Eileen Smith: The HPA’s Best Kept Secret
By Sam Oppenheimer
Originally written for Issue 5 of the W.A.N.D. in 2015
Eileen Smith is the secret nexus at the heart of Fandom Forward. A hidden heroine, Eileen spent five years doing everything Fandom Forward needed, from assisting senior staff, to running campaigns, to aiding in countless adventures, before she slid neatly into her current role as Finance Team Manager. In another five years, she’ll probably run the HPA. But how did she get here?
It is 2010 and Eileen has graduated college. She finds herself working an endless series of boring jobs, trying to make ends meet. One day, she looks deep inside and realizes that this isn’t the sort of life she was born to lead. She wants something beyond the average, nine-to-five human existence. She remembers Fandom Forward campaigns she saw on MuggleNet and The Leaky Cauldron and decides to inquire about staff positions. The next thing she knows, Eileen is sitting in meetings for the Chase Community Giving Challenge, and then suddenly Fandom Forward is winning the Chase Community Giving Challenge, and Eileen is thinking I can never quit this.
From there, Eileen worked on Equality for the Win, had a blast at LeakyCon, and slowly realized that Fandom Forward was the most magical collection of people ever to exist outside of a book. Although Eileen loved the work she was doing for Fandom Forward—hiring and benefits, human resources and accounting—what she really fell for was the community. She found people she connected with wholeheartedly and who inspired her in ways she didn’t realize she needed.
To Eileen, Fandom Forward is a refuge from the real world. It is a better world, one beyond the pettiness and grit of everyday life. As an administrative assistant in her day job, she performs many of the same tasks that she does for Fandom Forward, which is a lot of spreadsheets, budgeting, and supervising financial activity. But to Eileen, her work at Fandom Forward isn’t the same at all. She explains that in the company she works for, she monitors income and expenses; that is, customers pay money and are rendered a service in return. At Fandom Forward, however, there aren’t customers but donors—people who, by giving money, become members of the Fandom Forward community—and rather than render a tangible service for this money, Fandom Forward says, “In return, we are going to change the world.”
That is the heart of it: Eileen wants to change the world. Day by day, wielding the mighty sword named QuickBooks, she ventures forward on her quest for social justice by keeping Fandom Forward safe and free.