Player Associations Archive
Thread: New PA: Need Some Advice From Experienced PA Leaders
The major thing Im wondering about is funding, as Ive always ran combat-oriented guilds before, I never had any need to gather large amounts of cash from my members to run guild facilities, forming a guild was a one of thing I could always afford to pay for myself with little effort, whereas here in SWG, I need constant upkeep to manage the PA hall, as well as purchasing the thing in the first place.
My questions: What is a good way to make sure I have the money to keep the PA hall running and such without seeming as if I am extorting cash from members? Its always hard enough to gain members for roleplaying PAs as it is, and I dont want to tunr people off with mandatory fees unless I have to, yet I cant afford to purchase and maintain a PA hall myself in addition to my own home and standard, day to day costs of living.
Also, as it will be a roleplaying PA, I am enforcing a strict uniform policy, all PA members will be required to wear a specific uniform (dependent on what part of the PA they become a part of) at all times, unless using armour in combat or declared officially 'off duty'(ie, in a cantina or at a player/PA hosted social event). How much of a negative effect do you experianced PA leaders think this will have on recruitment? I understand people like to make themselves look cool, but if you join the military, you wear a sodding uniform, Im bored of the GCW looking like a gang-war.
Any help is much appreciated.
In my expierences the stricter your policies the harder it is to recruit. Think of flexability and recruitment as a graph. When you have low flexability your recruitment will be around a trickle, but when you switch gears and make flexability high recruits are more inclined to flow in. As far as the money goesthe SOShas always relied on donations to fund everything since day one and havn't had any trouble, but now that we have city taxes if we start to run low we can always dip into city funds. Basicly you have to come up with a game plan and stick to it and remember the stricter you are with members the more inclined they are to leave if things become ugly. The good thing is the members that stay and don't jump ship will be extremely loyal but even they will have breaking points. Hope this helps you.
This is a fantastic thread.I welcome the opportunity to share with the other PA leaders their experiences not only on recruitment, but onphilosophy, conduct,delegation, events coordination and so forth.
I am very proud of our guild. We started out at a guild of 10 members or so in August of 2003. We are now at 137 with a very low attrition rate and a high ratio of active players. The best part of the guild is that the members have made the guild their own, and its future is shaped directly by that membership.
I wish we could do a inter server workshop. 
Like Kangaroo said, the stricter your policies, the fewer folks you will have interested from the beginning, BUT those few will likely share your beliefs to the 'T' and will stick with you thick and thin. There are thousands of folks out there, you will indeed find enough people that share the same idea. Just post on your server boards and, since you are setting up a Roleplaying PA, buy a few drinks in a few cantinas across the galaxy and see what rabble you can gather!
As far as cash for the guild, I myself am involved in a small PA (29 members, about 12 active). Cash isn't an issue. Folks donate and if they don't you can always run a 'Hunt for the PA run' where everyone goes to endor, etc as a group, gets a couple missions and the proceeds from that run all go to the PA. Our PA is set for 300 days maintenance and we didn't even try hard.
When I started HVND I asked all Guild members on an honor system to donate via mail to /tip bank 1000 to my character and I started collecting it in the Guild Treasury. After members liked the Guild and were loyal they started to tip large amounts. I was then set forever and the Guild is the Largest Rebel PA on our server. (after HALO left 
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Back
Before I began the MAW PA on Intrepid I began and developed my **MAW Industries** resources business with my two partners. One a Master Sharpshooter andthe other aMaster Architect. Once we developed this industry and the ability to have a very good income we proceeded as part of our business plan to develop a guild that would help the business grow and to provide the resources and funds necessary to keep the guild and our new player city MAW City prospering. As a result we, our guild, our guild partners, and our city are prospering and are more than capable of meeting our finacial obligations.
I suggest that you look into this sort of strategy to lay the foundations for a successful PA.
Second point: When we recruit we work as a co-operative. There are three leaders and a board of directors giving suggestions and guidence. We do not have alot of rules except those given during recruitment and made very clear. We expect:
Honesty
Kindness
Respect
Fairness
Generosity
We have a clear leadership heirarchy but it is not so much to dictate as to facilitate. Everyone knows whom to go to for help and who to commuicate concerns to. That seems like a pretty good balance to us. We have gone from 5 orginal members to nearly 50 in less than 4 weeks. It has been very rewarding and alot of fun.