10 Commandments for Guild Leaders

[Scorpienne]

This appeared in the middle of another thread, and I thought it was too valuable to lose in the noise.

 

What do you think? Do you agree? Why do you disagree? What needs to be added?

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showpost.php?p=4521505&postcount=26

 

To me, the biggest mistake guild leaders make is thinking they have to be 200+ members. IMO, it's an e-peen thing. There's no strength in looking at a 400+ member roster and realizing only 30 of them are active.

 

The 10 Commandments for Guild Leaders:

 

1. Clearly establishe the rules, whether they're hardcore or casual or somewhere in between. Do not invite incompatible players to your guild, no matter how much you, personally, like them.

 

2. No more than 10% of your guild should be officers-- otherwise being an officer means nothing and, as a result, being a member will mean nothing.

 

3. No one should get invited without first being sponsored by a member of the guild, and then spending some time running in a group with the members of the guild. Do not invite unknown quantities. It's lazy and will come back to bite you later on. Being at least a little bit selective also makes your existing members feel better about being part of your guild.

 

4. Probationary periods should actually mean something, as well as actual membership in the guild. If a player has generated any sort of negativity before becoming a member, that player should be asked to leave before he is promoted to "member." This will also make being promoted to member actually meaningful.

 

5. The guild leader shouldn't play politics within the guild, and shouldn't talk crap on his own members even in jest. I saw an entire 80 person guild in Warcraft collapse because someone fraps'd the guild leader talking junk on a "terribad" guild healer behind his back. People lost all respect for him immediately. The guild members should always know where they stand, and should always know approximately where other members stand. Any negative feedback should, if at all possible, be done in private. And guild leaders should never kick a member in a moment of pique. It makes you look capricious and arbitrary, like your finger is hovering over the /kick button.

 

6. Being an officer should mean something, but it shouldn't mean too much. The guild leader should be the identity of the guild, and officers should have a realm of responsibility that's pretty easy to keep up with. Officers should not have leeway to kick members except in the most egregious of situations. A bad officer can ruin a lot of your hard recruiting work if he abuses his priveleges. Also, no one in the guild, including officers, should feel like their role is a second job. Assign each an area of responsibility, but keep to the "half- hour rule" in mind; that no officer's job should take him more than half an hour per day.

 

7. A casual guild who invites anyone who seems cool should never suddenly throw together an elitist dynamic, like a set raid group run by an elitist raid leader. If there's going to be elitism in the guild (for example, a raid that you can get kicked out of for being bad) that needs to be clear when the member is invited.

 

8. The guild leader should not talk junk on members who leave. Invariably, departing members will still have friends in the guild, regardless of their reason for leaving, and a guild leader who talks junk on those members appears petty.

 

9. The guild leader needs to work harder than anyone else in the guild at helping out other guildies, and not fall into a clique, especially when it comes to running content. It's easy for a guild leader to form favorites and get groups because he's the guild leader. I've seen this happen several times, and it always, always, always turns into a bone of contention. The guild leader should be the guy in the guild who, at the end of the week, has grouped with nearly everyone in the guild for one reason or another.

 

10. The goal of the guild should be to have fun, but the GL has to realize that what's fun for one member might not be fun for another. Be diverse in guild activities. If one guild event is a guild meeting in some out-of-the-way place, the next event should be an achievements run, the next should be a crafting event, the next a PvP event, and so on. Don't get too locked into one aspect of the game or you will lose a segment of your guild.

[Sauska]

That post can be summarized in one phrase, which is actually part of the quote in your link:

 

"A successful guild will mold itself around its players instead of forcing its players into a mold. "