Dambusters Officers

Every guild needs good leadership, it begins at the general membership base and grows more demanding with the officers and culminates right at the top with the guild master who carries the burden of overall responsibility for the entire guild and everything that goes on around the community.  Guild Leaders who brush aside responsibility with comments akin to “well, he’s in my guild but I don’t control him so what can I do if he’s acting like a douchebag” should be worrying to anyone who is serious about being part of a good guild who takes responsibility for it’s member base.

At the Dambusters (most popular guild on the server™) we take the actions of our members seriously and people who create unnecessary problems around the server community that reflect badly on us is considered to be unbecoming of a Dambusters Guild member.  To that end, our leadership group must take seriously their positions as officers and try to carry out specific given tasks as delegated by the guild leader.

As a lot has changed since the guild’s evolving status over the years has altered the mentality and requirements of the specific leadership officers.  Some officers have been specifically appointed to specialised roles around the guild and others are there as advisors for reasons like being trusted by myself in real life to give me hard facts about goings on that I may need to hear in a frank and factual manner.  Others advisors have proven themselves to go out of their way to issue advice and opinions having attained valuable game experience over years of play and that information has been useful to me in managing the guild.

These committed people have given the guild a lot of effort over the years and I am very grateful for that!  However, a guild leader cannot expect the guild to remain competitive over years to come without constantly striving for new and vibrant ideas from new people as well as demanding continued inspiration from the current officer team.  To this end, I will be placing an onus on the current crop of officers to clarify exactly what they see as their primary roles at the moment and going forward.  It is noteworthy that although a lot of people are reading this blog and the website info (which is in need of updating admittedly) there are vast amounts of guild members who have never visited these web spaces.  This needs to change rapidly.  These places are the most beneficial for getting guild information out to our members and we need to do more to ensure people are watching.

I will expect my officer team to come back to me with notification that they have read this post and with some thoughts on their particular role within the guild, each officer must have a specific task that they take responsibility for.  My reasoning for this:

• People who volunteer are all important in the guild since they do work simply for the love of the game, there are a lot of people around who are keen to help out, but not take responsibility for a particular role within the guild while there is only a finite number of officer slots available, and there are many more who are not officers that would be willing.
• There’s no room to have people as officers just for the benefits it offers them, an officer must be a committed servant to the guild and not someone who relishes the position and all the perks without being worthy of the title.
• There are jobs that need to be done and that are not being done at the moment, clarification on these roles will be given by myself after I receive the information I expect resulting from this post.

I fully expect my excellent officer team to come straight back to me with renewed verve and a focus on specific roles which will carry the guild into the future.  I need mature officers who have plans for a specific role you may already be doing, or may wish to be doing.  A list of possible other roles (outlined and by no means exhaustive and I welcome additional ideas) around the guild which we are currently lacking include:

• A dedicated PvP player who is willing to volunteer time and effort to start and maintain their own PvP team (Rated Battleground and other such activities) within the guild, who will have recruitment rights for his/her team and who will stop at nothing to create a successful core group of players which make the Dambusters a guild to be reckoned with in Mists of Pandaria.
• A potential 2nd team Raid Leader who is willing to operate independently to the current 1st team Raid Leader Spyrot with good communication between the raid leaders of paramount importance.
• A Facebook page moderator/administrator who is willing to devote time to add to the page and canvas support for the page while attempting to direct more traffic to it.
• Specific class specialists who are willing to take time and give advice to other guild members who may be in need of tips to help them improve on their current gameplay.  Any prospective class specialist should let me know and they will be named as ‘go to’ people for advice for lesser experienced players. Even if the advice is just to visit certain known websites with reliable info.
• Someone with experience in website design at this transition time as I consider creating a brand new website from scratch with zero knowledge in doing so, any tips would be very welcome.
• An officer to arrange officer meeting times and to get people together on our Ventrilo for said discussions, a possible ‘Board Room’ type meeting with people who are advised to come up with specific issues or opinions that they would like to be looked into and resolved or at least discussed.  These points should be gathered from their friends around the guild and noted for bringing up to the convening officers at the meeting.  This officer will be responsible for the arranging of times convenient to the leadership team, and for the dissemination of the meeting content to the guild population, by using the website or other online means.

As I mentioned above, these possible roles are by no means complete and there are many more opportunities that you as an officer may consider as you define your envisioned position within the guild’s leadership.

The guild runs well although like all organisations, can very well be improved upon and it is my job to ensure we cover as many areas of the game as possible to ensure the continued success as a community as we have enjoyed in the past.  Let it be known that the past, present and future state, security, progress and general community spirit of everything that goes on, in and around the guild is the sole responsibility of myself.  I take the good with the bad and fully accept entire responsibility of the failings of our guild including the pleasure of managing such a fun and friendly community when things go well for us.

These outlined (and the many unmentioned) roles which may or may not be filled with differing quality of officers is completely the responsibility of myself and as with any community/company the buck stops with the guy at the top.  I expect things to continue to be fun and friendly around the guild, but hope to generate a renewed vibrancy around the place.  If not, then I will be able to clarify areas which need improvement very soon 🙂

/Salute the DAMBUSTERS!