Some of you BACM may not approve of my methods but I would just like to offer my opinions and advice for your new clan and my good luck, please see this as good information from somebody experienced in running a clan like BACM was.
First is a more accurate history of the BACM clan, please feel free to post it on your site, or if not that’s cool. But i think if anything new BACM members reading this will see the similarities between AMP and BACM and it will help guys in our clans to be friendly towards one another.
BACM HISTORY (you can just copy paste this to your page)
BACM was created by BACM_GEN_RICO who was later overthrown by BACM_CL_KNIGHT. An admitted cheater, BACM_CL_KNIGHT was not a difficult leader for BACM_GEN_CASUAL1 to over throw, especially since Knight was an admitted cheater. Under the leadership of BACM_GEN_CASUAL1 BACM entered what most people consider the “golden” years of BACM. These “golden times” did not last forever, at the height of BACM’s power the leaders of the clan grew apathetic towards the clan members and only cared about the title of BACM. This caused many disputes among members. Eventually these problems would cause BACM_MGN_DEMO, BACM_COL_MOZ, BACM_2LT_Siren, and BACM_CPL_WHO to build the DEMO CLAN (later renamed AMP). The loss of their four chief training and recruiting officials caused the BACM leadership to scramble. This scramble led to big promotions and heavy recruiting which most would consider more damaging then the four training officials leaving. Seeing these mistakes, smarter members members like MONGO and also SQUIRL quickly lost faith and organized a revolt, however their attempt to overthrow CASUAL1 failed and resulted in the expulsion of MONGO. Squirl however saved himself by ratting on Mongo and would later leave due to personal issues and form ELITE clan. More faithful members such as OUTLAW, PAIN, and JADE would stick it out to the bitter end, only leaving after CASUAL1 abondoned the clan. The final crippling blow for BACM was the mplayer merger to gamespy, until recently BACM has been on the long hard fall towards total destructions. BACM has struggled to regain its status under the mediocre leadership of SQUIRL and other such generals but it is on its way to the top again under the guidance of original members, MONGO, OUTLAW, BITE, PULLEY, and BULLSEYE. With a combination of luck, intelligence, and skill BACM will regain the status that was originally gained by BACM_GEN_CASUAL1.
History written by: AMP_GEN_WHO
Also concerning BACM
A second thing I’d like to bring up is you guys using the BACM name, but not the BACM policy that was used in the “golden” era. For example new ranks, new title for people etc. I think if you guys are going to use the BACM name you should give some respect to the structure CASUAL1 used when BACM was the BACM we all know and love. The ranks they used in the golden era were PVT, PFC, LCPL, CPL, SGT, MSGT, SMA, 2LT, 1LT, CPT, MAJ, LTC, COL, BGN, MGN, LGN, GEN. And PFC was the highest rank one could recruit at during the golden age of BACM, and it could only be awarded by a BGN or higher. Also, they had the “seals.” I know a lot of you are english but if you guys are just going to make up your own stuff don’t call it BACM because unless you use BACM policy you are really disrespecting the memory, using “SAS” wasn’t something you’d ever see CASUAL1 do. Also it’s just not accurate, the USCM from the aliens movie was a military force for the United Americas (all of the continent of North and South America) and followed the USMC structure that is used today. All recruiting was in hive, 5 out of 10. All matches were played in statue or hive, until I personally revised that and made sewer and massacre part of training simply because sewer and massacre training matches can teach skills to guys (massacre teaches preds to conserve cannon and stalk, sewer teaches marines to move quickly and hunt with the tracker).
CLAN MANUAL
Basic Guides for Leaders of Military Clans
Overview
Military clans require two basic things to be acknowledged as successful (remember I‘m saying successful, not “elite“). The first thing being numbers, and the second thing being a figure-head (someone non-members identify as representing the clan).
Military clans must not base rank and status on game play, unless there is a separate division created for good players but we will explore this more later.
The biggest misconceptions that clan leaders have when they make rules is the idea that commanders and members who are appointed will be on all-day, every-day doing their duty. This is NOT TRUE, this is NOT the real military, you must create reasonable standards for people to operate within. Officers are not on all day every day and this is a big reason why squads are good in theory but bad in practice. This is also the root of a lot of other clan problems. I will bring this up later but I strongly advise against squads or teams of any kind.
Getting Started
Beginning ranks for a standard clan should be something like this, generally new clans will have low membership (10-25). So I suggest only the following ranks (or ranks equal in status if you are not using army/marine ranks).
GEN (only one of these, leader), MGN (even if he should be a GEN or a LGN start him out as this so you can give him a promo later to boost moral), COL (only keep one of these), 1LT (put potential future CPTs and MAJ’s in this rank, only keep one or two at the beginning though), SGT (at the very least two of these), CPL (someone to promote to SGT once one of the previous SGTs move up), PFCs and PVTs (keep unlimited, but only put members with good attendance at PFC in the beginning, or members with extreme skill). So you’re roster should look something like this at the beginning.
CLAN_GEN_??
CLAN_MGN_??
CLAN_COL_??
CLAN_1LT_??
CLAN_1LT_??
CLAN_SGT_??
CLAN_SGT_??
CLAN_CPL_??
CLAN_PFC_?? (one third to half the number of privates)
CLAN_PVT_?? (unlimited numbers)
Don’t worry about any other ranks yet, using a lot ranks before you get a heavy amount of members is bad. You can devalue someone’s status while building a clan if you create positions with no real powers. For example if your SGT roster looks something like this:
CLAN_SMA_A
CLAN_SSGT_B
CLAN_SGT_C
If you were to promote member B to the rank of GSGT, he would not really be placed above anybody, making GSGT no different then SSGT, and therefore he will not feel that he has truly been promoted. New ranks should be created or initiated only when it’s necessary to move somebody up above others while keeping him below certain others. For example you have a PFC that is showing up a lot and pitching in but has not improved his game skill enough, he is a better member then other PFCs but is not the example you want to set for CPLs because of his low skill. This is the kind of situation where a clan leader needs to incorporate other ranks such as the LCPL position. (in-between PFC and CPL).
So to re-cap, at the beginning at the very most the ranks you are using should be GEN, MGN, COL, 1LT, SGT, CPL, PFC, PVT. Do not use the following ranks in the beginning stages of a clan: LGN, BGN, LTC, MAJ, CPT, 2LT, SMA, MSGT, GSGT, SSGT, LCPL.
In the very beginning of your clan it is very important for the leader to be on more then anyone.
Ranking
As far as officer ranks, the clan leader must only appoint to these positions people of extreme trust. Next to the leader the officers hold the most power and they run the clan as much or more then the commander(s). Trust is the most important thing. Do not promote people based only or mostly on skill. With lower members ranks should only PARTLY be based on skill, you never want to put somebody in a position of leadership that cannot lead or that does not care about the responsibilities of rank.
Devaluing ranks is a big problem in a lot of clans. There are many ways to do this, and it is a big reason why one should NOT generally recruit people above the rank of PVT. If you bring a new member, new to the clan, and new to the members in as a rank higher then PVT then every PVT will feel like time has been wasted. If someone was to be brought in as a CPL in our hypothetical clan, our loyal LCPL who has had good attendance and who has chipped-in would feel discouraged to continue in the clan. And then you lose a loyal LCPL to an untried CPL who nobody knows and could grow into somebody that is hated. PVT should not be a position where you put people who are not skilled. It should not be the trashcan of the clan. PVT should be a position for any member who does not attend frequently and does not care about being a leader or participant.
This will be the general guide for what ranks to use.
At 30-60 active members: incorporate LGN, BGN, LTC, CPT, 2LT, SMA, LCPL, and GSGT.
At 60-80 active members: incorporate multiple SGT ranks. Incorporate another alternative besides SMA, GSGT, and SGT. or whatever ranks you happen to be using. The biggest problem I’ve seen with extra ranks is with SGTs is that a lot of clan leaders use useless SGT ranks. So my advice is to only have 4 or more SGT ranks once the number of members is in the range of 60 to 80 members. In other words use more SGT ranks when you need holes to create a place for SGTs and GSGTs that are worthy of promotion but not ready for officer positions.
At 80-100 active members: start using an initiate rank.. If your clan has grown this big you will undoubtedly have the resource to screen potential PVTs over periods of time rather then trying them out in a game for 10 minutes.
Remember KEEP IT SIMPLE. Don’t create ranks and powers for guys unless you are sure they can make an actual difference with them, do not allow any person to feel he is valueless.
Roster
Roster “cleaning” is also something very important, and someone (probably the clan leader but it does not have to be) should be in-charge of doing this boring but important task. This person should have every new recruits name reported to him so he can add them to the roster. Keeping a clean roster is more important then it seems. This person should go through the roster and find names of people he has not seen on in a week or so and then check around to see if this person has been logging on. The person in charge of the roster should also make sure that members are not multiclanning (Game Spy gives us the option of email searches to check up on people). Keeping a clean roster tells you exactly how many members you have that are loyal and that attend the clan regularly, and helps you figure what ranks need to be filled and who REALLY deserves to go in certain ranks. Clean rosters are VERY important to keeping a successful clan.
General Maintenance
There are three basic points to maintaining your clan.
Keep members busy at all times, boredom leads to interest in other things (other clans).
Run your promotion like a democracy, know how your officers and lower members feel about a person and their contributions before you move them up, just to make sure that a promotion wont cause a revolt.
Officers must have power, period, without these guys there would be no clan so keep them content by letting them have a large say in clan matters.
Alliances
Alliances are dangerous for new-weak clans and old-powerful ones. If you are a newer clan and you make an alliance then you put your new vulnerable members in a position where they can see the efficiency of another clan and how they operate and how it is much more well established and well known then your clan, causing at the very least negative feelings about your clan. If you are well established then alliances give somebody the right to throw your name around and make you look bad, and to drag you into wars that you may not even care about. So my advice is to not ally with anybody but to make sure either yourself or an officer of high command is on friendly terms with clans that could pose a threat. Just make sure there is a safe environment for your clan to improve in peace and isolation. Send your best players out to play members of other clans on missions of good-will to show that your clan does have the power to compete with other clans. Very rarely does making an alliance benefit positively for anybody.
Strength
Image is everything. Without a strong or appealing image recruiting rates will plummet. People don’t want to join a clan that everybody hates, and worse yet, people don’t want to stay in a clan that everybody hates. Or that nobody has heard of. While “headquarters” rooms are fun and less stressful then training and recruiting rooms, the best way to keep a strong image is to have either one of these kind of rooms up in a lobby as much as possible. Having both up at the same time is even better. It makes your clan look productive and makes your members feel like they are a part of something. Do not hesitate to ban rooms exclusively made for chatting, but also beware not to push members too far, allow time to relax but make sure it is balanced with a healthy amount of work.
As a clan leader you must realize that your duty is not to make friends, but to keep things moving in the most efficient way possible. It is partly to make and keep people happy it is your primary duty to do whatever it takes to save face for the majority of your clan. Do not be afraid to boot, demote, or probate members.
Wars
Declaring war is very tricky business. first you must know the full capabilities of the other clan. For example:
1. How much are their best players online?
2. What time are they online?
3. Are the majority of their players better then the majority of yours?
4. Will they acknowledge loss if you beat them, and if not will it even be worth it to fight them?
My general advice for wars is to prevent them as much as possible. Do not worry about if another clan will think you are weak by not playing them, chances are deep down they don’t want to fight either, and chances are if they didn’t like you to begin with and not fighting you only continues their dislike then it won’t effect your clan in any way.
If you do participate in a war remember, not-losing is more important then winning. War losses drain moral very heavily and can sometimes damage a clan beyond repair, always look for other options besides surrender. Do not however be afraid to acknowledge that another clan is better then you, this can lead to many problems.
Moral
The moral of your troops is the most important thing, it’s the number one priority in all clan matters. There are plenty of ways to keep high moral besides simply keeping guys busy.
Special incentives provide motivation for people and prevent people from getting bored with the day in day out activities. Once you have gained enough members create special divisions as incentives and rewards. Some sort of division for better players, a division for the general training of average players, and any other divisions with special jurisdictions you feel would help people become more interested in helping the clan out. Divisions also provide an alternative to giving a promotion if for example someone has earned SGT but you simply don't have a SGT spot open for them. If promotions were the only award you would end up with a clan made up entirely of GENs and LGNs.
**IMPORTANT** Do not create any special divisions, tournaments, or other insentives until your clan is VERY well established. These things will cause a distraction in the clan and of the leadership and should only be used when NEEDED.
Tournaments are a good idea IF you can work a way to get all members from different time zones to get an equal shot.
I strongly advise against making any kind of “squads” composed of small teams of regular clan troops. There is nothing positive that can come from this except maybe a neat looking roster on a web page. Squads create rivalries within clans and historically most clan leaders don't have the foresight to see that if you don't group squads by time zones they wont be able to train together and be effective as a squad. It also creates the annoying mind-set that starts thinking things like “he's not in my squad I'm not training with him”. Squads generally hurt moral more then they help it.
Rule Making
Rule making obviously is extremely important, it is the guide that ALL members will follow and is something that should not be taken lightly.
A problem I’ve noticed with most clans, especially on websites is that they do not have specific rules for gaming, at the most some clans will mention not using disc or pistol. It is important to remember that gaming rules are the most important rules you can make, rules for training and clan matches should be created and heavily enforced as much as any other clan policy is enforced. Specifying rules about saluting and promotions is important but remember, people are here to play the game, not to pay homage to a guy with the three letters “G” “E” “N” in their internet name.
Here’s the basic ranks for different branches of the U.S. military. I’m sure there are mistakes but if there are they are probably insignificant. Remember, do not use ALL of these ranks from a military branch until you have large numbers. I have marked in bold the starting ranks one should use, use these ranks and follow the guide I have provided above to adding new ranks to your clan.
Marines:
GEN - General * * * *
LGN - Lieutenant General * * *
MGN - Major General * *
BGN - Brigadier General *
COL - Colonel
LTC - Lieutenant Colonel
MAJ - Major
CPT - Captain
1LT - First Lieutenant
2LT - Second Lieutenant
SMA - Sergeant Major
MSGT - Master Sergeant
GSGT - Gunnery Sergeant
SSGT - Staff Sergeant
SGT - Sergeant
CPL - Corporal
LCPL - Lance Corporal
PFC - Private First Class
PVT - Private
Army:
GOA - General of the Army (honorary) * * * * *
GEN - General * * * *
LGN - Lieutenant General * * *
MGN - Major General * *
BGN - Brigadier General *
COL - Colonel
LTC - Lieutenant Colonel
MAJ - Major
CPT - Captain
1LT - First Lieutenant
2LT - Second Lieutenant
CSM - Command Master Sergeant
1SGT - First Sergeant
SGTF - Sergeant First Class
SSGT - Staff Sergeant
SGT - Sergeant
CPL - Corporal
SPC - Specialist
PFC - Private First Class
PVT - Private
Air Force:
GAF - General Air Force (honorary) * * * * *
GEN - General * * * *
LGN - Lieutenant General * * *
MGN - Major General * *
BGN - Brigadier General *
COL - Colonel
LTC - Lieutenant Colonel
MAJ - Major
CPT - Captain
1LT - First Lieutenant
2LT - Second Lieutenant
CMS - Chief Master Sergeant
SMS - Senior Master Sergeant
MSGT - Master Sergeant
TSGT - Technical Sergeant
SSGT - Staff Sergeant
SAM - Senior Air Man
AFC - Airman First Class
AMB - Airman Basic
Navy:
FDM - Fleet Admiral (honorary) * * * * *
ADM - Admiral * * * * (GEN)
VDM - Vice Admiral * * * (LGN)
RDMU - Read Admiral Upper Half * * (MGN)
RDML - Read Admiral Upper Half * (BGN)
CPT - Captain (COL)
COM - Commander (LTC)
LTC - Lieutenant Commander (MAJ)
LT - Lieutenant (CPT)
LTJ - Lieutenant Junior Upgrade (1LT)
ENS - Ensign (2LT)
MCP - Master Chief Petty Officer (SMA)
SCP - Senior Chief Petty Officer (MSGT)
CPO - Chief Petty Officer (GSGT)
PO1 - Petty Officer First Class (SSGT)
PO2 - Petty Officer Second Class (SGT)
PO3 - Petty Officer Third Class (CPL)
SM - Seaman (LCPL)
ASM - Apprentice Seaman (PFC)
SMR - Seaman Recruit (PVT)
