I. NEW ISSUE OF TRANSFORMATIVE WORKS AND CULTURES
On March 15, TWC announced the release of No. 39 (Trans Fandom) of the OTW’s academic journal, Transformative Works and Cultures. In the words of guest editors Jennifer Duggan and Angie Fazekas in the issue’s introduction, “This special issue has sought to widen our knowledge of trans fans and fandoms, with the aim of publishing articles that center trans people. It is our hope that this focus will not only bring trans fans out of the margins of fan studies but also that the special issue will reflect the changing face of fandom, in which gender identities appear to be increasingly diverse.” To read the full issue, visit TWC’s website.
II. AT THE AO3
Open Doors announced the import of What Makes the Desert Beautiful, a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fanfiction focused on the Nick and Greg pairing, and Viggorli Secret Santa, a Lord of the Rings RPS fanfiction gift exchange focused on the Viggo Mortensen/Orlando Bloom pairing.
Policy & Abuse received a bit over 1600 tickets in March, while Support was on track to receive about 1500 tickets at the time of this writing. Meanwhile, in February, Tag Wrangling handled more than 430,000 tags across more than 56,000 fandoms – more than 900 tags per wrangler!
III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW
In March, Legal joined allies to send a letter to the U.S. Senate supporting Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. They argued that Section 230 is important to empowering Internet users and provides protection for everyone, not just large corporations. The full letter is available online.
Board hosted a public meeting on March 26, including an update on the work of its Diversity Consultant Research Officer. Minutes will be available on the OTW’s website soon.
Following the cutover to its new database servers, Systems reinstalled the old database servers to serve as app servers, which has improved our response times.
IV. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PEEPS
From 25 February to 25 March, Volunteers & Recruiting received 116 new requests, and completed 99, leaving us with 61 open requests (including induction and removal tasks listed below).
As of 25 March 2023, the OTW has 908 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.
New Committee Chairs: Amy2 (Development & Membership), Kristina Busse (TWC)
New Communications Volunteers: Remington (Tumblr Site Moderator)
New Elections Volunteers: Jeanne & 1 other Volunteer (Team Coordinator), Cookies, MoonFlower (all Communication Specialists) & 1 other Communication Specialist
New Open Doors Volunteers: MPH (Fanzine Scan Hosting Project Volunteer)
New Support Volunteers: Paula (Chair Track Volunteer)
New Translation Volunteers: sei rosario, Vesta & 4 other Translators
New Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: Tee, whetherwoman & 3 other Volunteers, 1 Projects Volunteer
Departing AO3 Documentation Volunteers: Zintlion (Editor)
Departing Policy & Abuse Volunteers: 1 Volunteer
Departing Support Volunteers: JK13 (Volunteer)
Departing Tag Wrangler Volunteers: 3 Tag Wranglers
Departing Translation Volunteers: Madamezou & 7 other Translators
Departing Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: 1 Volunteer
For more information about the purview of our committees, please access the committee listing on our website.
The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.