There were two huge pieces of news for the OTW this month: the success of its membership drive and its new volunteer recruitment system. Development & Membership received more than 2,054 individual donations totaling US$53,243.99 over the 3-9 April drive period. Thank you to everyone who participated! (See the thank-you post for more about the drive.)
We would also like to say a huge "thank you" to the mods, writers, and bidders of http://ao3auction.tumblr.com, an independently organized fan auction benefiting the OTW. The auction recently closed with an amazing pledge total of US$16,729! For tax reasons, the OTW cannot officially endorse third-party fundraisers — that's why we didn't promote the auction while it was still going on. However, we're extremely grateful when fans choose to put on such events. Aside from the money they raise, it means a lot to all the OTW staff and volunteers to see our fellow fans making such a wonderful show of support for our work. Thank you.
The Survey workgroup, together with Communications, compiled and released the OTW's 2012 Community Survey Report. The 183 page report contained information from all 89 survey questions and cross-tabulated results. There were 5,895 people who provided feedback about their use of our projects and awareness of our activities. The OTW wants to thank everyone who gave their time and feedback!
Welcome to the OTW's first organization newsletter for 2013! This newsletter appears every month from February to November (omitting our term break period in December and January). Since our last check-in there have been changes to the Board, changes to the chairs and staff of various committees, new policies and procedures, and a lot of work carried over from 2012.
August has been a month of largely non-public work, as technical and documentation preparations have been going on across various committees for things to be launched next month, including a new code push at the AO3, the release of a Code of Conduct draft for staff and volunteers across the org, and celebrations of the OTW's fifth anniversary.
Our top OTW story for June has to be the growing crush of users and user hopefuls at the AO3 and the resulting groans from our favorite fanworks ship. It was all hands on deck, primarily for those on the Accessibility, Design and Technology and Systems committees, but also from Support and Communications, who posted and tweeted about the problems to keep users in the loop, handled user questions and fed reported issues to our team of coders.
Development & Membership has been busy debriefing after the incredibly successful April membership drive: discussing what worked well and what to improve, shipping premiums to donors, and working with Finance to record donations sent via physical mail. They’re also forming small teams within the committee to work on projects such as convention outreach, merchandise research, social media strategy, and improving our external and internal documentation.
