The Manifestos tell us some of each candidates’ ambitions of what they want to achieve if elected. I’d like to see that made more specific and SMART. In other words: what’s going to be the first action you’ll undertake/the first project you’ll tackle/first thing you’ll do if elected?
What I’d do first is to assess the situation. The lack of transparency from the current Board and its immediate predecessors means that it’s very hard to know exactly what’s going on. What committee proposals are before the Board? What is the status of the various documentation projects? What shape are our financial books in? All of these questions need to be answered before knowing how to proceed.
My guess is that after investigating our status, the most urgent things I’ll want to do are to re-make a Finance committee and to get more Board deliberations into the open.
What is your five year vision for OTW? AO3?
At the moment I think we need to focus on the OTW’s immediate issues before worrying about five year visions. Our being still here, with productive projects and happy members, would be lovely.
My vision for AO3 is that we will have continued to progress along the Roadmap while maintaining stability and accomodating user growth.
If you could change something in the OTW’s bylaws, what would it be?
I would change part 2 of Article IX to remove the ability of Board to unilaterally change the bylaws by a ⅔ vote. Currently, there is no way to have any binding oversight of the Board, since any bylaw change introducing oversight could be easily repealed by a later Board. Additionally, the ability of Board to manipulate the elections process makes it less likely that power can be removed from a dysfunctional Board.
Requiring that bylaw changes have an additional ratification by a quorum of chairs would retain flexibility, while providing oversight and cut down on the possibility of abuse.