Category: 2012 Franzeska Dickson

Transcript for Second 2012 Candidate Chat

Webmasters

The following is a transcript of the OTW Board candidates’ chat held at 0500 UTC 3 October 2012. Elections officer Jenny Scott-Thompson moderated the discussion; candidates Franzeska Dickson and Andrea Horbinski attended.

Jenny S-T has entered the room

Andrea H. has entered the room

Jenny S-T

Hi 🙂

Andrea H.

hey!

Lady Oscar has entered the room

Jenny S-T

We’re a little short of people this morning 🙂

Lady Oscar

Forgot it was 10!

Jenny S-T

Welcome to the 2nd election chat! I’m the OTW Elections Officer and Board Secretary, as you already know ;). Transcript of the previous chat is available at https://elections.transformativeworks.org/transcript-initial-2012-candidate-chat if you’re interested.

Franzi should be joining us any moment

Franzeska D. has entered the room

Jenny S-T

So, last time Franzi and Eylul introduced themselves. All the bios (https://elections.transformativeworks.org/otw-election-candidates-2012) are now live – Andrea, do you want to give any extra introduction?

Sam J. has entered the room

Andrea H.

um, I’m not sure – I can talk more about any part of the bio people have questions on, of course, but I think the main point is I’m an academic and a fan and I like anime 🙂

Jenny S-T

Cool 🙂

Anna G. has entered the room

Jenny S-T

Lady Oscar, Sam, do you have any questions you want to ask of the candidates? If not, I also have a couple from Sanders in email.

Curtis J. has entered the room

Jenny S-T

A question from Sanders that we ran out of time for last time: What experience do you have with nonprofits other than OTW?

Franzeska D.

Zilch

Andrea H.

I’ve been a Girl Scout since the age of five – which, obviously, as a Daisy I didn’t get much organizational perspective 🙂 1/2

but, as a Girl Scout in high school, I did observe and participate in the Council decision-making process, and I also attended the national convention as an alternate delegate in 2002

I’m trying to think if there’s anything else…

Anna G.

I have a follow up question to this, if that’s okay?

Jenny S-T

ok, Anna. I’ve got one more from Sanders first, then I’ll call on you.

Anna G.

thanks 🙂

Andrea H.

FWIW, I’m currently the chair of the History Graduate Association here at Berkeley, and I was one of its coordinators last year

I also, as might be expected, ran and participated in a number of student organizations in undergrad

I think that’s it

stretching the definition somewhat, admittedly

Jenny S-T

Feel free to drop extra stuff in later if you think of it

And another one from Sanders: What do you think is the most significant accomplishment of the current board and how do you intend to support or build on that?

Sam J.

(Jenny: o/ )

Andrea H.

I was really glad to see the strategic planning work group get off the ground

and that it’s been continuing its work. i was also pleased to see Grants get a bigger role again.

As for how to support or build on that…I think one of the most important things the 2013 Board will do is receive Strategic Planning’s reports and recommendations, and I think it’s vital that we hear what they tell us, take it to heart, and craft a realistic strategic plan based on that. So, that’s what I intend to do, for certaion.

Franzeska D.

Agreed. It seems like the board has started to take a much more serious look at long term planning. I’d like to continue to take a very user-oriented, evidence-based approach to decisions. In other words, things like surveys and observing current fan behavior on and off of AO3 are more useful than the board members’ prior opinions most of the time. Fandom is sufficiently diverse and user behavior on any site sufficiently surprising to site designers, that you really have to keep collecting data and observing.

Andrea H.

Agreed.

That was part of why I&O wanted to do the survey, definitely.

Tari has entered the room

Jenny S-T

Thanks, both

Okay, Anna, go ahead with your question

Radka has entered the room

Anna G.

I’m wondering if, since there’s no practical nonprofit experience, either of you plan to research/investigate nonprofits (both online and off) and bring any of that knowledge to how the OTW is run?

(sorry for the clumsy structure of that question.)

Franzeska D.

No, it’s a good question. I’ve been reading articles people have sent around. I haven’t done any in-depth research yet. It will depend on my job situation next year. (I’m applying to business school. If I get in, what I’m studying there will be relevant. If I don’t, I’ll do more reading on my own.)

Also, while nonprofits do have some distinct features, I feel like quite a lot of my current job is relevant. (It’s a small company going through growing pains.)

/done (unless anyone wants elaboration)

Paul has entered the room

Ira G. has entered the room

sanders has entered the room

Jenny S-T

Andrea? (Everyone else, if you want to ask a question, let me know and I’ll add you to the queue)

Andrea H.

I certainly think the OTW can benefit from the experience of other nonprofits with things like Founder’s Syndrome, etc, which are recognized developmental issues that most nonprofits have – and in a perfect world I’d love to dive into doing in-depth research on those questions. I’ve also been looking into resources that people like Jenny have recommended, but I also think that the current issues facing the OTW are pretty clear, and I don’t want to lose sight of them in a focus on “generic non-profits.”

Anna G.

(o/ x2)

Jenny S-T

Sam, you’re up next

Andrea H.

I’d also add that, like Franzi says, while non-profits do have some distinct features, I certainly don’t think that I’m totally without experience in the type of discussions that are the Board’s bread and butter. But yeah, I’d like to learn more if I can, certainly.

/done

Lady Oscar

o/

Jenny S-T

whoops, sorry, too early

go for it, Sam

Sam J.

One of the biggest impediments to the Org, from both an internal and an external perspective, is that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, and neither are really aware of the existence of the left foot, let alone its actions. Having documentation scattered across the forums, wiki, dreamwidth (for one committee in particular), campfire, mailing lists, and basecamp makes it nigh impossible to find anything. What are your thoughts for opening and encouraging inter-committee communication to functional levels?

/done

Ira G.

(thank you, Sam!)

FishieMishie has entered the room

Franzeska D.

Hmm… Well, the sort of committee-committee liaising some committees already do is helpful.

I would like to see more committees make heavier use of Basecamp because it’s easy for staff to browse all the different sections, but that’s complicated by the fact that non-staff volunteers don’t have access.

Andrea H.

*sigh* Yeah, that’s a big one. I think one of the things I’ve struggled with this year, for sure, is just making it policy to actually put policies, minutes, whatnot up on centrally accessible platforms like the wiki – I think, if we could get all committees to do that regularly (and admittedly, I can only speak for I&O on this being difficult), that would be a big step in the right direction. I also think that we collectively need to get into the habit of looking at the other platforms proactively, if necessary – and again, I will hold up myself as an example of this being a hard habit to get into. Maybe it’s time to look into creating some kind of standardized policies for which platform to use when and by whom? The other thing, of course, is that communication is a two-way street, and so committees have to be looking to each other for info on what they’re doing, not just doing their own thing. I do think the changed format of the all-org meetings, including the internal newsletter, helps with this, and has helped a lot so far.

Renay has entered the room

Andrea H.

Ditto on using Basecamp more heavily – I know a lot of people find it intimdating, as well, and I know it’s only this year that I”ve really felt comfortable with it. But it can be a pretty powerful tool.

Amy W. has entered the room

Sam J.

(follow-up?)

Franzeska D.

The primary issue I see is that some of our tools have a steep learning curve for some or all of our staff. The wiki isn’t going to be something people find easy to browse and to use unless they find wikis in general easy to use. Few people have experience with Basecamp prior to OTW. It would be helpful not to have to make everyone learn so many different skills at once.

/done

Andrea H.

/done

Jenny S-T

Anna, you’re next, then Sam’s follow-up, then LO, then Anna’s second question, and that will probably take us up to the end of time, but everyone else, email me questions and we can start with them next chat.

Anna G.

My question is a followup to my last question, & is for Andrea: you mention that you think the issues facing the OTW are pretty clear. Can you talk about what you think those issues are? (I ask this because it’s become apparent to me in the last several months that the issues people think of when they think of the OTW are actually wildly varied.)

(er, full disclosure: I’m the chair of the Strategic Planning committee, so I have an unfair advantage in knowing what some people are thinking re this.)

Andrea H.

Well, let me turn the question around on Franzi, too, and ask what she thinks the issues are 🙂

Franzeska D.

ha ha

sanders

I’d like to hear both of your answers, actually, but Andrea, if you wouldn’t mind answering first since Anna addressed the question to you, that would be great.

Sam J.

(Jenny: bump my follow-up to email)

Ira G.

I have a question to put in line after this =)

Lady Oscar

(Anna asked what I was going to)

Andrea H.

I think the issues remain largely the same as they were last year, with the proviso that I also think that everything I’ve seen this term has left me with cautious optimism about the Org’s direction. In one sentence, I think making the OTW a long-term sustainable proposition is the single key issue, which is easy to say but hides the fact that it is basically an octopus in terms of concrete issues.

and yes, i have a follow-up, give me a second 🙂 Franzi?

Franzeska D.

I think our biggest issue is confusion: people not knowing what they’re supposed to be doing or not knowing which committee is in charge of something they need to ask about. Estimated dates for things not being clear or not being accurate.

(From the user side, that would be the endless tumblr posts going “Is it the end of july yet? HUH? HUH?”)

Andrea H.

yeah, definitely

Franzeska D.

/done

Alison W. has entered the room

Andrea H.

I think the most concrete example of this is committees not being evenly resourced – not only in terms of staff, but in terms of management and paying attention to the rest of the Org’s wants and needs. I think the changes to the Board liaison system that were made this year have helped with that unevenness, but it definitely remains.

And I think, fwiw, that every question we’ve had so far has played into different aspects of that single overarching issue. So yeah, definitely, it’s not like I’m the only one who’s aware of the problems! /done

Jenny S-T

Okay, with Sam moving to email and LO already answered, it’s Anna’s second question, then Ira. Go ahead, Anna.

Andrea H.

Oh, wait!

What I forgot to say is that transparency plays a big part in this, which is basically the other side of Sam’s question. So, how to be both internally and externally transparent is definitely an ongoing issue. /done

Anna G.

This one is about management — you’ve both talked about it. Franzeska, in the last chat, you mentioned that you’re concerned about management within the OTW, that managers are not getting to manage, etc. What are [both of] your thoughts on how to change this? Do [either/both of] you have [people] management experience that you plan to draw from?

Camden has entered the room

Franzeska D.

Not a lot. More of my experience is from observing managers, both good and horrendous, at my job. The biggest obvious, easy(ish) to fix thing is to have board members avoid also being on committees. I realize this is not realistic for some people depending on their skill sets, but I am not a coder/lawyer/etc., so I will not be serving on a committee while on the board.

Andrea H.

Fwiw, the OTW is definitely an outlier among non-profits in that almost 100% of its business is conducted entirely online, which definitely makes managing people, i.e. volunteers, a lot more challenging than when it’s done face to face, in an office, for example. The OTW also has problems relative to other non-profits like soup kitchens or thrift stores, for example, in that we don’t really have “drop in” work that people can do very easily, with a very qualified exception of coding.

Franzeska D.

Doing things online, you really need to proactively check in with people a lot.

You can’t wander by and tell by facial expression and posture that something’s up and you need to pull the person aside and ask what’s wrong.

Andrea H.

So, there’s that kind of non-profit management, and there’s also the more specialized kind of project management, which, for example, is something that they actually offer Masters of Science in – my dad just earned his this spring, and I actually have been planning to sit down and read his PM books over the holidays when I’m back in Jersey. Getting people who can do project management for open source software projects is even more difficult than that sort of general non-profit management, and they’re not quite the same, either.

Franzeska D.

/done

Andrea H.

I’ve recently gotten involved with the Ada Initiative, and I do think that the OTW could definitely benefit from looking into other open source projects like Dreamwidth for comparative open source management strategies, practices, etc. So that’s something I’ve been keeping in the back of my mind as a potentiality – I wrote a couple of blog posts on that theme after I attended AdaCamp DC this summer.

I also agree with Franzi about not doubling up responsibilities, and I definitely plan to give up Chairing I&O 🙁 as soon as possible, as much as I’ve enjoyed it.

In the long term, I agree about the ideal of Board members hesitating to serve on committees outright, but I’m not sure how feasible that is in the short to medium term. Um, I think I had a point there somewhere. I hope. /done

Jenny S-T

We’re just about out of time, so Ira’s question is moved to email/comments. Everyone, feel free to send me follow-up questions via email, and we’ll continue in the comments of the last transcript blog post as well as next chat.

Thank you all for coming

Anna G.

Thanks for the thoughtful answers!

Jenny S-T

http://transformativeworks.org/next-candidate-chat-and-transcript for comments, or http://otw-news.livejournal.com/219155.html or http://otw-news.dreamwidth.org/167797.html

Ira G.

Awesome! Thank you for hosting, for questions, for answers, and for coming!

Curtis J. has left the room

FishieMishie

thanks Jenny, and Franzi and Andrea!

2012 Candidate Manifesto – Franzeska Dickson

Elections Staff

Why did you decide to run for election to the Board?

We are at a delicate moment in OTW’s development. Much of the initial enthusiasm has flagged, but we’re not yet a mature organization. I am running for the Board because I have the stamina to help see us through what will likely be a difficult period. Truthfully, though, I view myself less as uniquely talented and more as uniquely situated: I have always used my real name in fandom, and I have the time and life situation needed to serve on the Board.

 

 

What skills and/or experience would you bring to the Board?

I’ve been involved with OTW from the beginning and have experience in several parts of the organization. I’ve been in fandom for my entire adult life, through a lot of different online platforms, innumerable social changes, and many different types of communities. That kind of broad perspective is critical in Board decision-making to avoid unnecessarily narrowing the group of fans OTW is useful to.

 

 

What is your vision for the direction of the organization over the next year and how do you see working with your fellow board members to accomplish it?

Delegate, delegate, delegate. The Board needs to both guide committees in good management practices and serve as an example itself. I see significant room for improvement in our liaising, mentoring, and training practices. Some of that will happen at the committee level, but the Board needs to do its part. I think the next year should be a time to focus on broad issues of usefulness and accessibility across diverse groups of fans. I would like the Board to particularly focus on supporting our staff and volunteers involved in translation and outreach.

 

 

What is your experience of the org’s projects and how would you collaborate with the relevant committees to support and strengthen them? Please include AO3, TWC, Fanlore, our Legal advocacy work and Open Doors, though feel free to emphasize particular areas of the org you’re interested in.

I edit Fanlore and have run a challenge on AO3 as well as using it for posting fic and vids; I am also working on an oral history project. My experience of other projects is mostly as an interested bystander. For the majority of our projects, I would like to see the Board take a hands-off approach, allocating resources as needed but leaving decision-making to committees and workgroups. Some of these projects, especially Fanlore, would benefit from outreach and greater name recognition among fans, but I see that more as a committee (or a multi-committee) project than as a job for the Board.

The Board’s top project-specific priority over the next year should be improving the committee and management structures surrounding AO3. It is our most popular project with the most complicated arrangement of OTW staff and volunteers, and it has suffered in the past from a severe confusion of duties, priorities, and authority. Like all software development projects, it needs good project management and greater attention to different types of users. The Board needs to explore the various proposals to have an AO3 committee, to split AD&T, and so on.

 

 

What does transparency mean to you personally, both inside the organization and between projects and between the organization and fandom? How do you value it and how would you make it a part of your service?

Nonprofit transparency is about making the organization’s goals, values, and handling of money as clear as possible, even to a complete outsider. The type of transparency people usually talk about when criticizing OTW is slightly different: it’s more about not being able to find information and not feeling like people listen. It also clusters very heavily around certain issues: the media categories on AO3, tags, realistic projections for when items on the roadmap will be finished, etc. Improving how we manage AO3’s development will make such issues automatically clearer and will allow us to set more realistic goals and give more accurate date estimates.

The transformativeworks.org website should serve as a clearer introduction to OTW, and there are many areas where our FAQs could be improved. However, I feel that the Board should leave most of this to committees, especially in cases where the topic falls directly within the purview of one specific committee (e.g. tag wrangling).

I will make transparency part of my service by focusing on the root of the problem (bad management) rather than the symptoms (specific instances poor communication). I was initially dubious about the idea of an OTW forum but have come around to liking it.

 

 

What does diversity mean to you personally, both inside the organization and between projects and between the organization and fandom? How do you value it and how would you make it a part of your service?

Experience has shown us that lack of diversity has serious consequences. My personal pet topic has been “original work” (that means things like original slash, not non-fannish writing), which we used to ban from AO3. This made AO3 an unacceptable hosting location for a number of fandom communities and made people feel unwelcome without providing AO3 and OTW any significant benefits in exchange. While we can’t be all things to all fans, we need to stay aware of this type of tradeoff and weigh it against our mission and values. I fought hard to make original fannish writing better understood among OTW staff. The experience showed me that both consensus and straight votes have significant drawbacks for OTW at present: they are desirable on some issues, but on others, the Board or specific committees need to take a firm stance that future openness to a broad range of fannish cultures is more important than catering to the needs of current AO3 users or OTW supporters in the short term. As a board member, I will continue to defend fans’ right to define “fanworks” how they wish, whether they are from a part of fandom well-represented within OTW or not.

 

 

What do you think the key responsibilities of a/the board are? Are you familiar with the legal requirements for a US-based nonprofit board of directors?

The key requirements for a board are to be ethical and to be responsible. As applied to OTW, I see this as a need to be realistic about the time commitment involved in board work, doing work promptly and being available when needed, and working to further our goals of protecting and preserving fanworks and fannish diversity.

 

 

How would you balance your Board work with other roles in the org, or how do you plan to hand over your current roles to focus on Board work?

I have already retired from Abuse, and I plan to leave the Tag Wrangling Committee at the end of the term. I am currently on the Category Change Workgroup as a representative from the Tag Wrangling Committee; we are still discussing whether I should be a part of the workgroup next year or not.

Transcript for Initial 2012 Candidate Chat

Webmasters

The following is a transcript of the OTW Board candidates’ chat held at 1800 UTC 29 September 2012. Elections officer Jenny Scott-Thompson moderated the discussion; candidates Franzeska Dickson and Eylul Dogruel attended.

Claudia R. has entered the room

Eylul has entered the room

Lady Oscar has entered the room

Lady Oscar has left the room

Jenny S-T has entered the room

Franzeska D. has entered the room

Franzeska D.

Hi

Eylul

hey 🙂

Jenny S-T

Hi!

Lady Oscar has entered the room

Jenny S-T

As a reminder, transcript of this chat will be posted publicly. If you’d like us to exclude your name or a particular comment, please let me know.

We’ll start officially in about 5 minutes

Franzeska D.

No, no, anything off color, foolish, or off the wall I say should be preserved for posterity, clearly.

Eylul

actually Jenny, question. if that is the case. can we link our fannish info and real info here without worrying about google?

Franzeska D.

Hi Lady Oscar

Jenny S-T

yes, just make it clear which bits you want me to exclude

and remember that the full transcript will be visible to everyone in the org

Eylul

fannish side, if it happens.

Lady Oscar

Hi!

Eylul

I just don’t want it tied in google and public internet if it comes up. I think most of the people in org who know me knows my DW anyway 😉

Tuulia has entered the room

Franzeska D.

There are actually people here! Yesss!

Eylul

hee

Jenny S-T

So, welcome! I’m the OTW elections officer and Secretary of the Board. We’ll be using our usual in-org convention here of asking people to let me know if they have a question, I’ll let people know when to go so we can follow conversation easily, and please type /done at the end of any comment that spans multiple lines. We’ll have some more free-form chat at the end.

foxinthestars has entered the room

Jenny S-T

Does anyone have particular questions that they’ve brought? I’m aware the bios and manifestos aren’t yet up, so there will be more information when those are posted next week, but we’re open to questions in the meantime.

Either about the elections process or for our new Board members

Lady Oscar

o/

Jenny S-T

As a reminder, transcript of this chat will be posted publicly. If you’d like us to exclude your name or a particular comment, please let me know.

hele has entered the room

Jenny S-T

Franzi and Eylul, do you want to each give a quick introduction of yourselves as people arrive?

Eylul

sure 🙂 *typing*

Jenny S-T

and Lady Oscar, go ahead with your question when you’re ready

Lady Oscar

I just wanted to make sure that I understand correctly–there won’t actually be an election, in the sense of any vote being held, right?

/done

Jenny S-T

correct, yes

we have the same number of candidates as seats, so it’s uncontested this year

Eylul

Hi, I am Eylul Dogruel. I am an artist and a grad student from Istanbul, Turkey. I have joined the org about 3 years ago. I worked in AD&T and now currently am an I&O staffer and and work with 2 workgroups, as co-chair of Survey, and a staffer of Category Change. Looking forward to answering questions here, or feel free to poke at me later. 🙂

/done

Franzeska D.

Sure. I got into fandom on Usenet in the 90s. (Specifically alt.tv.x-files during the end of the first season, so that would have been early 1994.) In high school, I did a lot of reading in stuff like Highlander, but I wasn’t on mailing lists or active in those sorts of fandoms. At the same time, I got heavily into anime, and I was on a billion and one yahoo groups for every possible combination of gundam wing characters. (*sigh*) I was also in Harry Potter around that time, and while I moved onto LJ in 2002-2003, I really missed the big archive era and the kinds of megafandoms that have multiple archives like HP does (did? I have no clue these days). More recently, I’ve gotten into oldschool zine fandoms and vidding. I go by my real name online and always have. If you find a ‘franzeska’ blathering about fandom, that’s almost certainly me. (And I use my name as my username most places if I can get it.)

In OTW, I was on Content and then Abuse. (And Webmasters, but let us not speak of that dark time. Drupal: my nemesis!) I work in finance right now, but I’m hoping to go back to school.

Eylul

(AD&T -> Accesibility Design and Technology committee, that is responsible for AO3 development, and I&O -> Internationalization and Outreach Committee)

Franzeska D.

And the Tag Wrangling Committee (oh god, where is my brain). Yay, AO3 tags.

Eylul

*grins at Franzi*

Franzeska D.

…and the Category Change workgroup…

foxinthestars

::raises hand::

Jenny S-T

Franzi, you done for the moment or anything else to add?

Tiyire has entered the room

Franzeska D.

When talking about me, there’s always something else to… err… yes, I’m done unless anyone has a biographical question?

Jenn Calaelen has entered the room

sanders has entered the room

Jenny S-T

Foxinthestars, go ahead, then 🙂

Enigel has entered the room

Radka has entered the room

foxinthestars

Thanks. Since you’re both on the Category Change workgroup, could you talk about the problems you see there and what your priorities are in addressing it? /done

hele

:raises hand for after:

Lady Oscar

:question after hele:

Eylul

request for clarification about the question. foxinthestars are you asking about problems of the AO3 categories, or the workgroup or both?

/done

foxinthestars

The problems of the categories, but anything you want to say about the matter would be good. /done

Franzeska D.

Oh my. Well, let’s not beat around the bush: anime & manga is what we’re really talking about here.

Eylul

*lets Franzi finish speaking first*

Franzeska D.

The workgroup has mostly done setup stuff so far. We have not gotten into the meaty part of getting feedback or discussing our own views, but it looks to me like there is some support for tweaking things like what goes in ‘Other Media’, making one single RPF category, and so on. I doubt any of that will be hugely controversial, but the workgroup will be looking at lots of opinions, not just our own, so hopefully, we’ll be able to come up with something that pleases most people.

Anime & Manga on the other hand are a pain in the butt because we have groups who strongly prefer opposite solutions there. (If that weren’t the case, the Tag Wrangling Committee would have taken care of this a million years ago when the wranglers first discussed it.)

I think everyone, inside and outside of the workgroup, is pretty well aware by now that our one-tier system is an extremely poor way of capturing the fandom categorizations people use in fandoms of East Asian media. (Tokusatsu and kdramas and things also come up when discussing anime/manga fandom, naturally.)

That problem extends to other areas of fandom, but it’s extremely pronounced there. I really cannot say what we’ll ultimately decide on for the Anime & Manga category. It will depend on technical concerns too.

Personally, I think it would make the most sense to have a Sequential Art category and to have BD, anime/manga, manhua, komiks, Marvel, etc. under that.

If anyone wants my personal views on comics/sequential art and categorization, I have an endless ranty post in my DW from a couple of years ago I can dig out the link to. But I really have no idea where the workgroup will end up on this issue, and I may well leave it next year.

(Currently, the workgroup has representatives from various committees. Since I am planning to leave all committees to focus on board work, that would make me an awkward fit for the workgroup unless it’s decided that it will be a consistent team of people from now on rather than committee representatives. That’s not up to me though.)

done

Jenny S-T

thanks, Franzi

Eylul

I think that Franzi explained the summarized the situation. I do also personally think that Sequential Art category would be a good candidate as a final solution to this part of the problem.

Another reason I like this solution is because it can be generalized to the other categories that has issues. Basically my point of view on this topic as someone who focuses a lot on the diversity of the organization and its projects is that an ideal solution shouldn’t just firefight but find community-neutral and region neutral solution that will keep working.

What I am trying to mean here is that we shouldn’t just be US-centric and western media centric until causes noise enough to become bad PR. 🙂

Claudia R. has left the room

Eylul

Putting my category change staffer hat this is what I plan to push, but putting on future board member hat, I think that it is not the place of the board to just express opinions over a workgroup, so what I will do in that capacity is to support that workgroup as well as all other projects.

/done 🙂

Jenny S-T

thank you, Eylul

Jessica S. has entered the room

Enigel

q

foxinthestars

Thank you!

Enigel

(after people who’ve already registered to ask questions)

Jenny S-T

foxinthestars, does that answer it, or do you have any particular clarifications you want to ask for?

sanders

o/ after enigel

foxinthestars

No, that’s good. Thank you both!

Jenny S-T

okay, hele next

hele

ok! Self interest here as a staffer, but: what do you see as your role as board liaison for committees, and are there particular things you plan to change on that capacity?

/done

Eylul

I think it depends a lot on the committee

some committees are well established and has chairs who are experienced as staffers. With them I think the board liaison’s main job is to support the chair by being a sounding board, giving advice if asked, be also available to the rest of the staffers if they wish to discuss a concern or have questions, to be a resource. I think that a liaison’s job is also to be the link between the board and the committee, as obvious as that sounds.

If the committee is struggling through, especially a chair who needs more mentoring or needs help, board liaison can do that as well. (hopefully with the chair training the volunteer committee works on, it will be less necessary). I am not sure how to answer the part about changing because it seems so far different board members have different approaches to this. This would be my approach as a board member.

/done

Franzeska D.

I have found the liaison role less than ideal in the past because it’s all too easy for that board member to get overloaded or to be ill or away when they’re needed. I would like to see more of a split between general mentoring activities and the flow of information/requests (and maybe this is already happening elsewhere, but it’s not what I’ve done/seen as a committee member or chair). The current way of liaising is good for building social ties and for some kinds of mentoring. I would prefer to see more instances of committees sending a representative (not always the chair–more like whoever’s available/in the right time zone) to the open part of board meetings.

Or contacting the whole board directly if it’s really urgent.

(I’ve seen too many cases of urgent things falling into a black hole.)

As for what I personally will do, I think leaving all committees during my time on the board will give me the time to be a liaison.

Tiyire has left the room

Franzeska D.

It’s more time-consuming than people think. A lot more!

/done

hele

thanks both! (and yes!)

Jenny S-T

hele, does that answer it, or any follow-on questions?

hele

(and I don’t have any follow up questions)

Jenny S-T

LO, you’re up next. Enigel and Sanders, if we run out of time, drop me your questions in email and they’ll go first next time

Claudia R. has entered the room

Lady Oscar

That leads into my question (which I think Franzi’s mostly answered)–Since Board is obviously a huge time commitment, what are your plans for dealing with this with respect to your current Org responsibilities?

/done

Franzeska D.

I’ve already handed off Abuse. I plan to leave the Tag Wrangling Committee at the end of the year. I’ll probably continue to wrangle since that is quite flexible. And I don’t know about the Category Change Workgroup. I’ll *probably* end up leaving that, but we’ll see.

Eylul

*waits for franzi to be done*

Franzeska D.

oops

sorry

/done

Eylul

heh

I am currently an I&O staffer which in itself is manageable with board. The 2 workgroups I am part of: the category change is not a huge time commitment. My concern there currently is, as I mentioned above, is to not be influencing the group in a board member role. Survey… I am exploring solutions to drop it. It is a bit tricky because I took it over with my co-chair Aja in August, and we didn’t have a lot of time to think on successors yet. So work in progress? 🙂 /done

Jenny S-T

LO, does that cover it, or anything else you want to add?

Lady Oscar

I think that covers it, thanks.

/done

Jenny S-T

Enigel, you’re up 🙂

Enigel

for both candidates who are present: what are your top two priorities for the Org, that you will push for as board members? (top one is too restrictive, but top three is too wide 😉 I know it’s early so it’s fair to say that you want to think more about it, or that it will be in the manifestos)

/done

Lesann has entered the room

Franzeska D.

Ha ha ha. I am less technical than Eylul, so I am not a good person to give details in live chat, but I think the suggestions about AD&T and the general structure/workflow/management of improving AO3 and coding new features and such is worth looking at. That was a good post. My top priority is management in general. We are bad at it as an org (like most young orgs), and we spend too much time with our managers doing the work instead of managing. No finger pointing: it’s been everyone the whole time pretty much, as is normal. /done

Eylul

Yes it will also be in my manifesto but I see no harm in writing here a bit 🙂 1) Seeing the organization transition from an organizational equivalent of a start-up to one that is a larger organization. I think that we outgrew our structure and that it is causing a lot of symptoms, everything from some of the transparency issues to volunteer burnout.

I know some of you know the blog post I wrote few weeks back, that franzi also mentioned above. 🙂

that is part of that thought process.

Enigel

follow-up question

Eylul

2) Diversity. As a middle eastern, I do sometimes notice how US-centric and western media centric the org comes across, even when not intending to. My goal is that diversity doesn’t become some thing that is just

something we add after we get the US-centric default done, but instead that we stay at equal distances to many cultures and communities as possible. I am aware it is a tall order but we need to start somewhere right? 🙂 /done

Jenny S-T

We’re just about at our time limit

Enigel

thank you! 🙂

Jenny S-T

Sanders, can you mail me your question for next time, please?

Franzeska D.

WE CAN TYPE FAST

Jenny S-T

Enigel, do you want to drop your follow-up in here?

Franzeska D.

;P

Enigel

I’ll pack my follow up q in an email then

hele

heeh

Eylul

yes we can 🙂

sanders

i can, yeah.

Enigel

or ok

how do you plan on making this startup-to-big-org transition?

Scott S. has entered the room

Enigel

using existing – tutorials, i guess, or devising a process specific to this org?

to account for the fact that it’s still volunteer run, even if the size is larger

/done

Eylul

Enigel, I think some of that change is happening already. Several committees are going through documentation and revision of their processes. I do think that we do need to look at our committees and identify bottlenecks and find solutions. My blog post on AD&T (which concerns AD&T and web directly, as well as any other project that uses technical resources) was identifying a bottleneck and proposing a solution. This is less about people working more “professionally”, it is about setting in structures so that more detailed and fleshed out processes don’t depend on individual processes. I am not sure if that helps answering or confusing more /done

Franzeska D.

The first step is managing rather than doing. (Which is why I’m entirely leaving committee work.) I am definitely thinking more tutorials (or the published literature) than just making up something org-specific. We are different for being 100% volunteer, but we’re not *that* different. These issues come up with every organization in very similar ways. /done

Eylul

don’t depend on individual processes -> don’t depend on individuals.

Jenny S-T

thank you both

we’re at our time limit, but the transcript will soon be posted publicly

and in the meantime, you are welcome to continue discussing in the comments to the OTW election posts, on either the OTW site, DW or LJ – Comms will try and notify us of comments there so we can respond

or email me any questions for next chat – my contact form is on the OTW website

thank you all for coming!