Why I joined OTW (Volunteers & Recruiting Committee)
You're going to be seeing a fair few similar posts popping up on your f-lists over the coming days, but the point of these posts is that they are personal to the members, and so each will tell a different story. This is mine:
The 'why' for me, in a nutshell, is really very simple: I was presented an opportunity to give something back to a community that has given so much to me, and I took it. Hell, I was over the moon to be asked.
I don't write (any more - the term 'flogging a dead horse' comes to mind..), I barely get the time to read these days, but I feed-back when I do. I don't make vids, have all the artistic talent of a rotten fish, and my tech know-how, while improving, is still in pretty much in the 'say what now?' field. I followed the discussions emanating from the fanlib incident with a growing interest, and by the time the 'Archive Of Our Own' discussion turned serious, I was well and truly hooked on the whole concept of what was to become the Organisation for Transformative Works. At that time, I couldn't even begin to imagine the scope of what was to come. The sheer potential of the Organisation revealed itself to me in fits and starts, and there are times when I'm still the proverbial Christmas Morning child, tearing wrapping off left and right and grinning like a crazy fool at the contents.
It's hard to describe that feeling, but it's always there for me. It's what gives me the patience to and the calm, what keeps me motivated and proactive even in 1am meetings (the only problem with an internationally staffed organisation? time zones). It's the feeling you get when you get even the slightest glimpse of the sheer amount of honest-to-god hard work that's gone into this, when you remember that every single person involved in this is a volunteer, when that work finally gets a moment on stage, like the website going live, when you start seeing mentions and posts and interviews outside of the classic 'boundaries' of fandom, or when you're reading through replies to posts in otw_news and the level of support and admiration coming through those words is mind blowing.
Its the feeling I was getting right from the word go, and that is what made the OTW something I wanted very much to be a part of.
The 'why' for me, in a nutshell, is really very simple: I was presented an opportunity to give something back to a community that has given so much to me, and I took it. Hell, I was over the moon to be asked.
I don't write (any more - the term 'flogging a dead horse' comes to mind..), I barely get the time to read these days, but I feed-back when I do. I don't make vids, have all the artistic talent of a rotten fish, and my tech know-how, while improving, is still in pretty much in the 'say what now?' field. I followed the discussions emanating from the fanlib incident with a growing interest, and by the time the 'Archive Of Our Own' discussion turned serious, I was well and truly hooked on the whole concept of what was to become the Organisation for Transformative Works. At that time, I couldn't even begin to imagine the scope of what was to come. The sheer potential of the Organisation revealed itself to me in fits and starts, and there are times when I'm still the proverbial Christmas Morning child, tearing wrapping off left and right and grinning like a crazy fool at the contents.
It's hard to describe that feeling, but it's always there for me. It's what gives me the patience to and the calm, what keeps me motivated and proactive even in 1am meetings (the only problem with an internationally staffed organisation? time zones). It's the feeling you get when you get even the slightest glimpse of the sheer amount of honest-to-god hard work that's gone into this, when you remember that every single person involved in this is a volunteer, when that work finally gets a moment on stage, like the website going live, when you start seeing mentions and posts and interviews outside of the classic 'boundaries' of fandom, or when you're reading through replies to posts in otw_news and the level of support and admiration coming through those words is mind blowing.
Its the feeling I was getting right from the word go, and that is what made the OTW something I wanted very much to be a part of.