I. The Election is Coming
The moment we’ve all been waiting for is almost here! The Board of Directors Election will take place August 11-14. By now, all members should have received voting instructions by email. If you are a paid member and didn’t receive an email with instructions, please contact the Elections Committee.
Elections has spent the past month preparing for the election and providing the public with plenty of information about our six candidates’ platforms and goals. Elections worked closely with Communications to advertise three candidate chats on July 26, 29, and 30 and the publication of candidates’ Q&A responses on five topics, including OTW Changes, Volunteer Management, Volunteer Positions, Personal Interview, and Communication and Outreach. Check out those answers, and be sure to stay tuned to the OTW Elections site, AO3, Twitter, and Tumblr for more Elections news!
II. At the AO3
After two long months of testing, Accessibility, Design and Technology deployed Rails 4.2 on July 17 and tested and released bug fixes and enhancements to complete the the Rails 4.2 update.
Open Doors was excited to complete the imports of ScullySlash and The Basement! They also formally announced the upcoming imports of Unknowable Room and The Brian/Justin Fanfiction Archive, two large archives that will each include several thousand fanworks, with help from Translation and Communications.
Abuse received and responded to over 530 tickets in July. As a reminder, submitting multiple reports for the same issue only makes the process slower, so please be sure that staff are working hard to resolve them.
III. Legal Advocacy Work
Legal had a fun and busy July, including a visit to San Diego Comic Con! Legal Chair Betsy and Legal Staffer Heidi participated in panels about law and fandom, and hosted a well-attended “Meetup of Our Own” with friends and allies celebrating 10 years of the OTW! The panels and meetup all went very well, and it was a joy to meet so many wonderful fans from all over. Also, Legal Chair Betsy discussed the OTW, law, and fandom on the latest installment of the Copy This Podcast, entitled “Cosplay, Copyright, and Comic-Con.”
IV. Governance
Strategic Planning had excellent results in reaching the OTW 2017-2020 Strategic Plan 6-month goals for creating board purview and roles documentation, improving Board-committee communication, documenting OTW-wide chair/lead position and expectations, and developing preliminary purview statements! They are happy to report this level of success at this first milestone due to the hard work of all OTW personnel and are excited to work toward their 9-month goal of documenting team-specific chair/lead position descriptions.
V. It’s All About the Peeps
As of the 27 July 2017, the OTW has 658 volunteers. Recent personnel movements are listed below.
New Committee Chairs: Alison Watson (Open Doors)
New Committee Staff: Nikki Bird, 2 other Finance Staffers, Breanna, Lex deLeon, Anna Gassen, Mangalite and 3 other Support Staffers, and Mangalite, Ben Bach, Di Theis and 1 other Development & Membership Staffer, JessicaLovesSocks2658 (AO3 Docs)
New Communications Volunteers: Alix Ayoub, Deven Wilson, Olivia Riley, vertexcat, Katek, and 1 other Communications Graphics Volunteers
New Translator Volunteers: Tari, Maartje van Sandwijk, Ringa Hohti, Heleen Cauwels, Llyrianna, and 8 other Translation News Volunteers,
Departing Committee Staff: Nocokenojoke (Support), 1 AO3 Documentation Staffer, 1 VolCom Staffer
Departing Tag Wrangler Volunteers: Cerch, and 1 other Tag Wrangling Volunteer
Departing Translation Volunteers: 2 Translation Volunteers