From the "You Don't Know What You Don't Know When You Make a Podcast" files...
Guild applications.
This has been a wild year for our guild. As of January, we were languishing on a low-population server, struggling to find anyone to join us. Forget trying to find raiders who were interested in helping us fill open spots. There just wasn't anyone to find. Somehow we managed to keep one 10-man raid team going and progressing through content, but prospects for guild growth were pretty weak.
Things are very different today. We actually had to put recruitment on temporary hold because we were growing so quickly. This has been due to the new higher-population server we transferred to, some creative advertising by our GM, and our podcast. We made the decision as officers to allow our current membership to integrate with each other, participate in guild activities and just generally get to know one another better. We're glad we did that, and it's worked out very well.
One of the things that Rem and I decided to do before even recording our first show was to keep ourselves out of any decisions regarding applications for fans who listen to us. This was really important to us, because we wanted someone to be admitted to the guild based on how well they fit our guild culture, not because of "Rem and Jules". Though we see all applications that come in, Rem and I don't make any contribution to the decision for anyone who mentions they heard about the guild from our show - our other officers and our GM make the call in those cases.
Just to clarify, I'm not saying we're taking the, "Hey, don't blame us!" approach when it comes to guild decisions. By doing it this way, we allow the guild culture to stay consistent. If we have applicants from the show that are a good fit to our environment, that's great! If an applicant just isn't a good fit, the application is considered exactly the same as it would be if there was no Tauren Think Tank podcast. That seems to be the fairest way to do it for all parties.
The thing to remember with ANY guild that you put together is that your mission statement is your identity. Know what you want to create as your identity and look back at it with every decision you make. It makes things that much easier when you grow, add new members, and go through transitions. Doing this has kept our guild together for over 4 years and counting.
Until next time...
/moo,
Jules
