Yea. Feel content in knowing that you struck out against someone that was driven away from the game by... well, by people like you. The horse is dead, dude, and Shayle's opinion is just as viable (probably moreso) as anyone else that is responding to Marina's thread.

Bingo. I've given up trying to get my secretaries to talk to me. It doens't happen. I applaud the first Serenguard GA for maintaining a record once a year of finances. I can't even keep that straight.

Unless someone WANTS to do a lot of writing and reports (something I like to do), this will never work.

Hokay, buddy. When you want to leave your little world and come join us out here in reality, let us know. I missed you at the glom meetings.

But you can figure out everything from just reading the forums... they're a 100% accurate source of information.

Especially if you only listen to a couple of people's posts and ignore all the rest.

Lies! LIES!!!1!

Hrm.

*kills the requirement for Sec and Undersec reports*

Keep the finger pointing to a dull roar, thanks.

My two cents: I've always found light communication and an open door policy to be the best method of maintaining active and, more importantly, -happy- leadership.

It's different for every person and every guild, however.

I used the general babble idea.

I went to the Order heads, told them what I wanted in general, then let them decide how to do it. They suggested people, I would look over them, and say yea or hay. Ultimately, let them decide how they want to work, then pop in every so often and ask "So, what have you done?"

Wow. I didn't know that this would be disliked this much.

The reason I wanted to implement this was because I wanted to keep a log of what everyone is doing. If someone isn't doing the tasks that their position requires of them, then they're just taking up space. Right?

Also, with Nocht, I didn't want to be standing in the room with him and he suddenly asks, "So, what is soandso doing?", and I'm stuck there with this dumb-struck look on my face while I say, "Erm...something?"

So novice retention can be increased by the open-door policy. How else can I push for novice retention and guild member retention? As it is now, the Night Coven is particularily small. What can I do, as GM, to boost our numbers without coming off as being pushy or killing the fun and excitement of the game?

I remember being the Order head for Lacostian, but the terms of being order head and what was expected of me were far, far different than being a GM and making sure everything is taken care of.

Well, novices shouldn't be a problem in a wiccan guild. Both Dancers should be immensely popular since they are easy to play and understand. All you have to do is keep them interested. Wether that be with games, fun research, roleplaying... just something that makes them feel that they are an asset to the guild and would be missed if they were gone.

As for leadership...the best way to scare a person from leadership is mention mandatory work.

QFT

Whether they're being productive or not should be self-evident.

Really, Shayle has the biggest point. The best way to ensure any sort of activity is simply by interaction. Anything less personal than that takes away the point of the game.

You should only have to write reports if it gets you a high grade or paid.

Interaction is definitely the key to keeping people around.

Hrm! I just try to inspire people to want to stick around and do the stuff we plan to do. In fact, that's when we have the most fun, I think- Eliron and I will periodically come together and chat about what we're both doing and what we know needs to be done. When the secretaries and Daedalion are around, we'll invite them too to discuss what they think should happen.

My secret is to just listen to the flow of things and subtly push people toward different ideas that are mentioned. Inevitably, they think it's THEIR idea which leads to it being done faster and with more efficiency than if I tried to command it to happen. That and what other people mentioned, specifically being completely and utterly open for chats and pleasant communication, tends to keep people around. I make it a point to get to know -every- novice that arrives.

Oh! A great team of undersecs that know how fabulous they are to the guild usually works in the short-term. Their job is exhausting, so they tend to burn out fast, but it does work for a while. Focus on keeping your undersecretaries happy!

Yes... or they might snap and go on a novice-killing spree

There's really nothing I can add that hasn't been mentioned already. Generally, long lists of tasks tend to overwhelm people (I know they do that to me). The Harbingers just shifted their advancement program from ranks with various tasks for completion to a number of ongoing projects you can join, which I think is a great move. Keeps people busy, without overburdening them with work.

Oh, something else I noticed... everyone is going to be really pissed when they see how much work they have to do, yet there is nothing at all that you are doing.

A few points:

You are not in charge of the guild unless you have the force of personality that puts you in charge without being put in charge. You do not.

There will be lapses in things getting done. The appropriate response is to just do them. There are no exceptions to this as an elected leader. Even for members without a position, generally, the appropriate response is to just do what's not getting done. If your response is to set up a system so that blame can be assigned, you're doing it wrong.

If you don't trust your secretaries, remove them.

Speaking as one of Druken's undersecretaries.... Yes. Harbinger interaction for the win.

I have two alts in the game, both of whom had the guild administrator as their mentor, and the Harbinger is the one still going strong, while the Ninjakari gave his gear away to avoid wasting it on hibernation rot a while back, and is now completely unarmed and unarmored (although as a monk, I imagine he's still viable, with a health potion or two.) mainly because I found Harbinger advancement and interaction simpler and more rewarding.

You can't really force novices to stay. You can't force people to be happy. More importantly, you should never force someone to do in-game busy work for you.

GM, GA, and GC are all on the same level. There shouldn't be a policy where they have to write you a report every year (seriously, think about it. every 2 weeks, in a pretty slow guild. that is ridiculous). When I played Achaea, and I was the HoN of a guild/House, the GM/HM always demanded a report on novices and who was advancing, every year. They wanted percentages, numbers, and reasons. It never made me happy and it burnt me out, and no matter how much I did or how well I did that year, if I missed the report by even a day or two (in game month or so), I felt like a complete failure, and they made me feel like a failure for not doing it (because it made me look lazy). Near the end of my term I pretty much stopped giving the reports because there was no reason to do it. I wasn't even GF'd for my trouble.

edit: also, these reports weren't like, 10 novices max. We're talking like, how many novices did we get this year, how many got the intro, how many advanced, and who advanced where. I was dealing with like up near 50 people every two weeks (since it was about the time achaea started to advertise), all names and everything. So of course I'd miss a few, or forget someone, or some novice wouldn't get an intro; I was blamed for all of it. It was very discouraging.

Your job as GM is to make sure the city and guild are working together, not to run the guild. This is primarily the GA's job; you're more than welcome to help the GA and bounce ideas off each other, but it's really up to the GA when it comes to last-says regarding guilds. This applies for Gms in a city-sense, and GCs when it comes to who goes where in battle.

Novice retention is going to suck some years and rock others. You can't plan it and you can't really make it any better, outside of interacting and roleplaying. Show them that your guild isn't boring and all the work they do to advance in the guild is for a reason.

I remember my very first day on Lusternia, Kaalak, Genevieve, Talkan and Alodia were all swarmed around me, talking, asking me questions, inquiring about my race (I was Dwarf), where I had come from, etc. Kaalak especially. He was using the awesome emotes in says and it was making me go , and I interacted with him via what he was saying, doing, and what his desc looked like. That really gave me the impression that Celestines was not only a really awesome guild, but the people in it were worth hanging out with and making lifetime friends for my character.

If you want to boost numbers, then interact. When a novice comes around, and you find yourself with some free time, get to know them. Hang out with him, ask them questions, get to know their character.

If Nocht also gets on your case for not knowing who is doing what (and you will know if you interact with them... you don't need reports to tell you what you can find out through better means), then ... tough. He'll likely offer some advice (i.e. talk to them), then go on with his ways. Gods don't really care what mortals are up to anyhow.

Hope this helps.

Unless you're in Glomdoring. The vibe I got from the last Vira was that the patron was being held responsible for "fixing" Glomdoring.