A Change of Leadership - Part 2

[Deleted]

Starting a clean thread for Phase 2 of our process of selecting new GMs.

Our nominees are:

Selanas (Sal)
Zeenjan (Z)
Redordena (B)
Etuhonani (Viv)
Deathmoo (Moo)

You guys have a 2 week window to earn those votes for being GM. This thread is meant to be an avenue for people to ask you guys questions and get a better sense of what they're voting for. I say what, because we know who you guys are as friends. 

I'll start you guys off with a few questions that I have.

1. Much of the reason I decided to step down was because I felt out of step with the direction people want the guild to be going. What direction do you want to take the guild and how do you intend to get it there? 
2. Me and Mirannah laid out a mission statement for the guild when we created it. Do you want to uphold all of those things? Change any of them? Place more emphasis on certain areas?
3. We try to maintain several events covering an array of areas of game each month. Ultimately we try to get someone to run those and be responsible for their continuance, thus becoming officers. We noted last month that we've had a lack of diversity lately and too much focus on raiding. What new ideas or revamped old events do you want to see brought to the table? What initiatives can we expect to see?
4. 4 of the 5 nominees have held officer-ships at one point or another. If your past experience with such a position in the guild is an indicator, what can we expect from you going forward? What have you done with the rank you've held?

[Deleted]

I've thought a lot about the questions you asked, as well as thought about a lot of other things both relative to this topic, and some things that were not. So I guess i'll be the first to answer your questions, even if it's short and sweet.

1. I want to take the guild in the direction it always should of been taken, though it seems to have been deviated from over the last couple months: friendly, cohesive
atmosphere, where everyone gets to enjoy what they love doing most, be it Role-play, PvP, Raiding, Pet Battling, Etc. We've indeed had a lot of emphasis on other aspects that have been pointed out, so now is the time to fix that issue. My intended method of doing this is to do what we've always done, create engaging events for people to take part in. To ensure, once again, that everyone has their chance to take part in what interests them.

2. I believe our mission statement doesn't really need to be tweaked in any manner, though I do think there has to be one major aspect that has more emphasis put into it
which is: Community. Sure we have an excellent community that is comprised of many different people from all walks of life, and that has never changed. But, personally, I feel we've sort of lost our 'Family-oriented' feel over the last few months, this could be cause of my work related absence, so for now I will only speak for myself. But
if given a chance I would like to put a lot more efforts into making everyone, old and new, feel like a family again.

3. This questions a bit difficult to answer in my opinion. I don't think that the issue is that we've had too much emphasis on raiding, but rather that those who want their chance at it have not been given it. Of course in that aspect alone, a lot of things on how we do raiding currently would have to be changed. As for other events we currently have, I don't think there has to be much done in the way of revamping them, and personally at this time I don't have any new ideas. I have no initiatives in the works on how to change how things are now, just that I know that the issues we have need to be dealt with better than they have been.

4. I will answer the second part of this first. I haven't held what position I currently have for very long, so saying what I've done with it, isn't something I can really do. The most I have done so far is the RP event that I made a previous Forum Post about, "The world awaits..." , which has sort of started but could use more work on it. The only issue with that for me thus far has been my work schedule, which has been a big problem for me in general and how I go about a lot of the guild activities and such on a personal level.

"What can we expect from you going forward?": This question has been on my mind the most of all the ones here. It is the one that I have actually stayed up late thinking about, spent so much time at work mulling over, and just wanted to make sure I worded right when I answered it. Or at least, as best I could.

What you can expect from me going forward, is to be someone who will listen to anyone and everyone. I want to provide an open ear to all of fellow guild mates, to listen to your ideas on how to improve the guild, to implement events into our schedule for everyone to enjoy, to lend a helpful hand when you're having issues. In short: I want to be someone everyone can rely on, no matter what the situation be. I want to be helpful, friendly, and show you what I can do to help everyone enjoy their experience with us to its fullest. You've all given me a lot that I can't sum up in words, and if given the chance, I want to give back to the guild on a grander scale than I ever thought possible.

*sigh* I'm not always best with words but, hopefully this answers your questions, and I hope that I conveyed my message at least clear enough for you guys to understand. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

[dragyn]

when & how do we vote ??

[Deleted]

There'll be a poll up next Friday morning. Read Part 1 of the post for all the details.

[Deleted]

In response to your post B,

My questions focused on 2 things, your vision and your actions. What I'm seeing as being added to the existing vision of the guild is a sense of equality, most notably for raiding. You put a lot of thought into the words and the ideas, but to me personally, words are only words no matter how passionately or eloquently said. I want to know how you intend to act on those words and make those ideas come to life. If you can't do that, then they're just opinions and I don't place much stock in those.

Second, as regards raiding, it has been the stance of me and Mirannah as GMs never to tell our officers how to run their events. If you want to see a change in how raiding is done, you'll need to talk to the raid officer, which is currently Deathmoo. That being said, Moo's position in that role is tentative right now pending how this plays out and what the raiders decide on. Additionally, I'm still waiting for Moo to respond here to these questions, but also to how he would like to see raiding handled.

[Salanas]

Making the world whole again:

    1. Community, More interaction with guild events and in general I feel is a key to working on the "happiness" we had in the past that many feel we have lost. I intend to bring this back with guild events such as Buddy Day again. I feel actions speak louder then words in some cases so you shall see in the future but for now take a gander in the mind of Sal.

    2. As for the guild statements consider yourselves my role-models if you will for this question must I say more? (Hopefully my attitude on how I feel about you two and your decisions says enough.) As for emphasis INTERACTION YEAH!!!!!!!!!!! I mean Ge wilikers Batman on the hood of a Mercedes Bendz, I want people to work together as a whole and love the community people have worked so much to build and Happiness with interaction is key in my eyes so any form of having people work together or just sit around and chat is a hopeful step in my eyes.

    3. Buddy Day as stated earlier is something I plan to bring back and hopefully it has an impact. RP is something I feel needs to be worked on and as a whole people putting a personality behind a toon is a great way to bond with others and get a great step closer to my world of happiness. (Trying to keep this up-beat and happy hope it's working.) As for initiatives I would hope to shoot for either Yon or Viv give it a whirl for they have interest in the matter and I feel would be great for trying to get something started.If nothing I can try but I would love to see either those two or a different face take a wack at it. (Sorry for putting you two on the spot when you read this, hate me later .) 

    4. Hopefully with us receiving the Officer title that means we have shown the qualities to earn such a rank. I would HOPE that initiative to help the guild and others is top if not close to the priority on said list. (I stress hopefully.) As for what I've done I helped people most of the time when they have asked. Any of those people that would like to offer evidence of said activities please do so. I am not looking for praise but evidence to state my case where I have failed to remember would be fantastic. Though activities that I do remember that are recent are Buddy Day and Herald of the Titans.

    Now for a confession from yours truly. In the coming future raiding is something I shall no longer strive for so a spot on the 10 man team or whatever the equivalent is in Warlords is going to be. Some may say I am talking out my ass but It's something I've thought about and I feel I'm not up to snuff with what needs to be brought to the table per say. Because in the scenario that I am voted for one of the spots of GM or Co-GM Focusing on others is something I'm putting forth first so raiding will be put into my "Fun past time" spots if you will. If I missed something on a topic my apologizes. I hope this was found interesting and gave people some insight. 

[Deleted]

When I log on, I always greet the guild, to acknowledge the relationship I have with my fellow guildies, but also to acknowledge the entity that is the guild. You, Me and Us. this ultimately I think is what a guild is about. A relationship. But because it is a relationship, it needs work like any other friendship. listening, paying attention to the directions the members want to do, Listening.

What direction do you want to take the guild and how do you intend to get it there? 

     I want to take the guild back to our original heading: a community that does things together, that works together to try to provide the best game experience we can for each other. Some of that experience is material support like a fully stocked bank  some is emotional where we cheer each other on, where we pull each other up. We play this game to have fun. And as it turns out, this game is more fun with friends.

    "Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony. " ... Dennis.

    Not that the Lady of the Lake ever lobbed a scimitar at MIra....

    The members of the community ultimately decide where they want to go, both individually and as a collective.

    I plan to play to our strengths and shore up our weaknesses. Our Strengths include our mission statement, the officer framework, the calendar and our members..  I plan on continuing the traditions of Buddy Day (this is a really powerful tool for building community), a calendar of diverse activities, events and parties.  Planned excursions to look for treasure, mounts and pets. Achievement runs! Titles! All that fun stuff, we all want it.  

    

Do you want to uphold all of those things? Change any of them? Place more emphasis on certain areas? 

    The only thing I would change is to update the language a tiny bit.  There are a couple of verb tenses I would change that reflect the growth from a small and fledging guild to one that is clearly established. I have always really liked that we have a mission statement. It is something we use to hold ourselves accountable to each other.

We noted last month that we've had a lack of diversity lately and too much focus on raiding. What new ideas or revamped old events do you want to see brought to the table? What initiatives can we expect to see? 

    I think it is important to continue Buddy Day activities. I have on the calendar several Tuesdays devoted to getting people their legendary cloaks. I know we have a lot of people trying to get them and I think people will be much happier if they can work on them together. It will make the drudgery of all those ToT FLRs easier to manage.  We can also get in our weekly Ordos and Celestial runs in as a guild too

   I want to start getting people run through the Challenge Mode Dungeons.

    Guild funding: I want to continue giving out cool mounts for contest prizes, but I also know the guild is at an cash-flow equilibrium. Beyond getting people to run weekly scenarios, dungeons and other instances we have some options to fund the guild.

    find our  sister guild: I don't know that we will ever field a solid pvp team, but I do know we have lost a few people recently that were mostly interested in pvp. I would like to reach out to another guild where we could help each other fill the weak spots. For instance, they could help us with our pvp achievements and we could help with their old school achieves.

what can we expect from you going forward? What have you done with the rank you've held? 

     Initially, the pet officer was in charge of pet tournaments, but as fewer and fewer people were interested in battling pets, I decided that the pet officer should be part cheer leader, part mentor, part treasure hunter.  I started organizing Safaris to help people track down pets, and have expanded that to include mounts runs as well as xmog. I feel it is part of the responsibility of the pet officer to help guildies with pet achievements as well as being a resource for strategies to beat specific Trainers.

[Deleted]

Great responses so far. I hope others have questions to bring to the discussion.

Z, 2 follow up questions:

You mentioned playing to our strengths and shoring up our weaknesses and enumerated on the strength . What do you see as our weaknesses?

Finding a sister guild is something me and Mira looked into for awhile. We tried making things work with Divine Nobility but found our liaison to be unreliable, their members to be not so active and communicating our often changing calendar to them difficult. Then there was the issue with Legion of Seraphim which hurt our raid team and inspired a more competitive atmosphere in raiding in the aftermath. Do you see concern for a once bitten, twice shy mentality in the guild? Any ideas on how you would tackle these obstacles in the future?


Sal, You've put forth Buddy Day as prominent in your plan to get things back on track. The event series was also your creation. But it is also a valid criticism that we don't see much of it on the calendar for long periods of time. Do you have any other plans for how you want to bring the community back on track? Relying on Buddy Day, seems like putting your eggs in one basket.

[deathmoo]

So, in reading all of these responses that are very well written, I would like to first off say that mine will not be as well written, Simply because I am not as good of a writer as some of these wonderful people!

1. I have not been a part of this guild for a horribly long time, however from the time that i have been it seems to have changed some. When i joined we had active events weekly that did  not revolve around raiding. events like "buddy day" were common, and the guild got together in game on a fairly regular basis to do even simple things like have our monthly guild meeting (even though it was held in vent). I really hope that as a community we can bring the guild back to the fun we used to have. Also, We need to have a more active recruitment process now that Mira isn't hanging around shrine / Org creeping at people anymore!!!

2. Mission statement should not change, community and fun should always be the main focus of the game. It is basically what keeps most of us playing this game!

3. Like i said previously, I would like to see more of events like "buddy day" (Sal, calling you out!), and things like PvP events... even if its things like going to the arena in stranglethorn vale. cause everyone loves pvp you know!? Right?! 

4. I have not previously held an officer position in the guild however I have kind of taken initiative when others are not around for our raid events. I think initiative is key when it comes to furthering the guild. Post an event and people will sign up and show up. talk to people and invite them to the guild. 

[Deleted]

Our weaknesses include things like the various limitations we have both in-game and in the real world. They area bit of a paradox because they are personal issues common enough to be archetypal: time crunch, rotation tweeking, hardware issues, brain tumors. We also lack any type of pvp presences (if that isnt' the right word, I blame my dyslcia) which really is hurting us getting some folks their cloaks.

Okay, so maybe brain tumors aren't archetypal

But I think the best way to deal with these weaknesses, with the exception of the pvp thing, is through communication, humor and patience.

As for the sister guild, I think I would most likely start considering pvp guilds. We could play to each other's strengths. Mainly they pvp and we do everything else. I've been in a couple different pvp guilds and my experience is that they really like to pvp, but once in a while someone wants to get achieves or go mount hunting, something not pvp. And that's where we can help them.

[Salanas]

Surveying the wreckage:

    I wasn't happy with my last response. I felt fake and rather repulsed after looking and reading it over.  I'm not asking for a re-vote but a different perspective towards me if possible.

Piecing our world back together:

    As I said earlier Interaction is what I feel needs to happen in order for our world to be what we want/wanted before. And I can say that if a place of power for me can help others do that I'd love to do so. For to help others in what they need is something I strive for. But know this, This process we as a family are going through doesn't have to be all bad we can bounce back we have before and we can surely do it again. But this time the difference is our obstacle the thing holding us back isn't a guild saying we're not good enough.... it's ourselves. The problem is internal this time and struck us deep to our core to almost unhinge our world on the verge collapse. All I ask for those that read this is don't let whats happen strike you down and think less of this guild. We are a family and I sure as hell don't feel differently I still love everyone here and a change in leadership won't change that for me. In the next couple days I'll be doing things for myself to help piece MY world back from the shattered wreck I left it as, But please be sure to so for yourself don't let whats happened stop you from having fun, include others, do what you feel can bring you back to who you feel was here before Cataclysm paid a visit to VV's doorstep. We'll bounce back from this I promise. Let's do it together as a family shall we? Finally I leave you with a personal favorite quote of mine take a gander if you will....



"Let's make the perfect world." -Light Lagame       

[Deleted]

This question is for all of our nominee's:

How are you to react to difficult situations, decisions, and tension within the guild? This question does not pertain to just raiding.

[Deleted]

What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?

I've thought about your questions Manila, and the short answer is "it depends." It's all very situational. I think I would use my usual methods of dealing with issues: I would talk to people. I would try to find out what the situation is, but then I would try to find the root cause of the issue. I would talk with people, but I would also work with my co-GMs to make sure that our decision was as equitable as possible.

I know that I will need to mesh my management style with not only the rank and file guild members, but other other GMs as well.

If you are looking for specifics, well, I would have to say I would try to use a lot of humor. Find ways to lighten the mood. Humor goes a long way to diffuse tensions. I listen. I think consensus is a good thing.

[Deleted]

Manila, I think you'll need to give a more specific scenario or two to get anything more then a general answer. Maybe pick a situation that has come up in the past.

[vivex]

1:Much like how pretty much everyone else has said i don't intend for any radical changes in the guild seeing as how i liked how most things were being handled. What i would intend to do if i got chosen would try to work with the 1-2 other people chosen to get get the other events that have sorta been absent up and running again. I also would try to get those in charge (the GM's and officers) to meet up a bit more often to chat about the stuff going on and what we intend to do.

2:I have no problems with the current mission statement. 

3:I hope to get the standard events (Raiding,role play, pet battles, player vs player) up and running smoothly if they arnt already doing so i would go about this through doing what i cant seem to stop doing rambling to who ever will listen. First with the others running then with the others to see who is interested in said event and what they would like to see from that event after learning that speak again with those running things with me to see the best route to get the event going the way the people want it. 

4:I havent done an insane amount with the position i held in the past it was mainly trying to get people interested in comming to the event (who knew so few wanted to role play on a role play server *shrug*) other than that i played my Hunter gribbel for the plot that was going on at the time. I wouldn't really use that position to show what i would do with this new position.


Manila Bonus question:It depends If the situation is just Person A and person B are upset at each other then more than likely i would allow them to settle it themselves unless it started to become guild wide thing or disrupted things (Although if it was just two people being upset at each others they could come to me about it if they felt it would do anything) If the situation was guild wide my response would be to hold a meeting with those involved to talk it out, posts on this site are fine and dandy for it but some times ive felt a in game meeting is needed.