Archive of Our Own ^beta

Last November we asked the community to submit questions to our OTW volunteers in celebration of International Volunteer Day. In this series of posts we will spotlight some of our committees' responses.

The Volunteers & Recruiting committee (VolCom) is in charge of inducting, retiring, and placing volunteers on hiatus. They handle personnel records and tool access, as well as assisting with the formation of new committees, subcommittees, and workgroups.

We asked VolCom for replies to your questions, and received a lot of feedback! Below you can find a selection of their answers:

Volunteers & Recruiting Committee Specific Questions

Question: Sometimes I want to help the OTW, and consider applying for a volunteer position like tag wrangling, but I don't have a lot of time to commit. Is there anything I can do sporadically, or without a lot of time per week?
Committee answer:
All of our roles come with a weekly time expectation—when we recruit for a role, we post a position description, it's listed there. For some roles, the time requirement starts at two hours per week, while for others it may be five hours or more. How this time is split up in a week depends a lot on the role.
If you find yourself not having enough time to volunteer, but still want to support the OTW, please take a look at our How You Can Help page.

Question: Since this is a non-profit organization, if I wanted to become a volunteer (for fun and because I care about the work being done here), would I be able to use my time as legitimate service hours? (for highschool for example)
Committee answer:
The OTW is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in the United States, but whether we are a good fit for legitimate service hours depends on the specific requirements your school/work/etc may have. Our volunteers usually do not volunteer under the name they use at school or at work, but if you are comfortable letting either your Chairs or the Volunteers & Recruiting committee know that name, you can receive a written proof of volunteering. If there are other requirements, e.g. a proof of volunteered hours, we can't guarantee that this will be possible for all roles. If you are considering this option, please reach out to the relevant committee via the contact form to discuss what's possible.

Question: Is there a limit to how many times someone can apply to volunteer and be rejected? How many times should you try before giving up? I've applied at least five or six times to different groups and I'm wondering if I should stop bothering you!
Committee answer:
We do not have a limit for applications to the OTW in general. However, if you've been repeatedly not accepted for a role, chances are that you are not fulfilling the requirements for that role. Additionally, some committees might have their own restrictions (see the recruitment post and/or position description). Please also consider your application quality and whether there are other reasons that might lead to you not being offered a role. You can email us and ask why an application was rejected - it depends on the committee how much feedback they are willing to give, as the goal is not to write the "perfect application". Our roles differ a lot in the skills required, so keep an eye out for other roles that might be better suited for your skill set!

Question: What types of things can be done by volunteers? I say this as someone who'd love to volunteer at some point in the future, but have no idea if I have any skill that would actually be helpful.
Committee answer:
The skill sets required from our volunteers depend a lot on the role: There are roles that require some kind of formal education or in-depth knowledge of a specific topic, such as being a lawyer or a financial analyst. Other roles, however, are teaching all required skills during the training period, for those roles it mostly depends on being the "type" for the role. For us in VolCom, it's more of the latter than the former. For example, our volunteers need to enjoy documentation work and ticking off tasks of to-do lists while being able to do work autonomously. There are many roles in the OTW that look for a specific type of person more than a person with a specific set of skills, or the skills are very transferable: Skills such as project management, navigating tricky interpersonal situations, dividing big-picture goals into actionable items, etc. If you keep an eye on our socials and the news posts, you will see us recruiting regularly. Each role comes with a position description that explains both what the volunteers in this role do, and what is required of applicants, so just watch out for a role that matches your skills and interests!

General Questions

How many hours a week do you spend on your OTW volunteer work?

• This tends to vary by week as well as by role! As a tag wrangler I used to spend about 3 hours a week on my fandoms, and though it has required some "pruning" of what fandoms I'm working on, most of mine were currently consistent enough that this is a pretty stable amount of time for me. For Volunteers & Recruiting, where I serve as both volunteer and co-chair, the time is a lot more fluid. For volunteer-specific tasks I can go between 5-10 hours a week, and for chair work that's an addition of another 3-5 hours per week. The work done isn't always in solid chunks of time -- I do try to count in the time I have even when I'm just catching up on messages from various other volunteers/committees, but in general that's where I've fallen. (Eevee)
• I'm a VolCom volunteer and it depends, but I'm mainly spending around 4 to 5 hours minimum working for my committee. It can go from processing inductions or removals or following up on a specific request we've received from an OTW member, which in this case is usually pretty easy, to bigger tasks like running recruitments or reviewing documents. In that last case, I like to take 2 solid hours during every work session to really dive into it. (Kalincka)

How do you manage your volunteer time, and do you do the same thing every day like with a day job?

• I usually block some time on my weekly calendar to get to it! Usually, I do OTW work in the evening, after I've come back from my day job. I work an 8-4, and I live fairly close to my workplace, which means that commuting doesn't eat up too much of my schedule. There are days when I don't do OTW work, but I always check my emails and Slack multiple times a day to make sure I'm not skipping something urgent. Tasks can vary so even if they're mainly cases, they vary, so I don't find it too repetitive! (Kalincka)
• I spend at least fifteen minutes every day on volunteering - keeping up with what's happening, seeing if there is anything urgent that needs to be dealt with. Usually, that means I look at my emails and our internal chat platform at least three to four times a day. This is mostly the same every day. I work on cases and on documentation frequently - sometimes that happens spontaneously, sometimes I block time in my personal calendar so I don't end up making other plans. This is not as regular and scheduled as me keeping track of what's going on in the organization and my committee, but it usually happens for a few hours every two to three days.
  I also have the benefit of having a very flexible daytime job and working a lot from home, which means a lot of my work days consist of me doing an hour of my paid job, an hour of OTW work, three hours of paid job, and so on.There are a lot of recurring tasks or categories of tasks, but it's still so many different categories of tasks that it's not getting boring. (corr)

What's your favorite part about volunteering at the OTW?

• I love meeting other volunteers and learning how the OTW works. I find it super fascinating to learn how such a large organization runs and at the same time meet the people behind the scenes of it all. (Bekyro)
• Getting to work together with so many people from all over the world who care for so many different fandoms. I have gotten to talk to people from so many countries that I would have never met otherwise. I also think that AO3 (and the whole OTW) defies a world in which value and worth are measured in financial units - we don't get paid, the writers on AO3 and Fanlore don't get paid, the readers don't get paid. Being a part of this awesome project makes me proud and happy. (corr)

What's the aspect of volunteer work with the OTW that you most wish more people knew about?

• We don't have shareholders or people with financial interests that tell us what to do. We're all regular fandom people who love fandom and want to maintain a place that's a home (an archive) to all transformative works. Sometimes, when I browse through discussions about the OTW, I get the feeling that people don't know that we are not a for-profit company, that we are not making any money, that every wrangled tag, every written news post, every design decision for AO3, every Fanlore policy, all of these things are made by fandom people in their free time. We're doing this not because we want to earn money with AO3 or the other projects, but because we love fandom and are dedicated to the OTW's mission. (corr)
• There is a lot more to the OTW than AO3! I encourage people to check out Open Doors and the other projects the OTW is holding up, it's worth a look. I know I've learned so much thanks to Fanlore, and I didn't even know that it was OTW volunteers that upheld this platform. (Kalincka)

What does a typical day as an OTW volunteer looks like for you?

• There's one thing that never changes, and it's checking emails/cases/messages. It's the foundation of my typical day. The tasks in themselves always vary. As a VolCom volunteer I'm pretty sure I do at least one removal per week. (Kalincka)
• I check my emails and our chat platform multiple times a day to monitor if something urgent comes up - as I get sent an email for every change in our cases, I also keep track of those like that. That's what I do every day. On days that I do active work, I focus either on documentation, training, or handling cases, and spend one to five hours doing that. (corr)

What is your favorite animal? Alternatively, do you have a favorite breed of cat/dog?

• My favorite animal are sheep! Unfortunately, I don't own any sheep. My favorite breed of cat is trash can kitty, all of the cats I have are the ones nobody at the shelter wanted, and they are the best cats I've ever met (I might be biased). (corr)
• I would have to say birds, especially parrots. I love Sun conures, but cockatiels are definitely high up there too (if they weren’t, my own would probably peck me) (yes, I am very biased). If we include fantasy creatures, dragons are also at the top (Bekyro)

Do you enjoy reading fanfic? If so, what's your favorite work on AO3?

• I love reading fanfic! It's the reason I stumbled upon the OTW in the first place. I wouldn't say I've got a single favorite fic in the entire world, but I keep a list. Off the top of my head, and since we're in an end-of-the-year period, I would heavily recommend reading this Klaus fic (formerly titled 'In the name of love'). It warms my heart every time (Kalincka)
• I do! While I do not have any favorite fic, as I read depending on my mood, I do have a bunch I keep returning to. I’m scared to check how big my collection of fics I reread has gotten nowadays. (Bekyro)

Do you write any fanfic yourself? What do you enjoy about it?

• I do, even if it's less than I'd like due to lack of time. I have about 350k words published on AO3 and half a million in drafts, which is what I wrote in the last four years.
  I like to get my readers to yell at me. My writer discord is really good at getting upset with me, if I'm not being insulted for hurting their feelings, I didn't do my job right. I am mostly a character-driven writer, and I like to put my characters into situations or make them face negative consequences. I also love to write healing, but I am decidedly not a fluff writer - the things I write as comfort for myself tend to get comments of people saying that I still hurt them. (corr)
• I do, though ironically not as much since I started volunteering for the OTW. I love expanding on the worlds given to us, doing missing scenes, fixing tragedies from canon, or imagining canon-compliant AUs (I promise, these are possible!). (Eevee)
• I do not, to the despair of my fic writing friends. Although I may give it a try sometime if the mood strikes. (Bekyro)

What fandoms are you (currently) in?

• I've not been super active in fandom spaces lately, but the last time I was active was in Haikyuu!! and SK8. Recently I've fallen into a danmei rabbit hole starting with 2ha but I haven't read/written much in it. I also read a lot of bl manhwa/manga! (Eevee)
• A few years ago, I read this questionable book series called All For The Game by Nora Sakavic, and I have accepted my fate of living in this fandom. I love-hate the books, I love-hate the fandom, and I have found amazing friends in the fandom. Apart from that, I read a lot fandom-blind, as I am looking for specific kinds of stories or tropes. (corr)

Do you feel glad or proud to see fanfiction in your mother tongue?

• I love that they exist! I think AO3 was one of the first sites where I saw the language I grew up speaking as an option and something about that felt so validating? I don't read in my native language, but I come across them when translations are requested for tags in my native language and I'm always so excited when they show up. (Eevee)
• While I don’t read any of them myself, I do find it nice knowing they exist. Especially as my native tongue is a smaller one, and it normally tends to drown among the countless bigger languages that exists (Bekyro)

Thanks so much to every volunteer who took the time to answer!

(For more answers, check out this work on AO3, where we collect additional replies to each question!)

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, OTW Legal Advocacy, and Transformative Works and Cultures. We are a fan-run, donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with corr, who volunteers in the Volunteers and Recruiting Committee.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

As a Volunteers & Recruiting (VolCom) volunteer, I help keep the OTW running from an organisational point of view. We run recruitment, offering many recruitment rounds each year so every committee has enough volunteers for their work, while managing onboarding, departures, and tool access for all volunteers. Behind those tasks is a lot of documentation that we need to keep up to date, so document reviews are a huge part of what we do. We also have various projects: one example is that we do something to show our appreciation to all our volunteers on International Volunteer Day in December each year. Other examples are the development of a Volunteer Handbook for new volunteers, the development of a Chair Training Plan, or the implementation of new tools to help the organisation run smoothly.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?
It depends. I mainly focus on cases, document reviews, and projects. Some weeks, I'll be up to my knees in document reviews or planning/implementing a project, other weeks I'll mostly work on cases. Cases can be about so many different things—assistance with tools, role onboardings or departures, name changes, updating our volunteer database to account for changes in a volunteer's record, and all other questions our volunteers or interested not-yet-volunteers might have that are about the volunteering experience in general and not specific to one of the other committees.

When we have new Volcom volunteers, I help show them how everything works—I love training people, so that's a lot of fun for me. We also have regular working parties within our committee and all try to attend at least one each week, and I look at our committee chats at least two to three times a day and keep an eye on all the incoming requests.

What made you decide to volunteer?
I've been a user of the Archive for about a decade. I'm not a native English speaker and was mostly active in my native language’s fandom corner in the 00s and early 10s, so I only learned about the Archive’s existence after becoming fluent enough to enjoy writing and reading in English. Since then, I've been an avid fan: I firmly believe in the mission behind protecting all transformative works, and fanfic has kept me company through many stages of my life.

I also wanted to get more in contact with fandom-loving people who share my opinion about maximum inclusiveness of content, and I am a very curious person who likes to peek behind the scenes and understand how things work, so it was honestly just a matter of time until I applied. The last part is, apart from our committee's work involving many to-do lists and my passionate love for to-do lists, also the reason why I love volunteering for Volcom specifically: we interact with every part of the OTW, so I get to see and learn a lot about the organisation and how it works.

What has been your biggest challenge doing work for the OTW?
Last summer, I tabled at a convention for the OTW. It was incredibly fun, and the mix of people who got excited about meeting "the AO3 people" and people who I got to explain our mission to was amazing. On a few noteworthy occasions, I even got to explain to people what fanfiction is, and I know of at least two people who googled it and got excited about reading more stories for books they enjoyed! It was a very big challenge for me, because I’m not a particularly talkative person, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Getting to talk about the OTW and especially being able to tell people about all of our other projects aside from the Archive was so much fun and incredibly rewarding.

What fannish things do you like to do?
I'm a writer and a reader. My main fandom is All For The Game, but if a hook is compelling, I'm willing to read almost any fandom. I love dark stuff - I'm one of those people who actively search for the Major Character Death warning and who find Dead Doves very intriguing! I'm active on a few fandom-related Discord servers, and I often sign up for exchanges or challenges (I keep telling myself that this time, there will be a prompt that matches a story that already lives in my head, and then completely unexpectedly get too excited about an entirely unrelated prompt. I have hundreds of half-written stories, snippets, or prompts that all wait to see the light of day).

Also, I have developed a special interest in the Omegaverse. I can talk for hours about why I think it's an incredibly interesting genre to write in and why there is sooo much interesting worldbuilding cooked into the premise. This has gotten to the point where people listened to me hold a presentation about it for over an hour, and I have become the resident Omegaverse expert in at least one Discord server and two friend groups. Recently, I was tagged with "i need your omegaverse PowerPoint, it’s an emergency" and I am pretty proud of that. Let it be known that I am always ready to help with an Omegaverse emergency!

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in the comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan-run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with whetherwoman, who volunteers on our Volunteers & Recruiting committee.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

As a volunteer on the Volunteering & Recruiting Committee (VolCom) I help recruit and onboard new volunteers for the OTW, keep records up to date for current volunteers, give or remove access to OTW-wide tools, and process volunteer retirements. VolCom also helps improve processes for all of these pieces, which might look like helping to improve training documentation for other committees or answering questions about volunteering from potential or existing volunteers.

My favorite thing about being on VolCom is that I get to see a little bit about all the many projects and committees in the OTW. We have over 900 volunteers, and the amount of skill, time, and enthusiasm people bring always makes me feel optimistic about fandom. I love getting to interact with volunteers from all over the world in all sorts of different fandoms and all sorts of ways of interacting with fandom.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

During the week, I'll usually check on chat multiple times a day, because I am attached to my phone like that. Sometimes I can answer a question or emoji react to something someone else is working on. If there are some quick cases, like filing applications or recording a volunteer hiatus, I might work on some of those in the evenings. On weekends I have time for projects that require more focus, like running recruitment for a committee, auditing documentation, or—my favorite–-streamlining and automating processes to speed us up in the future.

What made you decide to volunteer?

I've been aware of the OTW since it started, and I've had an AO3 account since 2009. I started volunteering with the OTW as a tag wrangler in 2020, which attracted me because I love organizing things and also because AO3 tags are frequently hilarious. VolCom work is also a lot of organizing things, although less frequently hilarious. I wanted to join VolCom to get a broader view of all the different things the OTW is doing—although we don't do work that's publicly visible, it's one of the few committees that interact with and support every part of the OTW. Fundamentally I'm a database geek, and sorting and reporting on data is how I have fun. I love that I get to combine my data management self and my fannish self!

What has been your biggest challenge doing work for the OTW?

The past couple of years have not been boring times for the OTW! There have been some stressful periods due to both external attacks and very necessary but difficult conversations about the internal culture of the OTW. Overall, I've always found other volunteers to be super thoughtful, supportive, committed people, which helps tremendously during difficult times.

On a slightly less serious note, I sometimes find it challenging to keep my mouth shut! Being an OTW volunteer in general and on VolCom specifically means I'm sometimes aware of issues or initiatives that aren't public knowledge yet. If I see someone on the internet talking about the OTW and getting something wrong, it's hard to not butt in and correct them! Arguing with people who are wrong on the internet never ends well, though, so I stick to venting in private. :)

What fannish things do you like to do?

I love to read and write fanfic! I'm multifannish and both my bookmarks and works on AO3 are a whole mishmash of different fandoms. Right now I'm most fannishly active about romance novels by KJ Charles, and I lurk a lot in MDZS/CQL.

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in the comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with Cyn, who volunteers as a co-chair for our Volunteers & Recruiting Committee.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

I currently wear three hats: Translation Staff, Volunteers & Recruiting (VolCom) Staff and being one of VolCom’s co-chairs. I’m also a former Tag Wrangler, Open Doors Staffer, and Support Staffer.

VolCom staff ensure all volunteers have access to the necessary tools and resources needed to complete their work efficiently and effectively. We also process any volunteer onboardings (adding tools as needed) and volunteer departures (ensuring all tools are removed). One of our key responsibilities is to work with chairs of other committees to facilitate the administrative aspects of our monthly recruitment so that all roles in our organization are appropriately staffed. Since the OTW runs on the energy of volunteers who have decided to give their time and resources to it, I consider VolCom to be a key part of ensuring the OTW continues to operate smoothly. VolCom also works on long-term projects that affect the organization as a whole, such as the implementation of new tools, auditing tool access or developing a chair training plan that covers OTW-specific skills as well as more general leadership and management skills.

As one of VolCom’s co-chairs, I supervise staff to make sure everyone has tasks to work on, recruit and train newbies, ensure goals and tasks listed in our committee’s roadmap are being worked on, ensure documentation of our processes and projects is up to date and help other chairs with resolving Code of Conduct violations.

The Translation Committee helps coordinate the OTW’s efforts across the organization to translate site pages, news posts, AO3 FAQs, and more. In my role as a Translation staffer, I am mostly involved with volunteer management which includes such things as assigning tasks to translators, running interviews and training chats, and handling any hiatus requests. I also help other committees if they need something translated, such as helping Policy & Abuse and Support with getting any tickets they may need to be translated that they can’t translate themselves.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

Every week in VolCom is different so I may work on any of the following:

1. Welcoming and adding access to tools for new volunteers or removing a volunteer’s tool access if they are leaving the OTW.
2. Updating our internal volunteer database of who is starting or returning from a hiatus.
3. If a volunteer requests a name and/or email change, updating our internal volunteer database and any tools the volunteer has access to.
4. Processing requests to give a volunteer access to a tool.
5. Responding to general volunteering queries.
6. Working on one of our long-term projects.
7. If VolCom recently recruited new volunteers, I might spend some time during the week following up with them about their progress and/or walking them through our different tasks.

One of the more regular tasks I work on is processing requests for recruitment. If recruitment is 1-2 weeks away, I’ll deliver feedback to chairs on their recruitment documentation and training plan, set up the website application form, make the advertising post to give to Communications to send out when recruitment begins, and document which role is being recruited for our internal volunteer database. If we’re in the middle of recruitment I’ll organize the applications we received and, once recruitment is over, send the apps to committee chairs.

What made you decide to volunteer?

I see my volunteering as my way to give back to fandom since I’m a huge reader but not much of a writer. Although I’ve been reading fanfic for many years, I didn’t really stop to consider who ran the Archive of Our Own until one day when I happened to see the post looking for volunteers to join the Tag Wrangling Committee. That got me curious about who ran the Archive so I read more about the OTW and its projects. I loved that it was a non-profit organization run by and for fans so I decided to apply.

After joining the OTW as a wrangler, I was able to learn even more about the OTW’s projects and what goes on internally to keep everything running. I joined the Open Doors Committee to help save at-risk archives before learning more about VolCom from another volunteer who was on both the Open Doors and VolCom Committees. I thought the type of tasks VolCom did were the types of things I really enjoyed doing in my day job, so when I was asked if I was interested in joining I said yes and here we are!

What has been your biggest challenge doing work for the OTW?

One of the biggest challenges I’ve had are the projects VolCom works on. Our projects can require a lot of time, research, and prior knowledge in related fields, and sometimes it's not clear until we’re in the middle of a project what needs to get done or what pathway to follow to carry a project out.

Another challenge I have is balancing my workload and communicating with VolCom staffers during busy periods. My day jobs have taken up a lot of time this year, so I’ve had to work on rebalancing real life and my volunteer commitments. Luckily one of my jobs is flexible and I usually have time to answer questions from VolCom staff or other volunteers during work hours. If I don’t have time during the day, then I work on volunteering when I should be sleeping (who needs sleep?).

What fannish things do you like to do?

Other than volunteering, I love to read fanfic, listen to podfics or watch fanvids. I’ve been reading fanfic since the very early 2000s when I started reading Sailor Moon fanfic on A Sailor Moon Romance. I then moved to Fanfiction.net looking for more fics and realized there were a lot more fandoms with fics I could read. I eventually wandered my way over to AO3 and I’ve been reading in many different fandoms ever since. I’m currently reading fics in 9-1-1, MCU, The Witcher, and Yuri on Ice with many more to come I’m sure.

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with Frost the Fox, who volunteers with the Volunteers & Recruiting Committee.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

I am a volunteer for the Volunteers & Recruiting committee within the OTW. The OTW is a non-profit organization, relying fully on its volunteers to achieve its goals. Volunteers need to have access to the tools required for their position, as well as training and support for these tools as required. My work with Volunteers & Recruiting helps with exactly that -- we setup our new volunteers with accounts on our organization wide tools and maintain the documentation regarding them in order to prevent confusion on how a particular tool functions, or how to do specific things within that tool.

In addition, whenever other committees require additional volunteers and request recruitment, we facilitate the setup of application forms on the OTW website and we manage the recruitment campaign throughout its duration. This includes organizing applications and sending them to committee chairs after the closing date. These activities help provide the infrastructure for the rest of the organization and is why I consider Volunteers & Recruiting one of the core pieces of how the OTW functions.

I also volunteer for the AO3 Policy & Abuse committee, which fields reports of Terms of Service violations on the Archive. Volunteering for both internal and external positions in the OTW is unique because it provides me with insight into how we are interfacing with each other inside the OTW, as well as how the OTW interfaces with users of its projects.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

I typically start off my daily work with the OTW's internal chat platform, which allows me to effortlessly check up on things I missed overnight and see what others are up to, as well as comment on anything needing feedback within our committee or other committees. From there, I move on to our ticket queue, where I check for any new cases. From here is where things vary throughout the week as we have many different types of requests. Some examples are volunteering queries, induction of new personnel, and other tasks such as name changes.

After working on tickets, I move on to any other committee work, which also varies depending on the time of the year. Sometimes I might be facilitating a recruitment campaign, while other times I might be contributing to various committee projects such as implementation of new OTW-wide tools or auditing tool accesses. One thing I learned since joining the OTW is that no day is the same -- one day could be quiet, and the next could be full of different cases.

What made you decide to volunteer?

My first encounter with fanfiction was a number of years ago when I stumbled across a fic about a YouTuber I watched at the time. I only remember it vaguely, and I since have not been able to find it, but I remember at the time thinking it was surprisingly well written for some random story I stumbled across on the internet. It didn’t lead to anything at the time, but I like to think it planted a seed in my mind for later.

A few years after that, I stumbled across some fanfiction again on Reddit. The particular post linked to a fic on AO3. From there, I began surfing other stories on the site. I got hooked and haven’t stopped reading fanfiction since. Eventually, having read on the Archive for at least a couple months, I began to wonder, who runs this “Archive”? That was when I discovered the OTW, read more about it and its history, and fell in love. I’m a little bit of a workaholic by choice, and love contributing my free time supporting things I enjoy. So naturally, I applied for the first position that was available, and here I am!

What's the most fun thing to you about volunteering for the OTW?

The people! There is always socializing going on in the internal OTW chat, and it’s not hard to find a channel or group of people to discuss a common interest. Although I haven’t been a volunteer for as long as some, I feel very welcome everywhere, and my fellow volunteers are polite and helpful. I have never felt like I couldn’t ask someone a question. Everyone is passionate in what they do and I have only the utmost respect for everyone for being able to keep things light, and at the same time get things done.

What fannish things do you like to do?

Moderating Discord communities, attending (and more recently, staffing) conventions, and reading/writing are some of the fannish things I do. I love reading, both normal books and fanfiction, but have trouble finding the time to do it. In the realm of writing, I’ve written a decent amount of fanfiction which is lying in my Google Drive not doing much. I mostly work on it when I’m bored with nothing else to do, and perhaps some day I’ll have something worth releasing into the wild. Most of the time when I write, it’s in the form of documentation or a technical setting, but I still enjoy doing it a lot. There’s something rewarding about finding those perfect words to explain something.

At the end of the day, I have to say the most fannish thing I like to do is, of course, my OTW work. In my opinion, nothing is greater than my work for the OTW and the Archive. I’m proud to volunteer and I am happy to have had the chance to do so.

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with Megan Diane, who volunteers as a staffer in our Volunteers & Recruiting Committee.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

I am a volunteer for the OTW Volunteers & Recruiting Committee. The OTW is completely volunteer run, and those volunteers need training, access to tools, and support. I like to think of Volunteers & Recruiting as one of the backbone committees of the OTW; we help provide infrastructure for current volunteers, onboard new volunteers, and thank any volunteers who leave us.

I also volunteer for the AO3 Policy & Abuse team, which helps answer complaints received about content on the Archive. It’s definitely a unique experience being involved in both inward and outer facing committees for the OTW.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

Every week is different. When we recruit, I’m busy organizing applications, creating contacts, answering any queries, as well as managing the database and websites we use. Recruitment can be a really hectic time, and there have been times where I get upwards of 40 emails in a few hours! There are also a lot of small tasks that have to be done for any volunteer whether they be incoming, outgoing, or current. If we aren’t recruiting, I’m usually helping with larger projects like our yearly Still Willing To Serve surveys, implementation of new OTW-wide tools, or discussing volunteer or staff needs with other OTW committees.

What made you decide to volunteer?

I fell in love with the Archive first, and after doing a bit more research fell in love with the OTW itself. It’s a great organization for fandom that not only supports the Archive but rescues fic through Open Doors, lobbies governments through Legal, and supports academic work through Transformative Works and Cultures. I wanted to help make the organization as successful as possible, as well as maybe try to make a small mark on Fandom.

What's the most fun thing to you about volunteering for the OTW?

Definitely the community here. Not only do we get to be part of larger fandom, but the OTW has its own unique culture; everyone here is so passionate about our larger vision. I’ve picked up several new fandoms since I’ve volunteered, as well as made some really good online friends!

What fannish things do you like to do?

I enjoy reading and writing fanfiction, and have been teaching myself editing via Photoshop. I’ve been involved in a lot of different fandom oriented discords and discussion groups as well. I’ve been able to attend a few local conventions and liveshows from podcasts I follow...eventually I’d like to make it bigger conventions! I’ve recently started enjoying cosplay -- though mainly closet cosplays!

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with Rachel Bussert, who volunteers as a staffer in our Volunteers & Recruitment Committee.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

The mission of any organization is driven by the people who dedicate their time and resources to it. Volunteers & Recruiting (VolCom) is very central to that for OTW. Throughout the year, we handle recruitment for all the positions needed, which readers may see regularly in our announcement posts. Below is a chart of OTW’s volunteer numbers over time. As you can see, the number of folks involved in the organization have increased over time to accommodate the work of each committee, and Volunteers & Recruiting is the first step in making sure those staffing needs are being met.

Our work doesn’t stop with recruitment. Volunteers & Recruiting keeps track of the service of each volunteer in the organization, such as the number of years they've been with us and which roles they've held. We coordinate all of the account permissions and tool access that people need to do their work and interact with other volunteers. We also process the turnover as people depart the OTW or as they move into different positions. We report all these changes each month in the OTW newsletter.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

There tends to be an ebb and flow of work throughout the year, so there’s not necessarily a single answer to that. A given week might include any or all of the following:

• Discussing committee needs for personnel with their chairs and reviewing role requirements
• Processing applications for various recruitment campaigns
• Induction or retirement of volunteers
• Updating information on volunteers going on or coming off of hiatus
• Editing tools and resources when a volunteer’s name or email changes
• Updating organization wide tools and training
• Work on various internal projects

Did anything take you by surprise when you began volunteering for the OTW or your committee?

Two things, though I think both of them speak more to OTW as an organization rather than just VolCom. The first thing was how well organized everything is overall. Most of the non-profits I’ve had experience partnering with tend to be a little bit haphazard for a variety of reasons, so I was pleasantly surprised by how clear onboarding and training was, and how much effort various committees put into working together for a common goal.

The other thing was just the sheer enthusiasm there is all the way around. Every time we recruit for a role, I’m floored by how many people apply because they want to get involved. That’s not to mention within the organization. There are a lot of really amazing people who put their heart and soul into this.

What's the most rewarding thing to you about volunteering for the OTW?

Fandom has given me so much. I was kind of a lonely kid, and getting into writing fanfiction was the first time I really found people who felt like my people. A couple of my closest friends are folks I met because they commented on my writing, or because we happened to be in the same fandom chat, and so fandom in general is really special to me. I also gravitate pretty strongly towards non-profits in general, so OTW is just this really natural fit.

I think what is most rewarding for me is that with VolCom, I’ve had the opportunity to take some of the skills I’ve developed in my day job, and turn them towards supporting a cause I have so much love for.

What fannish things do you like to do?

All of them? In all seriousness though, I have a lot of fannish interests. In terms of content creation, I write a lot. I’ve been teaching myself art via photomanipulation as well and having a great time with it. I’m mostly in the Captain America fandom these days, but I dip back into Doctor Who and Fullmetal Alchemist now and again. I also cosplay competitively sometimes and get really absurdly excited about documentation and screen accuracy.

I’m pretty serious about giving back to the community that’s given so much to me, so I also tend to get really involved behind the scenes. In addition to OTW, I am on the team that runs two of the writing/art events in my current fandom, I run one of my city’s cosplay meetup groups, and I’m the co-chair for the cosplay masquerade at a local convention.

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.