OTW 2010 Board Candidates and Election News

The OTW is happy to announce that we have four highly qualified candidates who have stepped forward to fill the three seats open on the Board this year. In alphabetical order by family name, they are: Hele Braunstein, Francesca Coppa, Ira Gladkova, and Kristen Murphy. Their personal statements will be available on the OTW Elections website.

We have scheduled two one-hour chats with the candidates, open to all of our members and to the public. They will be held in the OTW public chatroom, accessible at this link: https://fanarchive.campfirenow.com/28473

The first chat will be at 2 am UTC 21 October (What time is that where I live?), and the second will be at 9 pm UTC 24 October (What time is that where I live?). If you are unable to attend but have questions for the candidates, we encourage you to submit them via our contact form to our elections officer, Rebecca Tushnet, who will present them on your behalf.

Election voting will run from noon UTC on 17 November (What time is that where I live?) to noon UTC on 19 November (What time is that where I live?). Voting is restricted to current OTW members; this includes anyone who has made a donation of US$10 or more between 1 October 2009 and 24 October 2010. To renew your membership, visit https://transformativeworks.org/how-you-can-help/support.

Further information can be found on the OTW Election website.

Beth commented: Since I keep all my financial records, I know I'm currently a member of the OTW, but for people who are less obsessive, is there a way to confirm current membership (and voting) status, short of contacting the membership committee? And on a related note, will the OTW be sending an election notification to all current members? Thanks!

allison morris commented: our membership notification system will debut this week! we've been working to create a simple, non-spammy way to keep people aware of their membership (and voting) status, so watch out for that! all members will get an election notification in advance, with information on how and where to vote, followed by login information for voting system accounts, and an announcement of the beginning and end of polling. thank you for asking!

sherrold commented: I don't have any suggestions on how to fix this, but it drives me crazy to be voting, in a fannish org, for people when I don't know their fannish pseuds. I would love to think we're thinking of a way around this, even if we don't have one now.

Rebecca Tushnet commented: The organization had a lot of discussion about this at the beginning. The basics are this: the board members need to use their legal names on the legal paperwork, such as the forms the IRS requires us to fill out, but many excellent people who we don't want to exclude prefer to exercise some control (inasmuch as that's possible) over connecting their legal names with their pseudonyms. What some people have done in the past is asked the candidates/board members (in the first year) via email, and to the best of my knowledge some have answered, with the expectation that the information will be kept out of the public internet, and others have preferred not to answer. I consider it a legitimate question to ask via email, and a legitimate question to answer or to decline to answer, and it's reasonable for you to take the answer or nonanswer into account into your voting. You can submit any question to me via the elections form and I will pass it on to the candidates.