Player Associations Archive

Thread: Need some PA Forum wisdom

Flaggle
Thu Apr 15, 2004 7:17 am
#1

A little background and a forewarning that this post may be long.


I have never led a guild before, yet I find myself suddenly at the helm. I want to make this a successful and fun experience because I don't pay my $30 a month (2 Toons) to not have fun. That being said, the guild is a reformation of another guild that died a slow death over the last month. Those members left standing, all 12 of us, decided that the best course of action was to remove ourselves from the old guild and start again. That's 12 actual players, counting alts it's more like 16. About a third are crafters, leaving the rest as combat chars of various classes. We have no Doctor and no CM's, but we do have various other elite combat prof's. The last important thing to note is that we are a MIXED guild as in rebs/neutral/imp who have come together to have fun and support each other.


I want to get us organized and that is why I have come to the PA Forum. I havesome questions.


1. What are some fun/exciting hunts that we could go on? I'd like suggestions regardless of loot or xp. Keep in mind the mixed guild thing, but factioned suggestions are definitely welcome.


2. Can you suggest any NON-combat activities that a group could do, so I can include my crafters and entertainers for some fun?


3. I'm considering implementing a buddy system for new members where a current member is assigned to a new member to get to know them better and insure that they will fit in with our family/guild. Any thoughts on this? Ways to make it effective, duration, should they be guilded before this process begins and removed if found incompatible?


4. Any recommendations for guild leadership hierarchy? I was thinking a leader with minimal power to serve as a middleman/advisor toseveral sub-leaders who make decisions within their various fields such as crafters and hunters, etc. Keep in mind I would like to make this guild prosper and grow so I want to take advantage of our small numbers to geta hierarchySET for the future.


5. Are their any odd policies or procedures that your guild has that would not necessarily be obvious to a new guild leader such as myself? If so, could you please elaborate on them?



Thank you so much guys/gals of the PA Forum. I really appreciate any feed back that I get on this matter.

YoSpeck
Thu Apr 15, 2004 7:48 am
#2

First of all get ready for the tears Tears os sadness, frustration but often of joy as well.


You've already learned lesson 1, which is don't be afraid to ask for help. As PA Leader don't feel like you have to do EVERYTHING, your job is as much as a delegator of tasks as anything else, but as long as you put in equal effort then you will get back what you give out (I have found this running a community that you do good by folks and they will return it).


1) Purpose. Your PA needs an overlying purpose to exist. Just being a group of friends who get on really well is great, but you need something to work for, you need a Mission Charter (basically what you are promising to new recruits), be this RP, PvP, etc. All in all there's a lot to do in game, but it can get pretty boring quickly unless you have something to work at (with me its RP). Work out what you all want to gain from being in a PA amongst yourselves then devote yourself to accomplishing it.


2) Hunts. Go for the Ewoks is pretty cool on Endor, but don't be fooled as they are tough little SOBs Ask the people in the PA where have they been that they really enjoyed. Go to the main POIs eg. Tuskan Fort, Squill caves, try group missions (everyone getting missions from a Terminal and going doing them as a group), better to go on some of the harder planets for this as you get better payouts. Go look for stuff to kill you Don't be worried about dying as it always happens, my community had an OOC hunt to the Nightsisters Cave on Dathomir and got battered over and over, they kept cloning and coming back to kill an Elder NS and they succeeded after many deaths Still fun though. You could try do some of the neutral Themparks together. A group of us did loads of the Jabba Missions together, you all go get your first mission then help each other to complete it. When everyone is done you all get your second mission (it doesn't matter who completes the mission, as long as it is completed the person who the mission belonged to gets the mission complete message). Other missions are the ones that drop special items (eg. bantha statues) which are always cool to decorate your PA hall. Mostly you are going to get the chance to visit all over the Galaxy with your PA. As this is something your crafters can't join then maybe do them the curtosy of giving them any resources you harvest or giving them some loot to buy resources with. Have a system for how loot is divided.


3) Non PvP events: Races, Fishing (we recently had a fishing comp and everyone loved it), arranged events eg. scavenger hunts. There's a host of player events in the Events forum that you can try and make for your PA (you should be aiming to do these kinds of things as its now primarily your job to make sure your members are enjoying being in the PA). Also, keep an eye on your servers Official SWG Forum for any events happening and get your whole PA to tag along to it.


4) Heirarchy. I always use the same system in my PAs.


- PA Leader


- 3 Council


- 3 Veteran Members to each Council member


- 5 Members/Recruits to each Veteran


That current setup would hold 49 members (including yourself). Starting from the bottom, if a Member or Recruit has a problem then they would report ot to their Veteran (their Captain), if the Veteran can't solve the issue or doesn't know how to then he reports it to his Councilman. If the Councilman can't solve it (and they should be able to if you give them the same authority as yourself) then they report it to you for a final decision. Its the chain of command and who is responsible for who. The Vet is responsible for 5 members, the Councilman responsible for 3 Members (Vets) and you are the overall Leading member.


With a system like this that is simple but very effective, you need to make sure the people who are Veterans or Council are both up to the job AND active (otherwise the chain of command goes out of the window when someone doesn't know who to report to) and this means that everyone is reporting every little problem to you, leaving you time to get on with admin'ing the PA itself. This also works as your buddy system, with a Vet looking after only 5 members/recruits then it means they can get to know them better and help them.


4) Policies and Proceedures.

- Remember you ARE the PA Leader. This means any serious problems then you should deal with them, you are the one responsible for booting members and you have to have what it takes to do this sometimes. You need to think for the greater good of the PA and not individual members.

- A lot of people do screening of members before they let them join. Personally I am of the opinion that everyone should be given a chance to prove themselves, kicking bad members is easy, finding members to join in the first place is hard, so don't turn away potential members.

- Sort out a forum so that you can leave each other messages and chat about stuff/issues members may have. Its a way to keep the PA feeling like they are close (like for someone who may not be able to get into game that much, but are able to get on the forums and talk). If you havn't already got one and don't want to buy webspace and set up a phpbb one (www.phpbb.com) then you can get a free one from www.proboards.com or www.ezboards.com

- Don't be a stranger. Nothing worse than having an inactive PA Leader or a Leader who is just a name on the forums that hardly hangs around with you. Be one of the common folk and don't get ideas of grandure You're a guy like anyone else.


Hope that helps. If you have any more Q's feel free to PM me.

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