The Keep:Graduate Student Guild

Guild description
A guild for graduate students or prospective graduate students. Use Habit to complete that thesis, dissertation, or other big foreboding project. Join us here.

==Guild leader eating contest (Spring 2016) == Our current guild leader, Badman, has been MIA for over 6 months. A Google poll open for two weeks indicated that active members (or those who cared to vote) have a preference for electing a new guild leader. This section of the wiki will be devoted to further eating contest-related activities.

Questions for Candidates, due February 27
Please type questions for candidates here by end-of-day February 27th (PST):
 * 1) In addition to your Habitica username, please provide a link to your profile so we know who you are. Your profile link is https://habitica.com/static/front/#?memberId=[User ID number here, NOT API key] Ex. InfH is here.
 * 2) How long have you been a member of the guild? How much longer do you expect to be an active member of the guild?
 * 3) If there should be a conflict within the guild chat, how do you think you would approach participants?
 * 4) What do you think are this guild's strengths and weaknesses?
 * 5) What would your goals be as guild leader?
 * 6) What types of challenges would you use the guild gems for?

Candidate Statements, to do during February 28th-March 5th

 * 1) BeanieB
 * 2) How long have you been a member of the guild? How much longer do you expect to be an active member of the guild? I have been a member for 9 months and will be graduating this summer. However, I will be pursuing a teaching post-doc position and thus will still be active in the guild and on Habitica. 
 * 3) If there should be a conflict within the guild chat, how do you think you would approach participants? While I don't anticipate any conflicts, I do have experience as a resident advisor and have been trained in conflict management. I will do my best to stay objective and to uphold Habitica's community guidelines.
 * 4) What do you think are this guild's strengths and weaknesses? I think GSG's strengths and weaknesses are one and the same - it is student/member run. I believe GSG's recurring challenges and conversations concerning graduate school are its strengths, but there are often lapses in conversation and activity. 
 * 5) What would your goals be as guild leader? My goal would be to try to maintain an influx of new members when I see other graduate students in the tavern or in other guilds. In addition, I will stay active on Habitica to help the guild when necessary. While leaving majority of the "leading" up to those in the guild, I will happily take any ideas for improvement. 
 * 6) What types of challenges would you use the guild gems for? While Scrolls and Writing challenges are great, graduate students often need reminders to relax and recharge themselves, and to remember that they are smart and productive citizens (avoiding imposter syndrome). I would love to have some challenges that encourage the wellbeing of graduate students and encourage them to post more regularly on their progress in challenges and health. I plan on modeling some of these challenges after those in the Short Term Goal Accountability Guild. 

Moderator statements

 * 1) InfH
 * 2) How long have you been a member of the guild? How much longer do you expect to be an active member of the guild? I have been a member of the guild since March 2014, shortly after I joined Habitica. I have ~ 2 years to graduation, but I'll be on Habitica afterward for sure. If you need to reach me, my PMs direct to my primary email address, and I can also be reached off Habitica at [username]ed at gmail dot com. I'm frequently on Habitica, even if I'm resting in the inn.  
 * 3) If there should be a conflict within the guild chat, how do you think you would approach participants? I will work with the other moderators and guild leader to make sure that everyone is treated with respect in this guild, and to make sure that community guidelines are upheld. Like BeanieB, I've also been an RA and trained in conflict resolution.
 * 4) What do you think are this guild's strengths and weaknesses? BeanieB said it all :) I'd also add that while there aren't any large issues, we seem to rely on regular challenges being up at a certain time and sometimes, people have stuff going on that prevents them from being active on Habitica. I'd like to offer more support (i.e. rotating challenge posting / offerring "vacations") to people posting regular challenges, so they can take a break if they need to, while continuing to provide the benefits of their challenges to other members of the guild. I've done regular weekly community posts for another site, and as much as I enjoyed it, I could have used a break sometimes.
 * 5) What would your goals be as moderator? Keep the chat flowing, make sure there are no major issues, keep challenges coming? I'd eventually like to consider the possibility of mentorship challenges (mentor a guild member), but I'm a bit behind on another challenge I said I'd make.
 * 6) What types of challenges would you use the guild gems for? N/A. I have my own gems, though, and I hope to come up with challenges focusing on "professional development," those non-degree things you ought to be doing in grad school but nobody tells you about. I also welcome suggestions from members of the guild - I've donated my gems to someone making a challenge which I had no expertise to make myself, and I'm happy to do so again.

General eating contest, to do during March 6th-April 2nd
There is a challenge posted in the Guild for voting in this eating contest during this period.

You can view the results here.

Resources
Files 
 * Updated Critical Synopsis Template  (adapted by Liobia): a template for describing texts that includes a section for a scroll cast summary.