Echo

Echo was established in September of 2009. Most of our long-term Members had been in Shadowed Fates, a WoW-launch raiding guild whose GM retired during that summer. While we have been together for many years in WoW, we have been lucky enough to add many great new folks. Most of us are post-college and early on in our careers and we enjoy raiding, 5 mans, and some BGs. A few players have arena teams, but that is not our primary focus.

Echo takes its guild image seriously. We stay out of server drama, public channel spam, PvP-related insult fests, and the flame-wars of the forums. Echo Members remain mature and respectful in their interactions with others on the server. These high standards are largely what makes Echo an exception.

Our guiding principles can be distilled into the following:

• Play Hard: Members of Echo are expected to be online and on time for scheduled events and post when their commitments hinder that ability. Membership in Echo requires a high level of dedication. We can not accept the conflict of interest or sharing of time that would result from belonging to another raiding guild. Members that disappear without having told us in advance that they are going to be away will be removed.
  
  
• Act Professional: Members should always be polite, stay out of arguments, never insult others, and especially stay out of the drama that permeates the Medivh forum. Our name will show up on the Medivh forum from time to time. Do not get involved, under any circumstance. Guild chat can be a fun and goofy place at times, but it still needs to be a place where all are reasonably comfortable. This means that heavy vulgarity, leet speak (suxxors, pwn), and sex or drug chatter (beyond subtle joking) is not to be used. We can be somewhat sarcastic, but if this makes someone uncomfortable, they should talk to an Officer or the player and ask them to lay off. Members are expected to understand when sarcasm is (or is not) appropriate.
  
  
• No Drama: At no time will any fighting, insults, or whining on guild channels be tolerated. Disputes should be discussed in tells, and folks finding themselves at odds with a guild mate should contact an Officer.
  
  
• Be Generous: Items needed by the guild are not to be sold or traded. Always keep the guild's best interests in mind when you're playing, even outside of raids. If you have any questions about this, just ask an Officer.
  
  
• Spread the Wealth: We believe in putting items in the hands of those that can best use them. Our loot council system works to ensure that the people you're raiding with are as strongly geared as possible. Attendance and performance are the largest factors in loot decisions, so be online, do your best, and help each other out! Items should never go to an Alt over a Veteran, Initiate, or Member. Secondary specs will be awarded items based on how often a player uses that spec in our raids.
  
  
• Stay Involved: Read the guild forums daily. Research and discuss strategy tactics. Find out how changes to your class will adjust your playing and keep up-to-date on class mechanics. You're expected to continue to earn your raid spot, even after your Initiate period. Keep private guild or forum discussions private and do not share your forum account information.

Other common sense areas include:

• Don't PvP at the expense of your PvE readiness and availability
• Let us know if you won't be online for a raid (or we'll remove 4 hours from your tracked attendance)
• Don't share characters
• Don't do anything against the ToS
• Officer decisions are always final
• These rules can and will change over time

Guild Leadership and Ranks
Officers: Alerian, Aquemini, Marzanna, and Wyvn

• GM: Administrative position for managing ranks, guild bank, and guild talents in 4.0. The GM position is more similar to a "Founder" or "General Secretary" position, instead of a CEO-type of position. Significant decisions are made with the consent of the Officers (of which the GM is a part) and the general consent of the guild Members.
  
  
• Officers: The Officers act as the guild's primary leadership and a majority of Officers will be the final say on any and all decisions (even if the GM disagrees, since their vote is equal to an Officer vote). The Officers organize raids, make loot council decisions, handle issues, manage the web site, and make decisions based on the general will of the guild (think US Electoral College - we may ignore general guild consensus on occasions when we feel it is best). While our current Officers have been playing together since the start of the Burning Crusade expansion, we may add additional Officers over time.
  
  
• Members: Raider rank for those with at least 60% attendance. Members above 80% attendance receive first consideration for most items. The majority of Echo fall into this category, but that in no way makes it ordinary. Attaining the rank of "Member of Echo" should be considered an honor and we have the most difficult Initiate process on Medivh. Echo is honored to have these fine individuals amongst its ranks.
  
  
• Initiates: Trial period for four weeks for those with at least 80% attendance. During this period of growing acclimated to the guild and proving themselves, Initiates are outranked by Members when it comes to acquiring items, requesting guild assistance, or getting into raids. Their performance will be evaluated in a private area of our guild forums.
  
  
• Veteran: Former Members who are no longer part of our active raiding core. Veterans can return to Member rank through a second Initiate period, but are not guaranteed a return to Member rank.
  
  
• Alts: We freely tag everyone's alts so that we are always in communication with the guild. Everyone needs to remember that their primary focus should always be on playing their main character, both for their own character development and to assist others with quests, instance runs, etc. Alts rank the lowest for items, raid slots, and more.