[Note: All questions from members and candidate responses appear in the form they were submitted and represent only the views of the individual who wrote them. Questions and responses are not endorsed by the Organization for Transformative Works.]
Marion McG
Hi everyone, and welcome to our candidate chat for 2025!
Today you’ll have the opportunity to observe 3 candidates: Harlan, Elizabeth and Ryan.
My name is Marion, and I’ll be hosting the candidate side today. On the audience/open_chat side, your host will be my fellow Elections Committee member Dae.
Dae, can you wave so everyone can see you?
Dae
👋
Marion McG
Thanks, Dae !
A transcript of the candidate side of the chat will be posted publicly on our website. The open chat transcript will not be posted there, but its transcripts will remain visible until after the election. During the chat, you may see candidates fix their typos; this is to make Elections Volunteers’ job easier later.
As the candidates discuss each question, audience members can notify Dae that you have questions for the candidates – either follow-ups or new questions – by raising your hand like this:
o/ (for new questions), or
o// (for follow-ups to the current question)
Dae will pass me the questions, and I will ask them during appropriate pauses in the conversation between the candidates.
Dae and I welcome all questions, subject to the following restrictions:
– Specify who your question is for, or if it’s for all candidates.
– Refer to everyone in the room by their username in this conversation. Don’t use other names you may know them by.
– Please keep questions reasonable and polite, as well as under 50 words (these are our expectations: https://elections.transformativeworks.org/electionsprocess-behavior-expectations/).
– Make sure your question is not a repeat of one already answered in the platforms (https://elections.transformativeworks.org/category/2025-en/2025-bios-and-platforms/) or the Q&A (https://elections.transformativeworks.org/category/2025-en/2025-qa/). If it’s a follow-up to one of those, please say so.
We will accept questions for the first hour. If time permits, we will accept follow-up questions related to answers given after the first hour. We will provide a 15 minute warning before the cut-off.
Now, I’d like to welcome our candidates and invite them to say hello
Elizabeth W.
Hello! Hope everyone is having a good {time of day}!
C. Ryan Smith
Hi everyone! ((insert Bernie Sanders “I’m here once again…” meme.))
Harlan L.B.
Hello everyone! Excited to be here talking to you all this morning/afternoon/evening/night (circle the correct answer).
Marion McG
Hi all! Thanks for joining us today! Our first question is an icebreaker, what fandoms are you all most active in/excited about right now?
Harlan L.B.
As you may be able to tell from my avatar, I’ve been a Drarry slasher for… I don’t want to even tell you how many years. Many many. I originally started reading out in the LotR fandom, but switched to HP (and Drarry) fairly quickly. Up until about a year or so ago, that was pretty much my only fandom! Recently, though, I’ve been reading a bunch of Din/Luke and other varying SW fic.
Elizabeth W.
I have just finished playing the incredible Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and my emotions have yet to recover! So immersing myself in fanart there. The Murderbot tv show has ignited the fandom so there is an exciting wealth of new fic to read \o/
C. Ryan Smith
I’m not in any particular mood for certain fandoms right now. I guess nothing has really seized me and been like “you will love me and like it” lately. I’ve been flittering around between different things, like Harry Potter, Series of Unfortunate Events (just rewatched the series on Netflix and got a CRAVING to see if there was any good HP/ASOUE crossovers), and original works.
Marion McG
Thank you all! Here’s our next question from the audience – I would love to know about any concrete plans or projects the candidates would like to tackle during their time as Board.
Elizabeth W.
As I mentioned in my Q&A post, I’m really excited to support the work to establish the processes and back end structured needed to bring on paid staff such as an Executive Director. That also ties in to improving our governance structures, which is the other project that I am looking forward to tackling.
Harlan L.B.
Though there are a bunch of different goals that I’ve talked about in my campaign docs, in terms of concrete goals, the biggest ones that I have are around putting OTW on a stronger financial and legal standing. That involves making sure that we turn a reasonable amount of our cash on hand into longer-term investments that will pay out dividends for operational use, and exploring the legal structures that the OTW uses: specifically, whether we need to look into having subsidiary companies for liability shifting and/or in alternate jurisdictions.
C. Ryan Smith
If elected, I would want to see us move towards getting paid staff of some sort put into place — I don’t know what position we’d want to start with, but I feel that’s a pretty important goal for us to move toward.
Marion McG
Thanks for your answers! Our next question relates to paid staff role – How do you think you can integrate paid workers and volunteers and how can you ensure that you don’t alienate the volunteers ?
Harlan L.B.
That’s a good question. I used to do a bunch of volunteer work for the Red Cross where I did disaster relief work, and one of the rules* that they had put in place was that employees were not supposed to “do” the work that the institution is for; merely coordinate and organize the work of the volunteer force.
Something similar may make sense for OTW, but it somewhat depends on which positions we aim to convert to paid staff. The one line in the sand that I personally have is that our Board should remain unpaid.
*: this was more of a guideline than a rule, and there were plenty of places where it wasn’t actually true.
Elizabeth W.
This is a great question, as bringing in paid staff can be quite a significant change to volunteer orgs. I think it’s really important as a first step to make sure that any paid roles are not duplicating the work of volunteers. I know I wouldn’t feel great if we started paying someone to do the same work as I was doing for free! For such a passion-driven organisation, it’s also very important that we ensure staff candidates “get” our organisation and our mission, so I would make demonstrating that part of the recruitment process.
C. Ryan Smith
I think the first step would be to figure out which position(s) would be best to fill first. There are naturally going to be positions that have a higher priority to fill — that’s going to involve a lot of conversation between the different committees that have needs that could be assisted by having a paid staff member. As far as alienating volunteers, I feel like that would be pretty position dependent. For a lot of positions, paid staff and volunteers would be doing pretty similar work so we’d need to figure out a way to impartially and professionally select the right candidate for the paid position, that isn’t necessarily going to be filled by a volunteer. Additionally, we need to figure out questions like hierarchy (how do the paid staff report to?).
Marion McG
Thank you all. Here’s our next question – Can you share with us your workflow regarding research and/or fact-check when address issues unfamiliar with you or your work in the OTW?
C. Ryan Smith
Step 1: Google the thing.
Step 2: Try to find a primary source about the thing.
Step 3: If primary sources are unavailable, try to find at least 3 other (unrelated) sources which corroborate each other.
Step 4: Profit?
Harlan L.B.
If we have an expert inside OTW, that would be my first port of call. Legal questions? To the legal team! I have a lot of… let’s call it eclectic experience, so for many different things, I might know enough about a general topic to at least know where I should be able to look. If I don’t, though, honestly, I’m probably starting with Wikipedia and working my way out from there.
I’m lucky enough to have a large professional network as well, so if all else fails, I can press the panic button and go out to those communities.
Elizabeth W.
For internal OTW topics, my first workflow step is to search on our internal wiki and in our team messaging software to see if the topic has been discussed before and who was involved in that discussion. That often either gives me an answer directly (e.g. it was part of the Board minutes, so I can consider the fact to be checked), or points me in the direction of who to ask.
For things outside the organisation, my steps are pretty similar to Ryan’s, though there’s generally some good chasing of links in Wikipedia (and exertion of willpower to keep on task and not get distracted going down interesting wiki rabbit-holes…)
Marion McG
Thanks for your answers. Our next question is a tough one – If you only accomplish one thing as a Board member, what do you want it to be?
C. Ryan Smith
For me, this answer would be the same as the one given on an earlier question. I’d really like to see the paid staff initiative pushed forward so that we can relieve some stress on different points in the org.
Harlan L.B.
Oof. If I could only accomplish one thing, I think it would be getting the foundation portfolio stuff set up. The sooner that work is done, the more money OTW will have in the future.
Elizabeth W.
Keeping on theme with some of the previous questions, if the only thing accomplished is bringing on a paid Executive Director, I’ll be pretty happy as that will do so much to keep the organisation running and growing well.
Marion McG
Thanks for your answers. The next question relates to Board work – What do you expect your daily tasks to actually look like, specifically?
Harlan L.B.
I honestly don’t know! The OTW Board is a bit of a different beast than Boards that I’ve worked with (and on) in the past. I expect most of the work to simply be supporting work in committees that I’m not actually part of, but I’m ready to be surprised.
C. Ryan Smith
I’m guessing that there’s a lot of collaborative discussion via our internal chat, keeping an eye on emails, documenting any decisions or discussions, and other such work. Bigger projects might come in on occasion that would require more hands on work, but who knows if that would happen during our potential tenure.
Elizabeth W.
The core work of governance is essentially lots of meetings! Meeting with with committees and workgroups to support their work, and meeting as a Board to reviewing and approving formal requests. There’s also a lot of communication: responding to email and messages, and making sure that our community is kept up to date with what we are doing. From what I see of the OTW Board, individual board members also do a lot of grunt work to drive projects themselves, which could involve researching and documenting things or discussing and collaborating with other volunteers.
Marion McG
Thank you for your answers! Our next question is about availability – How many regular hours per week do you feel you can realistically commit to board duties and participation specifically?
Elizabeth W.
For myself, keeping a good work/volunteer/life balance is essential to making sure I don’t overextend myself in my initial enthusiasm and burn out. I will comfortably spend 10-15 hours a week on Board duties, but any more than that would only be to address crisis situations (which I hope won’t happen, knock on wood)
Harlan L.B.
My schedule changes somewhat week to week, so what availability I will have can depend on what else is happening. For the busiest weeks, I may only be able to scrape together 3-5 hours in a week, while others I will have 10-20. It will really depend on the week. For emergencies, though, all restrictions are off; my work is aware of my candidacy, and I have negotiated flexibility there if I need it.
C. Ryan Smith
I would feel comfortable being able to devote around 10 hours per week, during “normal” times. There might be more or less depending on specific times of the year and events that are going on.
Marion McG
Thanks all! Our next question is about future OTW Board elections – How can you encourage more candidates in the future so Ryan can have a rest?
C. Ryan Smith
As lovely as that sentiment is, there isn’t much that can be done here. A lot of the reticence around people running is due to the legal name requirements that candidates face. For a lot of our volunteers, the potential connection of their fannish activities or identity to their legal identity is troubling (perhaps especially in the “exciting” times we live in currently). I’d encourage reaching out to the Elections committee themselves for more information on this one.
Harlan L.B.
First — thank you, Ryan! Your goal of ensuring the election is contested is a valuable and worthwhile one, even though it means you have needed to throw yourself on the Q&A sword the last few years. Getting more people to run for the board means that we need to improve two things: the number of people at the “top of the funnel” — getting more people who are eligible to run — and reducing the rate at which people fall out — making more volunteers interested. Unfortunately, the latter case is partially, if not completely, out of our hands — we can’t make more hours in the day, and we can’t change the legal requirements to join the Board. Growing our volunteer base and better informing people of what the board actually does may increase the number of candidates we get.
Elizabeth W.
This is such a good question! From what I’ve seen there are a few things that prevent candidates from running: the time commitment involved, the nature of the work itself, and the requirement to run under your legal name.
On the legal name front, unfortunately that will always be there due to the obligations we have as a registered US charity, however I do want to commend the Elections team for providing candidates with guidance and support to consider what information is out there under our legal names (and so what the impact of running would be).
The time commitment is no joke, and I can’t even imagine how previous Boards coped juggling all the admin tasks as well as more governance-focussed tasks before the Board Assistants Team (BAT) Committee was created. There will always be volunteers who just don’t have that amount of time available to commit to Board, so the only thing we can do on that front is to keep recruiting to grow our volunteer base so that there is a flow of new volunteers who are able to commit that time.
And finally, many of us join the OTW because the work of a specific committee appeals to our skills and interests, and those interests do not always extend to the bureaucratic side of things! We can identify and encourage volunteers who would be good Board members, and increase organisational support through paid roles and the BAT committee, but there will always be volunteers who (validly!) would rather not spend their one wild and precious life in meetings
Marion McG
Thanks for your answers! Our next question is a follow-up question based on your previous answers and is for all candidates – In what specific ways does the Board support committees in their work?
Elizabeth W.
In my experience there are a couple of angles to how Board supports a committee. As a committee chair, I found it very motivating to know that we had a meeting with Board in a month, so I wanted to have some work delivered and accomplishments to show for that time! And those meetings were also a great space to discuss options and test ideas on how we might approach specific tasks. Also, because Board has oversight across all the committees, they’re able to identify potential blocks to getting things done and link people together to try and understand and overcome those. Even just being able to share “be patient on getting a response from committee X, they are in the middle of recruitment right now so will have more time for your request next month” is really valuable.
C. Ryan Smith
The Board can assist committees when needed by advising them regarding major decisions or projects that are being worked on — or even just discussing those things with them. They’re also able to help field questions that might come to the committee that need Board’s assistance with answering.
Harlan L.B.
The Board as an entity supports committees mostly by endorsing the policies that they develop, by getting them resources that they need, and by helping different committees work together. Individual board members, however, may support committees more directly. For example, for the work on the OTW endowment fund, that work needs the Board to take a legal action… but most of the actual work that’s required is the Finance committee working on getting the right things setup for that approval to work.
Marion McG
Thanks you all! Here’s our final question of the chat and again, its a follow-up question – Several responses suggest there may be some uncertainty regarding routine board responsibilities. May I ask whether anyone consulted with the Board before deciding to run?
C. Ryan Smith
No.
Harlan L.B.
No, I did not. I’ve served on non-profit Boards in the past (not OTW), and I read the last year or so of OTW Board minutes. I’ve spoken with board members before — and I worked with the BAT team as the Cybersecurity Delegate to the Board — but I didn’t directly ask them for information on running.
Elizabeth W.
I definitely checked in with a few current and former Board members, but I am fortunate that in the BAT committee I was already across a lot of the day-to-day realities of Board operations. I also read through some of the “How To Board” training material in our internal wiki, so while I’m sure there will be some surprises, I feel pretty well prepared for what my responsibilities would be if elected.
Marion McG
That’s all the questions we have for today! Thank you to our audience for being so supportive and for submitting questions!
Thank you also to our lovely candidates.
Harlan L.B.
Thank you to our moderators for organizing this, and to all of you who came!
Marion McG
Thank you and thanks to Dae for modding the open chat. We’ll have the transcript of this room up on the website within a few days.
Elizabeth W.
Thank you all! ❤️
C. Ryan Smith
Thanks for coming out everyone & thanks to the Elections committee for facilitating all of this.
Marion McG
Have a great day, everyone!