Guild Focus

Elders of Legend was started as a guild with the following "charter"

* We are a guild that places the highest values on courtesy, respect, mutual support, and fun. Our members come to one another's aid and to the aid of anyone of honor. We want to be known as the guild that "gets it" -- the guild that understands the real purpose of World of Warcraft®. We want to return to the fun and relaxation of playing. We are first and foremost a family.

* We are, on average, a more "mature" guild than many. That is a nice way of saying that the average age of guild members tends to be higher than other guilds. We expect a fairly high level of maturity in words and actions. Guild chat, and forum posts should be PG13.

* We are not a high-pressure guild. Some guilds put a lot of pressure on members to participate in raids, whether they really want to or not. While we hope you will want to participate in guild events with your brothers and sisters, we do not want you to do anything you don't want to do. That is against the principle of 'fun'. Feel like playing your alts instead of your main? Rather tradeskill than grind experience? That is always YOUR decision.

The last section (put in bold for this post) is important.
This is not a raiding guild.
This is a guild for people that "...want to return to the fun and relaxation of playing. We are first and foremost a family."

Most of the charter comes from a guild "Crimson Snow" from EverQuest. I used this same charter in the guild "Mystic Crystal" on the progression server on EverQuest. Both guilds had no problem with this charter, which stood the test for 7 years.

Elders of Legend was created on June 15 2007. The guild had a handful of level 70's, most were level 40 and under.
As the Guild Leader of Elders of Legend, I have been asked a few times to organize and schedule raids, and to swing the guild focus towards raid progression.
I will not do this. The guild has members that joined for the specific reason of our charter. I cannot and will not break that faith.

Now, a year later, most if those folks have one or more level 70's.
Many have played alts, but a few of the level 70's wanted to go do Kara and beyond.

One of our members started a "sister" guild a few months ago, with my assistance. The purpose of this guild would be to do raid progression. This guild would also recruit outside of EoL.
I announced in guild chat, using a macro, the purpose of this guild. Those that wished to join the "sister" guild could do so with no problems with leaving alt's in EoL. Oh boy! did this create some outcry! Stealing members, etc etc etc. The poor guy, deleted the guild, and went to a raiding guild.

Well, so what, I can hear some say. The thing is, some members have recently left EoL for raiding guilds. Instead of staying in contact with a "sister" guild, these former members are lost to EoL.

Two of the clauses from the original "Crimson Snow" and "Mystic Crystal" charter that I did not include in the Elders of Legend charter was that
"a member can not have main or alternate character belong to another guild". The reason for this clause was to have the members give there full focus to the guild.
"A guild member that leaves the guild to go to another guild, for whatever reason, may not return"

For this WoW guild, I took the casual laidback easygoing approach. Some members have a main or alternate in other guilds. No problem. Of the members that have left for another guild, most have returned. No problem. Can former members return? At the moment, yes.

As matters now stand, EoL will continue to loose members to raiding guilds. It is sad to see them go, but I wish them well.

Elders of Legend (EoL) will stay as it is with regards to focus. A guild that is friendly, helpful, easygoing, casual, laidback, and mature.