Category: 2017 Election News

Now that the 2017 Election is over and the results are final, we’re happy to share with you our voter turnout statistics!

For the 2017 Election, we had 5376 total eligible voters. Of those, 682 voters cast a ballot, which represents 12.7% of the potential voters. Our voter turnout is somewhat less than that of last year, which had a turnout of 15.1%. We also saw a decrease in the number of ballots cast, from 951 to 682, which represents a 28.3% decrease. The 2017 election did, however, improve in other areas: Six candidates ran for three positions, doubled from 2016, when three candidates ran for two positions on the Board.

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 which of our unsuccessful candidates received the fewest votes, since we don’t want to discourage them from running again in the future when circumstances and member interest might be different.

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 next year.

The election has opened!

Every member who joined between July 1, 2016, and June 30, 2017, should receive a ballot shortly, if they haven’t already. If you do not receive one by 2 a.m. UTC Friday (what time is that for me?), please check your spam folder first, then contact us via our contact form.

The election will run through 11:59 p.m. UTC on Monday, Aug. 14; 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 and use the hashtag #OTWE17 to let us know!

At this time, all eligible OTW members should have received an email linking to the voting instructions for 2017. The subject line was “Voting Instructions for Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) Board Election”. Please note that anyone who didn’t receive this email is not on the voter rolls this year and will not receive a ballot.

If you are a member and didn’t receive this email, please do the following:

1. Check your spam folder.
   • If you use gmail, check your Social tab.
   • If the email is marked as spam, unmark it. Otherwise, you will not receive your ballot, as it will end up in spam as well.
2. If no email is present, open your donation receipt and check the date.
   • To vote in this election, your receipt must be dated between July 1, 2016, and June 30, 2017, inclusive of both dates.
   • If you paid by check, your membership is measured by the arrival date of the check.
3. If your donation was made during the eligible time period, make sure you checked the box to become a member. Membership is voluntary for those who donate at least $10; only members can vote.
4. If you did become a member, make sure you neither marked any email from the OTW as spam nor opted out of OTW emails or last year’s ballot. If you did so and would like to vote this year, you’ll need to follow step 5 below.
5. If you donated at least $10 during the eligible period and you checked the box to become a member, please fill out the Elections Contact Form and select the topic “Is my membership current/Am I eligible to vote?” Make sure to include the email you used when donating.
6. Membership has no connection to being a user of AO3 or Fanlore. Please don’t give us your AO3 or Fanlore username – we have no way of knowing who that name belongs to, and we don’t want to know.

Most importantly, if the voting instructions email bounces, gets marked as spam, or you opt out, you will not receive a ballot for this year’s election, and you may not receive a ballot next year. Similarly, if any of those things happened to last year’s election emails, you will not receive a ballot this year. Therefore, if you previously opted out of OTW emails or marked them as spam and would like to vote, fill out the Elections Contact Form and select the topic “Is my membership current/Am I eligible to vote?”

Candidates Announcement

The Organization for Transformative Works is pleased to announce the following candidates for the 2017 Election (in alphabetical order by given name):

• Claire P. Baker
• Danielle Strong
• Erica Dulin
• Gimena Calixto
• Jessie Camboulives
• Milena Popova

Because we have 3 seats to be filled and 6 candidates, the 2017 election will be contested – that is, the members of OTW will vote on which candidates fill the seats.

The Elections Committee is excited to introduce the candidates to all of the members of the OTW! Included in this post are links to short Bios and Platforms written by the candidates. This post also marks the beginning of our Q&A period, during which we invite the public to submit questions for the candidates. Additionally, we will be holding a series of live chats – dates and times for those are to be announced based on candidate availability. Information on the voting period and how to vote will also be posted shortly.

In the meantime, there is a timeline of Elections events available here for your reference. Read on to learn more about our candidates and how you can submit questions for them!

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