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 Clark Seanor, who volunteers as a staffer in our Elections Committee.
How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?
Being in the Elections team in general means that you’re responsible for the OTW’s Board elections running — and running smoothly. Voting Process Architects, or VPAs, help with the technical side: we investigate (and solve!) issues and make sure that processes are documented.
What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?
In a typical week, I’ll set aside some time to work on the tasks my team have distributed amongst ourselves. We’re always working toward a goal. Up til recently part of this would have been a weekly team-wide meeting, but we’re testing out an asynchronous meeting style to deal with more disparate time zones. So, VPAs meet once a week to discuss what we’ve done, then we report to the rest of the team and check their reports.
What made you decide to volunteer?
I decided to volunteer because I appreciate the work the OTW does as a whole. Fandom needs its own, not-for-profit spaces to thrive, and AO3 is a big part of that. In truth, the work of other teams is what inspired me to join mine: Accessibility, Design, & Technology for making things work, Legal for advocating for fan issues, wranglers for making the AO3 tag system possible. There are a lot of teams and a lot of people behind the scenes who all form a small part of what we do, and I find that amazing.
What’s the most fun thing to you about volunteering for the OTW?
The most fun thing about volunteering for me is talking to the people I’ve met through it. I know many people across many teams who I’ve learned a lot from and even made friends with. Though that isn’t what I joined for, it’s definitely been a factor in continuing to volunteer!
What fannish things do you like to do?
One of the big things I like to do is cosplay: my favourite ones I’ve done include Bucky Barnes and Tony Stark from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Bucky cosplay had a metallic-looking arm that was my first experience in foam armour, and the Tony cosplay had a ‘working’ arc reactor. I like the process of building cosplay: you learn something every time you build something new.
I’ve also built a few models of characters from books and graphic novels I’ve liked. The one I’m most proud of is still the first one I made — a figure of the character Chris Shane from Lock In.
I also write a fair amount of fic. Most of it is gen, and most of it is Marvel, though I often write in smaller fandoms for fic exchanges. Fic is important to me because I get to write stories about the characters I love and imagine them in new scenarios. And sometimes other people like what I write too, which is always a good feeling.
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.