Guild Progression: Getting to Know You

Great! You've followed the advice earlier in the week and you've recruited people. You've formed your committee, you've asked the questions, you've answered questions. You've finally sent the /ginvite. Now what? I'm here to help.

You have a website for your guild right? Awesome. Get the new recruit signed up for the website right away. If there is an approval process, see if there's a guild member on who can kick that off. Getting them with a login/password to the website is critical at this point. I've been in too many guilds where the website isn't all that crucial. And thus new members don't often find out about the site right away or go there and find it under utilized. If you can make this your first official business with the new guy (or gal) you'll drive home the importance of using the site.

Hopefully your website is also just chock full of juicy tidbits and posts. If not, it might be a good idea to appoint some "seeders" who will go out and post some starter topics. Make them just a little bit controversial. Nothing gets a board moving like some debate. In addition to active boards you should have posts that are marked "sticky" somewhere near the top. Each post where it's relevant should include links. They should list things like required guild addons to the WoW client, required voice communication addons, special configurations for the addons, the IP address of your voice client, the password for anything that needs it, basically anything the new member needs to immediately become an active member of your guild.

In another section you should have a link to your guild charter. If you don't have a charter -- WRITE one. Stop what you're doing right now and go write it. I'll give you a few.

Done. Good. Somewhere close to that, you should list the officers and class leads (if you use them) in your guild. It's also a good idea to have a suggestion with consumables for raiding or instancing, who in the guild can make them, and who in the guild will make them for little or no money.

A buddy system for new recruits works wonderfully. Introduce them to their assigned buddy. If there's no one else available, you become the buddy by default. An introduction to the key guild people and his or her class lead can go very far at this point to making them feel welcome.

Ask if there are any questions again. Some have surely popped up.

On your end, you probably have some administrative work to do as well. If your guild uses officer notes or public notes in a particular way, set them up for the new guy.

If it makes sense and there's the right mix of folks on, organize an appropriate level instance run immediately. Nothing assimilates a new guy to your guild better than IMMEDIATELY driving home the point why he just switched guilds.

Most of this is common sense. Treat them like you would a guest in your home, and they'll soon feel at home in their new home.