What it Takes to Lead a Guild

First of all, you need passion. Create a guild with a theme that you are wild for; don’t create a theme that you feel neutral about. Get fanatical about your guild! If your main hobby is painting, make a painter/art guild. If you can’t get enough of fishing, make a fishing guild. If you think that petpets are the most adorable things on the face of Neopia, dedicate your guild to them! Whatever it is, make sure that it will be something you won’t regret making, or else it won’t be fun anymore.

Responsibility is a main factor when it comes to being the owner of a guild. There are so many activities to take charge of, people to talk to, newsletters to be edited. You need to make sure that you will be able to handle it all. Life outside of Neopia can be extremely busy at times with school, sports, and hanging with friends. Will you have enough time to manage a whole club?

Everyone knows that advertising is a crucial way to let others know about something you want to bring to their attention. That’s the same way it is with guilds. How will people know about your guild? Some ways are to advertise on the guild boards, post an image in your use lookup, and if you have enough neopoints, even post an ad on the Noticeboard. Promotion is a vital way to get people to come to your guild.

And what if no one comes? That’s where patience comes in. Sometimes people won’t like your guild at first glance, or maybe they just don’t like what it’s about. Whatever the case, be patient. Don’t automatically assume since no one joined on the first day of guild creation that it’s horrible. Patience, my friend. Patience.

A fair amount of knowledge is also needed. In terms of HTML, you should know some to be able to make an effective layout. There are always pre-made layouts, but you should also understand basic HTML like how to make a phrase bold, make a link, etc. Knowing about the goings-on in Neopia is also important. This will help you to be aware of other guilds and to assess yourself on how to make your guild better.

Your guild needs to be organized, so make yourself do things in an orderly fashion. I don’t think many people like messy, confusing guild homepages. Make sure that everything is clear, that the links lead to the right places, and that you don’t have a zillion major events in the same day; spread everything out evenly.

Leading a guild requires activity on your part. If a guild leader is not dedicated to his or her guild, why would people want to be in it? An inactive guild leader is definitely a bummer to the other members. Don’t leave them wondering what happened! How do you solve this problem? Post on your guild board, arrange fun activities, and get to know who’s in your guild.

Creativity is a very useful trait, indeed. Think dynamic. Think out of the box. Think extraordinary. Neopians love a cool guild; are you ready to give it to them? Think up crazy activities that everyone will love to participate in, ones that will get even the least active member pumped. Create polls with interesting questions (who cares if they’re pointless?), and remember to change them often.

On a more serious note, being the leader of a guild also leads to sacrifices. You may have to sacrifice some of that hard-earned NP, spend hours on a radical guild homepage, or painstakingly reply to all those neomails you’ve received about everything under the sun. With sacrifice comes joy, though, and it will pay off in the end.

Then we come to the point in the article regarding those four “Apply for Position” titles under your name on the guild sidebar. In other words, the council members. Discernment is a big key here. What is discernment, you may ask. In other words, it’s the ability to know what to do and what not to do. In this case, it’s whose application to reject and whose application to accept. This will come as time goes on. Think it through; make sure that the people you are choosing have the qualities you need them to have, whether it’s for the specific job they’re to be assigned to or in general.

Another big word that you need to know is assertiveness. Guild leaders all must be assertive. I shall define assertive for you as well. It’s being firm, yet not being rude. If a certain member is bugging you, don’t send them a possibly offensive neomail. Tell them what they’re doing wrong in the gentlest way possible, with a “please” and “thank you”. And hopefully they won’t get mad after that. It doesn’t mean you have to let everyone get away with everything, though. You have to draw that line yourself on when to neomail or when to not.

Lastly, you need cooperation. I mean, you need to cooperate with others, unless they’re being bizarrely unreasonable. Open your mind to what they have to say; perhaps they have a good idea that you’ve never thought about before. When some arguments arise, whether it’s just in the council or in the guild as a whole, find a way to make everyone (or at least most people) happy. Your way may not always be the way all the time.

Running a guild isn’t always smooth sailing. There will always be that one member who happens to break the rules all the time, a member “drought”, or a never-ending torrent of neomails that you could do without. But it’s all worth it, though. In the end, you will feel very accomplished, have made loads of new neofriends, and had tons of fun. You don’t have to take my word for it… create your own guild today!