What it means to be the main tank

Of a progression guild, that is.

As the main tank, more often than not, you will be leading the 10- and 25-man raids. That, in itself, is honestly sufficiently stressful. Leave the DKP to some other officer or the guild leader (if you are not already the guild leader). Your main concern is the successful completion of the particular raid dungeon you are attempting. This means that you will be assigning tanks, healers, and sometimes DPS, to specific roles. This means that you have read strategies for the upcoming boss fights. This also largely means that you will be the main tank on every boss until it finally bites the dust.

Why did I say that you'll be tanking a boss only until your guild gets a first kill? The reasons are very simple.

1) Assume you have been main tanking the same bosses day in and day out for the past month. One day, you burn out/decide to quit WoW/are not free. BAM. None of the other offtanks know what to do, and its back to wiping on a farm boss.

2) Sometimes, being in an offtank role helps you see things in a different light. Why was my offtank the other day taking so much damage? Is it reasonable to have only 2 offtanks catching x-number of adds? So on and so forth.

Basically what I'm trying to say is: As a guild main tank, you should never main tank every single boss every time, but instead, give your other tanks a shot at it. Trust me, it works wonders in boosting their confidence. And, if you were the main tank by virtue of skill, you will be able to let the guild know, after seeing different tanks on the same boss, that you have earned your position by true merit.