When several people suddenly stop raiding, either the raid falls apart (which happens most times), or there are people who need to put in Herculean efforts to make things work, by doing enormous amounts of recruitment. I have done this, and I know many other guild leaders who have done it too.

This time, sharo is helping a ton. But all the same, the work is enormous. Since about 20 hours ago, I have scoured the various sites for recruitment. I have added maybe 60 people in this time to my recruitment sheet and have reached out to each one of them. Because the recruitment needs are so rushed, I have not allowed myself to sleep for longer than an hour at a time last night, to make sure I catch anyone new, and to make sure the 60 or so people I reached out to received prompt replies from me if they responded positively.

It’s not like we don’t have enough people. We will have 20 people or even a bit more for raid. But in this moment of huge uncertainty, where all sorts of rumors are flying around, and where multiple people posted they are quitting at the same time, causing panic, there is a huge need for people to see a healthy raid size this week. I know how important morale is for raiders. They literally perform better if the morale is higher. I also know that if low morale continues, people will keep leaving one by one, and no matter how much work I and others put in, we are unlikely to replace fast enough to make up for the numbers leaving. So I don’t want morale to drop like that. Do any of the raiders here deserve to raid with low morale and huge uncertainty and in a raid that’s falling apart? Do they deserve to be forced to all go find new guilds and new raids? No, they don’t. And they are my guildies, so no matter what I will do whatever I need to do to help keep the worst from happening to them.

So, rushed recruitment. This is what guild leading often is. I don’t know of any long term, many-year guild that does not go through this once in awhile. All guilds have their crisis moments. And it is on those of us who really care about this guild and its people, it is on us to pull ourselves together and do whatever it takes to make things good.