Position Title: Translation Committee Volunteer Manager

Organization name: Organization for Transformative Works

Committee: Translation

Reports to: Translation Chair(s)

Time Requirements: Approx. 10-18 hours a week.

Technical Requirements: Access to a computer and a stable internet connection.

Term: 1 year

Role Overview: Coordinates, manages, and provides support for Translation Committee volunteers and volunteer task assignments. Documents procedures and workflows. Communicates and accomplishes projects with volunteers in other areas of the OTW.

Key responsibilities include:

• Coordinating translator work and providing support to all currently active language teams, which involves task assignment, deadline management, and document preparation, amongst other things.
• Training and supporting new translators and volunteer managers with regards to internal workflows and processes.
• Signing up for at least one ‘on-call’ week every two months (during on-call weeks, the expected time commitment is around 14 hours).
• When on-call, responding to emails, supervising task assignments and deadlines, and providing assistance to language teams each day as needed.
• Proactively participating in identifying areas of improvement for internal processes and applying and refining solutions.
• Attending monthly Translation committee meetings whenever possible, and submitting thoughts and opinions on the agenda in advance when attendance is not possible.
• Carrying out at least two documentation tasks in full per month. Such tasks may include writing training and procedural documentation for translators and volunteer managers, or updating existing documentation.
• Uploading translated content, such as news and FAQs, to the OTW website and AO3.
• Leading, coordinating and participating in cross-committee projects as needed.
• Optionally, conducting interviews with applicants, and one-on-one meetings with current translators.

Please note that this position does not involve translating texts.

Experience:

• Experience in translation or internationalization desirable but not required.
• Experience managing people and/or teams desirable but not required.

Skills and attributes:

• Attention to detail.
• Adaptability to change.
• Patience, willingness to delegate, and strong people skills.
• Ability to work in a team and with other teams, and accept feedback.
• Adaptable to and comfortable with new technology, working tools and workflows.
• Good communication skills, including the ability to handle a large number of emails and work in a chat-based environment.
• Consistent availability and responsiveness.
• English fluency required. (You’ll need to be comfortable drafting emails and chatting in English, but there’s no expectation that your grammar will be perfect, of course!)
• Knowledge of additional language(s) beneficial but not required.

Training requirements:

The initial training period, which is expected to last around 3 months, will entail becoming acquainted with the basic Translation tools, processes and tasks. Training will be led by one (or more) of Translation’s volunteer managers, who will act as the new volunteer manager’s mentor(s). During their training period, new volunteer managers will be encouraged to work with other Translation volunteer managers and to take on tasks that allow them to put their newly acquired training into practice.

After the initial training period is complete, the new volunteer manager and Translation chairs will evaluate the trainee’s progress and determine whether they are satisfied, as well as whether the trainee is interested in proceeding. They may also be considered a better fit for a different role within the committee. If the trainee remains in their role as volunteer manager, they will move on to tackle more advanced tasks and projects.