Petition Change the Election Policies of the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) 

We the petitioners request that OTW:

• Not allow candidates on a ballot who advocate or act in ways contrary to the mission and values of the OTW (i.e., not allow candidates to run who are pro-censorship.) 
• Create a policy to immediately and irrevocably remove any board member, staff member, or volunteer who acts or advocates for actions contrary to the mission and values of OTW. 
• Amend their faulty membership criteria so that monthly donors who donate $10 total within a year automatically become members. (Note that a one-time annual donation of $10 qualifies someone for voting membership, but annual donations of OVER $10 DO NOT if the donations are less than $10 per month!) 
• Allow time in the election process for ballot errors to be addressed and corrected so that every eligible voter has the chance to vote and have their vote be counted. 
  
  

Per their website, “if your voting instructions email bounces, gets marked as spam, or you opt out, you will not receive a ballot for this year’s election, and you may not receive a ballot next year. Similarly, if any of those things happened to last year’s election emails, you will not receive a ballot this year.”  This is not a voting policy that serves members! 

The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) (transformativeworks.org) states:

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. We believe that fanworks are transformative and that transformative works are legitimate.

Our projects include Archive of Our Own, Legal Advocacy, Fanlore, Transformative Works and Cultures and Open Doors.

We envision a future in which all fannish works are recognized as legal and transformative and are accepted as a legitimate creative activity. We are proactive and innovative in protecting and defending our work from commercial exploitation and legal challenge. We preserve our fannish economy, values, and creative expression by protecting and nurturing our fellow fans, our work, our commentary, our history, and our identity while providing the broadest possible access to fannish activity for all fans.

The OTW will preserve the record of our history as we pursue our mission while encouraging new and non-mainstream expressions of cultural identity within fandom.

OTW should not permit candidates for any position to run when they have stated positions OR acted contrary to the values and mission of the organization.