As longtime guildies will be aware, the past few months have been an epic period of growth for BoL. While this has brought some great new individuals into the fold, it has also increased the diversity of our flock, which has unfortunately led to some tensions between a few of our members. This was unavoidable with indiscriminate recruiting; if you keep adding people to a group, sooner or later you will find that some simply do not get along. If our guild is to continue to grow in a stable manner, some guidelines need to be put in place to ensure that newcomers fit happily into the guild. To this end, there are going to be some changes in the way recruiting will work, affecting the Recruit, Member and Crusader ranks.

Recruit - will become a temporary rank. Anyone joining the guild will be given this rank for a limited time (likely a fortnight or month). At the end of this, officers will give the Recruit a decision on whether their trial period has been successful. If it has, the Recruit will be promoted to Member. Otherwise, they will be given feedback, the chance to comment and address any issues, and either required to leave or given an additional trial period.
*It is currently expected that this requirement will be retroactively applied to all existing holders of the Member rank, entailing a demotion to Recruit for reassessment.*

Member - will become the default permanent rank for guildies.

Crusader - will become a permanent rank. Invites for endgame raid events will be restricted to guildies of this rank and above. Any guildie at the level cap is free to apply for Crusader status. Applying will involve posting on the forum some basic info for the character(s) the guildie wishes to raid with. After applying, the Member will be given a trial period by the raid council, during which time they will receive invites to scheduled raid events. At the end of a successful trial period, a Member will be promoted to Crusader rank. Otherwise, they will be given feedback on their trial, and possibly advised to reapply once certain additional criteria are met.
*During the introduction of this new system, raid invites will remain open to all level 80s, and Recruits will be eligible to apply directly for Crusader status.*

Gosh...

This is an important change for us, the first time anything like this has been implemented since our birth back in the start of 2007.

It will help us become a tighter group of friends who play together, as opposed to a bunch of anybodies who attempt to get along and raid together.

Here's to the future!

sounds intressting.

PS @ Grun, Read your last sentence as "here's to the funeral" i realy shouldnt read while being sleepy... then again.. wouldnt get much reading done otherwise...

I'm finally starting to see this guild as more than a group of happy tree friends. I think it's a step in the right direction :)

I do like this approach.

The more people you have the greater the chance that there might be a personality conflict and it's better to slove it sooner than just let it linger and hope it'll go away.

These new ranks also might just encourage people who sign up for raids to also show up for them.

 

nite

I do like the idea of knowing the people you're playing with well. That's half the fun.
Now force everybody to get a mic :>

I forgot to mention; one of the requirements to become a member is to sing me a happy song on vent.

You don't want to know what i have in mind for the Crusader rank requirements..

It's going to involve live HD video streams, isn't it :p

I do really like this approach to the guild rankings aswell and as most of the long time members will know that as Hedhunta I have been in and out of this guild more times then there are stars but what most of you didn'nt know is that I have always had one or two characters in the guild. So I do think of this as more of a tightly packed group of friends then just a guild :)

In the wake of the recent guild meeting, there has been some talk of reforming the upper echelons of the guild, since we're already restructuring the other 90%. Opinions were voiced on how officers were necessary for only 3 things: settling disputes or problems, inviting and kicking members, and managing the guild bank. Most everything else should be possible by every member. This would demand a change in the way the guild is run; a flatter power structure, with less top-down management and more involvement from guildies in setting up events, etc.

Personally, I am not in favour of abolishing the officer rank and having a completely flat structure. If everyone had full access to the guild management, chaos would reign with random new recruits having total control of everything. If only the GM retains access to important guild features, others won't be able to do things while I'm offline.

After having talked to several guildies of different ranks, the suggested reform I am leaning towards is removing the current Officer ranks and reinstating Class Leaders. The intention of such a drastic change would be to open up the running of the guild, to give guildies more say in things, and to make things as transparent as possible while still keeping some structure in place.


Each CL would look after the interests of their own class, and ensure that all members of their class fit into the guild. Within their own class, they would be responsible for recruiting and kicking, making sure new guildies settle in, helping those who have class-related questions, vetting Members who apply for Raider status, and dealing with disputes or complaints involving one of their class. They would have increased access to the Guild Vault, and be able to request items be obtained with guild funds or farmed by volunteers for raiding or other purposes. They would also likely serve as RLs and organizers.

Unlike officers, who typically are selected by the GM or other officers, CLs would be selected by regular guildies. This could be accomplished by a round of voting every few months where every CL is either replaced or reelected. Alternatively, a CL could continue to occupy a position until another member of that class requests the position, at which time there would be a vote for just that class.

As we have a few classes with very few members, it may make sense to set some minimum number (such as 3-4 at level 40+) before a CL position is created for that class. A CL should be level 80 and a Raider, as such a position would demand a working knowledge of the class, preferably with experience in all specs.


Questions, comments, and feedback are welcomed as usual. 

I think I'm clearly the most logical choice for warrior class leader.

meh to class leaders, i say. aren't things fine as they are now? what are people complaining about exactly? are they not getting what they want from the vault? their opinions count a great deal from what i know, and theres not a lot separating officers and guildies.

Wjhilst I generally have no issues with how the guild is run, it would nice for guildies to have a small say in who officers are, with some kind of voting system as suggested. Since the guild is currently being restructured, now(ish) seems like it would be a good time.  Democracy ftw! Noz, the issues were discussed at the guild meeting. Where you there? ;p

From what I could understand, those who have problems with the current officer system feels like there are too little rotation. Those who are officers get stuck as officers and members get stuck as members. I can understand that to some point. We should have a vote every now and then if we feel like an officer needs to be downranked for doing nothing or behaving badly. Same way for promotions.
But I really don't think we need to change it more than that.