One of the most difficult things any guild faces is the organization of the guild itself. Some approach this stage with a very strict hierarchy in mind, some take the casual “we’ll figure it out as we go” approach, and most fit somewhere in between. The way you’ll lay the foundation for your new guild will primarily be determined by the guild focus you have decided upon.

Let’s use my example plan from the previous post:

• Get 10 People to 80 without having burnout.
• Help players develop their skills (if they seem to want or need help).
• Run random achievement runs for breaks/fun.
• Pick encounters to do for no reason at all (i.e. solo Ony, 2-man BC heroics, etc.)
• Run L80 Dungeons, and possibly Heroics, until gear level is comfortable to enter 10-Man content.
• Arena Teams.
• Wintergrasp and associated raid.
• Obsidian Sanctum.
• Naxxramas.

This seem pretty straightforward at first glance. The easiest approach would be something akin to what Blizzard provides in-game by default. Overall this would place the Guild Master ultimately responsible for all decisions, and would allow him or her to establish Officers to provide the much needed assistance that every leader should have.

Naturally, this can go very, very detailed if one wants (and many larger guilds do so). Examples of areas of responsibility range from class officers to raid leaders to pvp officers… the list can become practically endless.

With so many options, what makes a good foundation to build upon, and a solid structure for growth and stability?

There are a few very basic questions one should keep in mind during this stage:

• Is there a system that is similar that I like, and can base my ideas on?
• Is it too complex? Too simple?
• Do I really need this position, or this role?
• Who can I bounce these ideas off of and solicit feedback from?

No organizational structure is perfect. There will always be something that will need to be adjusted later, or something that doesn’t quite work in practice like it does in theory. These are things that require leaders be able to adapt to situations as they arise, and not focused on an extremely rigid mindset or hierarchy that provides no “wiggle” room.

Now, let’s take the questions above and see how they apply to our scenario here (basing the answers, of course, on what I have in mind):

• Is there a system that is similar that I like, and can base my ideas on?
  Yes. The US Military (to an extent).
• Is it too complex? Too simple?
  Too complex, I need an extremely simplified version.
• Do I really need this position, or this role?
  • Guild Master – Yes
  • High-Ranking Officer (like GM Backup) – Debatably
  • Officers – Yes, one for organizing instances, one for PR/Recruitment
  • Veteran Members – Not really, could be nice to provide incentives of some sort though.
  • Members – Duh
  • Inititates – Yes. I want a short “trial” period.
• Who can I bounce these ideas off of and solicit feedback from?
  [Random Name] would be great to talk to about this!

Once this process is finished it is time to put the overall design on paper. This is where things start to really take shape for those groups who maintain guild websites, forums, etc. This outline is what will be used over time to draft everything you feel you need to successfully establish and maintain a guild, be it something you haphazardly toss together and run with or something that you take weeks to design. Either approach will work fine, as long as the same basic thought process occurs (and, of course, there are good people involved).

Using the prior examples, this is the overall guild design I’ll be using for the next post in the series:

1. Captain
2. XO
3. Quartermaster
4. Officer (Raid Leader) | Chief (PVP Leader)
5. Raiders | PVPers | Members
6. Inititates

The next post in this series will start to examine what to look for in filling these roles and how to grow into the plan set forth. In addition, I’ll provide examples of what the roles I have defined would be responsible for, and how they would all operate together.

Also, don’t forget to take a look at Saresa’s series on casual guilds over at Destructive Reach (part two is here)