Dm game readiness

Well, I have played for the last 4 sessions now with the 2 guys I joined for the 3.5 edition and so far it has been okay. But, how prepared due you feel your DM should be??

The first time I could understand as he was kind of thrown into the mix as DM, the 2nd game seemed to be better as did the 3rd and with all the time we had off with the thanksgiving holiday I was really expecting him to be really prepared and for us to hit the ground running getting the game going for our 4th session. It seemed he was ready having a computer and notes to go on and the session started very good, but quickly deteriorated as he seemed to be running the game loosely just wanting us to find some treasure to use for upcoming battles. Towards the end of the night we ended up fighting and killing a juvenille green dragon rather easily, when I felt he could have made the fight harder, even if our resident magic-user bard the nameless gnome was able to blind the creature with a spell. Which I do not think the DM was prepared for and still could have made the fight harder, but he just let it go.

Now when I DM'd I tried to plan for every contigency, which of course you can not do no matter what you think the group will do, they sometimes come up with something so unexpected it not only works it also throws whatever plans you had made right down the dumper. But, I felt the good qualities of a Dm was to be able to handle these mishaps and continue on with the game as if nothing had happened. I did that with every game I DM'd to the point I always had some sort of back up plan ready and waiting to go in the wings if need be, which I feel helped make my games go smoother and kept the games interesting.

I do not plan to leave this game, my hope is the DM will get better as we go along, it is just nice to be playing in a gaming group again and who knows I might eventually go ahead and DM for awhile when they feel like trying the 2nd edition.