Guild Leadership Appreciation Day - April 20, 2008

I'm instituting a new holiday that will start this weekend. I realize this may be short notice, but I'm moving forward with it anyway. The first full moon in April shall henceforth be known as Guild Leadership Appreciation Day. This year, that day is April 20th. To accommodate the majority of raid schedules each year, the holiday will include the day before and after the full moon as well.

WHY SHOULD WE HAVE THIS HOLIDAY?
Think of this as the RL Boss's Day, but for Wow. I think a lot of times, people don't realize the work and effort that goes in to leading a guild. Guild leadership has to organize groups for raids, determine when to move on from instances, where to go next for bosses, study strategies, determine which strategies would work best for the group they have, establish and enforce guidelines or rules for the guild, deal with personnel issues, manage officers, motivate people/keep morale up... ... and perform their role in the raid as well. All of that, and I'm sure I could come up with a dozen more if I really wanted to spend time on it. So, with all they do, how often does the "typical" member say Thank You? There's some people that are quite good at doing that on a regular basis, but this holiday will give everyone the opportunity to do so.

WHY THIS SCHEDULE? WHY THE FULL MOON THING?
Oh come on... full moon's always make people do crazy things, right? So, I thought it was fitting to have this fun holiday on a "crazy" day.

HOW DO I CELEBRATE GUILD LEADERSHIP APPRECIATION DAY?
It's pretty simple really. You simply tell members of your guild leadership that you appreciate that they take the time to do everything that they do. You can do so in a whisper, mail, e-mail, phone, vent, showing up at their front door step (stalker much?), or on your guild forums. You can send gifts if you'd like, but it's not necessary.

THREE DAYS? ISN'T THAT ONLY RESERVED FOR REALLY CRAZY HOLIDAYS LIKE MARDI GRAS?
Most guilds probably don't get together every single day. This 3-day span will mean that you're probably raiding or together with your Guild Leadership on at least one of those 3 days. Like I said, the official day this year is April 20th, but you can celebrate it on any of the days before and after the date as well. (If you want to celebrate all 3 days, you can do that as well.)

MY GUILD LEADERSHIP IS A BUNCH OF JERKS. WHY SHOULD I DO THIS?
If your guild is completely inactive, I'll let you off the hook. But even the jerk GM's have a heart... somewhere. Let them know that they're appreciated. Who knows? It may actually soften them up a bit.

I'M A GM. HOW DO I CELEBRATE?
Oh no... you don't get to just bask in the glory and praise that your members will sure to pour all over you this weekend. You've got a responsibility for Guild Leadership Appreciation Day as well. First off, you have to be humble when receiving these praises. You can't respond by saying, "Yeah, I know I'm the best." If you can't think of anything humble to say, you can simply say, "Thank you for recognizing my efforts on Guild Leadership Appreciation Day." This first point going for all who will be receiving praise on this wonderful day(s). Next, as GM, you prepare a little speech. Let it be known on Vent, Guild Chat, Guild Forums... that you recognize that raiding is difficult, and that you couldn't get there without the entire guild. You're grateful that at least 24 other people are willing to work together to perform such amazing feats as say... taking down Hogger. (Insert Raid Boss Name Here.)

WOW. WHAT A GREAT IDEA, LEIANDRA. ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD DO?
Get the word out. There's only 3 days left until the start of Guild Leadership Appreciation Day. Let everyone know. Let's make this a true Holiday!