Recruitment

... if you trust everyone and let them in, someone will mess with your guild. If you trust no one and let no one in, you cannot grow or make new friends.

(Excerpt from my other WoW blog, Letters from Birdfall.)

I covered applications last week, but recruitment is different. There's one rule that you need to be aware of, even considering all my warnings about random recruits:

You will be surprised by people.

We've had quite a few very good surprises -- people who had no connections and came in and loved us, loved what we were and how we functioned and who would never consider going back to raid guilds or casual guilds. They've thrown themselves into the guild so fast and so hard that it's like they've been with us since the beginning.

We've also had people who were highly recommended by members but who gquit a week later. Most of those were people who joined just to raid, and whose friends/contacts in the guild were just there to raid. We had a minor exodus close to Wrath because we recruited for raiding but we aren't a raid guild at heart, and we weren't what those people wanted.

So the second rule of recruiting would have to be: Recruit for what you are, not what you want to become.

Family guilds cannot pretend to be anything but family guilds. Yes, IVV raids, but there was a point where we were trying to recruit so we could have stronger raids and that was a recipe for disaster. I hold very strongly now to the idea that you must first find people who want to be in a family guild and the endgame goals will follow. You cannot ignore the family aspect of the guild or try to keep them separate when you recruit -- members in IVV welcome new people with their whole hearts and if those people aren't willing to invest themselves back, they belong in a normal raid guild. We may have wanted to be stronger raiders, but that did not mean that we had the atmosphere or resources to satisfy "real" raiders. It ended up hurting our family members instead of satisfying our raid team.

The third rule of recruiting is: Never stop growing.

Family guilds, like social guilds, are notorious for members taking random hiatuses. Though in a purely social setting, this might not be a huge problem, if you're trying to raid and those members are some of your regular raiders, it puts a wrench in the works.

When IVV started and we only invited close friends of members (a policy we've returned to after the raider debacle), I had a vision. IVV started with about 10 people, 5 at the level cap and then my family group racing upwards. And I knew that as long as we continued to nag our own personal friends into the guild, and they nagged their friends, we would grow. It would be slow, but it would be steady and safe. Want 25's? Keep moving and have patience. We might only grow a little here or there, but we have the unheard-of benefit of not shrinking. Except for the exodus we should have expected, people just don't leave. It's like a profit chart with a line slanting straight toward the top.

I firmly believe that any guild willing to put in the time and patience to slowly grow with quality recruits can succeed at anything, because if your players love the guild, they will stay.

So if you keep moving, keep meeting people, keep encouraging friends and family to join, you cannot lose. Only win.

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Beth Blevins is a former officer in In Vino Veritas.

She's a writer, artist and avid blogger.

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