Officer Qualities

This topic has been covered with more panache and publicity than I'll be able to manage, but I think it's important to keep reiterating certain things, as repetition is often the key to making people remember stuff they don't want to.

Or so I've heard.

So here's my little list of officer qualities, in no particular order:

• Stable
• Honest
• Sincere
• Capable
• Tough
• Discerning
• Giving

Some guilds get by without some of these qualities because the officer has other qualities that make him or her valuable, often in the form of being able to perform a job with an unusual level of efficiency.

For example, we have one really tough officer. He's our enforcer and the primary raid leader. Although he's a teddy-bear outside of raids, and I (a very sensitive soul) am not intimidated by him in the least even with his Big Boy voice on, he knows how to keep people in line. He's tough enough to do it.

On the other hand, another raid leader is his exact opposite. He doesn't have the personality to subdue the frolicking raid populace, and that results in a general lack of enforcement in his immediate area. But it's not because he's easy to walk all over. It's because he just doesn't get ruffled over anything. He remains in such a complete state of equilibrium at all times that he would have to seriously exert himself to try to even appear upset. While this isn't helpful in taking a hard line when one is needed, this trait is still valuable in him as an officer because he can calm other officers down and help them see both sides of an upsetting issue. It's also nice to have someone around who can make a tense situation light.

This officer is also discerning enough to know when to shut up and let someone else handle it and when to offer his opinion. He's mostly content to sit back and watch and let other officers make the decisions and offer his light touch if someone seems to be going too far toward the strict side of things.

It's particularly important to have a discerning and tough person in the guild leader position and in recruitment -- though in these cases, tough just means able to perform some difficult aspects of the job, such as letting people know when they fail the trial member period. I handled recruitment for a good chunk of our time as a guild and am not too modest to admit that I have a particular ability to dissect arguments and social interactions and find clues to the motives of the people around me. This sort of ability, which I believe our guild leader Teo also possesses to some degree, is important if you can find it in potential officers because it helps to have that kind of eye on explosive issues.

Of course, if the discerning person is prone to bouts of anger, favoritism, or instability, that would be bad. It's vital that your officers, people who are involved in important decisions about your guild and its future, are emotionally stable. While this does include problems like depression, bipolar disorder, and anger management issues, I'm also talking about people with their own agenda. You do not want someone in your officer core who cares more about his or her own needs than the guild's. That person will press for unfair and unbalanced decisions that will undermine the leadership's credibility.

Honesty is also good, though in a person with anger problems or who dislikes the people around him or herself, honesty can be used to tear people down. Honesty tempered with kindness and sincerity makes for the best mix. When I say sincere, I mean people who invest themselves into their beliefs and actions, people who would be hurt by dishonesty and the mistreating of others and who would seek to remove that sort of thing from the guild.

Sincere people, when they have a strong attachment to their guild, will fight for the rights of members like nobody else. And I would like to say that it's important for officers to care about everyone but, to be truthful, all you really need is a person who will act for the good of the members. They don't have to be best friends with (or even like) everyone to do that.

Officers give of their time, skill, and sometimes goods for the betterment of the guild, but I do want to note a warning -- you do not want someone too giving. It is very easy for officers to get worn down by the idea that we have a duty to give more of ourselves to groups and runs and gank protection than regular members. This is true only to a point -- it is important that we, as fellow guildmates, help each other, but it is most important that officers find a decent balance of time for the guild and time for ourselves. Members rarely realize how much work goes into a guild behind the scenes, and when you log on intent to grind rep for that raid enchant, sometimes the best thing you can do for your guild is to go /DND. Help is always needed, but helping too much will burn you out and make you useless.

And, finally, it's important that officers be capable. All the honesty and good will and knowledge in the world can't make up for a recruitment officer who goes to starting zones and starts ginviting everyone. If a person is not able to do their job, that person is better off giving their feedback from the member side of things. For example, even when Teo stepped down from being guild leader and was a member for a few months, the officer core messaged him several times for his help on touchy (and private) guild issues. So just because the most discerning or stable member of your guild doesn't have the time or the ability to be an officer doesn't mean you can't go to them when you want their help.

So, in the end, when I think of a really great officer, I think of someone fair and even-handed, able to understand what's going on and not overreact, willing to disagree, able to step aside, knows his or her own limits, and finds it important that everyone be treated with respect.

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Beth Blevins is an officer in In Vino Veritas.

She's a writer, artist and avid blogger.

Beth's been married since her junior year of college.