Bio
Theodore B. (He/Him): has been reading and writing creatively since childhood, with a love for science fiction and fantasy supported by his parents and (even more voracious) brother. One Piece as a child, Percy Jackson as a teen, and Red Rising as an adult have kept him attached to fandom, without even mentioning the millions of words of fanfic read—peaking at 25 million words in a single year. Beyond reading, he spends much of his time supporting the speedrunning side of fandom: hosting randomizer tournaments, moderating speedrun streams and leaderboards, and even commentating and running at Games Done Quick and other charity marathons.
Theodore joined the Organization for Transformative Works as a part of the Tag Wrangling Committee in August 2025. Since then, he has worked on several No Fandom-specific TW processes, such as helping to find synonymous tags for No Fandom canonicals both new and old, as well as deciding how to canonize new tags. His favorite wrangling activity is researching obscure tags; his second favorite is finding the perfect canonical to syn to. Outside of online volunteer work, he experiences Alternate Universe – Coffee Shop on the daily for a living wage; has worked at a summer camp welcoming LGBTQ+ youth; played the viola solo, in quartets, and in symphony orchestra for fifteen years; and graduated university with a Bachelor’s in English and a minor in linguistics.
1. Why did you decide to run for election to the Board?
I’ve been looking for ways to give more of my time and energy towards AO3 and the OTW over the past few months, as the volunteer community has become a third space to me since I started wrangling. The people I’ve met while volunteering here have really grown on me and I want to help them and this organization! In the past, while I would write (some) and read (a ton), I only really started becoming involved with the broader fandom community after becoming an OTW volunteer. Joining the Board gives me a way to give back to the communities that have given me so much over the years, both by helping AO3 prosper and protecting fandom in the broader world!
I also have a lot of free time, which I would love to be able to put towards helping that vital cause. That, along with supporting the friends I’ve made, and—I’m not gonna sugarcoat this—gaining experience that will look good on my résumé is what drives me. Laughs
2. What skills and/or experience would you bring to the Board?
I’m very detail-oriented and have spent a lot of time over the past years editing fanworks for my friends. I also enjoy writing up precise documentation and minutes so that it’s easy to refer back to how a process is performed or why a decision was made. Both of these traits would serve me well with Board work. I believe my experience running community tournaments—especially with reminding people to get their matches scheduled and ensuring we have commentary for said matches—would be well-suited to staying attentive to timelines and keeping track of issues brought to the Board’s attention. Furthermore, my experience in food service lends itself well to both staying calm under pressure and communicating clearly.
Most importantly, though, I’m a very fast learner, eager to ask clarifying questions whenever something doesn’t make sense, and always trying to improve on procedures to allow operations to run as smoothly as possible no matter where I am.
3. Choose one or two goals for the OTW that are important to you and that you would be interested in working on during your term. Why do you value these goals? How would you work with others to achieve them?
Something I’ve noticed, even during my relatively short time within the OTW, is that it can sometimes be quite hard to get a response from the Board—be it just a confirmation that a message has been seen—even for very important topics. If elected, I would put my time and effort into making the Board as responsive as possible, with a focus on serving volunteer needs. Faster and clearer communication will help the Board serve as an active part of the Organization, not just a monolith that appears four times yearly for meetings.
In pursuit of this, I would reach out more frequently to other committees, strive to write better documented Board updates (e.g. linking to topics being discussed, for ease of context and backreading), and generally try to be an approachable link to the Board if you, as a volunteer or member, ever feel that your voice is not being heard.
Certainly, this is not something that a single person can do—especially not when so much Board work requires everyone’s approval—but I believe even just one person pushing a project forwards or letting a user know that their question has been seen can make a difference.
On a different point, while I’m not sure on the current state of any paid OTW employees project, I am in favor of at least a small group of paid staff, and would begin looking into what would be needed to make this possible upon election. I believe that the work done by the OTW’s volunteers is fantastic, but the work that can be expected out of a paid worker is greater than what is reasonable for a volunteer, and in some cases may be required.
4. What is your experience with the OTW’s projects and how would you collaborate with the relevant committees to support and strengthen them? Try to include a range of projects, though feel free to emphasize particular ones you have experience with.
Most of my work has naturally been exclusive to the Tag Wrangling Committee, where among the fandoms I co-wrangle is one of the largest on the Archive. There, I reckon the committee I collaborate the most with is Support, since I help discuss and draft responses to wrangling-related support requests multiple times each month. After that, maybe Translation—both in-house and through volunteer Wranglers—since the fandoms I wrangle receive a lot of non-English tags which I’ll take to get translated. On occasion when wrangling, I’ll also end up submitting tickets to PAC, though that feels less collaborative and more like using the website regularly.
I try to follow along with what every other committee is doing, but I’ll admit that my favorites are Systems and Accessibility, Design, & Technology. One lovely thing about volunteering for the OTW is that, even though I’m not familiar enough with web dev to actually volunteer for AD&T, I—and any other volunteer—can still assist the development of the Archive by testing new releases before they reach the public. It’s quite fun to make sure all our new features work correctly!
Off the top of my head, I think I see and interact with members of PAC, Open Doors, Systems, AD&T, Communications, Fanlore, and the Board Assistants Team on a regular basis, just not really about work stuff! As a rule though, due to Wrangling being the largest committee in the OTW (by far!) I tend to just assume everyone is a Wrangler whenever I’m chatting with people in our public areas.
I would be best able to support other committees by ensuring that Board work flows as quickly and smoothly as possible, so that they may focus on their own work without being left waiting for a response from the Board.
5. How would you balance your Board work with other roles in the OTW, or how do you plan to hand over your current roles to focus on Board work?
I’m blessed to be in a position where I’m able to live on a light work schedule, enabling me to spend more time on OTW work than what might otherwise fit. One benefit of co-wrangling such a large fandom is that my fellow wranglers can pick up the slack from week-to-week, should I need to adjust where I’m spending my time.
I’ve held previous community positions for several years without issue, and though moderating is quite different from directing a non-profit, I believe I will be able to sustain the workload through my entire term by adjusting my other responsibilities and not forgetting to take time for myself when needed.
As such, while no one here at the OTW can see the future, I believe that fitting Board work alongside my Tag Wrangling, AO3 testing, and any other OTW responsibilities should be well within my capabilities.