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Finding the Right Replacment Guild Officer
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By Black Label
Jan 2007
Recently, my guild has been struck with the "Burn out" bug with the leaving of a few guild officers to
other MMORPG's. When your veteran officers leave suddenly, you need to act quickly as a guild
leader or else your guild structure can collapse very quickly. Who you choose as a replacement must
be thought out very carefully. It's not as simple as plugging a hole in a leaky roof or patching up
some old jeans. When your guild officer leaves, he brings with him his spirit and energy, and leave
behind a big void of responsibilities. Its not merely about picking the most veteran of players or the
most active players however deserving. Its about picking the RIGHT player who can do the job
RIGHT.
- The first thing to do when an officer leaves is to remember or determine what type of officer
he or she was. Was the officer a recruiting officer? An enforcer? An event planner? Your
graphic/web master? Or worst yet, a leader/veteran officer? You need to know this fact
because now you need to find someone who can do his/her job. You can easily narrow down
your choices after determining what role your former officer played. If your former officer
was a graphics designer/guild web master, it doesn't make much sense promoting a deserving
veteran guild member who knows nothing of website design and graphics. It doesn't fix the
problem and the void left behind by the other guy.
- Now you know what you need, you need to generate a list of possible candidates. Who should
you choose among this list? Well..talk to your current officers and leaders. Some criteria I
often use in finding replacement officers are the following.
- Is this person active in game? If he isn't even active in-game, how can he help your
MMORPG guild?
- Is this person active off game? Does he participate in your guild forums or log on
consistently to see your website? If he doesn't care about your guild when he isn't
playing, why would he have extra time to be an officer? (which takes a lot of personal
off-game time and dedication.)
- Is this person respected by the guild? You want someone who is already a natural
leader. It makes the transition easier. If you promote someone who has a generally
negative public image (whether its being a hothead, a loudmouth, a bad gamer, a bad
team mate, etc.), no one will respect the officer title placed on this individual.
- Is this person already generating his own events, creating his own role-playing, uniting
teams in raids or creating artwork/graphics for members? You want people who are
already self motivated and team oriented and not someone who is only doing that to get
the officer title. Find someone who is walking the walk already and not just talking.
- Now you need to also decide if this new officer is well liked by your current officers. You
don't need any cat fights in the officer lounge. Even if you have a dictorial/monarch type guild
structure, make sure your current officers are happy with the selection.
- Now you determined the right person and the type of job that is expected of them, one of the
most important thing in finding a replacement officer is TRUST. Do you trust him? Do you
like him? Do you think this person will back stab you or betray you? You might find this funny
but when you grant a person that you don't really know officerhood, you are giving him
permission to command and lead your hard earned members. Power does things to people in
real life and sometimes brings out the worst The person you promote may become your worst
nightmare if you are not careful. I've had three separate officer nightmares in the past where
on two separate occasions, each decided they didn't like the guild rules anymore and decided
to create their own guild. They began recruiting members from within my guild which led to
an exodus that almost crippled my guild. Promoting someone who you don't really know and
then losing many of your members to him later because you put him in a position of power is
not fun. In another incident, an officer I promoted decided to play a prank on his last day of
gaming. He decided to disband the entire guild, sell everything, and go out with a bang!
Needless to say those were my early days, and I was foolish to promote someone under 18 as
an officer. The bottom line is whoever you promote needs to be on the same page and carry
the legacy and not destroy it.
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