Author: MelMel

2026 OTW Presenting New Directors

MelMel Leave a comment

The Elections Committee would like to thank all of our candidates for their hard work in this year’s election. We would also like to thank our departing Board Directors, Anh Pham and Qiao Chu, for all their work during their Board terms. As previously advised, the Board of Directors is sorry to inform the membership that directors Erica Frank, elected in 2024, and Kathryn Soderholm, elected in 2023, stepped down from their positions on the Board prior to the 2026 election. We are grateful for their service and thank them for their hard work and dedication.

With that, we are pleased to present the results of the 2026 Election. As this year’s election was uncontested, there was no voting.

The following candidates (in alphabetical order) have been officially appointed to the Board of Directors:

  • Jennifer Howard
  • Rebecca C. Moritz
  • Theodore Bloyd

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

With that, the election season comes to a close. Thank you to everyone who got involved by spreading the word and asking the candidates questions! We look forward to seeing all of you again next year.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, OTW Legal Advocacy, and Transformative Works and Cultures. We are a fan-run, donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

2026 Candidate Q&A and Chat Round Up

MelMel Leave a comment

The election season is in full swing! As part of the election season, we have a chat with our candidates coming up soon. You can also find links to the candidates’ answers to your questions at the bottom of this post.

Chats

There will be one public chat with all three candidates that will last 90 minutes. Chats will take place in our public chatroom (Discord).

It is scheduled for:

During this chat, chat attendees will have the opportunity to ask the candidates questions not already covered in their platforms, bios, and Q&A, as well as to ask individual questions of specific candidates. New questions will only be accepted for the first hour of the scheduled chat time to make sure candidates have time to finish them all.

We hope that you can join us for this chat!

Please note that though the link to the public chatroom is already active, chatting capabilities will not be enabled until approximately half an hour before the chat begins.

Read on to learn more about using Discord.

  • On the login page, you’ll need to provide a screen name.
  • Once you enter the server, you’ll find a list of users on the right and a list of chat rooms on the left. Settings are available via the gear icon on the lower left, near your screen name; there you can choose, among other options, whether you prefer a dark or light chat room appearance.
  • There are three rooms available to chat attendees who are not candidates or Elections Committee volunteers: general, candidate_chats, and open_chat.
    • General is where you’ll find a list of rules for the chats. Please read through these carefully before entering the other two rooms.
    • Candidate_chats is where the candidates will answer questions and debate amongst themselves. Only the candidates and moderator will be able to chat in this room.
    • Open_chat is where all attendees can participate and talk to each other. We ask that you try to stay on topics related to the election. A moderator will be in the room, so if you have a question for the candidates, you can signal the moderator with o/, the candidate’s name, and the question. Use o// if it’s a follow-up question to the current discussion.

Q&A

When we posted the Board candidates’ bios and platforms, we asked the public to submit additional questions for them. Once again, our sincere thanks to everyone who did so! We will be posting groups of questions as the candidates finish their responses, and one has already been posted. The second group of Q&A questions will be posted on August 7th.

To navigate answers by individual candidate, please use the links below:

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, OTW Legal Advocacy, and Transformative Works and Cultures. We are a fan-run, donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.