As the Summer doldrums set upon us, and all of Azeroth gets lulled into complacency pre-patch, I bring you today’s Friday Five…five things you should be doing every week as a guild officer:
- Talk to a guildie you don’t know very well (or at all.)
In numerous guilds, the Officer team can become an insular little group, mostly talking to– and playing with– each other. But to be able to represent the best interests and needs of your guild, you need Officers to get out there and mingle. - Take a visit to your guild forums.
You do know the URL to your guild’s forums, right? It’s amazing how many Officers I’ve seen who rarely participated (or rarely even read) their guild’s forums. A good part of leadership is showing up– and the forums are a part of your guild’s communication infrastructure. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to connect with your guildies. - Peek at the Gbank.
Your gbank is probably overstuffed at this point in the expansion. At some point, you need to find a good home for it all. Do you have enough mats to make a guildie an epic armor piece? Or some engineering pets? Or why not send some newly active alts some gear they probably didn’t notice that’s rotting away in the middle of the overstuffed gear tab? And by all means sell those trepix that drop for your guild every week and stash the money in the bank to use for something fun for the guild later. - Organize a 5-man.
Remember what I said about insular Officer teams? This is a good way to break out of that rut– or to squish any perceptions of an Officer clicque. Content doesn’t matter– do the new 5s, or schedule a lowbie run. The point is to play and socialize with your guildies. - Re-commit yourself to being an officer.
Sometimes, you’re not feeling it anymore. You don’t feel like showing up to raids or to officer meetings or what have you. It happens. Wallow in that feeling for a day or two. But make sure that each week you take a look in the mirror and evaluate if being an Officer in your guild is something you can commit to and embrace. Because if it’s not, you’re doing everyone, yourself included, a disservice.
Happy Friday!
Definition of trepix: Trash epics. This is a Nexxiism. Whenever I see purples on trash mobs, I inevitable sing, over Vent and say in chat: “trepix!!”
That’s a very nice 5, Nexxi.
I’ve done a horrible job of being an officer so far in this expansion. I started getting Alliance burn-out toward the end of Wrath and in my mad rush of leveling after it kind of solidified that feeling and pushed me more and more onto the Horde server.
That makes some of your points here even more important though. I know this post isn’t aimed at me or anyone else in particular, but that’s the sign of a good article – it applies well to many.
For example, we now have guildies that I don’t even know. At all. We have new people raiding with us that I’ve never had a conversation with, never been in a dungeon with, never spoken to directly on vent. I don’t know some of these people and that’s a pretty big deal considering I’m in a leadership role.
Forums are where I got my start in socializing online and it’s a pretty big contribution to my getting into online gaming as well. I used to spend hours on forums every day, yet I only check our guild forums maybe twice a month. Part of that is that in order for me to get into a forum I need there to be traffic, and I’m sure many other people are the same way. But by none of us getting into it because there’s no traffic, we don’t generate the traffic to get people to produce more, so on and so on. It’s probably about time we did another push for fun activities and get people back into action on the forums.
Organizing 5-mans is something we are fairly good at as an officer group, but it is something that typically ends up with the same core group of people with maybe 1-2 rotating members.
It’s something that I personally need to get into doing more often, though, especially back on my home server.
I’m sort of in the stage right now where I’m not feeling it. Not really that I’m not feeling like being an officer, but that my personal focus right now isn’t very in line with the guild as a whole. We have a lot of people focusing on raiding for instance, and I’m not interested at all. Well, maybe a little, but not very much.
Like I said, I’m definitely sucking in my role as an officer right now. I’m aware of that and have been for a few months. Some of my problems I can fix pretty easily, while others are taking a bit more time. Raiding isn’t my thing right now, I’m still feeling the burn out from the last expansion, but the faction burnout is lessening and I think I’ll be ready to get back into the swing of things back home soon…ish.
Yes. Great post. Really. So many officer groups become insular and unapproachable, it’s very demoralising and yes. Perfect 5 points.
This was a great post! Many of us start to take things for granted as we settle into a routine and it is easy to forget the basics, as well as some of those guilder who fly below the radar. Making a point to engage those we do not normally talk to in the guild helps give them a true sense of membership. Setting up and participating in events shows others in the guild a good positive re to take when in the guild. Thanks for reminding us that a few basic things like these may get overlooked, but are essential to a strong guild.
Could not agree more. I know it is easier to not step out of your comfort zone, but to me, engaging with guildies and getting to know them is part of an Officer’s primary duties. Building the comaraderie/positive guild atmosphere is key.
Thank you.
🙂
*hugs*
I almost wonder if in general Officer positions shouldn’t be set up on a rotating on/off basis to account for inevitable burn out. 3 months on, 2 months off, etc. maybe?
That way if/when we feel burnt out we know there’s a vacation from it in sight, but with the ability to step back in when ready/needed/cycle back on. I think overall many times people stay in an officer role when they are not feeling it b/c they don’t want ot give up the position, even when taking some time off from it would probably be better for them, and their guild.
Given me some food for thought for sure.