Anyway, back on track, my thoughts for this post are rather simple really. Recently, Fish, has decided to hang up his shield and sword, and cast off his plate gear to take a "self imposed exile" as he says. It almost feels as though a member of the family has passed away. I realize that there is a good chance that he will return to us, and because I do work with him, it is not like we will not see each other. We actually talk often, use communications at work to stay in touch, and on those rare moments when the stars align perfectly, we are able to grab some food together; however, this does not replace the loss of one of our original memebers and a good tank that was showing much promise.
His decision has led me to reevaluate the guild as a whole and really look at are we meeting the needs of our members? It made me think about other guilds and wonder do they experience the same issues? Do other guild leaders and ranking officers have these moments? I resolved myself in the fact that I am sure that they do. I know from past experience that the size of the guild does not matter nearly as much as the quality of the guild, and while we are not the largest, we do have some quality people, both in game and out. I took the thoughts to the guild and asked for their feedback, and was surprised that many of them were extremely happy to be a part of our little "disfucntional family".
Still, I cannot help but feel sad whenever one of our members moves on. I want them all to know that we are here when they return and will accept them back into the family, no questions asked, nothing required.
This post was originally published on November 11, 2008, on the original Holy Shock blog site.