Ask Rika how she likes mentorship programs . If you want to do this, don't make it mandatory. Strongly encourage, but mandatory seems to put people off.

Excellent idea. Teaching skills is easy. But the culture of a guild is much harder to teach. Surprisingly, the little things are what people notice. For example, Ev doesn't recognize the word "guild" when speaking of the Serenguard. We are a tribe, and he lets people know that is how it should be addressed. Many things in the Serenguard are tied in some way, superficially or not, to the Centaur, the tribe's founders. Having a mentor definitely helps this, but pay attention to the little details as well.


Your concerns are well founded. Especially if the program is expansive, designed to take you a long way up the ranks, people will see it and think "I have to do WHAT??". Voluntary is excellent. And the program should have variety-- something for everyone. The Serenguard Stripes have paths for fighters and scholars alike, and the different Stripes in each are varied enough (I hope) that there is something for everyone. A big complex program will do no good if not enough people are interested.

And make sure to include other people in this process. It can have a negative effect if you show up one day with this full plan that no one has had a chance to look at and say "This is how it is going to be done" (I've had this happen to me IG and in RL numerous times). Work with the Coven leaders, bounce ideas around, refine the ideas, then, when everyone is mostly satisfied, implement the idea. It takes much more time, but it will get you better results.

Yes, I think mandatory mentorship is just another way of forcing people into doing things.

Agreed, offer the option, even put a bribe alongside it, but don't force it.

Am I the only one who actually wrote the report? Yes it was almost exactly what I have to do for work, so no, that part was not fun, but then teaching novices is just like my rl job too. I don't know how these things happen.....

You should NEVER feel like you were forced into teaching novices.

Currently things in the Moondancers are pretty quiet. We have paths too (I think most guilds do!) but they're not that much work, and certainly nobody -has- to write an essay.

Re undersecs, it's basically a guild leader popping in one day and saying "Hey, I see you're good with novices, want to be a Moon Guide?" And most of the time it works. We USED to have this huge qualification program where you had to do an enormous amount of work just to be considered for undersec, but during Iola's time as GA (about ten IG years ago) it got thankfully scrapped because it was absolutely killing interest.

Getting people to do something in the guild is hard though - everyone who's ever had to take a part in running one probably knows this. It's just probably best to interact with novices/younger members and take everything in stride, and not have restrictions or requirements that are set in stone, because usually they aren't needed. I secretly envy whatever the Spiritsingers are doing with their novices, but I'm not sure if that's their system or just their novices.

And now I'm rambling again. But yeah, something like that.

Paths/Circles/Sects can generally involve harder tasks, including essay-writing, because they are not mandatory. If the person wants to advance, then it's their choice and they should be willing to put a little bit more effort in.

One benefit of getting almost exactly half as many novices as you do is that more of them are likely to stick around just because they've already passed one vetting process that screens out the less-motivated -- it's a lot harder for them to find us to join in the first place. Even so, our retention rate is absymal, but so is everyone's, and a slightly higher percentage of a much lower number is still lower.

But anyway, if there's anything we're doing you'd like to hear about, talk to me IG. Maybe it'd be smarter for me to hoard all our techniques as secrets in hopes of luring people, but I'm nowhere near conniving enough for that. I gave copies of our advancement system to other bard guilds (OOC, though), I'd certainly talk to you about our novice system.

(And I posted on here about our herb starter kit and how little it costs us and how much it seems to make the novices feel cared for and welcomed and not overwhelmed, while still leaving them enough to earn and buy themselves to get them to learn how to use the shops. Everyone should do it!)

I really like the herb starter kit idea. We have clothes for our novices and our young. I may ask Lei and Daem what they think about that. Perhaps adding more stuff that we can give to the young that will keep them comfortable and, yet, push them to go further.

FWIW, Marina, you are doing a good job. Being GM isn't all happy times, at times, and the amount of focus and energy you have brought in so far has been very enlightening and motivating. While written reports and such may not be the exact answer, there is nothing wrong with setting aside some RP time with the Secs and USecs to actively discuss those issues and positive notes. I think there is a strong leadership circle happening right now in the Shadowdancers, and from what I have seen so far, the passion for each role that everyone has is most definitely there.

It is organic, so let it grow!

At times I sort of feel like Evette is.. No offence to the Nekotai, but most of our novices come off as total jack asses... Either they're on the channel every five seconds asking if they can take a test after i've told them they need to wait until I finish doing something or they're on the market advertising that theyre selling oh what was the word.. bimbos.. Part of Evettes RP has always been novices, ever since her days as a Shadowdancer, but Im really sick of it. Perhaps after I found out Somaria was going to still contest I should have put my name in as well, I enjoy making scrolls and feeling all important, and having an active roll in a guild. I have to keep teaching novices because I need to come off that Im not just a slacker and keep my name open for higher positions with in the guild, but come on... I wish they would hurry up and open already.

Varren ftw.

Varren, Wyrden Sting tells you, "Hey camerick. Im at the pool of stars. They don't know i'm here."

If I was made Shadowdancer Admin I'd do all of this.
Simply because I actually have the time to spend for this kind of stuff.

After yesterday when pretty much the entire Night Coven got together on Ethereal and were keeping Serenwilde at bay, I was really proud of Daem and you. But, being the motherly type, I was chewing off my fingernails and worrying that Daem, Balizar, or you were going to get killed.

I know being GM is like a publicity, but I really want to do more than that. I don't mind representing us to the Court, but on the other hand, most of the mud slinging that goes on in that room makes me want to shake my head and pop a few aspirin.

Also helps to rely on your GA and GC too. And no steppings on the GA's toes, we hates that . Spread the work around.