Player Associations Archive

It's a busy life running a guild at times. My guild is about half the size of ISF and I can relate to your situation.

I had the same issue with other guilds I've run in the past, so when I started up here, I made a messageboard for the guild right at the getgo and made a big deal about separating gameplay time from guild business time. I conduct 90% of my guild business on the messageboard, and very little in-game. I log in to play, and while I like to help out and answer when I can, it's really a challenge to enjoy playing when I feel like I'm 'on call.' It also makes it so I don't have to impose on anyone's RL time (or my own) with routine meetings, as we can all just check in over the course of a few days and get feedback.

I also started collecting some URLs for various game guides posted on these boards and a few others recently, and posted them on my guild's messageboard. I try to direct most questions to those sites, since I still haven't tried half of the professions I'm being asked about (like Droid Engineer). Fortunately, most of them ask game-related questions in guild chat and other helpful members chip in.

I was chosen to succeed our Clan founder. I was very hesitant at first although I have found it both fun and rewarding once I got past my first week. (Our founder had essentially been gone for three or four months at that time, so there was a lot of catch-up.)

It won't be an overnight change, but you need to train your members. If they are asking you about crafting tell them straight up you don't know about crafting and to ask again over guildchat. Craft your reponses to begin steering them towards the behavior you want. Eventually most members (some never get the hint -- be blunt with them) will catch on.

I also use the email idea mentioned. That way I have a reminder to do it and I can do it on my own time. If someone sends a tell and you can do it, but not right that instant, reply asking them to send you a mail so you can look in to it later. Right now I dedicate when I log on and 'breaks' for handling business.

Also I have several members with all my basic powers. They can admit members, have access to shared resources, etc. If I'm not immediately available I ask over guildchat if one of them is able to help (using guildchat here is important -- it lets others see it so the behavior becomes ingrained). Ranks make a difference in permissions, so you may not have the flexibility I do.

Genrader,

I empathize with you, since I've been there before. You feel like you're spread waaaay too thin. There's some good advice already given up there, especially making sure your guild members know that everyone is in the game to PLAY and have FUN!!! I stress that most importantly with my guild too.

We've setup a PhPBB forum which we require every member to register in and participate as a membership requirement. To further enforce this and have everyone used to it, new recruits have to post there to petition for membership and members have to vote them in.

Another advice is like what Jas said in the "What is a guild leader" post, learn to delegate. You couldn't have gotten this big without having to rely on other people to help you. More often than not, these are usually your "officers". Have them share the responsibility too, spread the love around.

You can do this with regular members too. I have an experience to share from my guild. I had some members complain that there isn't much PvP orhuntshappening, etc. I challenged them and ask them "If you're that bored, why don't you lead some hunts and get it organized?". They thought about it for a while and started to form groups when they're on. I also encouranged them to post on the forums so they can schedule events like that. Since I'm a doc, I back up their events by offering to do buffs at our cantina starting 30mins before the event. I may or may not be joining the hunt, but I support them in whatever way I can. It's been successful ever since and some of those have been promoted to officership.

Don't be afraid NOT to lead and be at the forefront all the time. Try holding back and let others lead at times. I'm sure you'll appreciate the relief.

Last but not the least, once you change they way you handle things, stick to it. More often than not, if you start catering to people or make "exceptions" to whatever rules you may setup to fix/alleviate the problem, then you'll find yourself back to square one. For example, if you are still getting a lot of tells when you are in a big raid, say in guild chat "I'm conducting a guild raid right now, if you have any questions please direct it here in the guild so someone can help you out. If it's something pressing, please email me." And ignore those tells, don't reply back.

I like the email part, coz then you can delegate out as needed if you constantly get a lot of them.

i kept my guild as small as possible for just that reason.

Most guilds attempt to become militaristic in structure, meaning they have a huge chain of command with over 50 or so members.

MoC was structured more like a squad than a regiment. One leader with an assistant, and several subordinates, with senority as theranking factor. since we are only 10 members,this setup isperfect, and hasworked smooth. Very rarely do weever actually have any command decisions that HAVE to be made. And usually i ask for everyone's opinion before we actually do any guildwide changes.

And in general, my guildtime IS my gametime because we are all generally a close-knit group of like minded people.

Message Edited by Hakai on 02-14-2004 08:20 PM

One thing that I've found to be useful while organizing activities within a guild without active forum members is to create a macro outlining special events and/or directions in guildchat. Looping an announcement every 15-30 minutes for more pressing matters, and every hour or so for general information could be helpful to some leaders Just a small tip that you may or may not wish to implement.

I've been running a guild (The UKRM on wanderhome then later chimaera) since SWG went live, and ultimately retired from it because it became too much like a 2nd job.

Read why I left here...
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Chimaera_Euro&message.id=31857

I used to run a guild on Intrepid. At first, it was fun... but as the guild grew in size, so did the responsibility that fell on my soldiers. It got to the point where I nearly stopped playing SWG altogether as most of my time was either in dealing with guild problems, or answering questions. I ended up resigning as the guild leader, took a break for a couple weeks, and then came back to SWG. I'm having more fun than ever now!

In the end, I realized one important thing. Players follow two things... strength and true leadership. Not everyone is cut out to run a guild. Those of us that are must shoulder that responsibility and do our best while serving our respective members.

Leading a guild is more challenge than fun I think unless you implement the basic rules of delegation. In fact, unless you quickly learn to delegateguild leadership can begin to feel very much like a second job.

During the early stages of MAW I and the two other guild founders directed most all of the guild's activities. Recruitment, training, earning most of the income, etc. Now that we have had our player city for some time and are electing our second mayor(not a founder) I (we) have begun to delegate more and more responsibilites to other officers in the guild.