Frequently Asked Questions - Organizational Structure
The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) is a nonprofit organization established by fans to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in its myriad forms.
OTW is an organization created by fans, for fans. It's run by a board of directors. See About Us for more information.
The 2007-2008 Board was appointed to get the OTW up and running. All subsequent boards will be elected by OTW members. It is the Board's responsibility to organize committees, make final decisions, keep financial records, handle compliance, and so on.
Board members are asked to serve three-year terms. One-third of the Board is elected every year (starting after the first year). Every member of the OTW gets one vote in the election, regardless of how much they contribute.
The Board determines which committees should be organized, then appoints chairs to those committees and approves committee members chosen by the chairs. The initial committee members were chosen from people who responded to the first public "Willing to Serve" call for volunteers.
Absolutely! Please contact our Volunteers committee.
We are always on the lookout for great committee members! Committees are appointed annually, with occasional midseason replacements as needed. Chairs generally have a free hand in appointing their committees, and they will naturally be drawing most from those who have volunteered with their committee or have other (fannish or real-world) relevant experience. If you are interested in serving on a particular committee, please let the Volunteers committee know.
The Board is elected from among members in good standing who have served at least one year on a committee.
Please note that Board members are required by U.S. law to serve under their legal names, so if this or a connection between your fannish pseudonym and legal name would be problematic for you, you cannot serve on the Board. You can still volunteer and serve on committees and as a committee chair, however, under a fannish pseudonym. If you are interested in running for the Board, please contact the Elections committee.
Naomi Novik put out a call for those willing to serve in the organization in June of 2007, and chose the first board from among those who responded, on the basis of putting together a team with the particular set of skills and experience needed to set up the infrastructure of a nonprofit organization, including its bylaws. These bylaws include the rules and terms under which a membership could be gathered and a future board legally elected.
A third of the board seats will be up for election this year, and within three years, the entire board will have been elected by the membership.
There are currently around 100 volunteers participating in the OTW's projects as board members, staffers, and volunteers. Most of them did not know each other before their involvement with the OTW.
Some have been recruited through friends, but the large majority are those who have volunteered in response to our public recruiting posts. OTW's volunteers include people of many races, genders, cultures, sexual identities, and abilities. The OTW does not discriminate on the basis of any of the above, and we value diversity among our staff.
We welcome everyone who wishes to discuss sources (shows, bands, sports players, anime, etc.) and fandom; we welcome everyone who creates or enjoys fanfiction, vids, fanart, and other kinds of transformative works.
We are all fans first, and that is why we are giving our time to the organization.
The OTW is run by the same people who have helped make, collectively: The Automatic Archive software, Yuletide, Buffistas.org, Polyamorous Recs, Pornish Pixies, the Exwood Archive, Vividcon, con.txt, DSX, DSA, The Snarry Reader, the "Snape After Deathly Hallows" fest, the SGA Big Bang, the Sugar Quill, the DS Seekrit Santa, the Supernatural Wiki, the Foresmutters Project, Sweet Charity, pirate_hunters, the Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive, the X-Men Movieverse Fan Fiction archive—among many other major fannish projects—and more stories, vids, and fannish art than you could shake the proverbial stick at.
You can find the biographies of the current Board of Directors, including their fannish affiliations, here on the website.
We believe that volunteering is what fandom is all about: volunteering our time, our energy, our hearts (and yes, from time to time our funds—like when we pitch in to help someone travel to a con) in service of a thing we love and the people we love it with.
The people building the OTW are donating time and energy because we want the OTW to exist in order to serve fandom. Same goes for the people who build holiday fic exchanges, the people who run cons, the people who make fannish icons for free, the people who write all kinds of glorious stories and make beautiful vids for free. (Besides, doing this kind of thing with other fans is incredibly fun!)
Because we are an all-volunteer organization, our staff can change frequently, as volunteers' available time may change unexpectedly or vary from month to month. Community Relations keeps a current staff list in the otw_news journal, but this may not always be completely up to date, so please note that the best way to reach us is via the shared addresses listed on our Contact page.