Old Friends Returning

This past week has witnessed the return of 3 former officers to their home guild. Fridai, Xeriz (Formerly Kuja) and Nevra all arrived back.

Last week I happened to catch sight of Fridai on my Real ID so I asked him if he would like to return to the famous Dambusters that he was forced to leave behind as Cataclysm was drawing to a close. He had moved server on his priest and due to numerous factors, found it difficult to carry on raiding and drifted around for an extended period. I am delighted to have him back around the guild since he is a trusted friend, former officer and primarily for the guild because he set this guild on it’s way to organised raiding. Actually, the reason we are currently where we are is down to Spyrot, Wenya and the team they have built but they might never have had the opportunity if Fridai hadn’t already fused together a raid team out of this social/levelling guild. With my help, Fridai laid the foundations of what Spyrot carried on so admirably.

Kuja and Nevra had been mainstays in our raiding scene since I met them at the very dying end of the Cataclysm, I still remember my first conversation with Kuja at the steps to the Dwarven District Auction House and when I invited them to join the guild, we were all happy to welcome another WoW playing couple to the family. I’m sure they were so happy to have found such a welcoming home and their previous raiding experience was an important factor in their relatively quick arrival in Spyrot’s raid team.

When it became apparent that Kuja and Nevra had a good grasp of breaking fight mechanics down and helping Spyrot with good input then I asked Spyrot if he would like to employ them in a more official capacity as Raid Leading assistants. I was particularly interested in the fact they could easily bounce ideas off one another at home at anytime and Spyrot would then be benefitting from the conclusions of such discussions. I liked that situation and it worked really well, Spyrot and the lovely couple became very close friends. Those early MoP raiding days were tough on our group but we ran through walls for each other at the time and it really served to strengthen the rapport we still feel for each other today. We have added new members since then but that old cameraderie between that original 5.0 team has been infectios and has really been the basis for our success if you consider that without this atmosphere, we simply would not have attracted the calibre of people that have relished in it since.

I am delighted to have the awesome twosome back even although there has been slight apprehension surrounding their return due to a few misunderstandings, a bit of over sensitivity and largely because of the time they have been forced away for. Our server move came at a very bad time for Kuja and Nevra and life has changed in some ways for them but this perpetual guild has not changed and has always held a place for each upon their return.

Our growing organisational management has meant a sharpening of focus on our roster management meaning people could return from an unforeseen absence and find themselves guildless but that is a symptom of the positive and decisive action we now take to ensure we are an active community with no long-term offliners. This proves to new and existing members that we are as well maintained as we suggest and also gives our roster management team good indication of if/when we need to look harder for new recruits. Each guild member who finds themselves guildless after an extended period will be warmly welcomed back as long as they were removed on good terms.

This brings me to a recent discussion about a grey area we have found. When a member is removed for purely just inactivity and then returns to the game to find themselves requiring a re-invite, I believe we should ensure we must ask returning players to apply to the guild again. We need to make sure the officers concerned with roster management are aware who all incoming guild members are, even tho they could be former officers simply because recruiters may not be aware of the player’a history with the guild.

I am thinking that for future reference, I will add some indication on the guild application so that recruitment officers are aware it’s a returning member.

In the meantime, we have just received an application from everybody’s friend and Dambusters legend Illia (Wakeowl) who is also bringing along some of his friends too. No doubt Illia will be linking his famous ‘Realm First Level 90 Monk’ achievement with monotonous regularity and I can’t say I blame him!

These guys returning serve as vindication that this guild still has something special and that thought only focuses me to redouble my efforts in continuing to drive the guild in our current direction. People return to where they know they have a stable and welcoming home and I hope everyone will continue to be as friendly to the newcomers and returning Dambusters as you have always been.

/Salute