I. INTERNATIONAL FANWORKS DAY 2025

On and leading up to February 14th, Communications celebrated the 11th annual International Fanworks Day (IFD)! Translation helped make IFD content available in 26 languages.

Celebrations included a Feedback Fest, Discord server chatting and games, the IFD Fanlore Challenge in collaboration with Fanlore, and more. Thanks to everyone who participated and joined the festivities, and to the volunteers from across the OTW who helped with its organization. We hope you enjoyed!

II. AT THE AO3

In February, Accessibility, Design & Technology implemented a few performance improvements and focused on important software updates (Ruby and Rails). Systems continued to work on keeping AO3 stable while waiting on new Elasticsearch servers. Jointly, they published an update on Intermittent site slowness and errors, which Translation helped make available in 22 languages.

Open Doors finished importing the memorial archive Remembering Tiger Lily Roar. It was enthusiastically received, especially from fans of Batman, Young Justice, and Nightwing.

In January, Policy & Abuse received 2,957 tickets, while Support received 3,595. AO3 surpassed 70,000 canonical fandoms, and Tag Wrangling wrangled over 465,000 tags: more than 1,100 tags per wrangling volunteer!

In February, Tag Wrangling also collaborated with Communications on a page for the OTW website about the Tag Wrangling Committee, which gives an overview of their work, who they collaborate with most, and explains the “lifecycle of a tag.”

III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW

In addition to the annual IFD editing challenge, Fanlore also ran a themed Femslash February month! Check out the highlighted posts on their Tumblr.

Legal worked with others to advocate against legal proposals requiring ID checks and age verification for websites in various jurisdictions. They also responded to a number of questions from the public.

TWC announced a new upcoming special issue this month, titled “Latin American Fandoms”! The deadline for submissions is January 1, 2026, and the issue is slated for publication in 2027.

IV. GOVERNANCE

Board held the first quarter public meeting on January 26, with 69 attendees and 13 questions asked. All questions were answered live and the official meeting minutes are available on the OTW website.

Board Assistants Team worked hard on several ongoing projects this month: a review of the Board Discord server, non-profit training research, and OTW emergency procedures as part of the OTW culture roadmap.

In February, Strategic Planning provided Volunteers & Recruiting with research on volunteer retention at organizations similar to the OTW. This is a step in the Strategic Plan’s Retention goal to better support OTW volunteers and keep them engaged throughout their time volunteering. They’ve also worked on research for goals related to Paid Staff positions.

Development & Membership arranged OTW’s attendance at Ret-Con in Durham, North Carolina, U.S., this month where one of their volunteers ran a panel on searching for lost media. Come see the OTW soon at the Tucson Festival of Books in Arizona, U.S.; Chicago Entertainment and Comic Expo (C2E2) in Illinois, U.S.; Supanova Melbourne in Australia; CitrusCon (online); and more—our tables have plenty of goodies and shenanigans to share!

V. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PEEPS

Volunteers & Recruiting conducted recruitment for three committees in January: Communications, User Response Translation, and Volunteers & Recruiting.

From January 22 to February 19, Volunteers & Recruiting received 135 new requests and completed 91, leaving them with 72 open requests. As of February 19, 2025, the OTW has 863 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.

New Committee Chairs: Apple and choux (Communications)
New Communications Volunteers: Indes (Posting Specialist) and 1 Site Moderator-Weibo
New Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: corr (Senior Volunteer), Ehryn, Gwendolyn, Kalincka, Kathleen B, and 2 other Volunteers

Departing Directors: Jenni D. (Paid Staff Transition Lead)
Departing Committee Chairs: Prisca (Translation Chair), Jenni D. (QA&T Lead)
Departing Communications Volunteers: 1 TikTok Moderator
Departing Development & Membership Volunteers: 1 Shipping Specialist and 1 Volunteer
Departing Open Doors Volunteers: 4 Import Assistants
Departing Tag Wrangler Volunteers: Roland, Inrainbowz, Sijing, and 20 other Tag Wranglers, and 1 Supervisor
Departing Translation Volunteers: A_I, Hao and 2 other Translators

For more information about our committees and their regular activities, you can refer to the committee pages on our website.