Officer Meeting Overview

Agenda

1. Officer promotions, demotions, and reorganization
2. Guild bank loan proposal

Officer promotions, demotions, and reorganization

Every month I will be reviewing officer ranks and will be making changes depending on the needs of the guild.

• Superflyy -- propose going from Raid officer to alchemy officer. Will reconsider Raid officer rank if Superflyy gets his own consistent team going. In the meantime Superflyy will need to upload his alchemy skills to the website.
• Timotheus -- 1 month inactivity and stated earlier that he did not expect to return to WoW. I propose demoting this character and alts to member rank.
• Tobee -- long period of inactivity (>2 months) and just recently signed back on. He is currently the goblin engineering officer. I propose demoting to member.
• Lagoulus -- Has organized 3 "kara team spanky" runs over 2 weeks and has expressed interest in continuing this team. His team is one of 3 kara teams that we now have (others include Beginner Kara with Sandman and Team Dom Kara-style). I propose Lagoulus be promoted to Raid Officer as long as his team is active.
• Grizzlybear -- formerly shaman class officer, no clear role at present. I propose we demote to member until such time where he can show that he has either 375 profession beneficial to the guild or can help the guild in some other capacity.
• Holyspirt -- formerly paladin class officer, no clear role at present. I propose we demote to member until such time where he can show that he has either 375 profession beneficial to the guild or can help the guild in some other capacity.
• Lotto -- Thorthor's character that ran the guild lottery during Etheus's tenure as GM. Since then his main character has left and then rejoined the guild. I propose that we demote Lotto to member and table the lottery program until further notice.

Guild Bank Loan Program

Several weeks ago the guild officers approved (in a vote of 9 for, 3 against, and 1 abstention) the general concept of a guild bank loan program. I propose the following to start this program:

• The guild officers will allow the GM to provide some guild funds to selected guildmembers as long as certain conditions are met (see the conditions below).
• Those applying for the loan must be a lvl 70 member, active, and in good standing and must have been in the guild for at least 2 months with no history of quitting the guild.
• The GM can distribute up to 500g with the consent of 3 other officers.
• The GM can distribute up to 1000g with the consent of 6 other officers.
• Interest for each loan will be 1% compounded daily, and after 2 weeks any unpaid loan will be grounds for removal from the guild.
• Loans should be used for recipes, patterns, and other professions-related skills that could potentially benefit other guildmembers. Items that can only benefit one person (mounts, consumables, gear) will not be considered except for special circumstances.

Zul Aman is the new Karazhan

Haven't you heard? Zul Aman is the new Karazhan! That's right. In an effort to get more people into Zul Aman more frequently I will be creating a special loot point rule for all ZA runs in the next two weeks until the end of September 7th. Each ZA run will award participants a maximum of 2 rollover points (instead of 1). Even those who receive loot will get a rollover point and only forfeit 1 of those points.

The reason for this 2 week change is that we need to make more progress in ZA and other higher level raids. Many of our higher level players still spend 2-3 nights per week in Karazhan and at most only 1 night per week in Zul Aman. Of course we will continue our healthy Kara program (which now consists of 4 consistent teams), but we have to look beyond Kara in order to challenge many of loyal members who are now geared for Black Temple.

Loot Auctioning (the Smart, Selfish Way)

I've noticed on a few occasions during contested loot situations that players with lots of loot points will get away with getting good loot for very few points. I'll illustrate with an example: Player A with 20 points and Player B with 10 points both want a T4 helm drop; Player A bids a low amount, let's say 2 points, and Player B says "oh nevermind, I'll pass." The result is that Player A, who has lots of points, gets away with a good piece of loot for very few points. This isn't very smart.

In most contested loot situations there is going to be a person with more points and a person with fewer points. The person with fewer points is actually going to set the tone of the auction. It's important for all of us to keep the following in mind in contested looting: When you bid on dropped items you're also forcing others to increase their bid and use more of their overall points.

Let's take the above scenario and see what happens if Player B decides to be more assertive in his/her bidding: Player A bids 2 points, but Player B (knowing that he's likely to be outbid), decides to bid 8 of points. Player A, who really wants that helm, is forced to bid 9 points or higher in order to get his helm. Once the raid is over Player B gets a rollover point for a total of 11 points, and Player A is left with 11 points (20-9=11). After just one contested loot Player A and Player B are now equal in point standing.

The point here is that we are all nice people and fun to play with, but we need to be more selfish during contested loot situations. The only way that people like me, Berber, Sorilea, and Sagemage are going to use our points is if people bid against us and make us use our points.

Officer Meeting Proposals

The following proposals are up for officer consideration. Officers please reply back to Nistagmus with a "yay", "nay" or "abstain" for each of the following proposals:

(1) Proposed reimbursement of Koalat's expense for reorganizing guild arena team. Koalat bought a 5v5 and 3v3 arena team in Massacre's name. The cost for each of these was 200g and 120g, respectively. Koalat is asking about reimbursement from the guild bank.
Debate points: (Pro) Koalat is the pvp officer and he is trying to encourage arena activity in the guild. (Con) Koalat did ask for reimbursement funds after spending his own money, and we really should ask that people request funding before spending their own money and expecting reimbursement. Please reply to Nistagmus with "yay" we should reimburse Koalat using guild funds, or "nay" we should not. "Abstain" if you choose not to vote.

(2) Proposed change #1 to the loot point system for end-game raiding. I am requesting that we vote on restricting an individual's total rollover points to 30. Currently there are two players who have more than 20 rollover points (Nistagmus with 30 and Berber with 23). These points are the ones you get whenever you attend a raid but do not get any loot. Debate points: (Pro) There is an increasing divide between newer and older players in terms of loot points. Newer players are less likely to buy into our looting system if they see that their looting competition has ten times more points or more. A cap on total rollover points would allow newer players to catch up and would force older players to use their rollover points. (Con) Older players who have helped build the guild would be taxed in a way, and would lose points once their accounts reach 30. Please reply to Nistagmus with "yay" we should cap personal rollover points at 30, or "nay" we should not. "Abstain" if you choose not to vote.

(3) Proposed change #2 to the loot system for end-game raiding. I am requesting that add-on points (also known as "use-or-lose" points), which are points that we award for having Omen, Ventrilo, Guild Calendar, and the tank point, be used only in the case where a tie-breaker is needed. Right now a player may wager the sum of their rollover points (found on the guild website) plus their aforementioned add-on points. If the proposal is accepted then players may only wager their rollover points, and add-on points (as well as the tank point) would only break a tie. Debate points: (Pro) Now that rollover points are posted on the website, people are much more aware of their point situation. However, people get confused easily when thinking about how add-on points (and tank point) come into play. If we were to use add-on points only in the case of a tie it would simplify the loot distribution process greatly and would still give incentives for people to use the standard add-ons and to be a tank spec. (Con) Some will argue that we want people's addons to be updated before each run and that only using add-on and tank points for tie-breaker situations would provide less incentive for people to update their addons. Some feel that the loot system has been changing too much in a short period of time and are resistant to another superficial change. Please reply to Nistagmus with "yay" we should make add-on and tank point apply only for tie-break situations, or "nay" if we should keep the current setup. "Abstain" if you choose not to vote.

(4) Proposed Guild Bank Loan Program. There is a general proposal for a Guild Bank Loan System where guild funds could be loaned to responsible parties with the expectation of being paid back at a future date. The details of such a program are not in debate here and the who, when, where, why, how's are yet to be answered. All I'm asking the officers to do today is answer the question "Should we attempt to develop a Guild Bank Loan Program that would loan money to certain guild members if it is determined that it can be done safely and responsibly?" If the officers say yes, then I will work with guild bankers to try and develop such a program. If officers say no then the proposal dies for now. Debate points: (Pro) There are many long-time guild members who would benefit from such a program (purchasing mounts, recipes, patterns, etc), and currently our guild funds are sitting in the bank doing nothing. (Con) Loaning money to anyone is always a risk and we would could stand to lose money in this program. Please reply to Nistagmus with "yay" if we should explore this program further, or "nay" if we should not even consider it. "Abstain" if you choose not to vote.

Thank you all for your input. I would also like to express how proud I am of this guild. Last night at Gruuls I forgot to set master looter for the first boss and no one illegally looted any of the bosses when they easily could have done it and blamed it on me. I was very encouraged by our classy members.