Now some will agree and some will disagree with the following but I'm a clan Leader since about a Week after they started and recently I've met some peole who have been doing some classic mistakes and such and I figured I'd try to help them out, now if you want to add your two cents that's fine but be respectful please.

Starting Out:

Okay so you've started a Clan, now what?

Well first thing you can do is get your Mates (Friends, I'm Aussie) in, don't have friends then your gonna have a long slog, but don't worry it's okay, a good start is to pick a name that is catchy, in my Case it's my Hometown and a Famous Special Forces Unit, this has allowed for locals and Fans to connect, so take this into consideration, remember you can change Clan name later, but make sure everyone knows you will be.

Now before I get to carried away with promoting your Clan let me just say in advance trying to get 100 members is not a good Goal, now before you argue just read on. Originally when I started I wanted to build a big strong Clan and so I was like if I get 100 members (or close too), then I can get some to be Great then we will knock over all Clan Ops and be Powerful and it will be Awesome, but soon 2 things happened, firstly I ended up with many members not doing anything, they joined on a whim then never contributed, the only time they said anything was when do we get Double EXP, or when do i get my Titles, yeah, "MY" Titles, not "Our" Titles, talk about wangers. Secondly I ended up with a few Boosters in my Clan and they were getting our Clan lot's of Bad Press.

So I realised something, lot's of Members = HeadCuss!

Now some clans set all kinds of Restrictions and that's fine I spose, but I never seen a correlation between High KDR and Great Clan, in Fact I've Seen stronger Correlation of Medium KDR = Great Clan, this can be Argued and reargued but I'm talking from Personal Experience if you wanna debate it then fine but this is not where I want it debated, what I'm saying is if you wanna set a restriction I'd advise more practical ones, I set no Restrictions and it has meant I've had some problems but if anything the only restriction I wish I'd applied was Age, sadly Kids are hard to get to do right by the clan, they either get too serious and start alienating people, or they see it all as a joke and act up, sadly I have a mixed bunch, some are my best members, some are my worst, in hindsight I'd have set a 17+ restriction but whatcha gonna do.

Once you've set up restrictions you need to think very clearly about screening members, I have all my Members do two things, one prevents Boosters the other prevents insubordinates, neither is perfect but they are better then nothing.

Firstly Every Applicant is Screened, oh yes, it sucks, but to make sure you don't get dodgy players it is something that really must be done, I'm not sure how many do it or even think about it and some will tell me I'm and idiot but I'll say this much, not having Boosters in clan is a huge +. Now when I say screened, I go to there Careers page on Elite and go through all their games (that's 10 days worth as it only holds that many) and I check there KDR in each game, and their Nemesis/Victim, now the things to look for are things like 44/1, that's either an Awesome Player or something fishy, then look at there Nemesis/Victim, again if they have 44 kills on 1 guy that's definitely not kosher, I lastly check heat map and usually they are in one spot just using a Tac Insert to get high KDR and a MOAB, other thigs to look for are unusually high KDR for that mode, Noticing that people capture only one Point in Domination and other Suss Stuff, also look for Identical 1.0 KDR, that is they have same Kills as Deaths, some do back and forth, that is they Tac and get killed, then their booster friend swaps and does the Tac and they kill, lastly look for Victim that is (1) and same name as Applicant, (1) means a second Controller and any KDR is nulled when they leave, so they make the (1) a sacrificial player, killing them for no poor KDR, but reaping the Benefits, lastly, only ever count these things in Ranked Matches, to tell if it's Ranked (Public) they will have a EXP Bar, if the EXP Bar is not Present it's means it's Private Match and they are not Boosting, well not for any gain anyway.

Screening is what I do to my Clan at least once a Month, I go through everyone's Matches and yes it's time consuming and it's why I dumped so many members (I used to be 70+ members but now only 40+). How I dumped them comes under my other bit of Screening, now firstly I need to explain some things.

Elite is a Craptastic Way to Communicate to your Clan. Seriously it's is terrible, Elite has no Reloading system (that is you have to manually refresh to see if anyone posted), it blocks some of the most inane word sets, like "in progress" was bleeped (got the ******* treatment), and it can't be edited, so anything posted is Permanent and unadjustable, oh and it's got a weird Bug that when you hit Send it sometimes doesn't appear, so yeah it's Bad, very very bad, so I only use Elite to get members in and to Earn Rewards (and set things like Title/Emblem/etc), I use two other sites for my day to day Clan running: Facebook and Enjin (Forums).

Now getting back to screening, once an Applicant asses the Match Screening I give them 48 hours (2 Days) to join FB or Forums, if they don't I know they aren't serious and so I remove them from Clan, I don't ban them, they are free to reapply, but I don't waver, if they are reaccpeted they are still bound by the same rules. This means my members are expected to be there for the Clan, not just for themselves.

Now getting back to Forums/FB, i use Enjin and it's Great but be forewarned, Enjin is kinda dodgy, that is for 14 days they give you all this cool stuff, then they take it away and you have to play to get it back, now for me I'm not a sucker so I just use it fro Froums, but I did like the way it could have Banners adn Backgrounds and stuff adn while I do, sorta miss them, I'm not forking out $/month for it, so sure use Enjin, just don't be alarmed when it all goes very Basic. FB (or Twitter if you use that) is also Great, I just stared a Group and I made it Private, and so I let only Clan Members in, and I hold to that, no point letting Clan members invite Friends, they just get in the way, trust me had a few fights by letting in outsiders who got no idea what MW3 is, so set it private and only let in Clan members.

Now as I hinted above Promoting your Clan is Great (but as I said be wary of having to screen 100 members every month) it's not easy, well it depends really. As I said Catchy names can look cool, but unless people search for keywords you have in title it might be best to pick key word perfect words, get members then switch back to your Catchy name, some Good words are War(fare), Elite, SAS, Army, Marines, SEALs, Shoot, Kill and so on, I think you get the Idea, think What do people think when they think Call of Duty, and then Type words that should make your clan come up. Course your City/State/Territory/Country is also good as it should help you find people more local.

I went all out to promote my Clan, I started a Page here on Forums, I bought a Roxio GameCap and did a Clan Montage for Youtube (bit outdated now but it still brings people in), I posted on Groups, and here is where I give fair warning though, as you know people post on Groups and they do it like 500 times I suggest you don't it does the opposite it what your trying to achieve, it makes you look like a tosser, only post maybe once a month, but remember it actually isn't very effective so I'd actually skip that one, in my Case my Local city Group was the only one I posted in as there was only Myself and one other Clan posted on there, that has since changed, but as has my Clan's numbers and conditions.

Now this I cna't stress enough, Avoid Posting on other Clans Walls it's not nice, this happened recently to me and I got a bit shirty (Got my Back up) but I realised that they were new and weren't sure what to do and just needed some help, it's a big part of why I made this post, if I reject members from my Clan he was happy to take them, unfortunately only Boosters are usually rejected so he would be opening himself up to them instead of good decent players, so be careful. Btw I report all Boosters to BanCandy (moderator) so if you are a Leader and find one, tell them and they should be able to deal with them.

something to remember is the best Promotion is in-game, I started with my Mates in RL (Real Life) and then I played and met others who noticed my Clan Tag (Abbreviation of my Local City) and they Joined, then as they Played they became advertisement in themselves, as they were good payers and so it snowballed from there.

Edit: I forgot to put this in and it's very important: okay so many people know about Founders but many many people, even now that it's like 8 months on still don't understand what they are so here goes, when Elite started, well actually not then btu when MW3 was released, everyone who Joined Elite and Registered as Premium, automatically became a Founder, now it was orginally meant to only be people who bought/applied Premium within like the first week, but due to problems they extended it to 2 weeks then a month then nearly 2 months (from memory, could be wrong maybe it was only a month, either way it doesn't matter anymore anyway as it's been like 8 months since MW3 was released), now if you bought MW3 Hardened you got a Code and it could upgrade you to founder, even if you didn't have Premium and even if it was after cut off, now as Hardened also came with Premium subscription the Codes should have passed to people's friends, but many peole used them thinking it would give them some special bonus, or may still have there cards laying around with hthe codes unused, either way, those Cards are now the only way you can become Founder, now comes the questions, what is founder and what is this Founder EXP I keep hearing about?

Now Founder get an emblem (just like Elite Skull only Green) you get a Green Skull on Elite (Red is Premium, Grey is Free Member), Winter Camo unlocked for all weapons in MW3 MP, and 500 Clan EXP to the First Clan they Join... now please let me say that again, 500 Clan EXP to the FIRST Clan they Join, now for Leaders who are not Founders let me explain this thourughly, when I Formed my Clan I was a Founder and when I logged into my Clan a Message Appeared, "Do you want to give your Founder 500EXP to this Clan?", once I hit yes that EXP was put into Clan EXP and it is PERMANANTLY there, there are people still all over Forums screaming about how Members are leaving adn they are losing the Bonus as the members take it Back, that is BS, several Founders have Left Clan (Poached to Others, or Quit Playing) and I still have their Contributions, they CANNOT take it back and use it somewhere else, anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is lying, trust me, once the 500 EXP is added it's there Forever, it only ever goes away if the Clan is Disbanded, and no, the Founders DO NOT get it back then either.

Now, as Founders were either people who were Premium from first month (or two) or have Hardened and it's now 8 Months later I'd say that there would be roughly, 100-200 people with Founder EXP in the world, and only reason they would have there EXP is either they still have there Codes, or they just never joined a Clan and probably never will, so don't bother calling for people with Founder for EXP, I can tell you out fo last 30 people to join clan who were Founder 1, yes exactly One has had EXP and that is simple cause he had never joined a Clan before. BTW out of the Millions who had Founder EXP I'd say over half Wasted it by starting there own clan's Giveing themselves the EXP then Disbanding Clan when couldnt'get Members, so seriously, even if they have Green Skull, it's very highly unlikely they will still have EXP, so just remember that, also many people will say they will give you the 500EXP and they either say it coz they don't know it is only a 1 time thing, or as a way to try to convince you to let them join, don't be fooled, out of last 30 members to join my Clan with Founder over half didn't know it was a one time deal and told me they would give it to me, as I said only 1 was actually able too, so that is another point if they offer it and then find they can't don't get angry with them, sadly there has been alot of misinformation and it makes it hard to get at the facts, as a Founder, and a Clan Leader my Information is from personal experience, Founder EXP is Extremely Rare, the only consistent way to get EXP is Clan Ops.

Strengthening Your Clan:

As I said above I set up FB/Forums and in them I create Documents outlining how I expect Members to act in Matches, that is I don't want them acting like Tossers, I also don't care how they play as long it's not cheating, as long as it's using game equipment they are free to Camp, noobtube, or use OP weapons/perks, coz in the end Dom in Fast/Furious 1 said it best, it doesn't matter if you win by an inch or a mile, winning's winning. Now fore you Flamewar, if you don't like it my answer is, get better, every time I get killed by a Camper I work out a strategy and defeat them, well not always but most of the time, but let's not get into that now, or here.

I also write up weapon information, some gleaned from EliteTV most form Personal Experience, I also do Training, I use Gun Game to get players experience different weapons and also restricted matches, such as Shotgun, or LMG only, as while these weapons can seem bad, they have unique advantages in certain Modes/Maps, all of these things are to bring us together, to get us to work together to close up our weaknesses and make us stronger, I (try) to hold Clan Training 3 Times a week and I have found it has changed many of my styles and permanent Classes, as well as changed one of my Mediocre players into a Good Fighter and another into a Team Defender Expert.

Doing Training and Playing together has meant we can move up our game and we are currently training for Clan vs Clan and (possibly) Tournaments, but that is all in the future, my Advice to aspiring Clans is to not neglect training at least once a week, or twice a fortnight (that is 2 times 1 week then a week of not, I'm not an idiot, use your noggins)

Edit: To build EXP for Clan do Clan Ops, if you are like myself and are in a dodgy timezone for Ops (in Australia, we get First Ops 3:30AM-6:30AM sat Morning, Second Ops, 6:30AM - 10:30AM Sunday, and 3:30AM - 6:30AM Monday Morning) then you will find it hard to get both Clan on to Get Gold, but since the update you no longer have to get into top 50% to get Bronze, you only need to get one single Point adn you automatically get Bronze, so as you, or a Clan member, only needs to get a single Point for Bronze try to either stay up or get up, at beginning or end of ops to get a single point as you will still get 250EXP, it's slow going but better then getting nothing!

Anyway I hope this helps some new Clan Leaders and to any old Clan Leaders I hope it helps them Too, to any Trolls, please don't even start, and to anyone who wants to argue with me, just PM me, this is meant to be a Helpful Guide not somewhere for your Small Minded Opinions, on that note if anyone wants to add something constructive then feel free.