OTW elections links and thoughts
SlashReport podcast is having an episode on the recent OTW issues. I think they may also be having an OTW staffer on, based on their tweets. They haven't recorded yet so you may still have time to ask them questions if you want: http://www.slashreport.com/wp/?page_id=10
Here are my questions for them:
1. Do you think we can get people to maintain enough interest in the OTW operations long enough to hold the Board responsible and effect change? (We won't get everyone who reads on the AO3 of course, but a larger portion then is currently informed) I have very high hopes for Matty and Lady Oscar, but they won't be around forever and some problems may take more than 3 years to fix. And there are more people involved in decision making/carrying out decisions than just the Board, some of whom may not cooperate with Matty and LO (just speaking theoretically here).
2. And if so, is having an active and informed membership going to do anything to make the OTW a better place long term? Can we the members effect change from the outside? People have been complaining about AO3 things for a while now. For example, the podficcers have been very vocal about their desire to have a unique podfic posting form because certain stats are completely different than from fic (file length, as opposed to word count). To be fair, that is likely a significant bit of code to undertake which is probably why it hasn’t happened - but it still hasn’t happened. But other things that are less difficult to do have been done. For example, the K-Pop, Korean Drama, Japanese Drama, and Jpop tags are things that those fans had asked for for years. Eventually those fans got their tags, proving that the Org will listen and respond at least sometimes. How do you think we the members can best effect big changes in the OTW?
What do you guys think of that?
And here is a links post/sort of write up I sent in, mostly because I kind of wanted to hash some things out in my own head.
Hey Pru and MK,
I'm sure you're probably up to date with things, but in case you aren't here are some links:
First, the official posts on the OTW website:
The Board posts about Andrea and then resigning: http://transformativeworks.org/news/board-directors-update
The Elections Committee posts to state their displeasure: http://transformativeworks.org/news/board-appointment-last-place-candidate-empty-board-seat
The two new Board members write to reassure everyone that everything will be ok and not fall apart: http://transformativeworks.org/news/update-otw-board-members-elect
And the mirror on AO3 here: http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/4178
In those last two posts the two new candidates spend a lot of time directly answering public questions and expressions of sympathy, even though they don’t yet have much to say, which I think is phenomenal.
A comment at the Elections website mirror post, with a very informative breakdown of the past elections and how they have affected this election, by briar_pipe: http://elections.transformativeworks.org/comment/1016#comment-1016 I feel that this shows the 2015 Board had every intention of acting to maintain their power. It was a premeditated act that went completely against the wishes of the voting members. While I can’t deem the act malicious (they have made incredibly terrible decisions, but I can’t say that they have willfully *tried* to harm the Org), it was certainly corrupt, lacked integrity, and was NOT in the best interest of the Org. However, whether they intended to harm anyone is irrelevant because it did harm the health of the Org, though their resignations have helped heal that harm at least in part.
As was to be expected, the people are furious about it: http://otwelections-unofficial.tumblr.com/
https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/otwrevolution
https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/otwboard
What really gets me are the number of people from WITHIN the Org (regular volunteers, committee members, committee chairs, and former Board members alike) who protested publically and loudly about the events, AND who wrote to the board and called for a vote of no confidence or for the Board to voluntarily step down - which is probably why they decided to step down, and decided so quickly to do it. To me that says they have been fed up for ages about this, and they were REALLY UPSET about these recent events. See the official posts above (in the form of the Elections Committee post in the first place, and also the comments) and several of the reblogs on the election Tumblr, but also:
You can see the staffers protesting here, including the Elections Chair, to the point that at least three of them threatened to leave the Org if the Elections Chair was “fired” for her questions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17H-sd8DREPulg5vRaGOiiBjQM2e1dhhBfJVWZvPbYNw/edit?pli=1
I think this is where the #OTWrevolution tag came from?? I think that's a bold tag use, and is used in multiple official posts. Also it's where Orlando Jones expressed an interest in being on the Board lol https://twitter.com/OTW_News/status/668580920190898185
And then this series of tweets by (I think) the AD&T committee co-chair:
https://twitter.com/sarking/status/668581007063449600
https://twitter.com/sarking/status/668586103285415936
https://twitter.com/sarking/status/668598408823861250
https://twitter.com/sarking/status/668599586316001283
https://twitter.com/campyspornshack/status/668620115806523392
https://twitter.com/sarking/status/668621525378056193
This Fanlore page is very informative on the whole thing, but the “links” section towards the bottom links to a good part of the outcry, some of which is different than the elections blog: http://fanlore.org/wiki/OTW_2015_Board_Election
Here is some interesting financial information from a former Board member that isn’t making it’s way around Tumblr at all: http://jennyst.dreamwidth.org/10061.html
Svmadelyn is putting together a Google Group to 1. Try and give some solid non-profit best practice advice to the Board, and 2. Put together a Group for the general concerned membership to keep abreast of current OTW issues and offer ways for people to get involved. http://svmadelyn.tumblr.com/post/132655326146/there-are-so-many-otw-election-posts-and-votings
I think this is so important! Like plaidadder said: “I (still) urge those of you who are invested in AO3 to start educating yourselves about this and get involved. This is the kind of behind the scenes mayhem that has done in many a nonprofit, and the best safeguard against such shenanigans is an informed and active membership.” Quote from here: http://plaidadder.tumblr.com/post/133770235534/an-unfolding-situation-at-ao3
I don't know when you'll be posting this episode, but depending of the panic level at that time it may be worth reassuring people that the AO3 is not failing or going anywhere just because of the Board stuff. Apparently there was panic going around Tumblr that the AO3 was closing and everything would be lost, go save everything STAT! (shocker that Tumblr was panicking, they were panicking about the last donations drive even though it was completely routine - we hold two drives a year and probably have since the OTW was created) The Board has no direct involvement with the running of the AO3 or buying and maintaining servers, or anything else. They make decisions and then other people make it happen. They are important, for sure, but the OTW has more than 500 people working for it and those people are the front lines of the Org, not the Board. Direct sabotage is a whole other thing, but there is no evidence to date that is going on.
Originally posted at http://pslasher.dreamwidth.org/62402.html. Read
comments over there.
Here are my questions for them:
1. Do you think we can get people to maintain enough interest in the OTW operations long enough to hold the Board responsible and effect change? (We won't get everyone who reads on the AO3 of course, but a larger portion then is currently informed) I have very high hopes for Matty and Lady Oscar, but they won't be around forever and some problems may take more than 3 years to fix. And there are more people involved in decision making/carrying out decisions than just the Board, some of whom may not cooperate with Matty and LO (just speaking theoretically here).
2. And if so, is having an active and informed membership going to do anything to make the OTW a better place long term? Can we the members effect change from the outside? People have been complaining about AO3 things for a while now. For example, the podficcers have been very vocal about their desire to have a unique podfic posting form because certain stats are completely different than from fic (file length, as opposed to word count). To be fair, that is likely a significant bit of code to undertake which is probably why it hasn’t happened - but it still hasn’t happened. But other things that are less difficult to do have been done. For example, the K-Pop, Korean Drama, Japanese Drama, and Jpop tags are things that those fans had asked for for years. Eventually those fans got their tags, proving that the Org will listen and respond at least sometimes. How do you think we the members can best effect big changes in the OTW?
What do you guys think of that?
And here is a links post/sort of write up I sent in, mostly because I kind of wanted to hash some things out in my own head.
Hey Pru and MK,
I'm sure you're probably up to date with things, but in case you aren't here are some links:
First, the official posts on the OTW website:
The Board posts about Andrea and then resigning: http://transformativeworks.org/news/board-directors-update
The Elections Committee posts to state their displeasure: http://transformativeworks.org/news/board-appointment-last-place-candidate-empty-board-seat
The two new Board members write to reassure everyone that everything will be ok and not fall apart: http://transformativeworks.org/news/update-otw-board-members-elect
And the mirror on AO3 here: http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/4178
In those last two posts the two new candidates spend a lot of time directly answering public questions and expressions of sympathy, even though they don’t yet have much to say, which I think is phenomenal.
A comment at the Elections website mirror post, with a very informative breakdown of the past elections and how they have affected this election, by briar_pipe: http://elections.transformativeworks.org/comment/1016#comment-1016 I feel that this shows the 2015 Board had every intention of acting to maintain their power. It was a premeditated act that went completely against the wishes of the voting members. While I can’t deem the act malicious (they have made incredibly terrible decisions, but I can’t say that they have willfully *tried* to harm the Org), it was certainly corrupt, lacked integrity, and was NOT in the best interest of the Org. However, whether they intended to harm anyone is irrelevant because it did harm the health of the Org, though their resignations have helped heal that harm at least in part.
As was to be expected, the people are furious about it: http://otwelections-unofficial.tumblr.com/
https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/otwrevolution
https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/otwboard
What really gets me are the number of people from WITHIN the Org (regular volunteers, committee members, committee chairs, and former Board members alike) who protested publically and loudly about the events, AND who wrote to the board and called for a vote of no confidence or for the Board to voluntarily step down - which is probably why they decided to step down, and decided so quickly to do it. To me that says they have been fed up for ages about this, and they were REALLY UPSET about these recent events. See the official posts above (in the form of the Elections Committee post in the first place, and also the comments) and several of the reblogs on the election Tumblr, but also:
You can see the staffers protesting here, including the Elections Chair, to the point that at least three of them threatened to leave the Org if the Elections Chair was “fired” for her questions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17H-sd8DREPulg5vRaGOiiBjQM2e1dhhBfJVWZvPbYNw/edit?pli=1
I think this is where the #OTWrevolution tag came from?? I think that's a bold tag use, and is used in multiple official posts. Also it's where Orlando Jones expressed an interest in being on the Board lol https://twitter.com/OTW_News/status/668580920190898185
And then this series of tweets by (I think) the AD&T committee co-chair:
https://twitter.com/sarking/status/668581007063449600
https://twitter.com/sarking/status/668586103285415936
https://twitter.com/sarking/status/668598408823861250
https://twitter.com/sarking/status/668599586316001283
https://twitter.com/campyspornshack/status/668620115806523392
https://twitter.com/sarking/status/668621525378056193
This Fanlore page is very informative on the whole thing, but the “links” section towards the bottom links to a good part of the outcry, some of which is different than the elections blog: http://fanlore.org/wiki/OTW_2015_Board_Election
Here is some interesting financial information from a former Board member that isn’t making it’s way around Tumblr at all: http://jennyst.dreamwidth.org/10061.html
Svmadelyn is putting together a Google Group to 1. Try and give some solid non-profit best practice advice to the Board, and 2. Put together a Group for the general concerned membership to keep abreast of current OTW issues and offer ways for people to get involved. http://svmadelyn.tumblr.com/post/132655326146/there-are-so-many-otw-election-posts-and-votings
I think this is so important! Like plaidadder said: “I (still) urge those of you who are invested in AO3 to start educating yourselves about this and get involved. This is the kind of behind the scenes mayhem that has done in many a nonprofit, and the best safeguard against such shenanigans is an informed and active membership.” Quote from here: http://plaidadder.tumblr.com/post/133770235534/an-unfolding-situation-at-ao3
I don't know when you'll be posting this episode, but depending of the panic level at that time it may be worth reassuring people that the AO3 is not failing or going anywhere just because of the Board stuff. Apparently there was panic going around Tumblr that the AO3 was closing and everything would be lost, go save everything STAT! (shocker that Tumblr was panicking, they were panicking about the last donations drive even though it was completely routine - we hold two drives a year and probably have since the OTW was created) The Board has no direct involvement with the running of the AO3 or buying and maintaining servers, or anything else. They make decisions and then other people make it happen. They are important, for sure, but the OTW has more than 500 people working for it and those people are the front lines of the Org, not the Board. Direct sabotage is a whole other thing, but there is no evidence to date that is going on.
Originally posted at http://pslasher.dreamwidth.org/62402.html. Read
comments over there.