Being an elder really does open your eyes to the in-fighting that goes on within bodies of elders and sometimes between the bodies of elders of one congregation and another. And then the situation where you have to deal with something tricky but but elder X 'knows' some one at Bethel.
This happened to me several times and one occasion Bethel wrote a very snotty letter to our body elders (though in reality me) about a case that they really didn't know all the facts about having only heard one side of things. So much for being fair judges.