Many thanks to Ban from Musings of an Angry Bansidhe for the banner update. This cool chick played on the same EQ2 server as I did and I’m ashamed to say I never got to know her there. But the interwebz has corrected this oversight and I found her website full of awesome signatures. She’ll probably do one for you if you ask nicely and provide her with all the information she needs. Remember this wonderful woman is willing to give her time and energy to you for nothing more than the enjoyment of making cool signatures and banners. You should respect that gift by giving her all the information she needs to do it the first time. Think of it as an exercise of those great communication skills you need as a leader!

Step 1 - Gather the information you need.

• Faction and Server Type - i.e. A US-PVE (Means Alliance, US (neener Canadians!) Player vs. Environment). Say this first, that way people who aren’t eligible to apply to you guild won’t waste their time.
  
• Time Commitments - If your guild raids from 7pm to 11pm Sunday through Thursday they need to know. If your guild holds candle light initiation sessions every 3rd Thursday of the month they need to know.
• Guild Focus - What is the purpose of you guild? Are you focused on raiding, leveling alts, role playings, pvp, community? The way to attract people who share your goals is to make them clear from the beginning. Bikutanda of Nazgrel muses on this topic here if you’d like an example.
  
• Brief Listing of Guild Accomplishments - How far along are you towards your goal? 4/6 SSC? Newly started guild? Well respected role playing guild that runs events 3 times a month? Some people want to help build a guild from the ground up. Others want to come into something more established. By letting people know where you are in terms of your goal you attract people who want to be there with you.
  
• What the guild is looking for - You’re making a recruitment post so clearly your guild has needs. Tell them about your ideal candidate. Let them make a self check to make sure they are what you are looking for.
  
• About your server - Most of these recruitment posts are made on cross server platforms and your candidate may be making a leap of faith to join you. Tell them about your community so they know what they may be getting into if the initiation period doesn’t work out.
  
• How to find out more - You can’t list every relevant piece of information in your recruitment post. Tell the candidate where to find more information if what they’ve found interests them.
  
• How to apply - Sometimes they know all the need to right from the recruitment post, tell them how to apply.
  
• Contact Information - Some people want to speak to a person while they make these decisions, tell them who to talk to, and how to find them.

Step 2 - Figure out where to say it.

• Realm forums - Find your realm under the “WoW Realm Forums” section on the WoW Forums - Forum Index page. If you are interested in drawing apps from the pool of people on your server who might be interested this is a great place to post.
• WoW Guild Recruitment Forums - This is a great way to find cross server candidates. Now broken in to Alliance and Whorde errr Horde sections.
  
• Bosskillers.com - Bosskillers has a guild search page. Go here to find out more information about how to submit your guild. This is a great place to find raiding applicants.
• MMO-Champion.com - MMO-Champion has several recruitment forums broken down by region and server type. Again this is a great place to pick up a raider.
  
• ShadowPriest.com - Here are their recruitment forums. This specialized site is a great place to pick up a raiding shadow priest. You may get other interested classes as well (I mean, shadow priests have friends too right?) but you’re mostly hitting shadow priests with this one.
• TankSpot.com - Here are their recruitment forums. Guess what you’re attract here? DING DING, raiding tanks.
• World of Raids - They used to have recruitment forums, but this post indicates something new and exciting is afoot. This is another place to recruit raiders.
• Wow Lemmings - I love this tool. This is an aggregate of the posts in the official recruitment forums, but you can search it. We use this tool to find people who’ve posted that they are looking for a home that meet preset requirements we have already set. You will have to post your recruitment notice in their thread on the official forums to contact them.
  

Note: You might notice, a lot of my links involve wow raiding. Well, that’s because I lead a raiding guild in wow. If you have links to other locations, I’m all ears. I’d love to make this post more accessible to all the different types of guild leaders.

Step 3 - Figure out what they want to hear.
Recently I came across a post from Pugnacious Priest titled “Guild Audit - and Guild Loyalty.” In this post she discusses leaving her current guild and what she’s looking for in a new guild. This is great information if you’re trying to recruit Pug, but what I really want to take away from this is the insight into her mind. Out there is your new member, looking for what your guild has to offer.

Take a moment and think about what your ideal candidate wants to see in a new guild. Are they looking for a guild that’s on the brink of something new and needs to draw people from all over to join in the effort? Are they looking for a home that’s established and want to drop rank in file with a group of people who know what they are doing? Are they just looking for a place that recognizes WoW is one thing on a list of many balanced priorities? What does your new member want? Make sure your post tells them you have it.

Step 4 - Personality.
Your guild has a personality. It has to, it’s comprised of people who have a personality. If your guild is business like, make sure that comes across in your tone. Playful? Have some fun with your post. You get my point. There is something that makes your guild unique. Make sure you play that up!

Step 5 - Putting it all together.
You’ve gathered them all together, now it’s time to put them into a mix bowl and beat them until something intelligent comes out. Remember that some of the information I told you to gather might not be needed in your post because it’s covered where you post. I.E It’d be pretty silly to include that you’re an Alliance guild if you’re posting in the Official WoW Recruitment Alliance forum. When I reply to an individuals post in the recruitment forums, I try and make sure my reply indicates that I’ve read what they have to say about themselves.

Sample - Below is a sample of a well written (in my opinion) recruitment post.*

The Guild of Server is looking for a few raiding members to fill out our raid composition in SWP.

Currently we are looking for a Shadow Priest, Resto Druid, Holy Paladin, and Elemental Shaman.

About us: The Guild was formed in July of 2007. During that time we have progressed to full clears of MH and BT and are currently working on Kalaecgos. Our raid times are Sun-Thurs 7pm-11pm EST and we expect 75% attendance, though we certainly understand things come up and will always work with individuals on that.

Our guild is very personnel oriented and we are looking for skilled players as well as folks that are decent and can fit into our guild. Before we even see any potential applicants play we like to talk to them to see if they will be a good fit for us, and if we will be somewhere they want to call their raiding home.

Our loot system is a fair one that doesn’t include a “pecking order” we run an EP/GP system which can be explained when you speak to me. There have been some variations to this in the interest of fairness.

Our guild does not make the GL’s rich. All items accumulated in raiding that are not wanted are distributed in cash at least once per month including flasks (marks).

About The Server: The Server is one of the oldest and most established PVE servers around. We have recently experienced a high number of PVP transfers due to both the quality and speed of queue times in both arenas and battlegrounds.


If interested please apply at our website or contact one of our officers in game. You may also email me at EmailTheGuild1375@email.com

http://theguildwebsite.com

Recruitment Guy (you CAN contact me during raid times)
GMX- GM
GMY -GM
MeleeGuy-Melee Role leader
AdminGuy-EP/GP Officer
RaidLeaderGuy-Raid Leader/Caster role leader

*Note: Details changed to protect the guild that allowed me to borrow this.

The Guild’s Birthday is in four days. This was already an incredible milestone for us and one I’ve been eagerly awaiting. We have an in-game event scheduled titled “Operation Shock Monkey” (That’s all I’m telling you until I can provide you with screenshots lest I ruin the surprise). We’re making T-shirts for the guild to order from Cafepress if they want. I’ve put a fair amount of energy into both of these things. What I didn’t know is they had a surprise for me.

Last night I was taken out to dinner to celebrate a personal milestone. When we arrived at my favorite restaurant I was escorted to a table with a few people I already knew and a few strangers. I looked closer and realized wait, I’ve seen these people before, on our guild’s real life picture thread. Several of my guildmates from Virginia as well as one from Ohio got together to surprise me. They’d somehow kept this secret from me through a month’s worth of planning.

It was incredible to sit around a table with these people, most of whom had been with the guild since close to day one and just enjoy each other. We talked about game stuff, real life and just got to know each other. In fact we had so much fun that the restaurant closed and we moved the party back to my house, until 2 am.

Highlights of the night

• The surprise of discovering their plot.
• Trying to sort out real life names, and settling for character names instead. (That’s right I answered to Auz in public, which wasn’t as bad as “Fizwidget” or “Gumibear”)
• The Moonkin “Cawing” at the waitress. (Poor dear, but I left her a nice tip)
• A DPS warrior pulling threat on a set of crutches.
• Our offtank discussing his need to generate more threat and then pointing at three of our warlocks and saying because of you bastards!
• Telling our favorite Mikedabutcha stories. (Missed you Mike, but the nieces are cute enough to make up for it.)
• Discussing what would happen if everyone told the REAL reason they caused a wipe.
• The fiasco of getting everyone from the restaurant to my house. (Let’s just say, if you want directions from Auz, ask for them ahead of time. No you take a right, wait a left. I don’t know)
• Hearing their stories of previous guilds and discovering that they really valued what we have going on.
• Explaining to one of our guildmate’s girlfriend that I was his other woman, and I was sorry I took him away for 20 hours a week.
• Hearing from the same girlfriend how Sunday night dates were EXPRESSLY forbidden as that was progression night.

It was an incredibly geeky night and the most fun I’ve had in a while. I cannot believe that these guys put so much time and effort into surprising me. I often take a step back and look at my guild amazed. It’s incredible that what started as a conversation in my living room with two of my best friends turned into this. The people we’ve drawn and the things we’ve done astound me. There are times I look back and think to myself, how did I convince people of this caliber to follow me? Like a parent, I feel like I’ve raised something better and stronger than myself and I couldn’t be more proud. Thanks guys, the effort you’ve made and the way you made me feel last night, reminds me WHY I put so much time into this.

Thanks Cathmor from Eye for an Eye for this BA Shared Topic idea.

Top 10 Unforgettable Warcraft Moments (for a Raiding GM)

• Turning in the charter
• First guild only boss kill
• Killing the last boss of any instance for the first time
• The first time you have no open recruitment positions
• The first time someone asks “What’s a good guild on this server?” in trade chat and someone not associated with your guild mentions your guild.
• Seeing a raider develop under your tutelage
• The first time they “do it without you.” - It takes a strong leader to be irreplaceable, it takes a stronger leader to create a guild that can function without them.
  
• Overcoming adversity - Even you were struggling, but you pulled through and the guild is stronger now.
• The first time there’s nothing left for you to kill so you have to give raiders the night off.
  
• The first time someone tells you “You have a member for life.” and you believe them.

And a Song

I was learning some new audio software and recorded a round. Given the lack of trolls (though I did get a Tauren) and overwhelming positive feedback from the last time I sang for ya, I thought I’d share again.

The file can be downloaded here if the embedding doesn’t work for you.

Recently there have been many great posts in the blog-o-sphere about why raiding guilds die. If you want more information about why guilds die or struggle, I suggest reading Lume’s post or Jennie Lees of WoW Insider’s post. The fact that they were prompted to make these posts is a sign of the impact of recent increased mortality rate we’re experiencing in raiding guilds. Those two have done a marvelous job explaining the why of guild deaths, so rather than rehash the same topic I’m going to cover the how of guild deaths.

On our server, the number one progression guild recently called it quits. This prompted an almost immediate invasion of drama into our realm forums. To be honest, I avoided the whole thing until one of my friends suggested it might make good post material. The end result, honestly sickened me. Thirteen pages of people pointing fingers, making personal attacks, posting embarrassing pictures, and of course, trolls on alts. The drama was so inflammatory that people who quit the game renewed their accounts just to get a piece of the action.

Emboldened by my previous success taming a troll, I couldn’t help but try my hand at calming this cesspool. I posted the following in our realm forums.

Good luck with rebuilding [Name Removed] and with your fresh start [New Guild].
It’s a sad day to see one of the guilds that has defined Medivh raiding fall. It’s even sadder to see good names dragged through the mud with the finger pointing that follows.
A guild with a strong foundation like [Name Removed] can easily survive just one breaking point, but it’s hard to recover when several points break at once. I’m certain that the truth of the matter lies with a combination of several differing points of view coinciding with real life robbing the guild of the people who had the ability to help these points of view reconcile.
I hope that the strong players in these guilds will spend more energy in creating or finding the environment they want to be in rather than tearing each other down. All of you are too good to waste your time feeding the voyeuristic drama hounds that are eating this up.

After that it seems that the drama quieted. If that’s due to people finally just running out of steam or the possibility that I’ve stumbled upon some sort of magical device anti-troll weapon, we may never know.

Given the intense drama a raiding guild’s death has the potential to cause, what steps can you take when closing your shop to calm the drama?

1) Accept Responsibility - You stepped up as a leader within this guild. Regardless of what other causes there may have been, you were steering the ship when it went down. The quickest way to prevent people from blaming each other is to accept responsibility yourself. This doesn’t mean you have to beat yourself up or allow others to beat you up. It just means saying, “Guys I’m sorry, I know I signed up to lead you through this, but in the end it was more than I could handle.” It’s human nature to want to blame someone else or explain away the guild’s death. The reasonable people in your guild will see what lead to the guild’s downfall. The unreasonable people in your guild, well they are going to be unreasonable no matter what you tell them.

2) Divide the Goods! - The guild’s dead you’re done right? Nah, the guild had stuff and your members are going to want that stuff. A good rule of thumb is to divide the contents of the guild bank equally. If there aren’t enough material goods to be distributed fairly, then take it to the auction house and mail out the gold. If your guild was more than 4 months old, it’s probably fair to exclude any initiates from the distribution of the spoils. While it may be tempting to give a larger percentage of the guild resources to an officer or your friends, this will only fan the flames of drama.

3) Provide closure - Put together a group of screen shots, maybe a movie or just a nice post detailing the things the guild accomplished and highlighting the fun you’ve had together. By focusing people of the positive aspects of your time together, you remind them of the teamwork and good will they’ve built up. This may help to keep your members thinking positive and feeling friendly towards each other, rather than feeling bitter and angry. Offer guild members a way to stay in touch if they choose; either via a mailing list or keeping the website up for a while.

4) Provide guidance - Your guild has looked to you for leadership thus far, now as your final act as GM, do a little scouting for your former guildmates. Let them know what options are available to them on the server. (I.E Raiding Guild X is looking for a druid, 2 warlocks and a shaman who can commit to raiding 16 hours a week. Friendly Guild Y is willing to take in any members who want to focus on 5 mans and pvp) Just a few hours of research can help your former guildmates focus their efforts while they look for an new home, rather than despair over what to do next. People who are focused on the future and are positive about the future spend less time mulling over the past.

5) Rest - Being a leader in a guild is a large responsibility. Removing that responsibility is a major lifestyle change. Take some down time to focus on how much time you want to spend on the game and what you really want out of your raid time before you make a commitment to a new home.