Guild Bank

Most of you received an email announcing the creation of our official Guild Bank. The character's name is BROKER and is based in Stormwind City. Some of you might be asking: What is a guild bank and how do I use it? Here are the basics:

What The Bank Does

1. Broker will hold the guild's money. This includes donations and money raised through auctions.
2. Broker will hold supplies of trade goods and equipment for use by guild members.
3. Broker will buy/sell and trade in the Auction House to raise money for the guild.

How To Use the Bank

1. DONATIONS may be made to the guild bank by sending stacks of trade items (cloth, herbs, leather, ore/bars, enchanting items, etc) equipment (armor, weapons, etc) or money (gold/silver) to character name BROKER. Please send only full stacks of trade items, since space is limited. You can either mail these items or request a trade in Stormwind City. Donations are encouraged.


2. SALES may be enacted by sending the sellable object to BROKER with a message clearly stating that the item is for sale in the Auction House (otherwise it will be stored for future use by guild members). Proceeds may be returned directly to the character who submits the item, be donated to the Guild Fund, or split between the two*. (Example - Bob wishes to sell [Searing Blade], a rare sword that we expect to sell for 10 gold. Bob could opt to receive the full sale price of the [Searing Blade] minus the auction costs, he could opt to donate the revenues to the guild (in which case they would remain with Broker) or he could opt to split the funds, receiving 50% of the sale price himself and allowing the guild to retain the other 50%).


3. WITHDRAWLS may be made by any guild member at any time, but the reason for the withdrawl must be clearly stated. Please make reasonable requests (100 gold for a Crusader enchantment on your lvl 20 weapon is NOT a good use of guild funds). The guild bank is purposed toward helping guild members raise their profession skills and advance in level for the good of the guild. It is not intended to be a means to personal gain only. (Example - Bob requests 3 stacks of Silverleaf and 3 stacks of Mageroyal from the Guild Bank. It would be appropriate of him to then return to the Guild Bank some of the potions he used those materials to create or to replenish the guild's stock of herbs at a later date.)

The Ultimate Purpose of the Bank

1. To give everyone ample opportunity to build their professional skills.
2. To ensure that no guild member ever has to go without necessary equipment and/or skills because of a lack of funds.
3. To help lessen the cost of Level 40 mounts and, eventually, Level 60 and 70 mounts.
4. To provide incentive for others to join our guild and find enjoyment in it.

* - In some circumstances, a player may wish to sell an auctionable or useful item to the guild at a reduced rate. Borrowing from our above example, Bob may offer to sell [Searing Blade] to Broker for 2 gold. In this case, Bob is effectively donating the rare item to the guild and making a withdrawl at the same time... this is allowed and encouraged.

A Final Note: I will try to keep everyone updated on the current status of the Guild Bank. Currently no donations are being held. Neglekt was our first donor, graciously providing 5 of the 10g necessary to create our Guild Tabard. Our existing guild fund is about 80 gold, which we hope to see growing steadily as we creep toward level 40.

Party Questing Guidelines

This is copied directly from http://worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/partyrules.html and you can read it there if you prefer, but it's something that everyone should know and so precious few do. Even those of us who know these rules well could probably use a refresher since it's so easy to sink to the level of those who fail to heed them.

Stay Until the Job is Done
Don't leave a party after completing your portion of the quest. Stick around until everyone in the party has completed the quest. For example: each party member must collect 5 items. You collect 5 but there are still members in the party that haven't collected 5 yet. It is bad manners to suddenly leave the party once you have collected your share without helping out the remaining party members, or receiving their permission to leave. If you leave like that, people often think that you just used them to complete the quest, and abandoned them once you got what you wanted.

Loot
If you receive an item that you cannot use, but there is another party member that can use it, you should give it to that party member. For example: you loot a really nice Staff, but you are a Warrior. Certainly you could sell that Staff for money, but if there is a Mage in that group using Staves, you should give them the Staff. This also includes trade skill item components and recipes. Consult your party or group leader for the current rules of the group. This situation has a potential to blow up if you loot an item that you cannot use, and refuse to give it to someone who could have really used it.

Don't Loot During Battle!
You should usually avoid trying to loot a monster during battle (unless you're all about to die). You need to focus on the battle and make sure everything is safe before looting. If your party is fighting, while they see you standing around and not helping, you could offend them. Fight first, loot later.

This is especially true for treasure chests. You shouldn't try looting a chest while the rest of your party is fighting. That is rude. The only time you might want to bypass this rule is when you are traveling with very good friends, or if other players outside your party might be close to looting it. Let the group leader determine who is going to loot. A good way is to type "/random 1 100" to generate a number from 1-100 for each player. Whoever rolls the highest number can loot the chest, get the item, etc.

Healing
If you have healing and a party member needs it, heal them. If you were unable to heal them, make sure you say sorry if you were the primary healer in the group. You can't always prevent people from dying, but you can at least let them know that you tried your best.

Returning to the Party
When you return to your party's location after going somewhere else, make sure you don't get followed by a "train", or bring monsters with you that may attack them. This offends players greatly. If you need assistance getting to your party's location, ask them for help to clear the way.

Buff up your Party
If you have Buff spells that are beneficial to your party, pass them out. Ask party members to inform you when the buffs have worn off. If players know you have these buffs but you don't use them, they might not respect your ability to play your class. On the other hand, if you buff well they will say "Hey, that person was a great player."

Don't Wake Up More Monsters
While you are fighting, scan around you for patrolling monsters. If one comes near, make sure you don't set it off so that it joins into your current battle.

Trade Skills
If there are multiple people with the same trade skills, share the items or resource nodes between you. Don't be greedy.

Go the Extra Mile
Whenever possible, go the extra mile to do things for your party. Play your best. Do whatever you can to help party members. If you impress them, they may look back on you with good memories. This can build good relations for the future.

Tabards Now Available

The majority of the votes came in for the tree and at least two people had strong preferences for the rich colors of the brown background. So here it is... our guild tabard:

Guild Tabards can be purchased at the Stormwind Visitor's Center, just inside the front gates of the city. Tabards cost 1 gold each with a discount of 10% for being honored in the city. We will do our best to assist any guild member in purchasing a tabard, simply contact me by email (Thesden @ gmail.com) or WoWmail (Thesden).

Tabard Design Vote

We're still raising the money for our Guild Tabard, but we'd like to know what you think it should look like. We're limiting the choices, of course (there are just too many), but we've narrowed them down to a few. We're giving you an option of ICON and COLOR SCHEME.

Color

Icon - Male

Icon - Female

Final Notes: Please give regard to how the tabard will look on both male and female characters, not just your own gender. Some icon designs were ruled out due to excessive warping on female forms.

How to Vote: Vote by sending me a WoW letter with your thoughts or messaging me in Guild Chat. A sample vote might be "Blue Tree". Another might be "Brown X". If you have suggestions regarding the border or the icon color, please include that as well.

Welcome to the Council of Ancients!

Greetings World of Warcraft players! This site will host important information and updates concerning our guild. We are a new guild (created 1/4/2007) and a young guild (our strongest member is currently level 22), but we intend to be a strong and helpful guild. We are currently focused on helping our members level their characters while enjoying the World of Warcraft experience.

A guild member should always be ready to offer assistance to another member. We will soon be arranging a Guild Bank and whenever possible we will design a Guild Tabard. Tabards can be purchased in most major cities for 1 gold.

Guild Ranks

• Guild Master
  
• Honored Sage (given same privileges as Guild Master)
  
• Trusted Advisor (Invite power and ability to edit/create public notes)
  
• Council Member (chat ability only)
  
• Student (introductory status, same as Council Member but with less honor)
  
• Fool (probationary status -- if you violate the rules or are a nuisance, you will be demoted to "Fool" status and lose chat ability for a pre-determined length of time)

Climbing the Ranks - How can I get promoted?

• Be helpful to other guild members.
• Donate to the guild (more about this at a later date).
  
• Be polite to your guildmates.
  
• Enjoy playing the game.
  

Behavioral Guidelines

• Do not use vulgarity (this includes sexual or otherwise inappropriate language).
• Do not spam guild chat for any reason.
• Do not take advantage of your guildmates.
  
• Help others when you are able.
• Keep your promises (this applies in particular to offers of assistance and dungeon runs -- don't begin unless you are prepared to finish).

What Will Your Guild Do for You?

1. We will help you find your way through the World of Warcraft.
2. We will help you complete quests when we are able to do so.
3. We will try to help you obtain items that are necessary for advancement in the game.
4. We will try to arrange instance runs/raids including guild members as we advance in level.

Finally, I want to encourage everyone to help keep our guild strong. We are looking for quality players, not merely a quantity. Good manners and a love for the game can go a long way toward your success in the World of Warcraft. If any guild member experiences problems with another member, please PM me, send me a WoW letter describing the problem or email me directly at THESDEN [at] GMAIL.COM. Be sure to give a full description of the problem and the character names of those guild members involved.