I've been working on this guide for more or less, two months now. I have spent more time than I had expected on it, but due to complications that occurred in my life, I have been delayed in working on it. Anyway, the purpose of the guide is to inform. Inform new leaders, existing leaders and aspiring leaders, of how to best lead their unions. By no means though, am I an all-knowing God of Unions - no, no, what I have in that guide so far comes from personal experience and observations that have accumulated as I've spent my time here on GS. I don't know everything, and I am always open to new information and ideas. This is why I'm asking for the opinions of CoU's community. CoU's community is conscious about the state of unions in the unions community, and just like myself, only want the best for the unions community. While I don't expect this guide to lead to a revival of unions, if it even at least helps the targeted users mentioned above in leading their unions, then that's good enough for me. However, as I said, I don't know everything, and I'm actually asking for feedback here. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please let me know. I want this guide to be written by the community, and for the community. Any help would be great. Also, the guide isn't complete just yet (I have the officers and recruits sections to do, as well as to organise the guide and make it look pretty), but the text you see will be the text of the finished guide.
I feel like it's too general. The guide only explains things in an "ideal situation" and doesn't really explain how things really are with unions. You're probably gonna hate it, but someone has to say it I guess: I guess what I'm trying to get at is that the guide doesn't really inform union leaders how to lead at all. Like for example, stating that recruits/officers/leaders should be active doesn't really help at all. It's pretty obvious and doesn't get down to the real stuff which certain union leaders do in order to become successful. Also, I feel like some information is false/lacking. For example, the part about recruitment, the information there doesn't show the better methods of attracting new members. Also I feel that the part about getting featured in the gamespot blog or being endorsed, is blown out of proportion. The majority of those unions which are endorsed aren't that active, and getting featured in the blog does almost nothing since barely anyone reads them. The part about officers I feel isn't helpful as well. There should be actual officer strategies being displayed for union leaders. When I say strategies I mean recommendations of types of officer teams based on the kind of union, recommendations on how many officers a union should have based on activity, etc. The current information is all more based on general things and in reality it's dependent on what the leader of a union wants his/her officers to do. The part about recruits should also be focused more on ways to keep recruits returning to your union and how to build a loyal group of recruits, instead of just saying general things which don't help a union leader. Suggestions on ways to keep recruits returning would be much more helpful to a new union leader than what is currently in the guide. Also in the FAQs I'd take out the leadership contest. Let's be realistic here, if a recruit tries to challenge the leader for his position, most leaders are probably just going to kick out the recruit. Unions aren't democracies regardless of what people like to believe, there will always be a leader who is in charge, and has the final say in whatever they plan to do with the union. Just edit it out and leave the part about where if the person isn't happy that they make their own version. Finally, I'd take out the link to the sig/avy/request thread in OT. We're talking unions here, OT has nothing to do with unions. I know its probably frustrating to read this after all the work that has been put into the guide, but truth is it just doesn't really help unions become more successful. The guide should be focused mostly for union leaders, the recruits and officers are important parts of unions, however in the end, it's up to the leader to make the union successful.
Thanks for the feedback! I'll address each point below: Too general: The guide is suppose to be general, so that its principles can be applied to all unions. At the end of the day, the guide is only a guide. It's not going to magically make your union successful. You're suppose to read it and absorb the useful info contained within it and apply it. All unions are individual unions, and it would be impossible to write a guide on how to govern every union. Especially when there is no one answer to doing it. Obvious info: It may seem obvious info to us, but that's because we've had years of experience. There was a time on GS, that I can still vaguely remember, when I really had no idea what a union was, never mind what to do with it. I actually thought a GS union was like a trade union - I had no idea it was simply an online community feature used for other interested members to interact with each other. So this is why I have stated obvious info such as that. Not all of the info though is obvious - I've stated quite a bit of info that a lot of users don't know about. For example, on HTG, a common question is usually "why can't I invite more charter members" and the answer is within that guide - and also accompanying advice to help prevent that problem where you can't form a union due to a lack of charter members. The advice to prevent that from happening would be to invite more than 4 charter members and to make absolutely sure that they will accept the invite to form the union. This may seem like obvious info to us, but it's not obvious to everyone else, simply because they don't really know that such a thing could happen - which is a result of a lack of experience. I can definitely tell you I actually experienced that same problem too back years ago. There was no info about it either or on how to fix it - now there is. That's what this guide aims to do: provide info and a handy resource to consult. It's not suppose to be like a manual with hard and fast rules. Recruitment: Recruiting members to unions in a way that does not violate the ToU is pretty limited. I can't really think of much else to say there that would be solid advice that will actually help. Sure, certain unions will have certain unique ways of recruiting members, but they may not work for other unions. I may actually talk about this at a later date - right now, the essential information is there. I can also say back when I was a leader, those recruitment methods were not always obvious - I really had no idea to properly recruit members, other than to send union invites. Unions featured on community blog: I accept that point, but it still helps to get the union's name out there, and it's something that a union can use to promote itself. Always helpful for a union to have recognition from the GS admins. Officers: Again, it depends on the individual union and what the leader wants to do with it. That's just general advice. There's no real rules on how many officers you should have - it all depends on what the leader wants and what the union needs. Recruits challenging the leader: Not necessarily. If the recruit is a respected member, the leader cannot just dismiss them from the union, as after all, especially in these times, a union needs all the members it can get. Also, if the recruit has the support of other members, they can effectively challenge the leader. Sig/Avy request thread: That's only there as a place for users who have no real way of getting their own images made. Apart from that, there's really no other way, unless they know somebody that knows how to use image making software. To conclude: I do want to stress that the guide is only a guide. It's not suppose to be something that's suppose to be followed like a rule book - it's simply compiled info for members of the unions community to use and refer to. Like I quite like the useful links section and the FAQ - since that would provide info that may not be known or discussed for the most part.
^^ In that case I'd recommend to change the name of the guide if it's mostly supposed to explain what the basic things in unions are. Right now the name of the guide makes it appear as though it is supposed to provide help on how to make a union successful when in reality all it does is tell new members general things about unions.
I have been trying to come up with a better name for the guide, while also trying to maintain a title that describes what the guide is about. Although it's not just a general union guide. It does provide helpful strategies that can increase the chances of a union to be successful. What I'm looking for is perhaps a shorter and catchy title. I'll probably come up with something eventually.
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