In the 50's, 60's, 70's, when I was an active JW, the traveling overseers both District and Circuit,(before Elder arrangement) came around to visit local congregations.
Two points to be made about this. When Pastor Russell died, Rutherford wanted federal control of the varied congregations for himself. Under Russell, all the groups were independent and unencumbered by an organization. Rutherford sent his agents to these independent groups to achieve three things.
1.Replace Bible reading with the reading of his (Rutherford's writings).
2.Select people to work with at a local level who would be amenable to outside authority.
3.Get all the ducks in a row with himself at the Chief Administrator and answerable to his dictates.
When this pressure commenced, you can imagine how independents bristled and resisted the yoke of Watch Tower supervision!
However, after losing the greater part of Pastor Russell's readership, Rutherford built an iron grip mechanism with carrots and sticks.
By 1931, Rutherford was ready to come up with a new name identity to create a BRAND. Jehovah's Witnesses is a name which reflects his
legal background and legalist mind. In a court system you have District courts, Circuit courts and judges. That is why JW's have District and Circuit
assemblies. Courts also have Witnesses, as well.
The mainstay of Rutherford's crackdown on maintaining pressure was the men he sent out to eavesdrop and report back. It was a kind of "Early Warning System." Rutherford could head off rebellions and crush power grabs before they got out of hand by relying on his traveling snitches who had been hand-picked for their loyalty to the Judge himself.
While Rutherford was alive, the good old boys network of privileges and perks was administered according to his whims and the loyalty of his agents. After his death, however, a burden of some weight accrued.
Traveling agents of the WTS acquired travel trailers and 8 cyl engine Buicks to tow their "motel" arrangement with them as they went. More and more they sought hand-outs and local charity.
The politics becomes obvious. If you wanted a good report and you didn't deserve one, it might occur a bribe of sorts could work wonders.
Eventually this sort of thing would become obvious. The Society began swapping rich areas with poor areas if a Circuit or District Overseer got too greedy.
If health problems arose--you were on your own! You could be "fired" for taking too much time off for medical reasons.
When fewer and fewer volunteers appeared willing to take on such thankless and unrewarding work, the WTS scraped together a pension system as a means of insurance against hard times to come.
Anyone who knows how things really operate in JW-land knows that Circuit and District Overseer/Elders have been paid pretty good money for years via "the green handshake". Many of these men in the U.S. average about $500 a week, free and clear, with no taxes paid due to the "vow of poverty" that all such Watchtower officials now take. It's really a scam on the Internal Revenue Service. And remember that these guys have virtually all of their weekly expenses paid on top of the green handshake, so almost everything they get this way can be banked or used for discretionary spending.
Geez, I wish I had $25,000 a year free and clear!
There were some fine people doing that work and there were those less so.
I doubt any of us knew any who ended up happy with their retirement situation when they became to old and infirm to do the work!