All too often I’ve been in guilds who seem to choose guild officers based exclusively on longevity of membership within the guild. Which is how you end up with the worst druid I’ve ever played with as the Druid class leader and the raid healer leader in a former guild. Luckily, there are a number of better indicators that a guild member might have what it takes to make a good officer in your guild:
- One of your top performers in raids. These are the folks you want to give a shot at being a class or role leader, or helping to define raid strats. Yes, it could just be dumb luck, or the stars aligned against everyone else in the raid that has propelled them to the top, but more often, it’s due to their taking the time to optimize what they’re doing, often by poking around on blogs and forums and synthesizing a number of opinions and ideas until arriving at their own witch’s brew of excellence. These are people you want to have as part of your leadership team.
- One of your most friendly gchatters. Every guild has that member that says hello and makes newcomers feel welcome. In my past WoW life, that was Lady D. She made all our new recruits feel at home, while also being sure to give a warm welcome back to folks who hadn’t logged in for a while. As a result, she was often the guild member people who were having a rough time confided in. You want your officer team to reflect the needs and concerns of your entire membership, which makes having at least one outgoing, friendly officer key.
- The maintainer of your guild website or wiki or whatever medium you’ve chosen for your out of game community. It’s not a cakewalk to administer an active forum, or to keep a complex guild website updated with the latest news and widgets. This guild member often gets little public recognition for what amounts to a part-time job behind the scenes keeping things going. But they are in fact, demonstrating daily how committed they are to the guild. This is the sort of participation that merits an officer slot.
- The most prolific sharer of WoW-related news. This member has a direct link from MMO Champion to their brain, and spits out WoWhead links in their sleep. Or at least it seems that way. They are the first to interpret what all the Patch Notes really mean, and are often the instigators of lively (yet respectful) debate around those topics. These are the sort of folks that truly help keep a community going, and that should be a primary goal for your officer team.
- The altaholic. Now, at first glance, the altaholic might not look like an obvious candidate for leadership. Some might see the full selection of character slots on a realm as a sign of being flighty and unable to focus their energies n completing a task. However, I see the altaholic as someone who has a true passion for exploring all the nooks and crannies and perspectives available to them in the game. And that sort of passion can be inspiring– both to their fellow guildies, and to the leadership team.
What are some of the other guildie traits that you’ve found to make great officers?
That sounds about right. People always think I’m an officer because I help check the forums, Facebook groups, and answers people’s questions…BUT I always told them “NO!!!! I don’t want to be.” Mainly because I think an officer would have to have time to answer questions about other classes or get more information on a guild rule.
I’m not the best person to explain things, and I forget really easily. XD
It is always really interesting to me how guilds go about choosing officers. Too often it seems they go by the “been in the guild the longest” rule.