To-Do Lists. Write everything down. Have a plan before you go in. If you take care of all the thinking ahead of time, you can cut out the awkward “Ok….what now?” waiting periods in between different tasks. Make your to-do lists semi detailed, but don’t go overboard with it. Give yourself a basic outline of what you want to accomplish for that day.

Establish Priorities. Make sure whatever your working on is the absolute best thing you could be working on at the time. If what your doing at the time isn’t going to benefit you the most, change it up. Save the less important jobs for when you have a bit of free time.

Keep A Notebook (And up to date) You’d be surprised how much keeping a notebook can help. Just to have all of your thoughts there in front of you sometimes saves you alot of mental stress when you’re trrying to get things done. Write anything of any importance in the notebook.

Of course staying organized is really more of a personality trait than anything else, but if you’re trying to make strides in the right direction then there are always things you can do to help yourself out.

Too many times I have seen nerdy 25 year olds running immature clans full of pre-teens, acting as if they were the same age as their members. Remember, the way you conduct yourself will more than likely determine the type of members you attract. When making a forum or news post on a serious subject, try to use correct grammar and spelling. Act leader-like. You have to let your members know that you are indeed the right man for the job.

When some official happens or changes, always make a forum and news post about it on your clan website. Keep your members informed on your clan’s ever-changing policies and decisions. When the topic at hand isn’t so serious it’s fine to joke around and show your members your personal side, a leader of any organization always needs to be level headed.

Try to explain to your members why you made the decision you did. Present them with the negative and positive of any decision and explain to them why you reached the conclusion you did. People like to have things spelled out for them, and this makes them more likely to see your perspective on any subject. Run your clan as if it were a small business. (Which it is, you should be able to generate enough money to pay for the clans essential costs such as webservers, gaming servers, and website maintanence.)

So, to set an example you need to appear (each and every day pretty much) in your server/channel, actively playing the game in which you formed for. Sometimes a Clan’s workload can pile up and it seems like you’ll never get some time to yourself just to play the game. The 3 things I did as a leader to free up some gaming time for myself were:

Set A Schedule

Everyday before I started doing whatever it is that I had to do for the clan, I would make a quick list of the things I wanted to accomplish, and give myself time limits on accomplishing them. It looked something like this:

15 minutes forum time
Correct website errors for 20 minutes
Research new server website for 20 minutes
etc
etc

Then at the very end I would try to schedule myself at least a half hour to an hour of gaming before I headed out to do other things for the night. It is important that your members see you taking a real interest in the game as well.

Delegating

Share the workload. You don’t have to be the one to do everything. Just make sure those members who do help you out are rewarded.

Take Days Off

Even full time jobs allow themselves 2 days off a week. Every now and then grant yourself a break from the hard work and just go have fun.

It is very important that you give yourself some time to play the game, or things will start to get monotonous. Remember why you created the clan in the first place.

1) Use a chat client that features moderation

I would personally advise that you use IRC. It is the most easily accessible and widely used chat client that features moderation. You need to be able to control the conversation if things get sidetracked or out of hand. If you can, try to find a chat client that allows you to allow 1 speaker at a time. I would advise against using AIMchat. While it is probably the easiest and most accessible for your clan, it has no moderation features.

2) Develop A Speaking Order

Things will never work with people speaking out of turn. In the chat room or on your forum, post a speaking order. You bring up the subject at hand, then go down the list and allow everyone to comment on it. If you feel you need a second go-through for rebuttles, don’t hesitate to do so again. Give everyone a chance to express their opinion in an orderly fashion. Hopefully this way everyone feels their viewpoint was strongly represented.

3) DO NOT BE AFRAID TO BAN

If a member continues to speak out of turn, and constantly disrupt the flow of the meeting after several warnings, go ahead and ban him, and explain to him the situation on AIM. Perhaps this will help him to see what you are trying to accomplish and settle down if you decide to unban him and give him another shot.

4) Be prepared before the meeting starts

Don’t just wing it. That will almost certainly lead to a disorganized and unproductive meeting. Beforehand, post on the forum asking your members what they feel needs to be talked about. Brainstorm yourself as well. Then write it all down in a notebook in an order that seems to flow, and go down the list. This will help you be productive and get through all the subjects in a timely fashion.

5) Upload the chat log for all to see

Show off your results. Let your members know that you really do value their opinion, even if they couldn’t attend the meeting. Post it up on your forum for comments/critisism. Factor in these new opinions before making any drastic changes. This is also great for showing your members that you are capable of running an effective, organized community.

L2 is a team game. Every aspect of it crushes solo players and rewards teamwork. PVP, gear aquisition, the tedious grind…all of it can be done more efficiently one way or another with the help of clanmates. So yeah, there are tons of reasons to make a clan, but should you and how?

[Disclaimer] What follows are my opinions and some tips regarding the general construction and maintenance of a clan. I was successful running a high end raiding guild in WoW and I see a lot of easy mistakes being made in L2 so I figured I would share some lessons I learned. You want specifics that are applicable to L2? Ask a clan leader in L2 (read: not me). These are just generalities.

1. Should you?
Seriously, ask yourself some critical questions and answer as honestly as possible because you get one shot at this:

- Are you really filling a need that other clans aren’t? If you just want to make a clan and it’s the same as all the other clans that people just like you made then what’s the point?

- Do you have the time that it will take to see this through? If you can’t spend the hours it takes every week or even every single night to make sure that your members are getting the guidance, events, support, and leadership they need to be successful then why are you willing to waste their time and ruin your reputation?

- Do you have the resources? Good clans cost money. Don’t kid yourself on this. Ventrilo servers, websites, forums, and extras are pretty cheap but most folks I have met online consider spending any money beyond their monthly subscription to be a wholly unacceptable proposition. If you aren’t willing to invest even a little money then you seriously need to question your commitment to this project.

- Finally, do you have the will? Is this really something you want to do, and do right, or are you just clicking buttons to get a title under your name? If people are going to be part of your clan, invest time in your clan when they could very well be someplace else, then do right by them by deciding that you are either going to make the time they spend worthwhile or you’ll save them the trouble altogether by just not making the clan.

2. So…uh…what’s the plan?
By that I mean, what kind of guild are you intending to make? You have tons of options in regards to:

- Focus. Are you going PVE? Will this be a PVP guild? Do you plan on keeping it small and “l337″ or are you looking to be inclusive? Will the clan consist of end-game toons or can you invest the time to take on Academy members and develop them? Seriously, no clan can be all things to all people and you don’t even want to try. Why? Well, whatever it is that you’re doing will come at the expense some other area that you could have focussed on otherwise. If for example you are making a PVP clan then how easy do you think it will be your PVE minded members to exp? Yeah…you might have wanted to mentioned that to them when during the recruitment process. Now you have to deal with the fact that they are leaving anyway and they might cause some trouble on the way out the door or even talk smack about you to prospective members after they’ve left.

- What will your rules be? How do you plan on enforcing them? Is it you, you and some officers, or do you have a whole rank structure in mind once the key personnel are brought into the fold? Are you going to pretty hands off or do you see the need to strict enforcement since you have specific needs for certain types of conduct? Go to successful clan’s websites in L2 and other games. Find their FAQ and see what might work for you and what won’t. Get an idea of what you want from your members/allies and then craft rules and a governing structure that will get you there. Oh, and if you are planning on have a large clan then learn to delegate responsibility and give those people the authority to act in your absence. Large clans are just too tough to handle by one person and you can’t be on 24/7.

3. Okay! Fine! I still want to do this. So, what do I do?
Well, Skippy the third thing you need to realize is that, on the internet, image and perception are everything. When you announce your clan you should be ready to roll and in that split second that you have someone’s attention (and really, that’s all you have) you should make it as easy as humanly possible for them to find out every conceivable thing that they might want to know about your clan. If someone has to do anything that is even mildly difficult to find out what they want to know you’ve already lost them. So to make sure that you present a decent face to the rest of the server and prospective members you should have:

- A Ventrilo or TeamSpeak server. Why? Uh, I don’t know if this has dawned on you but MMO’s are notoriously heavy on the level grinding, L2 even more so. Vent or TS will keep your members from hanging themselves in their showers from boredom. Add that to the fact that voice communication helps immeasurably in PVP and can create unity between your members because they might actually *gasp* make friends with one another using voice chat and it’s just a no-brainer. Look around on the internet and you can find cheap or even free solutions. Hell, I ran a TS server out of my closet using an old PC. Whatever you do though make sure that you have it ready when you announce your clan’s creation and that it works.

- Well designed and well maintained forums/website do a lot of things. Just like having a voice chat server they show they you are serious about making this work and that you are undertaking this project with a professional attitude. Well, at least that’s the hope. What’s worked for me in the past was getting a small professional hosting package from a reputable web host, learning some html/PHP and doing it myself. Yes, crack a book and learn it. Believe me it’s not that hard and it will save you a ton of frustration later. Yeah, you can sign up for Guild Portal but that kind of stuff leaves you with little flexibility and no real room to grow whereas installing a CMS (Content Management System) and you preferred forum software will probably take you a weekend but it will let you go in almost any direction you can envision should you wish to make changes. I use Joomla (CMS software for our website) and Simple Machine Forums (forum software) but there are flavors for all needs and almost all of them are free and ridiculous simple to upload, install, and customize. You did say that you were willing to spend the time didn’t you? Well, get to uploading chico.

- Make the announcement. Keep it short and to bullet points. Every sentence should communicate the absolute essential items that you need people to understand about what you are doing, why your clan will succeed, what you’ve accomplished so far(even if you are the only member, how you plan to grow, what your clan brings to the table, and where you eventually see you clan fitting in on the server. Again, and for the love of God keep it short though. Just a few sentences that touch on the key points is all it should take. If anyone has any questions or is interested they should be able to find out everything they need to know on your website in the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), your rules page, or in your forum. Remember, if they have to search extensively for it then you have already lost them. You members might have patience but Joe Stranger doesn’t…yet.

4. Cool, what’s next?
Hell, if I know. I’ve never been a clan leader or even an officer in L2 and beyond that it’s late and I am tired of typing. In closing, I guess the biggest thing to touch on is the idea that there are already tons of clans in L2 and that unless you are offering something better than what’s out there and you are willing to create and maintain that then don’t even bother. I know that sounds harsh but bad clans are a dime a dozen in L2 and all they do is give people a tag until they find something better. If you are going to make a clan then try making it into something you can be proud of. I can say from personal experience that managing a clan was a constant drain but in the end I looked back on it as a rewarding experience that taught me a lot about people and how to manage them.

By Jacent

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Questions to ask yourself: (So you don’t end up wasting your time )

#1) Do I have enough time? To successfully lead a large clan in this day and age, you need to plan to devote at least the time you would to a part time job. Especially during startup. I would say that you should plan for a minmum of 20 hours per week, and as high as 40 during startup.

#2) Am I alone? You will never be able to get a clan off the ground on your own. Starting a clan takes a team-wide effort. You will need a minimum of 3-4 VERY dedicated members to help you get this thing on its feet. The more the merrier.

#3) Am I/my founding members mature enough? Age certainly comes into play as a leader. You have to be willing to put up with alot of bullshit. You will hear alot of complaining. Maturity is certainly a neccessity. I have never seen a clan sucessfully run by a 13 year old.

#4) Do I have the motivation to put in the effort? You can have all time in the world, but if you don’t do anything with it, you get no where. You had better plan for those 20 hours per week, to be 20 hours of work. If you sit around and chat for 10 of those you’re getting nowhere.

If you answered all these questions in the correct manner then you have just met the basic requirements of being a clan leader. There are litterally hundreds of other things that play into a clan being successful. Now, to get started:

First, decide what kind of clan you want.

You and your founding members must decide the basics about the type of clan you are preparing to found. All decisions are relative to what game you play. (Typically first person shooters like counter strike will not be looking for large numbers on the memberlist. Real Time Strategy and MMORPG’s also have different sets of core values). Do you want alot of members? Small amount? Will there be ranks? If so how many? Will you be using the standard miltiary ranks, or going for something original? Once the ranks issue is decided, then you must decide which founding members will hold what place in the ranking system. This can get sticky, so try to be as democratic about it as possible. I would suggest having only you, as the founding leader be the commander (or comparable rank), and perhaps let all other founding members be your general staff.

Tip: Save transcripts of all meetings, and keep them for a later date, or to post on your message board later.

Once these things are decided, you begin to create.

Open a website.

Make sure that you have your own .com/.net/.org domain for your clan, and a pay-per-month hosting plan. (This can be purchased at godaddy.com).

The website is the most crucial peice of any clan. The website, or perhaps even more importantly, the forum/message board gives your members a place to chat and get to know each other outside of the game. It gives your clan more of a community feel to it. Your site should, at minimum, have a page devoted to news, rules, members, and a message board for chatting. It is absolutely imperative that you have a message board. Oftentimes, your webhost will have message boards that can be automatically set up in the cpanel.

Make your website look as professional as possible. Do your best to make sure it is neat and orderly, and has a minimal amount of spelling mistakes. The more seriously you take yourself, the more seriously potential members will take you.

Find your place in-game

Depending on what game you are launching this clan for, there are certain steps that need to be taken in order for you to have a meeting spot for your members in-game. For Counter-Strike, and other first person shooters, you must purchase a server. But, for the rest of this article, I will assume you are a battle.net clan. In which case, you must get a clan channel. It really does matter if you have a Clan ______ channel, or an Op _______ channel. Just make sure one of your founding members can keep a bot sitting on ops (ops controls the channel, can kick/ban) 24/7. Make sure that you trust this person, and in fact, it is even best if you yourself hold ops. Make sure this bot is able to delegate out power to others in the channel.

Recruit.

Depending on how you answered your questions earlier reguarding the size of the potential clan, you begin recruiting in a number of ways. Most clans like to start off recruiting as many people as possible. Make sure to tell each and every recruit about your website.

Post on Forums about your newly founded clan, and let them know that moving up is an option.
Make recruitment games to reach out to new members. Always have your best player online at the time play the potential members.
When playing alone, make sure to ask anyone you encounter that is of the appropriate skill level, if they would be interested in joining.

Essentially, in creating a clan, you are a salesman. You dress up your website in it’s finest business attire to attract the most business-like crowd. You have to SELL your clan to every potential member, and make them excited to join. The best members are always the ones who were excited from the get-go.

All potential clan-leaders have been provided enough info in this basics to get going. Please refer to our other articles for more in-depth looks at how to successfully run your clan.

By JohnnyLocke

Clan-Man Administrator