Sigh...

[quinara]

So, the OTW has found itself in its semi-annual clusterfuck. Or, not really, but it's currently having its autumnal donation drive which seems to be interacting in an odd way with its election process (namely, no one who becomes a member during the current drive will be able to vote). The more interesting point is that despite now asking fandom

Comments

[curiouswombat]

Can I just say that I agree with you.

Especially as the e-mail going out to those with AO3 accounts (which includes me for the first time as my HASA* account was moved there) certainly implies it is just the same as the e-mail that used to go out from HASA occasionally requesting donations for the hosting costs of the site - no mention of OTW's possible other needs.

HASA used to keep a copy of basic costs, donations, and how much was in the account, clickable from the home page so you could always tell how donations were covering the costs - or not.

*Henneth Annun Story Archive - a major Tolkien fic and resources site that closed in a very organised fashion in February.

[quinara]

Excellent. :D And that's the thing - it's really not difficult to put together and approve a budget. At this point, to get things rolling, all it would need would be for each constituent committee to suggest how much it intends to spend and for those points to be put together on a page of A4 against any expected income. Reserves could then be enumerated and people would know to put them in a decent account, and if there was an option to put them somewhere with punitive fees for withdrawal (but otherwise better return), everyone would be confident that those reserves would not be required except in an emergency and the risk would be worth taking and decisions would be made

[sandy_s]

This is so interesting...I just joined AO3...donated the minimum donation at $10 and wondered why what they are asking for is so high. What is OTW's mission? I realize I should have learned more about this before I donated.

[quinara]

The thing about the OTW, I think, is that at its heart it is an entirely respectable organisation: they believe in defending the rights of people to produce transformative work/fan works and thus offer a place to host it, provide service to defend its creation legally and promote academic respect of it. In my heart of hearts I don't think they mismanage their money any better or worse than any fannish archive you might want to donate to. My issues come entirely from my increasing experience with institutions that revolve around similar models to the OTW, with committees, boards, donations and investments... And while I have faith enough to believe there's probably no gross misconduct going on, I think that once you're dealing with sums over $100,000, it is mismanagement not to realise that this is the moment that banks etc. start working for you rather than the other way around. So for each individual $10 donation, they're probably doing nothing wrong, but any fees they're paying that are not balanced by interest/investment income

[curiouswombat]

I'm pretty sure the e-mail didn't give the impression they were sitting on that sort of money.

It does mention OTW in the e-mail but the implication is certainly that they are in need of money to keep the archive going, to me -

We rely on the support of our generous donors to keep the Archive up and running. When you donate, you are helping to support the Organization for Transformative Works, a nonprofit organization that runs entirely on donations and volunteer work by fans, for fans. This means that your money is going directly to a cause you care about: bringing you a place to enjoy and create fanworks 24/7.

Italics are mine, of course.

[quinara]

Well, this is the ridiculous thing! People say, and as far as I can make out from a refusal to engage that closely with last year's annual report it is true, that the organisation is sitting on $278,000. This is currently not making them any money, by any measure, so there seems no discernible reason why they couldn't just spend that on their new servers, while this donation money goes into reserve. It would in fact make no difference, which to my mind is a bit sketchy

[ningloreth]

I had no idea that they don't publish a budget. Like you, I think they're probably honourable people, but it's strange that an organisation with such an air of professionalism, and boasting lawyers on its staff, should be so naïve about its financial arrangements (and think that more transparency would mean having to reveal its bank account number!).

My first thought was that $170,000 is an awful lot of money to pay on hosting a website (mine costs £40 a year). I hadn't considered what else they might be spending the money on. And I hadn't noticed that, by providing the content for the archive they need the money to maintain, we're sort of being made complicit in what they're doing.

What I do like about AO3 is that -- so far! -- it doesn't meddle with its members' works, it just leaves us to get on with it. And their email does acknowledge that members contribute to the archive's success by creating fan works. Most archives seem to treat their content providers as an unnecessary drain on resources, and yet ask them for money!

[quinara]

It's difficult, because there is so much wank around the OTW and I want to believe it's not all a sign of doom, but sometimes they don't help themselves at all

[tei_lj]

I donated last year, and I probably will just because I like to pay for things on the internet that are useful, high-quality services (I pay for my email service and my and RSS reader, for example) but I was definitely surprised by the fact that they're sitting on so much money in a checking account. Like... I don't even do that with the tiny quantities of money I manage to save, and I'm an irresponsible twenty-something, not a large and well-loved non-profit.

Ditto with the lack of budget. The idea of donating money to an organization that's basically like, "yeah! We're gonna use it for... stuff! Stuff that you like! Promise!" isn't exactly thrilling.

[quinara]

I don't know what to make of the checking account (I assume that is like what we would call a current account?). I'm not very familiar with American or business banking, and people have suggested that it's reasonable they would have to pay fees and not expect high interest, but with a quick google of banks over here, there are plenty of banks with accounts for nonprofits which offer free use and access, just paid for with a lower interest rate from the bank. As for the $150k in reserves or whatever, that doesn't seem to shift between one annual report and the next, I do find it ridiculous that it isn't invested somehow. I'm pretty sure any bank would be willing to make a deal about what to do with it - if they're not intending to spend it (and why would they, with the current drive?), their treasurer should be having meetings with bank managers to figure out the best scheme for all of their stuff. Although, from what I recall about small business banking, those managers might well want a say about how the organisation/risk is

[tei_lj]

It's seems reasonable for them to pay bank fees, if the account that provides them with the best service for their needs happens to have fees. And of course they would need a certain amount of money in a checking account for easy access. I think it's just the quantity that's irksome considering how much interest it's not generating.

I think I would actually prefer, in lieu of annual donation drives, that they add some features that are only available to paid members, in the same way that Dreamwidth (and possibly LJ? My adblocker is telling me that LJ is trying to give me ads now, though?) does. It doesn't have ads for free users, and they're not pushy about the paid accounts, but people buy them because they have some nice-but-not-necessary features and it feels good to support an organization that cares about your community.

[rahirah]

It's really a pity that OTW has never been able to get their act together.

[quinara]

I sort of think it's past being a pity at this point, and outright disrespect to people who don't know any better to think that handing over $10 every six months to an archive that may or may not survive on the back of it is how charitable donation or purchase of services works... At the moment they're basically pressuring people to take part in some very long-form gambling.

[rahirah]

Well, it looks like the heat has prompted them to make some changes (or claim they are, anyway.) They now claim that a formal budget is in process and will be revealed to the public in November. If they'd said as much to begin with, it might have prevented a lot of the bad blood. (Actually producing said budget on schedule would do more...)