Category: Spotlight

5 Things an OTW Volunteer Said

Five Things Fiona M Said

Stephanie Godden Leave a comment

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 Fiona M, who volunteers as an AO3 Documentation staffer.

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

I’m an AO3 Documentation Committee staff, so I’m part of the team that writes the AO3 FAQs and any other documentation you might find on the Archive, like tutorials.

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A director's chair with the OTW logo on it and the words OTW Guest Post

OTW Guest Post: Norloth

Claudia Rebaza Leave a comment

Every month the OTW hosts guest posts on our OTW News accounts to provide an outside perspective on the OTW or aspects of fandom. These posts express each individual’s personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy.

Norloth is an illustrator and a fan-artist who loves to wander in Tolkien’s world. She is also one of the founders of The Redbook of Middle-earth, a Chinese fan-site dedicated to Tolkien. Today, Norloth talks about how she came to be a Tolkien fan and run a site.

How did you first find out about fandom and fanworks?

When I first watched The Lord of the Rings films in early 2002, I felt so eager to share my thoughts and feelings about the story with someone else. But it seemed no one around me was interested in it. I had to search the internet for a place where I could communicate with others about the trilogy. I found a forum called “The Lord of the Rings Chinese Forum”, which I think was when I first found out about fandom and fanworks. Browsing the forum every weekend became a must. I was not a sociable person, but the forum gave me the courage to reach out to people and make new friends.

There were two sections on the forum where people could post their fan-art and fan-fiction. I would post my own artworks there, most of which were portraits of Aragorn…(I was not as skillful as I am now.)

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Five Things an OTW Volunteer Said

Five Things Jenny McDevitt Said

Stephanie Godden

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 Jenny McDevitt, who volunteers as a co-chair and communications specialist in our Elections Committee.

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

I’m a Co-Chair and Communications Specialist for the Elections Committee. We run the annual elections where OTW members elect who sits on the OTW’s Board of Directors. We work hard to ensure all the seats on the Board are full, preferably by holding contested elections so that our Board is made up of members who represent the interests of OTW members. The process involves recruiting candidates, ensuring both OTW staff and OTW members know the details of the election process, running election events like Q&A and chats, and setting up the election software itself.

As a Communications Specialist, I write templates for internal and external newsposts and coordinate with the Translation and Communications committees to post election news every year. As a Co-Chair, I support the rest of the committee in their work, do administrative paperwork, and help recruit new Elections Committee members (my favourite part of the year!)

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