Archive of Our Own ^beta

The OTW Elections committee is pleased to announce that the timeline for the 2023 election for new members of the Board of Directors has been posted!

This year’s election will be held August 11-14. This means that the deadline for staff to declare their candidacy is June 16.

As usual, the election membership deadline is June 30. If you’re interested in voting, please make sure your membership is active as of that date. Please note that your donation receipt will be dated in US Eastern Time, so if your donation is listed after 19:59 on June 30, 2023 on the receipt, you won't be eligible to vote. If you are unsure whether your donation was made before the deadline, please contact our Development and Membership Committee by using the contact form on our website and selecting "Is my membership current/Am I eligible to vote?".

You can find out how to become a member on the Elections website, or if you’re familiar with the process, you can donate here!

If you want to know more about the election process in general, you can check out the Elections Policies.

We’re looking forward to an active election season with ample communication between candidates and voters, and we hope you’ll be a part of it. Don’t forget to follow the Elections committee on Twitter to keep up to date with the latest news!

If you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to contact Elections.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

The Organization for Transformative Works's April membership drive is over and we are delighted to say that we are finishing with a total of US$252,343.98 raised, far exceeding our goal of US$50,000. These donations came from 7852 people in 71 countries: thank you to every single one of them, as well as to all of you who posted and shared the news about the drive!

We are particularly pleased that 6450 of donors chose to take up or renew OTW membership with their donation. The OTW would not exist without its users all around the world, and your continued support for us is our absolute pride and joy! We are so glad to know that our ongoing mission to support, protect, and provide access to the history of fanworks and fan culture continues to resonate with the people that matter most of all: the fans themselves.

If you were intending to donate or join and haven't yet done so, don't worry! The OTW accepts donations all year round and you can always choose to become a member with a donation of US$10 or more. Memberships run for one calendar year from the date of your donation, so if you donate now you'll be able to vote in the 2023 OTW Board elections, which will take place in August. And our exclusive thank-you gifts are available whenever you donate!

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

It’s that time of year again – time for the biannual OTW membership drive! Ever since it was founded in 2007, the Organization for Transformative Works has relied on the support of fans like you. This support comes in the form of volunteer hours as well as the incredible generosity of our donors and our members. Find out more about how your donations have contributed to our work this year by checking out our budget post and, if you’re able to, click through to donate today.

We’re excited to have a great new slate of donor thank-you gifts this year including a travel tumbler showcasing the OTW project logos and a sticker set featuring the AO3 work symbols so that you can properly label your friends, pets, and household items. Of course, our wildly popular trope cards are still available, as are a number of other exciting gifts.

These thank-you gifts start at US$40; you can also set up a recurring donation and save towards the gift of your choice. Instructions on how to set this up will be included in your donation receipt. Those of you in the U.S. might also be able to double your contribution via employer matching: contact your HR department to find out if this is an option for you.

It’s also worth remembering that a donation of US$10 or more will allow you to become a member of the OTW. OTW members receive a special social media icon and, more importantly, the right to vote for the Board of Directors — the OTW’s governing board. You have until June 30, 2023 to become a member if you would like to vote in this year’s election, which will be held in August.

While we hope that many of you will take this opportunity to donate and join the OTW, we're grateful for the support of all members of this community, in all its many forms! Whether you create, share, comment on or kudos fanworks on AO3; edit Fanlore; read Transformative Works and Cultures; or spread information from OTW Legal, you all help shape the OTW and its projects every day. We are grateful for your time, energy, and engagement!

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

The ARC, a Primeval fanfiction archive, is being imported to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).

In this post:

• A bit of background explanation
• What this means for creators who had work(s) on The ARC
• And what to do if you still have questions

Background explanation

The ARC was a Primeval fanfiction archive founded by Purpleyin and run with the help of doylefan22, Jen, fififolle and telperion_15. Until 2014 the archive was hosted at the address www.primevalarchive.co.uk, when the founder could not maintain it anymore and the site went down. In order to preserve the works archived in The ARC and keep them available for the fandom, Purpleyin decided to move the archive to the AO3 as part of the Open Doors project.

The purpose of the Open Doors Committee’s Online Archive Rescue Project is to assist moderators of archives to incorporate the fanworks from those archives into the Archive of Our Own. Open Doors works with moderators to import their archives when the moderators lack the funds, time, or other resources to continue to maintain their archives independently. It is extremely important to Open Doors that we work in collaboration with moderators who want to import their archives and that we fully credit creators, giving them as much control as possible over their fanworks. Open Doors will be working with Purpleyin to import The ARC into a separate, searchable collection on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the archive in its entirety, all fanfictions currently in The ARC will be hosted on the OTW's servers, and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.

We will begin importing works from The ARC to the AO3 after May 2023. However, the import may not take place for several months or even years, depending on the size and complexity of the archive. Creators are always welcome to import their own works and add them to the collection in the meantime.

What does this mean for creators who had work(s) on The ARC?

We will send an import notification to the email address we have for each creator. We'll do our best to check for an existing copy of any works before importing. If we find a copy already on the AO3, we will invite it to the collection instead of importing it. All works archived on behalf of a creator will include their name in the byline or the summary of the work.

All imported works will be set to be viewable only by logged-in AO3 users. Once you claim your works, you can make them publicly-viewable if you choose. After 30 days, all unclaimed imported works will be made visible to all visitors.

Please contact Open Doors with your The ARC pseud(s) and email address(es), if:

1. You'd like us to import your works, but you need the notification sent to a different email address than you used on the original archive.
2. You already have an AO3 account and have imported your works already yourself.
3. You’d like to import your works yourself (including if you don’t have an AO3 account yet).
4. You would NOT like your works moved to the AO3.
5. You are happy for us to preserve your works on the AO3, but would like us to remove your name.
6. You have any other questions we can help you with.

Please include the name of the archive in the subject heading of your email. If you no longer have access to the email account associated with your The ARC account, please contact Open Doors and we'll help you out. (If you've posted the works elsewhere, or have an easy way to verify that they're yours, that's great; if not, we will work with the The ARC mod to confirm your claims.)

Please see the Open Doors Website for instructions on:

• importing your works to the AO3
• adding your works to the new collection The ARC

If you still have questions...

If you have further questions, visit the Open Doors FAQ, or contact the Open Doors committee.

We'd also love it if fans could help us preserve the story of The ARC on Fanlore. If you're new to wiki editing, no worries! Check out the new visitor portal, or ask the Fanlore Gardeners for tips.

We're excited to be able to help preserve The ARC!

- The Open Doors team and Purpleyin

Commenting on this post will be disabled in 14 days, on May 12th, 2023. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this import after that date, please contact Open Doors.

During the last year, the OTW Finance team has continued its work of ensuring that the organization's bills are paid, tax returns filed, and standard accounting procedures met. Preparation for the 2022 audit of financial statements is currently ongoing!

The team has also been diligently working to meet the OTW's 2023 needs, and is proud to present to you this year's budget (access the 2023 budget spreadsheet for more detailed information):

2023 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• US$99,854.48 spent so far out of US$295,285.76 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• 59.4% of the OTW's expenses go towards maintaining the AO3. This includes the bulk of our server expenses—both new purchases and ongoing colocation and maintenance—website performance monitoring tools, and various systems-related licenses, as well as costs highlighted below (access all program expenses).
• This year's projected AO3 expenses also include US$74,000 to purchase new servers, as well as US$77,000 in server related equipment to increase the capacity of existing servers to handle expected site traffic growth through the year.

Open Doors

• US$2,232.86 spent so far out of US$5,526.16 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• Open Doors' expenses consist of hosting, backup, and domain costs for imported fanwork archives, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Transformative Works and Cultures

• US$847.70 spent so far out of US$3,509.70 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• Transformative Works and Cultures' expenses are the journal's website hosting, publishing, and storage fees, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Fanlore

• US$6,222.79 spent so far out of US$16,201.99 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• Fanlore's expenses are its share of allocated server hardware, maintenance and colocation costs, as well as its portion of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$5,258.00 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• Legal's expenses consist of registration fees for conferences and hearings and funds set aside for legal filings if necessary, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Con Outreach

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$2,000.00 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• Budgeted expenses include US$1,000.00 for convention outreach activities on behalf of the OTW, which include convention tabling fees, volunteer attendance, and related presentation materials, as well as US$1,000.00 for convention giveaways (access all program expenses).

Fundraising and Development

• US$9,235.91 spent so far out of US$79,625.11 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• Our fundraising and development expenses consist of transaction fees charged by our third-party payment processors for each donation, thank-you gift purchases and shipping, and the tools used to host the OTW's membership database and track communications with donors and potential donors, as well as an allocated share of newly adopted OTW-wide productivity tools (access fundraising expenses).

Administration

• US$21,093.22 spent so far out of US$89,172.96 total this year, as of February 28, 2023.
• The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as productivity, management, and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2023 Revenue

• The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
• We receive a significant portion of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together will account for about 27% of our income in 2023. We also receive donations via employer matching programs, royalties, and PayPal Giving Fund, which administers donations from programs like Humble Bundle and eBay for Charity. If you'd like to support us while making purchases on those websites, please select the Organization for Transformative Works as your charity of choice!
• Thanks to your generosity in previous years, we have a healthy amount of money in our reserves, which we can use to pay for larger than usual purchases and keep on hand for legal contingencies. As mentioned previously, we plan to continue to upgrade the capacity of the Archive's servers, which significantly increases server equipment and server hosting expenses. The growth of the Archive and other projects of the OTW also requires more volunteers and administrative support, further increasing expenses. The budget spreadsheet projects a withdrawal of US$130,000 from reserves to cover the costs that exceed the amount of revenue projected to be received this year. This amount may be withdrawn as needed during the year.
• US$69,477.12 received so far (as of February 28, 2023) and US$370,320.00 projected to be received by the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW's finances, please contact the Finance committee. We'll get back to you as soon as possible!

To download the OTW's 2023 budget in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

Are you a fan studies scholar (senior PhD students or early post-PhD career)? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!

We're excited to announce the opening of applications for:

• TWC Assistant Editor - closing 31 MAY 2023 at 23:59 UTC

We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. If you don't see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.

All applications generate a confirmation page and an auto-reply to your e-mail address. We encourage you to read the confirmation page and to whitelist our email address in your e-mail client. If you do not receive the auto-reply within 24 hours, please check your spam filters and then contact us.

If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.

TWC Assistant Editor

Transformative Works and Cultures seeks 1 or 2 assistant editors as part of building a leadership pipeline for the journal and in the field more broadly.

Duties

Under the supervision of the editors, the assistant editors will assist with editorial review of new submissions, managing the peer review process, and communicating with authors. Estimated time commitment is approximately 1 hour per week.

Qualifications

• Applicants should be senior PhD students (ABD) or early career scholars (fewer than 5 years post-PhD)
• Applicants should have a record of peer-reviewed publications.
• Applicants need not be native speakers of English but must be competent in academic prose in English.
• Previous editorial experience is appreciated but not required.

As part of our goal to support the ongoing diversification of fan studies, scholars of color and non-Western scholars are particularly encouraged to apply.

Applications are due 31 May 2023

Apply at the volunteering page!

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with Sammie Louise, who volunteers as an AO3 Documentation chair and Support volunteer.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

My current volunteer roles are chair of the AO3 Documentation Committee and AO3 Support Committee volunteer. So what I do primarily is help people understand how to use the AO3 site and its features directly through my support work and indirectly through writing and editing our FAQs and help documentation.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

As a committee chair, a lot of what I do on a weekly basis is background admin type work. I meet with the other chairs every week where we discuss any short or long term projects and what we need to be doing to move those forward. I also review the documents that our volunteer editors have been working on and sometimes meet with the editors directly to address any questions. Occasionally, I have the time to work on a document myself. ;)

In AO3 Support, I unfortunately rarely have the time to take user enquiries directly, but I do spend some time helping to troubleshoot an issue or check responses other Support staff have drafted. It's important we do these checks to make sure the answers we're sending are accurate, and fully answer the person's questions.

What made you decide to volunteer?

I've been a volunteer with the OTW since April 2014. I honestly can't remember what prompted me to volunteer. I think I was invested in a particular fandom at the time, and that led me to AO3. I had spare time on my hands and wanted to help out. I joined AO3 Documentation then, and have since also worked with OTW Translation, AO3 Policy and Abuse, and now AO3 Support.

What has been your biggest challenge doing work for the OTW?

Hmmmmm. That's a difficult question. I guess, over such a long period of time, maintaining my motivation can sometimes be a challenge. There are a number of things that remind me why I'm here though—sometimes we'll get a message through Support that lets us know our FAQs and Tutorials have been helpful to someone, and that's motivating. (Seriously, let us know what's helped you out, you can contact us via the Technical Support and Feedback form in the footer.) Also, I'm working with a phenomenal group of people who I genuinely like, so that also helps keep me on track.

What fannish things do you like to do?

I read on AO3 a LOT. Like, an unreasonable amount of fan fiction reading is going on in my life LOL. I dabbled in writing many years ago, and that was fun and felt like a huge accomplishment. But I seem to have run out of stories to tell, so I mostly enjoy the stories others have shared. There's so much writing talent in fandom, it's inspiring.

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in the comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

I. NEW ISSUE OF TRANSFORMATIVE WORKS AND CULTURES

On March 15, TWC announced the release of No. 39 (Trans Fandom) of the OTW’s academic journal, Transformative Works and Cultures. In the words of guest editors Jennifer Duggan and Angie Fazekas in the issue’s introduction, “This special issue has sought to widen our knowledge of trans fans and fandoms, with the aim of publishing articles that center trans people. It is our hope that this focus will not only bring trans fans out of the margins of fan studies but also that the special issue will reflect the changing face of fandom, in which gender identities appear to be increasingly diverse.” To read the full issue, visit TWC’s website.

II. AT THE AO3

Open Doors announced the import of What Makes the Desert Beautiful, a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fanfiction focused on the Nick and Greg pairing, and Viggorli Secret Santa, a Lord of the Rings RPS fanfiction gift exchange focused on the Viggo Mortensen/Orlando Bloom pairing.

Policy & Abuse received a bit over 1600 tickets in March, while Support was on track to receive about 1500 tickets at the time of this writing. Meanwhile, in February, Tag Wrangling handled more than 430,000 tags across more than 56,000 fandoms - more than 900 tags per wrangler!

III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW

In March, Legal joined allies to send a letter to the U.S. Senate supporting Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. They argued that Section 230 is important to empowering Internet users and provides protection for everyone, not just large corporations. The full letter is available online.

Board hosted a public meeting on March 26, including an update on the work of its Diversity Consultant Research Officer. Minutes will be available on the OTW’s website soon.

Edit: There was previously a typo on this newsletter referring to the meeting we held that month as if it would happen in May 27th instead. While we don't have a meeting on May, our next quarterly meeting will be scheduled soon and announced on OTW's social media and our meeting Discord.

Following the cutover to its new database servers, Systems reinstalled the old database servers to serve as app servers, which has improved our response times.

IV. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PEEPS

From 25 February to 25 March, Volunteers & Recruiting received 116 new requests, and completed 99, leaving us with 61 open requests (including induction and removal tasks listed below).

As of 25 March 2023, the OTW has 908 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.

New Committee Chairs: Amy2 (Development & Membership), Kristina Busse (TWC)
New Communications Volunteers: Remington (Tumblr Site Moderator)
New Elections Volunteers: Jeanne & 1 other Volunteer (Team Coordinator), Cookies, MoonFlower (all Communication Specialists) & 1 other Communication Specialist
New Open Doors Volunteers: MPH (Fanzine Scan Hosting Project Volunteer)
New Support Volunteers: Paula (Chair Track Volunteer)
New Translation Volunteers: sei rosario, Vesta & 4 other Translators
New Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: Tee, whetherwoman & 3 other Volunteers, 1 Projects Volunteer

Departing AO3 Documentation Volunteers: Zintlion (Editor)
Departing Policy & Abuse Volunteers: 1 Volunteer
Departing Support Volunteers: JK13 (Volunteer)
Departing Tag Wrangler Volunteers: 3 Tag Wranglers
Departing Translation Volunteers: Madamezou & 7 other Translators
Departing Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: 1 Volunteer

For more information about the purview of our committees, please access the committee listing on our website.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.