This is commander Bryan Ryan of Goth Squadron, a NRDF flight
group, looking for new recruits. if anyone is interested, contact:wedgeantilles@uk.dreamcast.com
Missions will involve raids on imperial convoys, suppression fire, Capital Ship attacks, escorting bombers for raids and of course
Hit and fades!

I have said this again, and i will keep saying it. BEWARE OF NEWBIE GROUPS!

I don't understand you K_K. All squads were once newbie groups, starting out like everybody else. How did they grow and get out of being a newbie group? Because they recruited and got better skilled at what they do. That can't happen if you keep people from joining. And why should you be the one to judge the skills or policy of a clan that you've never heard of? All clans need to learn and grow, even the better ones out there right now.

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"Have no fear, your local Grand Admiral is here!"
ThRaWn90,RAL_Thrawn
Rogue 6

the problem i have about newbie groups, is that they allways start out giving people "command" positions. ANd then after a while the founder will get bored with it, and the group will die. With the NRES i started out with me, and one other person, i spent aobut 12 hours or more online each day for about 4 months, after that four months i had about 20 members, and now, after about 8 months i have had over 100 ppl join, but only 20 active members.

I hate to see new people join a group that might eventually die, and then lose interest, becasue the grou[p falls apart. Also, new groups tend to be very arrogent, and nice nice to work with. Thinking that they are the best, but when they actually put themselves against a older group they get blown apart.

Start out with a core group of good, dedicated pilots. Then, after you have means of communication open (ICQ, AIM, Message boards) start recuiting new people, and train them to become better then yourself

There are far to many groups i have seen start out, and then die a quick messy death, all becasue the leader couldn't put enuf time in, and the members had no clue what to do

I don't think it has to do at all with the leaders time (yes the leader must put some time in) but it all has to do with the level of competence and maturity of the leader.

The successful groups tend to have leaders who are adults and living on their own. These people have jobs and are able to work in a wide variety of areas. There is just a certain stability brought to a group by 20 somethings on up that the primary members in their pre and early teens can't bring. What is that you might be thinking? Identity. They know who they are, what direction their lives are going (for the most part). Most groups led by 20 somethings or older actually succeed because they can make effective use of the time they have.

the other thing is size of the group. i don't believe in capping a groups size, but realisticly the smaller tighter knit groups last longer. There needs to be some organizational skills. The group must have an outline either for expansion. (if anyone wants to know knight watches, just ask, i'll tell you). the ability to make a group small and seem personalized to each of your members while retaining the groups intent. If you as the leader or higher level members of the group appear to not have time for your members, then you aren't doing them any good.

the biggest thing is once you make a set of rules, stick to them. ammend them if they'll make life in your group smoother. As long as people are nice and active, return the courtesy. If some one never gets active, start emailing, messaging, etc to them to find out why. Eventually you don't have to be nice. Kick them out.

I include this to every new member we have, "welcome to your new online home. we hope that above all else you will have friends, make new friends, and enjoy the time you put into this group. it's not whether you win or lose this game, (although we hope you do win) it's that you found a group of people who enjoy playing this game with you. If we do that for you, then we have succeeded."

*steps down from pulpit*

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Paul Barnard
aka Bad Monkey
Knight Watch Shipping Corporation (http://members.xoom.com/paulbarnard/)
knight_watch_2000@yahoo.com
http://members.xoom.com/paulbarnard/kwbanner.gif)