"so how did this work? 200 years ago a bunch of bak mei peeps got together in a council and decided to create a style of long fist?"
The Bai/Bak/Pak/Bak Mei system was called "Nor Mei Shaolin" before 1949,GM Cheung Lai Chen named it White Eyebrow,so if there was a "White Eyebrow Counsel" 200 years ago I doubt it had anything to do with the Monk or his system of kung-fu.