Guild Progression: Filling out the ranks

It's time to expand your guild by recruiting. Maybe it is because you're finally ready to start raiding in Karazhan. Maybe it is because you've got Karazhan on farm and are ready to start ramping up to the 25-man raid instances. Maybe it's just because you can never find a tank (or a healer or a mage or a rogue or...)

Whatever the reason is, you need people. You need them now. But you don't just need a warm body. You need the right warm body.

There are a couple of things you can do to help.

1. Clearly define why you are recruiting. Do you need more healers? Do you need just more people? Is your goal to raid, pvp, instance, etc.?

2. Form a committee of your leaders who will be responsible for recruiting. It sucks to do recruiting all by yourself.

3. Write a list of questions which you will ask ALL potential applicants. Focus on things like other guild memberships, why they left their last guild, their goals in the game, their playing schedule. Keep in mind that recruiting someone who only wants to PVP when you're recruiting to fill a raiding schedule is not a good fit.

4. Be aware that the question "Why did you leave your last guild?" will most often lead to a skewed version of the actual events. Don't be afraid to ask clarifying questions. If they respond with, "I could never get a group" ask them to elaborate. You might follow up with "Were there just no other toons at your level?" or "How did you try to engage that guild in grouping with you?" I've seen people leave my guild saying they could never get a group. And I know for fact that they rarely said anything in guild chat about looking for a group.

5. Treat this like a job interview. Have potential members interviewed by several people. It is the best possible idea to include the class lead responsible for the potential member (if you guild uses class leads)

6. Be ready to answer questions. The interview is merely a dialogue-it should work both ways.

7. Especially ask interviewees if they have any objections to downloading guild required software (addons, voice communication, etc.)

8. Know when to stop the interview. By your third question, you probably have a pretty good idea about whether this person will "fit in." Don't be afraid to ask a few more clarifying questions, but when you've made up your mind, stop asking questions. If you've already decided "no" its a waste of your time. If you've already decided "yes" but continue the examination for 45 more minutes, the interviewee may have decided your guild is not for him.

9. Know when to stop recruiting. You should only recruit when you need to. If the need for tanks is filled, don't keep recruiting them. :o)

10. Take advantage of various means of getting the recruiting word out. Blizzard realm forums have recruiting sections. Wowinsider has a weekly column. Wowwiki has sections on recruiting. If you have a guild website, post the information there. And don't neglect the tried and true /lookingforguild spam.

Now. You've got a guild full of the right warm bodies. How do you integrate them into your guild? For that, tune in later.