User:Vit/Leading a guild

The Fundamentals of Building a Lasting Social Organization
, By "Vitaeum Romana"

There are many reasons a person chooses to start a guild, ranging from tightening a network of friends to chasing glory and reputation on the guild ladder, and the methods of building, running, and maintaining each different type of guild are different in many ways on the surface, but when it comes to the fundamental idea of what a guild stands for, the basic principles are the same for everyone.

I have run a guild, Luminous Invictus, for over a year now, and we've seen our ups and downs, and not only have we learned form our mistakes, and learned from what we did right, we've also observed a number of other guilds, and learned from their mistakes, and from what they did right. I've learned that leadership is not something that comes naturally to certain people, rather, it's something that is learned. This is a fundamental mindset for every aspiring "leader".

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1. Getting Started

What makes a leader?

The first thing any rising guild founder needs to do is assess themselves. Ask, "Am I qualified to lead an organization?"

Lets clarify what a leader is, and isn't.

First of all, a leader is not someone who tells someone else what to do. In this day and age, we are all (or nearly all) rational, educated thinkers, and we have not only the ability, but the God given right to evaluate everything that reaches us, be it information or instruction, and given the tremendous amount of dangerous ideas floating around in the world, this evaluation process is critical and necessary for survival. A leader does not expect his "followers" to place this evaluation aside. Rather a leader embraces this evaluation, and acts in a manner that appeals to it, and gives instructions in a way that the followers agree with it, and carry out the leader's request not because they trust the leader, but because they know that in doing so, they will benefit themselves.

A leader is NOT superior in any way to their followers, rather, the leader in many cases is INFERIOR. A leader isn't a jack of all trades, and a leader can't do everything. In cases like this, a leader must seek outside help to accomplish a task, thereby relying on someone else's expertise. If a leader believes that they are superior in any way to someone else, the specialists that will be necessary for that leader in the future will simply turn their backs. No one person is inferior to another, we are all equal, and we should be treated that way. The only difference between a "follower" and a "leader is that what a leader is expected to do best is an effective allocation of human resources. That is the extent of one's expertise as a leader, an effective allocator. They do not preside over nor should be allowed to preside over another person's free will.

It does not take a gifted person to run a great organization. This is a concept we need to make very clear. It does not take someone extraordinary to run a great organization. It only takes a few things that everyone can achieve if they want to. Discipline, resillience, tolerance, endurance, ambition, eloquence, and an adequate ability to manage one's time. If one sees that they do not possess a majority (notice, you don't need all of them, just a majority of them) of these traits, then they are most likely not qualified to run an organization. Of course there is a lot more that a person needs than just these, but essentially, if one lacks these traits, they can't properly run an organization, and if the only thing they have going for them are these traits, then chances are that they will be able to pull together a decent organization at the least.

A leader must not be afriad to make mistakes. "Leaders are not born, they are made." - John C. Maxwell, 21 Irrefuatble Laws of Leadership. It's important to note this, for if one does not understand that leadership does not come naturally, they will give up at the first sign of trouble, and believe me, if you're going to be any kind of half-decent leader, you're going to get into LOTS of trouble. A leader must adopt a philosophy of "Wrong and strong!" Despite whatever mistakes they will make, they must learn as much as they can from them, and press on. If a person gets bogged down because of their mistakes, which I guarantee that there will be many mistakes, then they will not have time or energy to properly lead the organization, for they will be too busy chasing their errors.

Leaders also need to be confident in their strides, and must be "brave" enough to handle every situation they encounter, whether they are familiar with it or not, with tact, style, and certainty. If a leader shows that they are unsure of what they are doing, how can that leader expect the followers to follow? I assume no one is leading a fanatic organization, and that the members are thinking clearly and rationally. If this is the case, then a leader needs to show that he is also thinking rationally, because a rational person would not follow an irrational thinker, whether that irrationality is temporary or permanent.

There is an extremely large number of books and resources available explaining the intricacies of leadership and expanding on the idea of what makes a leader, for leadership is an extremely complex role, and this list is a very extremely brief summary of everything that is out there explaining what a leader is, is not, can do, shouldn't do, etc.

However, no matter what situation one is in, the traits covered thus far are fundamental to successful leadership in any situation. These personality traits transcend all styles and preferences of leadership, and are essential to every last person who wishes to have another person willfully accept their ideas and help them bring them to life.

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In my personal leading style, I like to break-up the process of leadership into three phases, the Visionary, the phase where a leader contemplates on what they want to achieve, and what their short term and long term goals will be, the Voice of Reason, where the leader figures out and prepares for everything that could possibly go wrong, determines what kind of assisstance they are going to need in terms of human resources, and the Guardian, where the staff is "hired," the goals are set, and the leader simply helps the staff bring the leader's vision to life through guidance, reassurance, and motivation.

The Visionary

There is an astronomical number of guilds and organizations out there. If one were to purposely lose a large number of GvG rated matches to hit last place, they would probably end up in the 8000's. If you add the number of guilds that don't do rated GvG, the number might likely triple, at the least. The number of choices is extremely huge, and the last thing the Guild Wars population needs is another guild that's just there to be a guild. As in the beginning, there is a huge number of reasons that one forms a guild for, and normally, these "why's" are what the founders, the members, and everyone else needs to keep the guild alive, because there is purpose to it. A guild without a definite purpose is simply waiting to dissipate, and believe me, they will dissipate quickly.

As a founder of a new organization, the most important thing one can do is to clearly define a purpose for their guild. It doesn't have to be something revolutionary, it simply has to be something. It could be as simple as creating a circle of friends who will continually work together to help each other in order to avoid pick-up groups. Something like this will give a guild "novelty," as it is no longer just "one of the thousands of others". Suddenly, your guild has meaning to its members, and most importantly, it has meaning to YOU. Remember, leaders are example setters, if you don't care about your guild, don't expect your members to. In all, the visionary stage is simple, define a purpose, set some goals, and if you'd like, set up a time frame. It only takes a few minutes to do this.

The Voice of Reason

This phase is the planning phase. Now that the milestones are set and the vision is clear, the leader needs to ask themselves what they need in order to achieve their guild's purpose.

A leader, at this point, should clearly define what human resources are necessary, what capital resources are necessary (and not necessary), what the approximate timing will be (notice this isn't the time to set goals, it's the time to realistically evaluate the timeframe goals one set in the visionary stage), and whether the short term goals should be adjusted. NEVER adjust your long-term vision for the sake of practicality. That is permanently selling out to temporary inability. Leadership is learned, so is success.

They should also ask themselves what rules are necessary, what kind of conduct they are going to tolerate and what they are not going to tolerate, and they must address what the penalty will be for violation of these agreements.

Essentially, this stage is an evaluation stage at which the ideas of "The Visionary" are intelligently battered and beaten into concrete, tangible concepts and strategies.

One strategy I like to employ is to find someone who constantly tries to prove me wrong. This person needs to be someone other than the one who formulated the idea, because naturally, the formulator has a bias. I have an officer dedicated to this purpose, and only this purpose. EVERY idea that I come up with is subject to an intellectual beating from this person. The reason I do this is based on a fundamental idea that the person dedicated to ruining your argument will find every possible fallacy to your idea, and if you work to erase those fallacies one by one, eventually, that person will run out of fallacies to capitalize on, and so will your idea run out of inconsistencies and flaws....which...by definition means that your idea will become flawless. Of course, theories are perfect, people are not, and there will be a few details missed on both sides, but at least the idea is refined to some degree, which places me better off in the end anyway.

This strategy comes with a huge caveat in that without the proper ground rules and established codes of conduct, something like this could critically backfire if the argument descends into Ad Hominem and chaos. A backfire like that has the potential to kill a guild on the spot, so before anyone tries this, I strongly suggest they establish those codes, which is also part of what this phase is for.

Once the planning is done, it is time to act.

The Guardian

This stage is the most complex, for it integrates the Visionary and the Voice of Reason into actuality, and as if the transition from theory to reality is not tough enough, this stage is also where most of the unexpected inconsistencies and complications will come up. As far as these irregularities, it's up to each guild leader to tactfully get the guild through them, and it would be entirely foolish to try to give a general way to address these problems since they are all unique and have their own unique solutions.

Aside from these, however, the main idea of this stage is to maintain the guild. It costs a lot to reach the top, but it costs a lot more to stay there. This stage should be where regular meetings are established, where a leader evaluates those that have an administrative purpose in the guild, and where the transition from theory to reality is essentially kept as smooth as possible.

If a guild is "on schedule" in terms of reaching their goal, then it is not necessary to make too many administrative alterations. If the guild is not somehow doing what it's supposed to do, this would be where the leader asks themselves "what's causing the setback?"

If it's a person, the leader should consider 1) assissting the person if they need it, or 2) replacing the person in charge of that function. Keep in mind that one must be VERY tactful in doing this, and it should normally be reserved for extreme cases where the person is clearly unable to do a NECESSARY task. A Leader needs to heavily evalutate whether the expectation of a certain aspect of an officer's function is entirely necessary or not. If not, it is usually wiser to get rid of the expectation than get rid of the person, because getting rid of an idea just loses an idea, getting rid of a person usually gets rid of their friends and their constituencies in addition to the person in addition to all of the contributions each one of those people were making to the guild.

A leader must also evaluate in what direction the guild is going as a whole. For example, if a leader originally wanted to make a GvG guild, but the members do better at HoH, it is an indication that they are more comfortable in the HoH environment, so, the leader must ask what their vision is specifically. Are they after fame and fortune? Are they after the GvG prize money? Are they trying to make a respected guild in the PvP community? It's easy to see how in certain expectations, moving from GvG to HoH would be a short-term goal alteration, and the overall vision stays intact, whereas in other "guild purpose" scenarios, changing to HoH would essentially kill the guild and sell out to practicality, which is something one must generally avoid.

At the same time, a leader must evaluate their position in the guild. They must understand that those who join the guild are adopting and agreeing and accepting the leader's vision, NOT the leader. As such, a leader may consider altering the vision to better suit the members. This is not selling out because there is no such thing as a leader selling out to their followers....that's why they're the leader in the first place, to serve the members.

Personally, I would handle the case in a way where I would assign an "HoH divison" in the guild and place another officer in charge of it, and I would go about creating a "GvG divison". The danger here is that one of the two divisions would split and make their own organization, but this is something that one can't avoid, and the best a leader can do is hope that the friendships and bonds formed within the original guild will hold the two together, or alternatively, both guilds could take advantage of the "alliance" feature, and be "separate but together" in that way. A leader needs to be very creative and tactful in handling sensitive situations like this, but hey also have to realize that they do not own the members, and the members are free to do ANYTHING they want with themselves (so long as other people are not maliciously and adversely affected).

It is important for a leader to realize that the vision they established in the Visionary stage will most likely be reached in a form that they never realized would come through. This is only normal because every individual member of the guild is involved in the vision, and naturally, each one of them is going to put their own individual spin on things, and make their own mark on the guild's vision. An organization is a collective entity, and as such, each contributer will alter it so that even though it still satisfies the original expectation, it also brings out that individual's presence. It's very important that a leader allow this to occur, for the results will usually be amazing, and more often than not will surpass the expectations of the leader by far.

Thus far, I have depicted a very goal oriented setting, but one should not make the miinterpretation that all guilds must reach a goal and then find a new goal or disperse. By all means, this is false. Lets take the example of a guild meant solely to keep a group of in-game friends together so they can avoid pick-up groups. Their vision is obvious, just help each other whenever someone needs help and others are available to give it. In this case, the evaluation is simple, "Is anyone dissatisfied with the help we provide, and are people being forced to go to PuG's more often than they would wish to?" If the answers are "yes" and "no," then the leader simply maintains the course...if not, then obviously the leader has some work to do, in this case, either coordinate the guild to sign on at the same time (unlikely and impractical), or...get more members....which brings us to our next section...

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2. Member Acquisition

"A leader with no followers is simply going out for a walk." - John C. Maxwell, 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

The main question that has eluded thousands of unsuccessful guilds is that of member acquisition. This is essentially the lifeblood of one's guild, and the mismanagement of this concept will inevitably kill a guild. A fish tank with the wrong fish in it will end up in a bloody mess, and it would be very wise to think of a guild as a fish tank...it's up to each leader to put the right fish in.

Leaders must decide what kind of members they want in their guild. Essentially, there are a few distinctions to make, mainly, age range, PvP/PvE only or integrated, and any kind of special interest, such as a GLBT guild, an all girl guild, or an ethnic guild, and other such examples. Once this distinction is made, a leader needs to make sure that this idea is very well communicated to all incoming members. There will be people from all walks of life coming into and out of the guild, and they will make the choices to stay or go based on this social environment. A leader needs to let the new members make those choices. One should not think of these "social preferences" as walls keeping non-conforming individuals from coming into the guild, but rather as filter that "prevents" individuals who DO conform to these social expectations from leaving, not by force, but rather because the guild has become a collective of like-minded friends that would be very difficult to find elsewhere.

Human nature, with very few exceptions, has shown that people prefer to be part of a group rather than be left alone. It has been ingrained in our heads since the days of hunting and gathering. This principle is the reason guilds exist in the first place. It is an instinctual response for a person to seek out like-minded individuals when in unfamiliar territory, or even when they're alone in familiar territory. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being the beacon of likeness to the kind of people you desire to be with SO LONG AS those people understand that they are not superior to anybody, and nobody is superior to them, regardless of race, creed, gender, culture, etc. We are all equal, but we all have a rightful choice as to who we place in our inner circle, and who's inner circle we place ourselves into. A guild should be thought of as the most likely inner circle for a person that fits the description of the social preference defined by the leader.

This is a very touchy subject, and as such, should be treated with extreme caution. A leader must somehow discriminate without discriminating, and this is what makes this job so damn hard. If a leader accepted just anybody, their guild would descend into total chaos. If the leader is rigid and inflexible with who comes into their guild, then it will never grow in the first place, thus, it is important, before we move on, to understand how a leader should determine the membership of the guild. Keep the expectations, but use them not as walls to keep others out, but rather, use them as incentives to keep around those that you want. Those you don't want will not take away from your guild, they will only help you, so keep them around as long as they want to be around, but understand that if they move on, it is not a personal statement against you (granted the circumstances were such that you didn't do something personally wrong to them).

The most important thing to remember, however, is that no matter how few members are in a guild, it is the leaders who have the leverage, not the prospects. That prospect needs a guild more than you need that prospect, because there are MANY more people looking for guilds (or looking to hop into better guilds than the one's they're currently in) than there are guilds looking for members. If you keep this in mind, you will be very successful in your build-up.

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Now that the leader has established their social preferences, they must now bring in the people they need to help them build the organization. First of all, the leader needs to evaluate how many people are needed. In a PvP guild for example, only the 8 main fighters and a few substitutes to take the place of absentees is necessary. In a social guild, there will be the leader, an officer to deal with special community events (there is no social guild without bringing the community together), and the guild will bring in as many members as it can handle. Essentially, the leader must determine the numbers of those who are essential, and the number range of those who aren't necessarily integral to the guild's lifeline (but of course are a huge part of your guild...no members = no guild, remember that).

In the beginning, it is very rough to find a group of people willing to "join" an organization and sit there, because frankly, there is no organization yet. It doesn't matter if the leader went and bought a hall with every damn NPC there could possibly be there, if the guild has no members, there is no guild. Simple. There is no one in their right mind who will join a guild with only 3 other strangers in it and stay there. What the leader has to do at this point is find people who are willing to help build a guild, people who agree with the leader's vision and are willing to dedicate some of their time to making that vision come to life because they themselves want to see it through. Essentially, these people do not make the guild entirely, but, they DO add names to a roster, and they DO add structure to a system, which are both very positive things for new members to see, and if you create a structure good enough, you'll have more members stay, and more members bring other members into your organization.

Essentially, the growth feeds on itself. The more your guild grows, the more likely it is to grow even more, and the more likely it is to survive, which essentially means that the hardest parts are in the beginning, during the transition between "Voice of Reason" and "Guardian". Although guardian is the most complex, it's probably the easiest as it goes on. Visionary and Voice of Reason are perhaps very simple, but are indeed very difficult to get through, and that transition between reason and guardian is the darwinist line of natural selection for most guilds. If you guild can make it into the guardian stage, then know that the longer you're going through it, the more likely you are to survive, and essentially, each "next day" your guild sees is a victory.

The main question is where to find the people who can help you start your guild. Well, the best place to look would be in your friend list. These are people that you played with at one point or another, and got along with well enough to add them to your list, which means that you can relate on at least one level, which is a huge difference from not relating to someone on any level. If one did not develop an adequate friend list, or if the people on the friend list don't want to participate in the leader's vision, then the leader needs to wait before they can form the guild. Essentially, a leader SHOULD NOT rely on strangers who wander into the guild from towns and outposts thanks to a spam message. This is by far the worst thing a leader can do, because at that point, the leader is no longer in control of their guild. A stranger is a very nasty X factor in ones guild, and usually, more often than not, creates a situation in which the leader is forced to make decisions they would not want to make, and even if they don't, there's no need to run that risk.

What the leader needs to do, if they don't have an adequate friend list, is to go out there and build one. They've already determined how many friends they need to help them build the guild, now, all they need to do is go out and quest with people, do missions with people, repeat missions if they have to, and find someone from PuG's, from dual farming runs, from 5 man farming runs, whatever. Eventually, a leader will be able to form this friend list and find the people he needs to help him maintain and build the guild, and once those people are found, THEN they can start bringing in true members.

The Golden Three

What do people look for when they join a guild? Although it would be an instinctual answer to say "it depends," one could say that "it depends" is the right answer for every question ever to be asked of someone. I have rarely seen anyone become successful by giving "it depends" as an answer to a question, and I have never seen successful people answer a question with "it depends". We must define what people look for, and essentially, it is "the golden three".

1. Immediate Expectations

These are the things that people say they want from a guild. This could be a definition of your guild's purpose (GvG fame, HoH fame, Social 	guild, etc.), a preference (PvP or PvE?), or whether your guild does a special kind of event (such as a guild that does Alliance Battles more often than 	other things).

2. Social Expectations

Who does your prospect want to be around? This is basically that question. Is your guild 18+ or all ages? Does your guild appeal to a certain 	ethnic group? Does your guild have a certain type of person who a prospect wouldn't want to be around?

3. Unique Expectations

There are thousands of guilds out there. Like what was stated before, if one saw last place in GvG, it would be in the 8000's, and if one added 	the number of guilds that didn't do rated GvG, it would probably triple at the least. With so many guilds out there, why would a member choose yours? What's so special about your guild that no other guild has? What original twist on things can your guild provide to a member's experience that a large 	number of other guilds can't provide? THIS question is perhaps the most important, as it will decide if a member joins your guild and stays there or if a 	member joins your guild and then hops over to a better one once a more opportune moment arrives.

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So now you've determined your purpose, you've "hired" your administration, you've even got a few members and you've addressed the "golden three". At this point, your guild is most likely far enough into the Guardian stage that you don't need to worry about "survival", rather, now you simply work on "growth". This is the time to get your word out there, get your guild out in the public eye. How can you do this?

Well, essentially, one needs to understand the concept of sales. People rarely like change, and changing guilds (or joining a guild) is usually a scary step, despite the carnal predisposition to doing so. Sales is essentially the removal of that fear of change, and an invitation to try a new concept, a new product, it is the successful removal of another's inhibitions so that they will accept one's proposal (usually an exchange of goods and services). In this case, your guild is the "goods", and the member provides the "service". You provide a place for your prospect to feel at home, and be comfortable, and in return, your prospect spreads good words about your guild because they like it.

So, the question is, how does one lower another's inhibitions to such a point (without undue duress and/or alcohol)? To answer that, we turn to sales guru Tom Hopkins.

Essentially, the bulk of your success will be determined in how you shape your words, and how you appeal to aesthetics. A person won't know how to judge your guild for what it's worth until they're inside it, so they are forced to judge your guild for how they see it, and that is a very important factor. One may consider drawing comics and fan fiction or fan art and developing a reputation in a community or a fansite, or one may create appealing websites and design a "cool cape". These are all steps to enhance aesthetics, and they all work to some extent, but not to bring members in. These aesthetics only grant you audience from the member. In the end, when it comes time to join, it will be the verbal hustle that will make the "sale".

There are thousands of techniques out there that one can use to better "sell" their guild, and Tom Hopkins himself is a genius that everyone should look into, not for building a guild, but for improving oneself in real life. The advice is amazing, and I cannot possibly cover it all in this guide.

Here are a few simple techniques one can use, which are not the only ones, and are by far not the most important or least important. These are just a few examples:

- Phrase questions as A or B options (leading questions):

"So, I'm glad you've decided to look into Luminous Invictus. Would you like to check our website or speak to an officer directly?"

Here, a member can't say "no" as easily to a question. They are subliminally forced to pick between the two. If you were to ask "want to check our website?" NO would be an option that would be much easier to use than YES, because, once again, people don't like change.

- Affirmative endings This is a very simple technique. Instead of just saying something like "It'd be great to be a part of this vision", say something like, "It'd be great to be a part of this vision, wouldn't it?" That affirmative ending engages the target, and forces them to either agree or disagree with you, which only gives them two options. They can't introduce a third possibility, which leaves you with a predictable yes or no, and places the pace of the conversation in your control, not theirs.

''- "If you say it, it might be true, if I say it, it must be true" ''

Rather than "tell" a prospect about your guild, have them say it instead. Ask questions that intellectually force them to give you the answers that answer their own questions. Such as:

Prospect: So, why should I join your guild instead of that other guild over there?

You: Well...would you rather be in a guild that does one thing well or many things well?

Prospect: Many things, so long as they do them all well.

You: So, in comparison to that other guild, would you rather be in a GvG only guild or be in a guild that does well in both HoH and GvG?

Prospect: Well...I just want to do GvG and do well at that.

You: Perfect. In our guild, wouldn't you be able to just do GvG?

Prospect: Yes.

You: But, if say, for some reason, you got bored with GvG, wouldn't you want an option to do something different?

Prospect: Yes...

You: So, if you join that other guild, will you have that option?

Prospect: Maybe...

You: But with this guild, you've already seen that we do well in both, so, do you want to gamble on a maybe or do you want something sure?

Prospect: (You already know the answer)

In fact, lets flip it...

Prospect: "But, I've already seen that the other guild does well in GvG, HoH, and does farming runs too. I haven't seen you guys do farming runs."

You: Well, I can tell you that we do it, but you wouldn't believe me, but you also don't know everything that we do. You've already seen everything that the other guild does, right?"

Prospect: Well, not really...

You: Well, what else do they do?

Prospect: I don't know...

You: Well, you don't know what we do either, but, are you sure that GvG and HoH are the only things we do?

Prospect: I guess not...what else do you do?

You: Well, how about this, give us a try, join us for a while and try it out. You'll see everything we do in a few weeks, and then you can make your 			decision.

Prospect: But, why don't I just try THEM out?

You: Well, you have a choice to make then...do you want to be a little adventurous with us? Or do you want to take a chance on them? After all, don't 		you have just as much of a chance at disappointment with them?

Prospect: Well, I guess so...

You: Then why don't you give us a try? At least we have people who are confident enough to take give you a chance, wouldn't it be only fair to extend 			the same courtesy to us?

Prospect: Well, the other guild is also giving me a chance...

You: Are they giving you the same chance that we are?

Prospect: I don't know...

You: If you don't know, then wouldn't you like to see what we're about?

Prospect: Well, yeah...

You: Then, the only way to see that is to try us out, right?

Prospect: I guess...

These are ideas taken from the book, How to Master the Art of Selling, by Tom Hopkins. These are not the only techniques out there to help "sell" a guild, and I encourage anyone to do their own investigations and experiments to find their preferences and talents.

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One must know at what pace their guild can grow, and how much growth a guild can handle. The best patterns I've seen are those that grow as slow as a majority of the members can get to know the new prospects. Once everyone has become familiar with a new "generation" of prospects, and the prospects have become familiar with the guild, the acquisition process starts on a new "generation". Then they stop until everyone has become familiar with the new generation, and vice versa, and they continue on like that. Other guilds simply grow faster than their members leave, which I think is a terrible thing, because it requires mass recruitment techniques such as spamming in local chat and random invitations. Although this is technically an option, in all practicality, this practice is self defeating (but strangely enough, widely practiced). It's up to each leader to find the right pace of growth for their guild, but one important aspect of a truly functioning guild is that of member retention.

What makes a member stay in their guild? Well, obviously, one has to have kept the promises they made during the introduction into the guild, and of course they must still be delivering the "golden three," but really, the thing that keeps people around the most is friendship. The friends a person make within your guild play a major role in how long a member stays around, and the bigger that circle of friends, the bigger the chances of them staying. It's easy to take three people and start your own guild, but when you have to take almost the whole guild and start your new guild, it's much easier to just stay where you are, because that's where your friends are. So long as you don't give them a legitimate reason to leave, they will not go, because they will be happy with their friends in your guild. This fundamental idea is what every leader should strive to nurture.

There is no way to guarantee loyalty from members, as some will find other games, others will find other guilds, and others will simply disappear with no trace, but what you can make sure of is that when they leave your guild, they leave on good terms, and that your doors are always open for them to return. Chances are, one day, they will return. Don't ever try to force a member to stay in a guild, because that will not only force them out, it will make sure they never return, and that a few of their friends in the guild leave with them. Remember, as a leader, one is a servant to the members, the members are not servants to the leader.

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'''3. The Rethink '''

Long after the Guardian stage, there will come a time in your guild when things slow down, and everything seems like it's going easy. This is the time for a rethink, because the longer a leader leaves a guild in this stage, the more stagnant it will become, and the no one wants to be in a stagnant guild.

Basically, this is the time for a leader to evaluate the progress of their guild. One should ask themselves, "Did we achieve our original purpose?" "What difficulties and pitfalls did we encounter on the way, and how can we avoid or prepare for them the next time they happen?"

This point usually indicates that what the guild set out to do has already been done, and the members are waiting for a new challenge, a new adventure. The leader needs to see, did the guild preferences change? Did the membership base pan out the way I thought it would, or did it go in an unexpected direction? Did we embrace and/or add a new vision to our guild? If so, do I need to create more officers to supplement this? How many? Who?

The rethink is basically an opportunity to try new things, and to improve on the success that a guild has already capitalized upon. It is a time for the guild to reinvigorate its movement, and can be thought of as a "renaissance". If one's vision has not changed between the beginning and the rethink, then one needs to think of a new way in which the guild can embrace that vision. Essentially, this period is the time for the guild leader to introduce a fresh, interesting concept for their guild, until the next rethink occurs, and in the meantime, just have fun with the zany creativity that the members provide.

_______________________________________________________ '''4. Networking '''

It is imperative that a leader create a network of guilds. With the new "alliance" option, it is even easier to do this. It's very important because one must realize that their guild can only do so much on its own, and guilds need other guilds to take advantage of every aspect of gameplay. A leader must find and preserve this network in much the same way that they would find and retain new members, but instead of seeing the alliance as a fish tank, once can see it as a lake, where the hostile fish don't have to be so dangerously close to each other. Basically, the same rules apply, but the consequences aren't so dire if there is a mismatch SO LONG AS there is some common ground between the networked guilds.

Somethign like this however, is a project for a "rethink" period. In fact, in building your guild and in the growth process, the guild will most likely already create this network of guilds, thereby eliminating the need to actively pursue such an arrangement, but if one does not develop this network, they simply need to apply the aformentioned rules into a new perspective, namely to that of appealing to other guild leaders, and create the "network". It helps greatly when dealing with a situation of stagnance.

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This guide is not the only way to go about creating a guild, in fact, it may not even be the best way to do it. Each individual must determine what is the best for themselves. What this guide is, basically, is a place to start. This is a place for aspiring guild leaders to gather ideas, and at the very least develop a familiarity, even if it's only in theory, of what it takes to start and maintain a guild.

Being the leader of a successful organization is something that can bring a lot of satisfaction to a person, and there is no better place to practice that than in an online game, where the scars are only virtual.

I have used the principles in this guide in not only Guild Wars, but in my professional life as well, when gaining clients, when doing job interviews, and I can't say that it hasn't worked for me, in fact, I must say that for the most part, nine times out of ten, it has come through for me in situations where I would be in deep trouble without it.

I hope that everyone who reads this can not only gain something from it in terms of their guilds in Guild Wars, but can also apply some of these ideas to their real lives, because all in all, that is what comes first. Guild Wars will come to an end eventually (hopefully not anytime soon!) and life will go on...but when life comes to an end...well....it won't be your life that goes on...that's for sure, so don't just take this guide for something to use in Guild Wars and only there, because the rules come from reality, and that's where this will be of its most use for you.

Most of all, however, THANK YOU very much for taking the time to read this, and I hope that it was helpful. If anyone has anything they would like to change or to add to this, please post it here by all means. I especially want to hear correspondence from leaders of the more prominent, recognized guilds in guild wars. Visit our guild website at Http://Li.guildportal.com and send me ( "Vit is your man" ) a private message, or you can send a private message to me in game at "Vitaeum Romana", if there's anything you'd like to say to me personally.

Thank you very much for reading.

--Vit 17:06, 13 August 2006 (CDT)