[Note: There will be 2 Q&A posts total, covering all the topics brought up during the user-submitted Q&A period. Candidates were limited to 300 words per answer.]
What makes you unique as a candidate? What do you think makes you stand out against the others running for Board this year?
What makes me unique as a candidate is a blend of persistence, open-mindedness, and a knack for thinking outside the box to find innovative solutions. I bring a relentless drive to ensure that once we start a project, we see it through to completion. This persistence is crucial for maintaining the momentum of existing initiatives and ensuring they reach their full potential.
My open-mindedness allows me to consider diverse perspectives and incorporate a wide range of ideas, fostering a more inclusive and effective decision-making process. This trait is essential for adapting to new challenges and ensuring our board’s strategies remain relevant and impactful.
Additionally, I have a few new projects I am passionate about pursuing, but my primary focus will be on ensuring that the current projects and initiatives do not lose steam. By balancing the introduction of fresh ideas with the completion of ongoing efforts, I aim to bring stability and progress to our board.
Election candidates rarely have clearances to all the Board-level details of the OTW history and inner workings, and may have questionable assumptions about the Org, yet you are still expected to answer public queries about them. What is your strategy in term of research and fact-check to address that?
To address the challenge of not having full clearance to all Board-level details of the OTW history and inner workings, my strategy involves thorough research and diligent fact-checking. Here’s how I approach it:
- Find and Speak to the Relevant Teams: Engaging directly with the teams involved in specific projects or initiatives is crucial. By communicating with those who have hands-on experience and in-depth knowledge, I can gather accurate and detailed information. This ensures that my responses are grounded in the most current and comprehensive understanding of our operations.
- Read Conversations and Past Questions in Public Spaces and the Internal Wiki: I regularly review discussions and past questions in public forums as well as our internal wiki. These resources provide valuable insights into recurring issues, previous decisions, and the reasoning behind them. This historical context helps me provide well-informed answers and understand the evolution of our policies and projects.
By combining these approaches, I can effectively bridge any gaps in my knowledge and ensure that my responses are both accurate and transparent. This strategy not only helps in addressing public queries with confidence but also demonstrates a commitment to thoroughness and accountability.
The OTW moves so slowly in part because a lot of work is spread between few people. How do you plan on evaluating the OTW’s recruitment strategy to increase the number of volunteers, alongside improving safety, satisfaction, and balance of work so existing volunteers stay longer?
Here’s what I would propose to approach improving our recruitment to address these issues:
- Recruit Internally and Work to Address Skill Gaps: One effective strategy is to recruit from within our existing volunteer base, as seen with the recent Cyber Security Delegate position. By identifying and leveraging the skills and expertise already present, we can fill critical roles more efficiently. Additionally, we can determine what skills we are lacking and ask current volunteers if they can fill those needs, regardless of their current role, ensuring we utilize hidden talents within the org.
- Encourage Volunteer Referrals: Encouraging current volunteers to refer others can be an effective way to recruit new members. By leveraging personal networks, we can attract dedicated and passionate individuals who are more likely to be a good fit for our org.
- Offer New Opportunities: To retain our volunteers longer, it’s important to provide them with opportunities for growth and development. Ensuring that those who wish to expand their roles and responsibilities have the chance to do so can increase job satisfaction and commitment.
- Explore Cross-Training Opportunities: Cross-training can help us build a more versatile team. By training volunteers in multiple areas, we can provide short-term support to teams in need and ensure that our operations continue smoothly even when specific team members are unavailable.
By implementing these strategies, we can enhance our recruitment efforts, improve volunteer satisfaction, and create a more balanced and supportive work environment. This will not only help us attract more volunteers but also ensure that our current volunteers stay longer and continue to contribute effectively to our mission.
As majority of you have been with the OTW for quite a long time (6-10+ years), how do you prepare yourself to counter the cultural inertia that has been entrenched across various parts of the organisation?
To counter the cultural inertia entrenched across various parts of the OTW, I employ several strategies:
- Maintain an Outsider’s Perspective: By staying somewhat detached from the internal drama and inertia, I can provide a fresh, objective viewpoint.
- Ask Questions: I will continually ask how and why things are the way they are. This will help me understand the reasoning behind current practices and identify areas for improvement.
- Offer a Volunteer’s Perspective: My experience as a volunteer allows me to bring fresh insights and suggestions to the table, ensuring that the voices of those on the ground are heard.
- Leverage Past Context: With my long tenure, I can help provide historical context for activities and initiatives, helping newer board members understand past decisions and avoid repeating mistakes.
Past events have resulted in a total devaluation of Board work and Board of Directors — Board of Directors is the legally responsible for the OTW. How familiar are you with the Board purview, duty, mandate in either typical nonprofit background or the OTW specific case?
I am well-versed in the OTW Board’s responsibilities as well as the typical duties of a non-profit board.
According to the OTW Board of Directors site, their primary role is to lead the organization by defining big-picture goals and strategy while supporting and overseeing all committee work to ensure alignment with these objectives. In practice, the Board listens and responds to concerns and suggestions from fans, members, and volunteers. They work with Committee Chairs to address issues, brainstorm ideas, and collaborate with other teams.
Typical Board Member duties include:
- Duty of Care: The legal responsibility to participate actively in decision-making and exercise their best judgment on behalf of the organization
- Duty of Loyalty: The obligation to put the organization ahead of personal and professional interests when acting on its behalf.
- Duty of Obedience: The legal responsibility to ensure the organization complies with applicable laws.
Both at the OTW Board level and in broader definitions of Board of Directors’ work, the emphasis is on guiding the organization and assisting committees in reaching their goals. Board members are not meant to micromanage or perform the work of individual committees.
Increasingly the ways in which the OTW’s institutional inertia disempowers volunteers and erodes general trust in the OTW have come to light, how do you plan to motivate structural change within the organization?
To motivate structural change within the OTW and address institutional inertia, my plan includes the following steps:
- Encourage More Chair Track Opportunities: By creating more pathways for volunteers to step into leadership roles, we can increase engagement and ensure a steady flow of fresh perspectives and ideas.
- Implement Succession Plans: Establishing clear succession plans will ensure continuity of work if someone leaves or needs to step back, preventing disruptions and maintaining momentum
- Rotate Chairs to Prevent Burnout: Regular chair rotation will help avoid burnout and inertia, ensuring that more people gain the experience needed to step into chair roles when necessary
- Collect Anonymous Feedback on Chairs: We will gather anonymous feedback from committee members about their chairs and send this feedback to the board and volunteer committees. Taking action on this feedback will help address issues promptly and improve trust and morale within the organization.
Recent controversies within the OTW have made many fans hesitant to donate their time or money to the organization. What would you say to those fans who are hesitant?
To those fans who are hesitant to donate their time or money to the OTW due to recent controversies, I would say:
Change can only happen if people step forward to make it happen, whether by joining the OTW as a volunteer or becoming more involved as a current volunteer. Engage in policy discussions, provide feedback on proposals, and use feedback forms to voice your concerns and suggestions.
Donations are also crucial as they make you a member who can vote. While I understand that not everyone can donate due to financial constraints or lack of accessible payment methods, it’s important to note that only 27.8% of eligible members voted in the last election, and 33% the year before. Increased participation can drive meaningful change.
I encourage fans to get involved, ask questions in public board meetings, engage with candidates, and keep an eye on open volunteer opportunities. Change is happening, but it is a slow, continuous process, and we need to maintain momentum to achieve our goals. Your involvement and support are vital in making the OTW a better organization.
If you could time travel back to when the OTW started, what would you have changed/warned people about?
If I could time travel back to when the OTW started, I would offer both encouragement and caution. The OTW is going to be incredibly successful, far beyond what anyone could have anticipated, and while it’s impossible to predict such growth, it’s important to prepare for it.
Rapid growth without proper structures in place can lead to significant challenges, so I would advise implementing strong policies from the start to protect fans and volunteers, including robust Terms of Service to handle new forms of harassment and early implementation of blocking/muting features.
To avoid the siloing of committees, I would emphasize the importance of open communication and transparency from the beginning. Ensuring accountability for chairs and board members would help prevent some of the issues we’ve faced.
On the technological front, I would stress the importance of designing the archive with scalability in mind. Although some of the technology we use today didn’t exist when the OTW started, making better initial decisions about the architecture could have mitigated the need for refactoring later on. Overall, a focus on robust policies, open communication, accountability, and scalable technology from the outset would have helped the OTW navigate its growth more smoothly.