> As a historical aside the Vaad handled all communal matters, including takonos for religious standards. It was run by rabbonim, not askonim.
Vaad did address a variety of issues indeed. It included both Rabonim and not. At some point, Lita was sending 2 non-Rabbis and one Rabbi for each large community. Others did not reserve places to Rabbis and had some sort of elections. Later on, there were 2 boards – Rabbis and general, and ten they merged, etc.
Do we know any Rabbis who were involved in the Vaad?