No. There is no specific election for the Board role of Treasurer, for example. The elected Board members will choose their own Chair, Treasurer, etc. from among their own number, and appoint those organization members as committee chairs (whether these are Board members, or not) whom they judge to have the best qualifications for a particular committee role.

If you have been serving as a member of a committee under your fannish identity, the Volunteers Committee will need to know the link between your real name and fannish identity in order to confirm for the Elections Committee Chair that you are qualified to run. This information will not be shared, and we will never connect your real name and fannish identity unless you specifically choose to do so.

One option available to you is to ask the Volunteers Committee to switch you over to working under your legal name within OTW a few months before the election. This will allow you to cite your committee experience without making the connection between your fannish identity and real name obvious to those outside your committee.

Before becoming a candidate, you must have paid for a year’s membership in OTW with a PayPal account, credit card, or check bearing your legal name. The Financial Committee will verify this for the Elections Committee Chair.

All Board members must serve under their legal names due to IRS regulations for incorporated nonprofit organizations. We ask that candidates conduct their campaigns under their legal names to ensure that the organization does not set a precedent of connecting its members’ legal and fannish names, for any reason.

The OTW was formed with specific goals in mind: to build an archive and a wiki, to publish a journal, and to provide legal assistance. We want to elect people to the Board who have experience with those projects, and who are familiar with the internal workings of the committees and with their fellow staffers.

That said, familiarity is not the same as approval! We encourage members who have different opinions and visions to serve on committees and to run for the board. We value the diversity of viewpoints within the membership. But in the end, the OTW’s goal is not to simply to reflect a cross-section of all fannish opinions, but to further the projects we have undertaken. Our election policies are designed to foster candidates who will be able to do just that.

To be eligible as a candidate, you must:

• Be a paying member of OTW by eight weeks before the election.
• Be at least 18 years old at the time of the election.