roommate's elder father told us the no winning with elders, guided us on how to handle the situation. He told us to inquire if it was a committee meeting, (it wasn't), and to change the venue and time for the discussion to what we wanted. We ended up in control of the discussion and correcting new guy of his false accusations. We were both managers and used to dealing with all kinds of people situations, and this new inexperienced guy thought he could trick us with his stupid questions. The other elder was so embarrassed, he said, "let's wrap this up" and read us an encouraging scripture and commended us on something. He was the educated high school teacher elder.
It was a lesson I never forgot.