Charter
From Unlimited Devotion
This document is the guild charter for the Unlimited Devotion guild on the Greymane World of Warcraft server. If anyone has suggestions, ideas, complaints, etc. please speak with a guild officer.
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Our Mission and Purpose
World of Warcraft is a game, and games are supposed to be fun. Everything we do is related to having a good time in game.
That being said, we have goals in the game that we believe are fun. Given our size and more casual nature, our goal is to clear 5 and 10 man instances on the most difficult setting (at this time, heroic mode for 5 mans).
Becoming a Member
We do not mass recruit and do not take anyone. Our motto in recruiting is quality over quantity. However, we are not an elite club, either. Recruitment is highly subjective due to the nature of human personality. When it comes to inviting a member, we need to look for people that have the best interests of the group in mind and are willing to make sacrifices for the group. When everyone has this attitude, we all win.
Ranks
We have five ranks, each with a specific purpose and privileges: Initiate, Member, Veteran, Council Member, Guild Master.
Rank goes by the person, not the character. If a Veteran creates an alternate, that alternate is automatically promoted to Veteran. If a person is removed from the guild, all of his alternates are also removed.
Promotions are not based on time, seniority, or anything else beyond how the guild leadership deems a person is committed to the guild and helping the team. Specifically, council member promotions, while rare, are not based on seniority.
Initiate
This is a probationary rank for new members. Initiates may participate in guild chat and edit their public notice, but may not invite new members. This limits the amount of damage that a new member can do. While the vast majority of people are not a problem and get promoted quickly, there is a vocal minority that would wreck havoc if given the opportunity. This rank allows us to weed these people out before they can hurt anything.
Member
After an Initiate proves himself to be a worthy guild member, he becomes a Member. Members can do everything Initiates can, but are allowed to invite new members.
Veteran
Members who have been in the guild for a long enough period of time, help others, are active, and a positive influence on the guild, will be promoted to Veteran. This rank has the same privileges as Member, but denotes that the person has seniority.
Council Member
Council members may participate in officer chat, promote and demote lower ranks, add new members, and remove members. Typically these are either founding members or other members who have a proven track record of exemplary service and commitment to the guild. They do not have to kiss ass, they just have to be supportive of other members and show leadership skills: helping out in instances, helping others with advice on gear improvements, where to farm for rep or gold, helping with daily quests, and being of a somewhat even temper even in bad situations. Council members typically have some sort of real life leadership training or experience but this is not a hard requirement.
Being a core member of guild leadership, officers have the same expectations as all lower ranks with additional requirements. They are allowed to kick members, promote, and demote, but are trusted to use those abilities correctly. When a member violates the terms of this charter, an officer is permitted and expected to react accordingly whether by demoting or kicking a member. Council members must mediate any issues that come up in the guild whether in guild chat, on a raid, battleground, wherever.
Council members are expected to be active in raiding and as such have specific requirements to help the guild progress and to set a positive example for other members.
- All council members shall have max level in two professions on their main character. There is no requirement on which professions these are: dual gathering can help stock the guild bank for other members to produce consumables, armor, etc. Production skills such as tailoring or blacksmithing will help with spellt hread, sharpening stones, etc.
- All council members shall have max level first aid on their main character and carry a full stack of the highest level bandages to raids. There are many encounters that are stress tests on healers and provide downtime where raid members can use bandages. This is crucial even for classes that are not mana batteries such as warlocks and shadow priests.
- All council members shall have max level in either fishing or cooking on their main character. This is specifically because food buffs are useful and important, and in certain encounters can provide a noticeable advantage. Council members must be able either to provide raw materials for food buffs or to turn those raw materials into something usable.
- All council members shall have one main character with a level equal to the level cap. In the case of an expansion being released that changes the level cap, council members shall make expedient progress toward the new level cap on their main character.
Exceptions are possible but few and far between and will be at the discretion of the guild master.
Guild Master
This is the top rank. There is only one guild master, Chunks. This member has full control over every aspect of the guild, from promotions, demotions, creating new ranks, setting the tabard, to anything else the game allows.
The expectations of the guild master include the expectations of council members. Additionally, the guild master's main job is to oversee the esprit de corps of the guild and make adjustments to ensure that the guild runs smoothly.
While there is only one guild master, there is a vice guild master, Aeres. His job is identical to that of the guild master but without the ability to perform actions such as modify guild ranks that the game restricts to the one top rank.
Main/Alt Designation
Every person with multiple characters needs to designate a main and the rest are alts. Typically the main is the highest level character, but in some cases people have multiple characters at the level cap. An alt's public or officer note must specify the main character. Typically this is not a big deal as we all know each other, but sometimes people show up in the roster and we do not know who they are. New person? Alt? This helps mitigate the confusion.
Level Requirements
In order to be promoted to any advisor or officer rank, a member must have an active character at the current level cap. Exceptions will be few and far between. In the case that the level cap changes, such as after a new expansion is released, this rule is not in effect. We only ask that people of the appropriate rank make good progress to the new level cap.
Active Participation
We expect guild members to be active within reason. That does not mean logging on daily for several hours. That could mean logging on once a week for an hour or two, as long as you do log on. We have no definite policy on removing inactive members from the guild, but reserve that option.
Communication is key. If you will be away from the game for a while, communicate on this board or tell a guild officer. We have several members who are active or reserve military. If a member is called up for military service, they may be gone for months or even a year -- this is fine, we will not remove them from the list. If you are taking a long vacation, or just taking a break from the game but expect to be back and will be active, let us know. We will keep your seat warm for you. Please, do not disappear and never log in again. The polite thing to do is to tell us your intentions.
Loot Rules
Loot rules have their own separate wiki page: Loot Rules
Guild Vault
The guild vault is a feature added in patch 2.3 that allows guild members access to a common area to store items and gold.
All members are encouraged to use this feature. You do not need to ask permission to remove items unless they are on a restricted page. Only officers or the guild master may remove items from these pages. We do ask that you only remove items that you have a valid use for. High level trade skill materials should benefit the guild, not the individual. For example, an alchemist removing herbs to make potions for a raid.
Under no circumstances will a guild member remove items from the bank to sell for personal gain. Any member caught selling items, giving them to non-members without officer consent, or anything else that would conceivably hurt the guild, faces removal from the guild. The guild master will periodically remove items and sell them to a vendor, on the auction house, or disenchant them. All gold or shards will be returned to the guild bank. Under very limited circumstances we may give excess items to a non-member with whom we are working closely, for example, someone in another guild with whom we go on joint raids.
Please only donate items that have a use. The guild vault is not a repository for green items with no practical purpose, such as plate boots with spirit. A much more productive use would be having an enchanter disenchant items and place the resultant dusts, shards, and essences in the bank. When donating low level items, please restrict donations to rare (blue) quality or better items that actually will be useful for leveling an alt. All epic quality items along with high demand rare quality items belong in a restricted tab to remove the temptation for members to abuse the guild vault.
Gold is currently restricted so anyone may donate, but only the guild master may withdraw. Currently there is no plan for using gold beyond purchasing more tabs in the vault, but this charter will be amended in the future to expand on this area.
Raid Attendance
When starting a raid, the guild may use any means necessary to determine who is eligible to go, who wants to go, and who is available. This may include mods such as Guild Event Manager, sign up sheets on the forum, or perusing the guild roster before the run starts. Committing to a run does not guarantee you a spot in the raid. Ideally, we will have more people than we have raid positions. This allows us to pare down the raid to the group we need to succeed. If we have four people of one class all signed up, and ten people signed up, those four do not all necessarily get to go.
Furthermore, we need extras to sub out during the run. Certain fights require certain class mixes. Some fights work with a standard two tank, two healer, six DPS mix. Some fights require more tanks or healers. Some fights require more ranged DPS, not melee. Having the flexibility to swap out helps everyone. Maybe some people will have to sit out some fights, but that helps the guild progress further into a raid instance. Maybe the person who sat out will swap back in for a later boss and get a drop he needs, a drop he never would have gotten had we beaten our head against a wall with the wrong group on an earlier boss.
We prefer to take players who are committed to the guild, who take the time and effort to gear themselves up with crafted epics, or heroic gear, or anything else that does not require raiding. These players are more likely not to bail in the middle of a run, more likely to perform their assigned role better, and more likely to ensure our future success. This may mean swapping out less geared or active players each week and keeping a strong core group of 4-6 players. This may not seem fair to some people, but it helps us as a whole because it allows us a better chance at progressing.
After downing a boss and being saved to a raid instance, the members of that group have priority on subsequent bosses and raid nights. This rule will bend if the person leaves in the middle of a run, or we need to sub out for an encounter.
The guild leadership may post requirements in these forums for raids. Players who do not meet the requirements for a specific instance or encounter might not be included in a group. This is to ensure that the raid group has sufficient tanking ability, healing, and damage to beat specific bosses.
Any situation not covered in this section will decided by the guild officers present and possibly added here if needed.
Adjudication
Any member who feels that the collective guild decision on an event (e.g. loot, determining who goes on a raid, etc) is unfair or otherwise not right needs to speak with any guild officer to address his grievance. We are all approachable people and if you ask us nicely why we did something, we will explain our reason. If we made a bad decision, we may even correct it. The key is collaboration, not antagonism. Even if you are angry, ask nicely, and you will receive a nice response.
Language
Swearing, cursing, etc is acceptable in moderation. If you need to vent, we understand. Just keep it in the guild. Any member caught acting overly immature or swearing profusely in general chat, PUGs, or anywhere people will see immature behavior and a /who will show our guild tag faces possible removal from the guild. Our name may be small but we need to keep it clean. Please try to show a good guild image to non-members.
Ventrilo Voice Chat
Ventrilo is a service paid for and provided by the guild master. This may be free for most people, but the guild has a stake in ensuring proper management of the server.
Members have unrestricted access to the server with the exception of the officer channel. Officer have special login credentials and unrestricted access. Non-members may visit the server under the following restrictions: they may log in for the duration of an instance run or other activity (e.g. quest line); they must use a guest login, not the guild login; and they are not permitted to log in to the server without a purpose and without the consent of a guild officer.
When speaking on vent, be mindful that you may be talking to several other people and they may not want to hear what you have to say. Be concise: get your point across quickly. If you have a valid reason for saying a mouthful, pause every few seconds and stop keying to allow someone else to interject. Do not engage in topics that are overly personal, sexual, or offensive. If you must, use a separate channel with the people who actually want to hear what you have to say.
Ventrilo is required for raids, even if only to listen in.
Terms of Service
Any guild member caught engaging in behavior that is against the Warcraft terms of service and carries a risk of affecting other guild members will be removed from the guild immediately to include all characters confirmed to be on that account. Specifically this refers to Real Money Trading (RMT) also known as gold buying, gold farming, and any activity related to gathering or trading in-game property for real-life currency. However, this applies to any activity that can harm the guild.
The purpose behind this rule is that in some cases, people have engaged in this behavior and given "dirty" gold and other items to other guild members have caused Blizzard to ban other accounts. While this has not occurred in this guild or maybe not even on this server, it is confirmed to have happened to cite one source.
