Author: Communications

And now for (some of) the news you’ve all been waiting for: the details of the OTW’s 2012 Election Season.

We have great news for you: three fabulous people are joining the OTW Board! Because only three candidates came forward, we won’t be holding a contested election this year. However, they are all awesome and eminently qualified for Board service. Without further ado, let’s introduce them (in alphabetical order by given name).

* Andrea Horbinski
* Eylul Dogruel
* Franzeska Dickson

We would like for all of you to get to know them and to ask questions about the experiences and ambitions they bring to the table. To this end, we’ll be hosting a chat soon – we’ll announce the time later this week. Alas, the tea and coffee we can provide will only be virtual, but you are welcome to bring your own mug to the computer. We will also be posting their candidate biographies and manifestos soon.

Although we didn’t get to hold a competitive election this year, we are delighted to have attracted three such marvelous new Board members. Welcome, Andrea, Eylul and Franzi!

There will be another election next year, when three board members’ terms expire (Francesca, Kristen and Ira).

If there’s anything we didn’t cover here that you’re concerned about, or if you want any more information, please respond to this with any questions, comments, or objections you may have. You can reach the Elections Officer by using the Elections contact form; you can reach the whole Board by using the Board contact form.

Our final chat transcript from the election period is now posted. As always, questions and discussions can take place on this post.

You can also see answers to some questions on earlier blog posts – on LJ about handling personal opinions versus consensus, and on the main Transformativeworks.org site about several different topics.

Our remaining chat with our new Board members, Andrea Horbinski, Eylul Dogruel and Franzeska Dickson is coming up. The meetings are open to all of our members and to the public. It will be held in the OTW public chatroom.

Transcripts of the candidate chat will be made available on the elections website shortly following the event, and both members and candidates are encouraged to comment on them. Each chat will be with two of the new Board members, which is actually more realistic for board meetings anyway, now that we’re spread more equally around the world. The transcript of the second chat is now available.

The date and time of the chat is Sat 6th Oct 1500 UTC with Andrea & Eylul (What time is that where I live?)

The candidates’ personal bios and manifestos are now available on the OTW Elections website, and comments on this post are welcome, or you can send in questions via the Elections Officer.

Franzeska
Eylul
Andrea

Our remaining chats with our new Board members, Andrea Horbinski, Eylul Dogruel and Franzeska Dickson are coming up. The meetings are open to all of our members and to the public. They will be held in the OTW public chatroom.

Transcript of the previous chat is now available on the elections website. This is unedited except for formatting. We reserve the right to edit, in case fannish and legal identities are accidentally linked, but this is our only reason for editing. Both members and candidates are encouraged to comment on them here.

The date and times of the remaining chats are:

Wed 3rd Oct 0500 UTC Franzi & Andrea (What time is that where I live?)
Sat 6th Oct 1500 UTC Andrea & Eylul (What time is that where I live?)

The candidates’ personal bios are now available on the OTW Elections website, and their manifestos will be up soon. You may also feel free to contact our candidates unofficially to discuss the OTW and their views. They have asked the OTW to make available the following personal accounts:

Eylul’s Dreamwidth
Eylul’s LinkedIn
Franzeska’s Dreamwidth
Andrea’s Dreamwidth
Andrea’s Twitter

Franzeska Dickson does back office work in finance. Always a geek, she was introduced to fanfiction by alt.tv.x-files at the tender age of 13 and has been in fanworks fandom ever since, first as a reader, then a writer and beta, and now a vidder. Her favorite venues and events are pan-fandom ones, including her own rare Asian fandoms exchange. She has previously served on the Content, Abuse, Webmasters, and Tag Wrangling Committees as well as filling various other volunteering positions within OTW.

Eylul Dogruel is an artist and an MFA candidate at Marmara University, Istanbul. She has an eclectic background combining computer sciences and art. Her knowledge and interests cover a range of topics including new media, sci-fi, customer support, web technologies and usability. Eylul is a lifelong fan and has moved through various media and gaming fandoms. She is a fanfic reader, fanart appreciator, an MMO roleplayer and, occasionally, a meta writer. Her current fandoms include Warcraft, Doctor Who and The Longest Journey/Dreamfall.

Andrea Horbinski is a Ph.D. student in modern Japanese history at the University of California, Berkeley. She was previously a Fulbright Fellow to Japan and was a founding member of the OTW’s Internationalization & Outreach committee. She joined online fandom in 1999 after writing her middle school graduation speech on her love of Star Wars, and soon became involved in anime and manga fandom as an AMV editor and later a fan translator. She has discussed fandom, anime, manga, and Japanese history and folklore at conventions and conferences including Otakon, Sirens, WisCon, and the Popular Culture Association, and as well as writing for the Symposium blog of the Transformative Works and Cultures journal, she continues to actively produce fan translations, fanfic, and vids

We have now scheduled three one-hour chats with our new Board members, Andrea Horbinski, Eylul Dogruel and Franzeska Dickson. The meetings are 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/e79cc

While we would like to vary the times and days to allow better global accessibility for our membership, combining schedules in order to allow all candidates to attend posed a challenge. Transcripts of the candidate chat will be made available on the elections website shortly following the event, and both members and candidates are encouraged to comment on them. Each chat will be with two of the new Board members, which is actually more realistic for board meetings anyway, now that we’re spread more equally around the world.

The date and times of the chats are:

Sat 29th Sept 1800 UTC Franzi & Eylul (What time is that where I live?)
Wed 3rd Oct 0500 UTC Franzi & Andrea (What time is that where I live?)
Sat 6th Oct 1500 UTC Andrea & Eylul (What time is that where I live?)

The candidates’ personal bios and manifestos will soon be available on the OTW Elections website. You may also feel free to contact our candidates unofficially to discuss the OTW and their views.

Given that we won’t be holding an election, our new board members will begin their overlap period early. They’ll be attending the open session of board meetings, discussing issues, and handing over their other staff responsibilities to their successors. They will take formal office and become full voting members on 1st November, so for a short time we will have 10 board members, until Jenny’s term ends on 1st December.

There will be another election next year, when three board members’ terms expire (Francesca, Kristen and Ira). Any member of the OTW who has also been an OTW staff member on a committee for a year will be eligible to stand – see the elections site for more details on our policies and the reasons behind them.

All other information for 2012 or any past election activity can also be found on the OTW Election website.

One of the important considerations in any election is that the people running it should not allow their personal views to affect how the candidates are treated, and should not abuse their authority. To help make this clear and prevent any confusion, we’ve laid out a few guidelines for the various staff involved behind the scenes.

Besides facilitating everything for the candidates and liaising with the current board, the Elections Officer has a very public role as they are the interface between voters and the OTW. The Elections Officer is allowed to post their thoughts on the direction of the org up until the deadline for candidates to declare they are standing, but cannot do so during election season. The Elections Officer must not endorse particular candidates in private or in public, and the Elections Officer will not comment on the strategic direction of the org or other hot topics once election season starts, excepting any statements required as part of their other org roles. Once a week during the election season, the Elections Officer will discuss with the board which are the hot topics and areas where the Elections Officer should remain clearly neutral. Election season is defined as beginning with the candidate declaration deadline, and ends after the possibility of an election recount has passed.

The same rules about not endorsing candidates either in public or private, and not commenting publicly on the direction of the OTW or hot topics, will apply to the two Webmasters staff involved in counting votes. These staff members will also not be named outside of the Webmasters committee, the Elections workgroup or the standing Board, so that they cannot be put under external pressure to falsify results.

Board members other than the Elections Officer are free of these restrictions, and may endorse candidates publicly and comment on issues affecting the org just as they would at any other time of year.

If you have any other concerns about the neutrality of staff involved in the election, or how things are run to give a level playing field to all candidates, do contact the Elections Officer or the current Board.