Author: Cookies

Now that the 2023 election is over, we’re happy to share with you our voter turnout statistics!

For the 2023 Election, we had 15274 total eligible voters. Of those, 4247 voters cast a ballot, which represents 27.80% of the potential voters.

Our voter turnout is lower than that of last year, which had a turnout of 39.3%.

We also saw a decrease in the number of ballots cast, from 4574 to 4247, which represents a 7.1% decrease.

Elections is committed to continuing to reach out to our eligible members to encourage them to vote in elections. Whoever is elected to the Board of Directors can have an important influence on the long-term health of the OTW’s projects, and we want our members to have a say in that.

For those who might be interested in the number of votes each candidate received, please note that our election process is designed to elect an equal cohort of Board members in order to allow them to work well together, so we do not release that information. As a general rule, we also won’t disclose the candidate rankings.

Once again, a big thank you to everyone who participated at every stage of the election! We hope to see you at the virtual polls again next year.

The Elections Committee would like to thank all of our candidates for their hard work in this year’s election. We are now pleased to present the results of the 2023 Election.

The following candidates (in alphabetical order) have been officially elected to serve full terms (3 years) on the Board of Directors:

• Anh Pham
• Kathryn Soderholm
• Qiao Chu

As previously announced, Heather McGuire stepped down from her position on the Board prior to the 2023 election. Director Natalia Gruber also resigned, in July 2023. We are grateful for Heather and Natalia’s service and thank them for their work and dedication.

To fill these vacant seats, the remaining candidates, Jennifer Haynes and Zixin Zhang (in alphabetical order), have been elected to join the Board of Directors. They will serve the remaining two years of Heather’s and Natalia’s terms starting on October 1 2023, so that the Board will be fully staffed until the next election.

Board turnover will formally begin on October 1. We wish the new members of the Board well.

With that, the 2023 election season comes to a close. Thank you to everyone who participated by spreading the word, sending their questions to candidates, and, of course, voting! We hope to see all of you again next year.

15 August 2023: Edited to clarify that all Board Directors are named in alphabetical order.

The election has opened!

Every OTW member who joined between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, should have a ballot by now. If you didn’t get one, please check your spam folder first, then contact us via our contact form. Please note that your donation receipt will be dated in US Eastern Time, so if your donation is listed after 19:59 on June 30, 2023 on the receipt, you won’t be eligible to vote. If you are unsure whether your donation was made before the deadline, please contact our Development and Membership Committee by using the contact form on our website and selecting “Is my membership current/Am I eligible to vote?” .

The election will run through August 14, 2023, 23:59 UTC; check this time zone converter to find out what time that will be for you.

Once you’ve voted, you can head over to Twitter or Tumblr and use the hashtag #OTWE23 to let us know! We’d love to hear from you!

Effective July 25, Audrey R. has withdrawn her candidacy for the 2023 Board election.

The Elections Committee wishes Audrey all the best.

The Elections Committee would like to condemn in the strongest terms the recent harassment campaign aimed at one of our candidates.

While all OTW Board election candidates are prepared to run, and if elected or appointed, serve under their legal name, the intense harassment of Audrey goes well beyond what is appropriate during the candidacy period. We do not condone the harassment of the candidate or their employer.

For the second year in a row, an OTW Board election candidate has been subject to a campaign of harassment and misinformation. We regret that we failed to step in last year when another candidate was harassed, and it is on us that both candidates were exposed to such harassment without an official response. Historically, we’ve tried to make minimal public statements to ensure that the committee as a whole stays neutral and impartial in public discussions about a candidate’s suitability for the OTW Board of Directors.

The OTW is committed to holding elections that are fair and contested. This is necessary for empowering OTW members to vote for Board Directors that best represent their interests and help manage the OTW as a whole. As part of maintaining a fair and contested election process, the Elections Committee will support all eligible candidates who declare candidacy. Our candidate eligibility requirements are publicly available on our website, and we welcome candidates who hold varying perspectives and aims for the OTW’s future.

If an OTW member has concerns about a candidate, then they can choose to not rank that candidate on their ballot. The Elections Committee employs an adapted IRV voting system in our elections, which allows members to rank candidates and requires elected candidates to have majority support from our membership to be elected. It is the Election Committee’s position that only OTW members should determine who serves their interests on the Board of Directors.

If you are not an OTW member, you can still ask the candidates questions or campaign for/against a particular candidate or candidates on social media. We do not seek to discourage civil and appropriate discussions about our candidates’ opinions. Instead we ask members of the public to be considerate of all candidates and to carefully consider the information being promoted on social media. We encourage members of the public to read candidate election materials, submit questions to candidates and be an active participant in the election process.

Per a recent announcement, the Elections Committee will be hosting chats with our candidates next weekend. Please consider attending if you are interested. This year’s election will be held August 11-14. It will open at 12:01am UTC on August 11 and close at 11:59pm UTC on August 14 (What time is that for me?).