In the past month alone, my guild has had around 20 actual applications filed for membership.  Of those, we’ve brought in a dozen so far, and we’ll probably bring in half of the remaining applicants providing that their officer interviews pan out well.

I’m pretty proud of our membership application process, because it’s kept much of the drama out of our ranks that seems to afflict many other guilds so frequently.  Generally speaking, just the act of requiring an application to be filed weeds out roughly half of all potential applicants right away, while the applications and follow-up interview period probably cuts down another third of those who managed to make it that far.  That means only about one out of every three candidates for membership in our guild ever makes it to our ranks.

Now, keep in mind we’re not talking about a top end exclusive guild here.  Our requirements to join have no level restrictions, no referral or sponsorship requirements to apply, no requirement to use voicechat to join - if you can read and write English fluently, you don’t belong to a current guild, and you’re able to log on once every 30 days, you already meet our minimum requirements for membership.

So, even with the bar set that low, what keeps 7 out of every 10 potential members out of our guild?  Honestly, it’s almost always the same things.
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