Im also the GM / Primary RL of a guild.

This is a universal problem assoiciated with any monolithicaly top down organized guild. When i first started the guild i had a friend with me i tried to get to share the raid running load.

People simply did not like the way he talked to them, organized pulls, or organized fights.
After trying it that way for a while we eventually settled into just having me run all the raids.

Now a year and a half later, i am trying to train another raid leader (one that i think may have the right balance of ass and coddle). The right balance of "nice guy" and "jerk" is very hard to find.

There is no easy fix for this kind of a problem.
Just keep an eye and ear out for a player in the same general mold as your current raid leader.

"putting all your bread in one basket???"

??? is correct. It's eggs that don't all go in the same basket. You can put all the bread you want in one basket. No problem. But eggs definitely go in different baskets. Eggs are breakable, bread isn't.

And heavy items like canned goods and water mellons don't go on top of eggs or bread.

Grocery basketing 101.

I never expected to come onto WoW Insider and get schooled on grocery bagging. I guess stranger things have happened?

Bread isn't breakable? Interesting. I wonder where the phrase "breaking bread" came from then.

Yeah this happened to an old guild of mine. The guild was very casual and apparently loved to run kara. But it kinda became a breeding ground for gearing up people and having them stop play or leave for somewhere else. After a while this hit me too. We were in kara for 6 months, and when our RL/GL/MT went on an unannounced 3 week vacation and we couldn't even get curator down, I decided it was time to cut my losses. Still feel bad (and they now treat me as a traitor - i still have an alt who's now 70 in the guild, i'm moving that alt soon too).

At some point you have to figure, well I've spent 6 months raiding with these guys, and what i'm looking for isnt' going to happen before the expansion hits, so I might as well stop raiding or move to a different raiding guild. And thats what i did, and the new guild is much much better in terms of organization and personality and maturity.

This guild, btw now has ~50 active 70s, but can't down Gruul yet. So...yeah some guilds just aren't going to make the 25 man transition.

this worries me. our guild is young, started by two 70s a couple months back. we have a solid group of 5 others in their mid 50s leveling up. recruiting beyond this has been difficult so we have been attempting to form relationships with other small guild in hopes of raiding when the rest are ready. there has not been much interest so far, and your post echoes of why. running the guild so far as casual/leveling we are getting accustomed to the "use 'em and lose 'em" approach of some recruits that cause some churn. We just hope another guild will give an alliance a chance.

My guild had a problem with attendance until we switched the loot system around. Before it was loot counsel, this made it awkward to distribute loot when 2 raiders wanted the item and one attended more often. If you tell them "so and so come more often and that is why you are not getting it" it comes across as favoritism, additionally it make is seem like we are penalizing them rather than rewarding. We recently switched to DKP-- attendance is more consistent. We had a few people leave the guild because of it, but in the long run it is more fair and more of a benefit, since we can reward raiders who attend more often.

Meh, we ran based on DKP. People showed up, got dkp, and saved it til they could use it on upgrades. The problem was just pure attendance, and mentality. It was either constant complain at group X, or just people not able to make it over real life issues, making others cry.

DKP is fine, when it is managed and given out properly. Lout Council is fair when its a solid group of people, where favoritism won't become a issue, ala my old guild, where in the end, 1 officer and his gf stacked the bids around each other.

Well, the way i see it there are a couple of issues. The person has to get something from the instance. There is a reason things like slabs are no longer run, because the vast majority of 70s will get absolutely nothing from it (now if they had a plan such that the 'easy' heroic was as hard as the normal end-game, that would help).

The second thing is that you can't expect a burned out raider with a T6 geared toon to want to go back and do heroics, there just isn't enough reward. But if that person had a new 70 alt, sure they wouldn't mind doing heroics/kara, b/c they will get something out of it. For me, my main really wont get much out of a heroic or any 5man or 10 man. I'll do it to help friends/guildies (like tonight, we are doing the Champion of Naaru for a guildie). My newly 70 druid would kill to do any sort of heroic 5man instance though, she badly needs the gear.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but the guild needs to have good communication and a cohesive structure, and offer useful rewards. (IMO)

I think you're on to the one thing not mentioned here, fun. Trade/General/LFG and the forum is filled with recruitment notices this summer. WOW is just not fun for a lot of people. The demise of one of the best endgame guilds anywhere because they had seen it all and done it all is a case in point. That's something of a generalization but it wasn't fun for them anymore.
I'm lucky. I've added three more people to my guild because we are not afraid to be fun or to create fun while doing instances or endgame content. I guess I would want to know if Neur's GL is involved in the planning of other guild events or is s/he primarily involved in the endgame progression raiding. Just as "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", all endgame raiding and no break to do something else makes a guild a grind factory. Maybe Neur's guild needs to step back and do something completely different, guild dueling night, PvP night, instance night, where the emphasis is NOT on raiding or progression and just on fun. The week doesn't have to be about gathering mats to make things so you are equipped for yet another assault of insert latest instance. I have found that mixing the silly with the serious means people come to the next serious raid more relaxed and more willing to wipe several times in order to learn a fight.