This article was suggested by Veliaf of Imperial Guardsmen.
I currently run a small guild in WoW, and have done for several years, but in the near future I’m going to be leaving WoW for a few months (probably until Cataclysm is released). Obviously this means I’ll be stepping down as GM, and this leads to questions such as who is going to take over, in what capacity, and so on.
We (that is, myself and my three officers) of course want to make the transition as smooth as possible to avoid disruption to the guild.
Managing the transition from one guild leader to another can be quite stressful. As much as you may try to make the guild about the members, the purpose and the policies, some of your members will always put you on a pedestal and think that you stepping down means the end of the guild as they know it.
The good news: you’re thinking about it ahead of time. The more preparation you put into this, the smoother things will go. Many times a GM disappears without notice, catching the officers by surprise and leaving them without some of the critical privileges they need to keep the guild moving forward.
Veliaf posed some specific questions, which in and of themselves could fill an article. But this is a huge topic to cover properly, because in order to manage the transition from one guild leader to another, you have to have an appreciation for everything that a guild leader does. While anyone can can give a general description of what a guild leader does, it would probably be limited to the visible in-game and figurehead aspects of the position. Guild leaders tend to do much more behinds the scenes.
To give this it’s proper due, I’m going to split this into three medium-sized articles rather than two very large ones. First, we’ll talk about how to manage the transition itself – choosing a new guild leader, communicating the change to your members and keeping the guild on an even keel throughout the process. Next, we’ll go a bit more in depth as to all the things that a guild leader does. This will also serve as a laundry list of tasks that may be suitable for delegation rather than transferring them all onto one person. Finally, I’ll talk about the practical steps you can take to prepare for your temporary or permanent departure from a guild so that you can quickly transfer leadership and deal with real life.
Crunch Time or No?
Your immediate goals for handling a leadership transfer are going to be very different depending on whether the change is planned or not. If the current GM has decided that they need to move on and you have even a couple of weeks to make that happen, your job is going to be much much easier.
If your current GM just logged on to transfer leadership and gquit, you need to keep the guild operating smoothly while you plan out the transition. The worst possible situation is that your GM has disappeared or announced their departure but hasn’t transferred leadership.
If you find yourself with an AWOL guild leader, you can petition a GM to transfer leadership to an officer after the account has been inactive for 30 days. I believe that the account needs to have no login activity, so in the rare case that the GM has moved to a new realm but is actively playing, there may not be much you can do. Until you can get control of the guild leader rank, what you can do will be limited.
I’ll go over the various things to deal with in the sections below. If you’re dealing with an unexpected GM change, you will probably be most interested in:
- Steady As She Goes
- Selecting a New Leader
- Replacing What’s Been Lost
- Changing Things Up
If the move is planned, then you’ll find more relevant advice in:
- Selecting a New Leader
- Guidance Before Retirement
- Handing Over the Keys
- Steady As She Goes
- Preparing For a Return
- Changing Things Up
- The Golden Parachute
I can only give each of these a short treatment, so if there is a topic that you’d think would be a good standalone article, please leave a comment.
