Outside Observer...

[Valetorix]

Okay, I figure I might as well start messing around in officerchat early, seeing as I've started to read some of the older posts to catch up on the "state of the union" and I'm still fresh enoguh into officerhood (about 20 mins now) that I can say some harsh objective kind of stuff without getting into trouble , Like to hear it, here it goes:

Rumble (Rummy, just tell me what you want to be called) invoked a line from Lux' constitution, and I felt a compulsion to expunge on this a little bit. Part of what made Lux effective and friendly was its willingness to let others "do their own thing", but what also made Lux succesful was a measure of discipline. Unfortunately I couldnt make the Hole raid, but I was at the CoM raid until about 4 in the morning and saw somethings pop up that have before like whos MA, whos SA, whos pulling and what the goals are. Like the Hole, CoM was wildly successful (like 3 jade reavers plus countless pages and about 659 MoSS' while i was there), but it appears that some people lack discipline overall, like jumping the gun on casting and such. Communication is HUGE for a guild like SLoT because it has so many members, so this kind of stuff as far as I know, has to be laid out for people. On the flipside, people have to know what their role is too in both grouping and raid situations and if someone doesn't know what their 'toon's role is in eq in general then that causes serious problems when they have to be relied on. I couldn't tell you how many times I've MT'd with a cleric OOM then all of a sudden I see a shaman casting and the message "A shock of frost slams against So and so's body" instead of "you have been healed for whatever amount". Which brings me to another theme I picked up from the other posts, which is guild reorganization. I think thats a huge problem that is just starting to be addressed now. Given that I haven't really been in the guild for an incredibly long time, and seeing posts going back to January I realize theres a lot I dont know, but just looking over the roster know, and having grouped with a healthy amount of SLoTers over the past three weeks, there are some people who I would question within the guild, and while we don't necessarily want to be an UBER guild, we do want to be a raiding guild, an effective guild and from what I understand at least a lower tier guild. While it may not be a very nice thing to do, I think that the roster does need a little tyding up, Im not saying a complete overhaul necessarily, but a few touchups to "smooth the edges" a little and maybe bring more prestige to a guild that definately has a LOT of upsides.

Anyhow, that my M.O. in becoming an officer and I hope that at least some people share a similar vision If you don't want to read all of that, then heres the cheap and dirty summary:

1.) Organization and Communication in all facets of the game, not just raids

2.) People to learn their role within the game (i.e. wizzards dont melee and melee's dont cast [although i guess i could try buffing the baddies with cobalt stuff...]) P.S. I dont mean any officers, or at least any officers I've grouped with or are currently in the guild. I think Nad's post (At least i think it was Nads post) on designating class leaders is an excellent one to kind of help this, and I know for a fact that the two shadowknights in the guild have a ball discussing shadowknight strategy and shadowknight gear, so I think this could really help the guild).

3.) Clean the roster (this is my first bang on this drum)

4.) Although not mentioned I think regular officer meetings are an excellent idea as one of the topics before stated, so bump on that.

SO...Thats me, thats my longest post of the year, and possibly most longwinded one, take it or leave it, I'm completely up for discussion and look forward to officering with the lot of you. Thanks again for inviting me onboard

VL

(Id try to put something silly but this was too much typing for me as it is)

[Nurlaten]

It's good to share officership with you again vale. I seem to recall you being made an officer in DE and then it disbanding in a week or so, let's not try for a repeat performance.

You bring up a lot of good points that have been brought up before, unfortunatly very little action has been taken on any of them. I think the first thing that needs to happen is the weekly meetings, if we are all meeting and talking hopefully we can come to resolutions about the other stuff mentioned.

Oh and as to what to call rumble, it's Sir Rumble, Lord and Protector of all that is Holy! Or rumble for short.

[Rumblebore]

If you saw how many ways people say hi to me (Hi Rum, Hey Rummy, Hail Rumble, etc,) you might begin to think I am a lush or something.

Any part of the name is fine - whatever you get comfortable with.

You stated/Banged:

3.) Clean the roster (this is my first bang on this drum)

As much as you may be loathe to do so, please give us an idea what you mean, perhaps by stating what you think the Roster SHOULD look like. I have suggested an alt guild for alts and later for new lower level recruits, while SLoT remains a 46+ Planar/Raiding guild, same leadership in both guild, just the officers Alts lead the alt guild. No need to comment on that, but expressing what you hope to see and perhaps why would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Valetorix]

OK, maybe I'm just gruff or maybe inherently mean, but when I mean clean the roster, I mean CLEAN the roster. Its not just a question of removing alts as far as Im concerned. There are some alts that are incredibly helpful and have been longstanding in the guild as it is (like Saite and her alt or like Nurlaten and his dead alt et cetera). Or like our being short on wizzies and if anyone wanted to or already hadcreated a wizzy that is leveling him as we speak (cough cough). Theres a difference between alts like a 2 necromancer someone never plays and alts like a level 49 cleric, or 43 rogue... So, first I'll address the whole alt guild thing, then I'll addresss cleaning the roster (assuming my hands dont cramp up from using this GD Mac instead of my comfy spacious pc aat home).

- As far as I'm concerned, I dont see an alt guild being a terribly effective solution. I think it was Nada (although dont hold me to that) that posted something to the effect of the admin structure not holding up well and such. I would allow alts in the main guild as long as they were semi-active and useful, just maybe cap it at two per person or something like that. I doubt McM is ever going to use the old McM (chael who I grew up with, as opposed to ikahl), but in a situation where theres like 3 toons that are all used semifrequently I dont see why they all shouldnt be in the main thing and not have to worry about a second guild to maintain. And thats all i have to say about that.

- As far as cleaning the roster goes, to me cleaning means somehow listing that complete roster we have on the guild website and in a very intensive officers meeting decide if there are players who in fact a) ruin the chemistry of the gulid, b) disrespect others and so on. Just as a quick example, like people who use guild chat to sell items to other gulid members for inflated prices (as far as what I understand most stuff ends up getting gifted to others, guild chat is not meant to be used for selling, especially when the person is not even giving something like a break on the item, its just wrong on many levels), or people who on the day they are invited start asking "when are we going to Hate to do my epic". The notion of the guild is cooperation and "family", selfishenss is not a trait that benefits the guild, as far as I feel at least. Whlie it may not be nice to boot some people, for the guilds interests it may be necessary (am i cold or what ). Maybe we can implement somekind of screening process before inviting people or something to safeguard this kind of stuff in the future. I know from both my days in DE (which btw Nurl i was an officer for a month with you and then we disbadned 2 months after the guild existed) and Lux I often ran around to group with prospective members and chat with them and see how they play the game, I cant tell you how many times was camped at KC then I was asked if I would go group with someone in Velks and legged it out...thank god for jboots. So when i mean clean, I mean disband if necessary and filter for the future, not just cut the number of alts down and disband people who havent signed on since january whateverith.

Hope I caused some controversy

VL

[Saite]

I agree, the roster does need cleaned up alot and we need to sit back and look at who is helping this guild move and who is slowing us down. We need team players, someone that knows how to listen to directions and isnt afraid to ask if they dont understand something. Asking is the only way we are going to learn and grow.

There is one thing that we need to do and I have mentioned it before but I dont think I am typing loud enough for everyone to hear. We need to have an officers meeting and have a grumble session with each other. We all need to be working together, it seems we have just been knocking heads here lately. One officer has a problem with someone in the guild and is told to let it ride and not worry about it by another. That causes friction and irritation, makes the one officer feel like they have nothing to contribute to this guild. We all need to be agreeing on what happens in this guild, its everyones home and some of us may not want or like certain things going on.

We are wanting to become a Tier guild but unless we can get structure going in the guild, I honestly dont see it happening. We have a handfull of really good players that can start paving the way for us but they cant hold our hand and tell us what to do. We have to want to do this and take the initative to do it. Classes need to learn their roles, need to back up other classes and the like.

Okay, enough blabbering for now, you get the jest of what im saying....I hope, or im not typing loud enough again.