officer-roles
Latest
Officers' Quarters: Inner circle
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. Does your guild have multiple tiers of leadership ranks? Such a hierarchy can help you to organize roles, but it can also cause resentment and infighting. This week, we hear from one officer who's fed up with it. Hi Scott, I am an officer in a medium size level 25 social guild. The guild has been around since WOTLK, has been through the normal ups and downs, but now seems to be in a good stable place with active, happy guildies. The leadership structure is set up with a GM, 3 Council members (GM is one of them), and 5 officers. This is for a guild with about 500 members. For about the past 6 months, the officers have been systematically stripped of more and more of their duties, to the point where all decisions now lie only with Council. Officers have no input into admitting new guild members, except to be able to invite alts of current members. Officers also have no input into decisions on various guild perks we offer, such as Riding Scholarships, assistance with profession leveling, selection of class leaders, membership guidelines, etc. Officer meetings have pretty much become sessions in which Council members take turns berating the officers for not contributing enough to the guild bank, or for failing to motivate other guildies to participate in guild activities.
Officers' Quarters: 3 resolutions to improve your guild in 2013
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. If your guild has been struggling during the last weeks of 2012, now is the time to take steps that ensure a better 2013. Here are three ways you could get the New Year started off right. 1. Add fresh blood to the officer ranks. Are your current officers pushing themselves too hard? Or are they doing barely anything at all? If so, then it's high time you took a look at what needs to be done around the guild and who's actually doing it. You may have some lame-duck officers who shouldn't be officers anymore, and some hard-working regular members who deserve a promotion. Adding new officers -- and/or culling useless ones -- can energize your leadership corps. Having more hands to man the ship can spread the work around and ease burnout symptoms. New officers also means new ideas that can spark new guild activities or better approaches to old ones. New officers can also inject some much-needed enthusiasm as they seek to make their mark and prove to the vets that they are worthy of the rank. If your guild has been stagnating lately, a new officer or two can liven things up.
Officers' Quarters: When the old guard returns
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. Officers come and go. Real life intervenes, burnout sets in, interest wanes -- these things happen, and officers disappear for months or even years. But sometimes they come back. This week, one officer asks, what then? Hi Scott, I'm officer and raid leader of an intense 2/week 10-man raiding guild that's been running in one shape or another since TBC. Due to some old timers coming back we're now in a situation where our raid consists of 50% officers – and only 3 of them by function. We've always steered closer to adhocracy than bureaucracy, so the title is secondary to most of us – my main concern is that so much communication is now happening within the officer-circle that we're alienating our crucial core raiders for no apparent reason.
Officers' Quarters: Desperate appointments
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available from No Starch Press. It's certainly no rare situation when a guild leader has to scale back his or her time due to offline obligations. The right thing to do is appoint someone who's willing and able to cover your own slack. But what if that person isn't even an officer? This week, a guild member wonders whether it's time to panic. Hi Scott! Recently I joined a re-roll guild that has been around since the first of January. The premise of the guild is simple: new members can only join with a level one character and must level up within the guild without the help of outside resources. For a while, this worked out well. Everyone became fast friends and the guild grew to be called "the fam." But now we are approaching another month of "re-rolls," and drama has reared its ugly head. Our GL just announced an impending life change and since then he's been markedly absent from our roster. One member posted on our forums noting that activity had declined, and another responded with suggestions on how to improve the current state of affairs. A few of the officers replied agreeing and disagreeing with various points, but the general consensus was that the members were not happy with things as they were. Before I go any farther, it helps to understand the... unique, way in which our officers are appointed.
Officers' Quarters: Soloing a guild
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press. One of the most frequent questions that new guild leaders ask me is this: How many officers do I need to run a guild? It varies, of course, based on what your ambitions are. However, the following email represents the first time anyone has asked this question: Do I even need officers? Hi Scott, I have started a social guild recently with the purpose of it being a place for guild members to have others to chat with, run dungeons, and other game related activities. The guild won't really be for progression or leveling, though I'm not opposed to guild members doing those activities. As I've never ran a guild before, I was wondering, are officers truly necessary for a social guild? I do plan to draw up rules for if members run dungeons, or do raids, together but I didn't know if I'd need more then that. I truly want to make this a fun place for my guild members so any help you give will be appreciated! I. Blue
Officers' Quarters: How a guild dies
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press. This column is a special one for me. A reader wrote an email to the Drama Mamas, who passed it along to me as a topic that seemed more appropriate for OQ. When I read the email, it struck quite a chord, because the issue the guild leader raises is one that led directly to the collapse of my own guild. Yes, my own guild is finished, and so I can now reveal what guild I led and why it is now defunct in the hope that others can avoid the same fate. But first, the email: My girlfriend and I are the founders of a casual raiding/leveling guild. It's always been an eclectic mix of people, and it's one of my favorite parts of playing WoW. We're both friendly and empathetic, and people tend to develop bonds with us. We spend time together to the point where they feel comfortable in asking us for advice with serious real-life problems. However, the major problem is that our guild is that it's highly focused around my girlfriend and I. It feels like the only people who can lead a raid are the two of us, for example. People help in other ways, like donating to the guild bank or recruiting, but there isn't much leadership in the guild.
Officers' Quarters: The great raid-size debate, part 3
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press. Welcome to the third and final column exploring the various pros and cons of raid size in WoW's upcoming Cataclysm expansion. Before we talk about the final category, let's recap. In part 1, I examined the various gameplay considerations that come along with the different sizes. Gameplay We can only speculate about relative difficulty. 10-man raids offer fewer options for dealing with specific boss abilities and/or adds. Position-based abilities are easier to deal with in 10s. Player deaths are not as crippling in 25-mans. It's easier to cover for someone else's mistake with 25 players. In part 2, I talked about the logistics involved in running each size and the rewards you can obtain from them. Logistics A 25-man raid requires an intense recruiting effort. "Cat herding" is flat-out easier in 10-man raids. More raiders mean more attendance issues and technical issues. Subbing is easier in a larger raid. Scheduling difficulties are easier to manage with more players. Loot is easier to distribute in 10-man.
Officers' Quarters: Content is easy
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press. It's been a while here at Officers' Quarters since we've tackled some good, old-fashioned guild drama. This week's email comes from a guild leader dealing with an abrasive officer (and real-life friend) with a penchant for long, sudden and unexplained AFKs. Hi Scott, I am the guild leader of a new 10-man guild. I created the guild equally with several real-life friends and we co-share the leadership. The problem lies in this: One of the real-life friends has been doing things like going AFK for 45 minutes in the middle of a raid. This was a guild-led, non-scheduled ICC-25 PUG, but he gave me little warning and then disappeared for 45 minutes, which included the first two bosses.
Officers' Quarters: Last stop on the gravy train
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available this spring from No Starch Press. What is the purpose of an officer? Most would say, "to run a guild." Here's where definitions begin to diverge. To some players, running a guild means little more than handling guild invites and occasionally managing drama. Those duties are fine if your guild exists for purely social reasons. Any guild that is actively raiding, PvP'ing in an organized way or holding official roleplaying sessions requires much more from its officers. Too often, the vast majority of those tasks fall on the shoulders of a single individual. This week's email is a cry for help from one such officer. Hi Scott! I am the leader of a Casual/Raiding Guild, and we've been together for 2 years by now. We were like 5 or 6 close friends that met each other at another MMO and founded a Guild. When we decided to come to WoW, we founded our Guild together, and worked towards its improvement. Today, we are one of the biggest guilds at our server, and we have a strong realm reputation. Of course the guys that founded the guild with me were officers, including their spouses as we were all close friends, and founded the guild together. That was the right thing at that time. They sometimes worked as counselors at some difficult times that we had, when I was lost and didn't know what to do or how to do. However, most of these guys never helped me at all with the "every day job" like recruiting, leading a raid, being the master looter, handling drama, or every other daily task that all the guilds have. Every single problem or drama that shows up, I need to solve by myself.
Officers' Quarters: An uncertain return
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available this spring from No Starch Press. As I mentioned two weeks ago, we are really hitting the lull between expansions at this point. Many officers and guild leaders will be tempted to take a break from the game between now and Cataclysm. For a guild leader, it's a particularly tough decision. There's quite a bit of uncertainty about what will happen to a guild in its leader's absence. What many guild leaders don't think about, however, is the uncertainty that can occur once they return to the game. This week, one guild leader is returning from an extended break to find that the guild is still going strong, but that many things have changed in his absence, not the least of which is his own role. Dear Scott, I have a different situation than I have seen you discuss before. I am the guild creator and original GM of a raiding guild. I set up all the rules for the guild, with advice from my officers, set raiding rules, assigned ranks, and generally ran the guild how I wanted. It turned out to be quite a wonderful guild and I am happy that I was able to create a guild that functioned so well. Well, after leading the guild for more than a year, we started to grow rather large. We had 3-4 10-man groups going each week, 2 25-man groups, and other various activities. Even though I had asked some officers to step up and lead events, they didn't really pull through so I ended up leading a lot. At one point, I was leading 5 raids a week. With everything else going on in my life, I realized I couldn't maintain that sort of schedule for long.
