Most of the people in the World of Warcraft community have been subject to a guild with poor leadership. Hopefully my views on how things should be done may help fuel the influence that can make change and help.


Step One - Name:

The name of a guild is probably one of the most important things to consider when making your guild. If you go to a job interview, you dress smartly right? You want to give the people you are trying to attract a good first impression, the concept here is the same.
Should you desire to attract players from a certain nationality, then perhaps you can incorporate something evident in the name.
Should you desire to attract players of a certain gender, then perhaps you can carefully try and incorporate something evident in the name.
Ultimately, be serious. If you are not serious yourself, then its unlikely the people around you will take you seriously either. When I say serious, I don’t mean that you should or have to delve into the deepest passages of World of Warcraft Lore to be taken seriously, but I am sure you get what I mean :]


Step Two - The Vision:

In order to attract the right management roles you want for your leadership core, you must have a general idea of what you want the guild to achieve once it is formed. If you get the people together and then say you want to do ‘X’ when they want to do ‘Y’, then you can really have troubles.
It isn’t just the Officers etc that you have to be concise to attract. Players that are looking to join a guild are looking for a group of people that they are willing to commit time to raiding with, so they will want to know that everyone is in the same boat. If someone doesn’t want to do ‘X’ but wants to do ‘Y’ when they joined expecting something different, then its difficult to maintain the desired player base you want for raiding.

Things that come under ‘The Vision’ are Raid times, raid days, how hardcore or casually you want to raid, age group etc.

You should be passionate about what you want to achieve. If people see someone with ambition to achieve a goal they have set, then they will be inclined to give you their time on the basis that they will trust your judgement and commitment to making it work.

Once you have your vision set, you are ready to try and attract the players with a similar mindset to yourself in what they want to achieve in World of Warcraft and primarily what they want to achieve with/as a guild.




Step Three - Structure:


One thing to be careful of, is not having too much ‘authority’. If you have too much in that department, then it gets a bit out of hand.
It is extremely important to construct your management to be competent enough to micro-manage. Micromanagement isn’t essential but definitely enhances the enjoyment of the whole thing. If one person is bogged down doing dozens of things, then his or her attentions drifts from enjoying the game and focuses on the mundane tasks that can be avoided or at least minimized by using micromanagement.
You will find some Guild Masters have a management body around them, but still like to hold the reigns on the whole thing. Not everyone is like that, but for some people it works.
I find the following structure to be sufficient.


Guild Master: This is pretty much the rank that you wouldn’t have a guild without. Ultimately he or she, is the big cheese.

Officer(s): The Officer(s) is generally the person that takes some of the weight of the managing bodies shoulders. Generally the Officer(s) is used by the Guild Master to delegate tasks or certain roles within the guild to help things run more smoothly.
It is the Officer(s) who should watch over the Class/Role Leaders and report back to the Guild Master with his or her findings should it be needed or asked for. Depending on what is filtered back from the Class/Role Leaders, they should present it to the Guild Master with a course of action they think is sufficient to resolve an issue if there is one.

Class/Roll Leader(s): First of all I will talk about the Class Leader role. The CL is generally a person with extensive experience within the class they play. Ultimately they got chosen or elected to fulfil that role and provide guidance. advice or a firm boot up the backside, when needed. It is their job to inform the Officer(s) should a problem arise with one of the delegated members. Bare in mind that it is generally the Officer(s) job to relay the information on to the Guild Master with a solution, so any information that you think could resolve the problem is always a bonus to give them too.
So now that CL’s are out of the way, lets talk about Role Leaders. Role Leaders are a generalised version of Class Leaders. Generally you separate the roles by what they do - Melee, Ranged, Tanks etc.
Role Leaders really need to have a broad understanding of the classes that they will be in-charge of. They are effectively Class Leaders and have the same expectations, so be prepared for the expectation you will take if you opt to take this role.


Step Four - Members:

Once you know now how you structure your guild and maybe even started to do so, you are ready to start getting members.
It’s a good idea to get potential members on your guild Ventrilo ( If you have one ) and have a chat with them to see what they are like as a person and how they respond to direct questions on the spot. Generally applications get a lot of time put into them with a lot of consideration for each question, which sometimes is good but can be bad.
You don’t just want someone that is just going to sugar coat an application so it impresses you and makes them sound like the kindest player in the world. Granted that’s what trial periods are for, but some ‘bad’ trials can be avoided by doing it this way.

One thing you should always make sure to do, is to make very clear what is expected of each person. If they under-perform in the role they are recruited to fulfil, then they can be made aware and be in full understanding that he or she is accountable for ‘not fitting the bill’.


Mock-up Application:

------------------------------------------------------------

CHARACTER:

Name:
Class:
Level:
Race:
Armory Link:
Time Played:

PERSONAL:

Age:
Play Schedule:
Time-Zone:
Things that can affect availability:

PROGRESSION:

What have you done?

Classic WoW:
Burning Crusade:
Lich King:

Notable achievements:

GUILD HISTORY:

Previous Guilds:
~
~
~
~
Reason(s) for leaving:
~
~
~
~
Why would you like to join us?

OTHER:

Additional comments:


------------------------------------------------------------


STEP FIVE - RAIDING:


The level at which you want to start raiding should already now be established, preferably before you even get your leadership core set. Now is the time to implement it.
The standard in the first raid should set precedent for how things should carry on in the future. Make sure your Officer(s) and other management delegates know what they are doing, as well as the members.
Before the raid you should designate a Raid Leader. This is generally a role filled by the GM, Officer etc. This person should know extensively what they are going to be leading in.



MORE COMING SOON - Tired!!

Nice one. You've been tweeted!
http://twitter.com/Warcraft/status/6004016283