I. GOVERNANCE
The Board of Directors, Elections, and Volunteers & Recruiting worked together in March to update the eligibility requirements for future Board elections. Volunteers no longer have to hold a “staff” position to run for Board: any volunteer who has served for 9 months in the past year is eligible. You can read the full eligibility requirements on our website.
The Election Timeline will be available in early May. Here’s a sneak peek: the candidacy deadline is June 17th. The last day to become a member to vote will be June 30th. And the election will be held August 12th through the 15th.
Meanwhile, the Board has made progress in its search for a Diversity Consultant Research Officer and has begun interviewing candidates! A public Board meeting was held on April 2nd on Discord.
II. AT THE AO3
Accessibility, Design & Technology has been working on upgrading to Rails 6 and posted release notes for versions 0.9.310 to 0.9.313, spanning approximately four months. Meanwhile, Open Doors completed the import of Big Block of Cheese, a West Wing fanfiction archive, and announced two upcoming imports: The Library of Moria, a Tolkien fanfiction and fanart archive, and Animators Inc., an Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter fanfiction archive.
In February, Tag Wrangling wrangled more than 280,000 tags were wrangled, more than 650 per active wrangler, and Policy & Abuse received over 2,000 tickets, which is a little more than its usual. On the other hand, Support at the time of this writing was on track to receive about 1,300 tickets in March and has continued working on taking over a few more types of tickets from Policy & Abuse to help with their workload.
III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW
In March, Legal joined allies in opposing U.S. trademark legislation that would harm online marketplaces. This was a continuation of advocacy work Legal discussed and posted about in February. The legislative process continues regarding this bill and other things that fans care about, and the OTW is glad to have added its voice to the voices of scores of companies, academics, and constituents, which we hope will continue to be heard throughout the process.
TWC released No. 37, “Fandom Histories,” guest edited by Philipp Dominik Keidl and Abby S. Waysdorf, on March 15, 2022. Several new production people began with this issue, and we welcome them! Finally, the Fanhackers blog has begun a Meet the Volunteer series spotlighting the work of its volunteers.
IV. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PEEPS
From 24 February to 24 March, Volunteers & Recruiting received 71 new requests, and completed 70, leaving us with 21 open requests (including induction and removal tasks listed below).
As of 24 March 2022, the OTW has 918 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.
New Open Doors Volunteers: Yrindor (Chair Assistant), Cyn (Import Assistant), Anyawen, Emma M, Joanna Pernick, knitwell, Lynn McCullough, Taylor Faires, and 3 other Administrative Volunteers
New Translation Volunteers: A_I, Rucha, Sho, and 3 other Translators
Departing AO3 Documentation Volunteers: Taylor Brianne (Editor)
Departing Fanlore Volunteers: 1 Policy & Admin Volunteer
Departing Open Doors Volunteers: 1 Import Assistant
Departing Tag Wrangler Volunteers: 3 Tag Wranglers
Departing Translation Volunteers: 2 Translators
For more information about the purview of our committees, please access the committee listing on our website.