Fandom, ILU: why I volunteer for the OTW
Part One
A few weeks ago, I asked a group of fannish types why so many fanpeople seem to be knitters. One of them replied, "Because fans like to make things that are beautiful and useful." And that more or less sums up why I volunteer for the OTW.
Because, dear fandom, I love you. I love you and I want to do nice things for you. You've done so much for me, you see. You bring so much fucking joy and laughter and GLEE into my life that I can hardly believe it, tbh. And I'm not particularly active, fannishly. I leave feedback, but I don't write fic myself, or make art...what I'm good at is analysis, meta, spreadsheets and seeing patterns. I'm good at getting to the heart of a matter when I don't know all the gory details. I'm good at reading; both people and documents.
And so I volunteered for the OTW a few months ago, because I thought maybe those things could help make fandom a better place if, you know, I had any idea what to do with them. Boy, did the OTW have ideas about what to do with them. I've been busy. Sometimes really busy. Most of the time not as busy as I'd like, because I need several more hours in a day to do all the stuff I (and the rest of my comm) want to do.
As everyone who's been paying the slightest bit of attention knows, the OTW has gone - and is going - through significant growing pains (here's a link to the pinboard bookmarks tagged OTW, if you're interested). I read probably more than was totally good for me of the comments made in Fail Fandom anon* and various other journals during the weeks preceding the December election. There was a LOT of criticism, most of it totally justified, thrown at the organization during the last election season, and I was one of those voices.
I think it is really important that people continue to be actively and loudly critical of the OTW. I hope that if anyone on my flist - or anyone else who reads this - ever has an idea they think might be interesting, or they see a way the OTW could be improved, or they feel excluded, they'll contact us, or message me directly through my lj or dw accounts, or link me to their own posts/blogs/comments. I'll do whatever I can to figure things out. Because the minute people start feeling like they can't say something, can't be critical of the things they love, they start loving them a little bit less. And because although the OTW is made up entirely of people who love fandom, there are only so many hours in a day, a limited amount of time and energy we can give. After all, we have fic to read and art to find and costumes to design and shows to go to &&&&! We get tired, we get tunnel vision, we make mistakes, we have misunderstandings. We need an outsider's perspective. Criticism = growth.
Part Two
The other reason I volunteer for the OTW is because my experience has been rewarding on multiple levels. I work with a group of talented and super-fun people. I look forward to meeting with them each week. The people in charge of me have been unfailingly kind, patient and understanding mentors. The teammates that joined after I did have fantastically different perspectives than I do. I have always felt like I can opt out of a project if I don't have time for it, and at the same time jump right into something that is half-finished. I love collaborative work; one of my favorite things to do is talk out solutions to complicated problems with a group of smart, interested people, and that is - well, basically my whole job for the OTW. :D I've also learned some new software that is fun and directly relevant to my offline work as well. In short, it has all been pretty fun. :-) Even the challenging, difficult, "what are we going to do with THIS????" stuff has been rewarding.
Part Three - jooooiiiinnnnn uuuuussss
If you've ever thought about volunteering, my whole review is: A+ experience, would volunteer again. Nothing that I've said here is an official position of the OTW or the comm I serve on, but I am always happy to answer questions about the OTW if I can, on or off the record.
*I just read, don't comment, on FFA. Sometimes people feel more comfortable saying the really important stuff anonymously, and I want to read the important stuff (see Part One).
This entry was originally posted at http://concinnity.dreamwidth.org/47753.html. Comment wherever you like.
A few weeks ago, I asked a group of fannish types why so many fanpeople seem to be knitters. One of them replied, "Because fans like to make things that are beautiful and useful." And that more or less sums up why I volunteer for the OTW.
Because, dear fandom, I love you. I love you and I want to do nice things for you. You've done so much for me, you see. You bring so much fucking joy and laughter and GLEE into my life that I can hardly believe it, tbh. And I'm not particularly active, fannishly. I leave feedback, but I don't write fic myself, or make art...what I'm good at is analysis, meta, spreadsheets and seeing patterns. I'm good at getting to the heart of a matter when I don't know all the gory details. I'm good at reading; both people and documents.
And so I volunteered for the OTW a few months ago, because I thought maybe those things could help make fandom a better place if, you know, I had any idea what to do with them. Boy, did the OTW have ideas about what to do with them. I've been busy. Sometimes really busy. Most of the time not as busy as I'd like, because I need several more hours in a day to do all the stuff I (and the rest of my comm) want to do.
As everyone who's been paying the slightest bit of attention knows, the OTW has gone - and is going - through significant growing pains (here's a link to the pinboard bookmarks tagged OTW, if you're interested). I read probably more than was totally good for me of the comments made in Fail Fandom anon* and various other journals during the weeks preceding the December election. There was a LOT of criticism, most of it totally justified, thrown at the organization during the last election season, and I was one of those voices.
I think it is really important that people continue to be actively and loudly critical of the OTW. I hope that if anyone on my flist - or anyone else who reads this - ever has an idea they think might be interesting, or they see a way the OTW could be improved, or they feel excluded, they'll contact us, or message me directly through my lj or dw accounts, or link me to their own posts/blogs/comments. I'll do whatever I can to figure things out. Because the minute people start feeling like they can't say something, can't be critical of the things they love, they start loving them a little bit less. And because although the OTW is made up entirely of people who love fandom, there are only so many hours in a day, a limited amount of time and energy we can give. After all, we have fic to read and art to find and costumes to design and shows to go to &&&&! We get tired, we get tunnel vision, we make mistakes, we have misunderstandings. We need an outsider's perspective. Criticism = growth.
Part Two
The other reason I volunteer for the OTW is because my experience has been rewarding on multiple levels. I work with a group of talented and super-fun people. I look forward to meeting with them each week. The people in charge of me have been unfailingly kind, patient and understanding mentors. The teammates that joined after I did have fantastically different perspectives than I do. I have always felt like I can opt out of a project if I don't have time for it, and at the same time jump right into something that is half-finished. I love collaborative work; one of my favorite things to do is talk out solutions to complicated problems with a group of smart, interested people, and that is - well, basically my whole job for the OTW. :D I've also learned some new software that is fun and directly relevant to my offline work as well. In short, it has all been pretty fun. :-) Even the challenging, difficult, "what are we going to do with THIS????" stuff has been rewarding.
Part Three - jooooiiiinnnnn uuuuussss
If you've ever thought about volunteering, my whole review is: A+ experience, would volunteer again. Nothing that I've said here is an official position of the OTW or the comm I serve on, but I am always happy to answer questions about the OTW if I can, on or off the record.
*I just read, don't comment, on FFA. Sometimes people feel more comfortable saying the really important stuff anonymously, and I want to read the important stuff (see Part One).
This entry was originally posted at http://concinnity.dreamwidth.org/47753.html. Comment wherever you like.