You can ask your faction head when you get in the game. It's more a case of understanding how the paperwork is resolved, and keeping track of everything. There isn't a special skill set you need, you just need to know the rules really well. Reading over the rulebook, and seeing them in action, is going to give you a good idea of how to do things. Feel free to download a copy of the faction sheet from the site and play with it, but the best way to learn is just watch the way the faction heads do things. RP skill is also a big deal, because the Faction Head should be the most frequent poster in a faction, seeing as how they control every character within their realm.
On a seperate note, guys, we've lost a few players for various reasons. Cannon and Absalom both couldn't devote the time required to the game and dropped out. I have not heard from Toshiro Ngami since he first joined, and Jaim Magnus kinda disappeared. Chaosxtreme has disappeared, but I believe I know why. As such, we're actively looking for new players to join our game and bring our numbers back up. The Periphery is still locked out for now, simply because we don't even have the players to fill up the Great Houses. The LC is down to 2 players, and the DC only has one, and Grey isn't really able to devote the time to the game to be a Faction Head, meaning he and I are running a sort of hybrid GM Faction.
If anyone has an interest in role playing in the battletech universe, the game could use you. You don't have to pick a major personality either- if you want to be a lance leader in the 3rd Benjamin Regulars, that's fine, we can use you. If you want to play a member of the Estates General, we can use you. We could especially use people to fill up the FWL parliament, because we lost a great arguer when Chaos left us.
For those people who are perhaps waiting until the periphery opens up to play, there's not much I can do for you at this point. While I'm sure we would pick up a player or two, I want to have the core factions running smooth before I worry about involving the fringe factions. Not that their contribution is any less important, but their impact on the game is reduced because they generally only interact with 2, perhaps 3 factions at any given time due to their locations. So if you want to see your periphery factions opened up, encourage friends who enjoy RPing to come join the game. The sooner our player count increases, the sooner I will consider opening the factions up.
and for people perhaps waiting for the Clans, you guys are in a similar situation. Even though we are 'years' away from the invasion, I would be amenable to opening the Clans up now...IF we had the players to support the Clans, and the IS factions, and the IS factions have to take priority right now. Get your friends to jump into the game, and we can talk about opening up the Homeworlds for some pre-invasion fun.