The WTS has been doing that since the 70's
1st century governing body
Governing Body since 1970's (5 times in 1970, 129 in 1971 in the WT)
*** w70 2/15 p. 106 par. 14 “With All That You Acquire, Acquire Understanding” ***
The governing body of the Christian congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses appreciates the importance of gaining an ever clearer understanding of God’s Word in these critical times.
Then the change
*** w71 12/15 p. 755 A Governing Body as Different from a Legal Corporation ***
ON Friday morning, October 1, 1971, the legal corporation known as Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania held its annual corporation meeting, this time in the Assembly Hall of Jehovah’s witnesses at Buckingham, Pennsylvania. All seven members of the Board of Directors of said Society attended and had a part in the program presented. The membership of this Society is limited to five hundred at the most, there being at present four hundred and fifty such members throughout the earth. Many of these members attended this annual corporation meeting in person, still more by means of proxy. All together, 2,076 attended this corporation meeting, doubtless all of them being interested Christian witnesses of Jehovah.
At this meeting a question came up and was discussed from the platform. It was as to what the relationship is between the Board of Directors of the Society as a legal corporation and the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses. Are they the same, identical, or are they different? Such questions were due to the fact that it has been published in print that the Governing Body of Jehovah’s witnesses at headquarters is associated with the Board of Directors of the said Society. How did this come about, and does this make the Board of Directors the same as the Governing Body of Jehovah’s witnesses all the earth around?
