As some readers may have read about in the OTW's last newsletter, the Survey Workgroup has been going through some changes. As the new leads we, Aja and Eylul, wanted to say hello and provide a brief update. Over the past month we have been working on our analysis processes to see what can be improved. We are starting our posts again although they may come out at a slower pace until we finish our internal reorganization.

The work done by the Survey Workgroup involves various parts of our organization. This week's post will highlight a different part of our process toward our final report. Once we have presentable data from a specific section of the survey, such as what you've seen in our earlier posts, we provide that information to the relevant committee. The committee then has the opportunity to consider the input provided and respond with how this may be incorporated in their work. This week's Survey Sunday report will be the first one that provides that response back to public. In an earlier post, we reported why people stop being members and what might make them choose to become members in the future. The following post is a reflection on those findings written by Development & Membership (DevMem), the OTW committee responsible for fundraising and membership-building efforts.

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The feedback DevMem received from the survey was extremely useful. Most of it was positive, but it also illuminated things we should work on in order to grow the OTW's membership. Here are the key points we gleaned from the data, along with some of the actions we'll take to address them.

Broadening our member base

Most respondents who are or have been OTW members said that their main reason for joining was to support the organization. More than 40% of respondents whose memberships had lapsed said it was for financial reasons, and 59.3% of respondents who are not current members said that improvement in their finances might make them choose to become members in the future. This is good news, because it tells us that these people want to donate. However, it also points to the importance of expanding and diversifying our member base — a larger pool of supporters will help ensure that we're able to meet the OTW's resource needs even when financial circumstances prevent individuals from donating as much as they otherwise might.

Nearly 43% of former members said they'd forgotten to renew their memberships. Late last year we implemented a reminder e-mail to people whose memberships are about to expire, which we hope will help improve this statistic.

Some respondents said they did not feel represented by the OTW, or that they wanted more outreach or services appealing to their fannish communities. Wider outreach is crucial to the growth and diversification of our membership. DevMem will work actively to develop outreach efforts and to support such efforts by other committees. Currently, we're partnering with the Open Doors committee to develop an outreach plan for fan conventions.

Clearing up confusion

Confusion was a major theme of the survey responses. DevMem is addressing this by improving the clarity of our communications and encouraging other committees to do likewise. Specifically:

• Many respondents were not aware of the OTW's projects, or were only aware of a particular project (usually the Archive of Our Own) and didn't realize it was associated with the OTW. We are addressing this by encouraging committees to add more prominent links to the OTW website from the project sites they run. We'll also make sure that DevMem's outreach activities feature all of the OTW's projects.
• Respondents expressed confusion about the donation process and the meaning of membership. We're addressing this by revamping our donation page and creating a clear, concise donation/membership FAQ.
• Respondents were confused about the difference between being an OTW member and having an Archive of Our Own (AO3) user account. We'll address this in our donation/membership FAQ, and we've also asked AD&T to place a clarifying statement on the AO3's "request an invite" page. For the record: OTW membership and AO3 user accounts are completely separate. We’re deeply grateful for the financial support of fans who choose to become OTW members, but doing so does not confer priority status with regard to AO3 invitations.

Options for submitting donations

The OTW uses PayPal to process online donations, but some respondents said they were wary of using PayPal or were unable to use it. For example, PayPal's functionality for Russian users is extremely limited. This prevented some people from donating. (In contrast, during the April membership drive we received several e-mails from people who were only willing to donate via PayPal — so it's a complicated issue.) Our friends on the Finance committee are researching alternative payment processors, with special attention to accessibility for international donors. In the meantime, we also welcome donations via physical mail and will work to express that more prominently on the revised donation page.

For the first time at a fandom convention, the OTW's Development and Membership Committee will be sponsoring an Information Table at Ascendio, a Harry Potter Education Fanon conference on July 12-15. Stop by the table on Friday in the Vendors Area and talk to OTW staffers, ask questions, and find out more about the work of the OTW, its projects, volunteer opportunities, and more!

If you're an OTW volunteer who's going to be at Ascendio and you'd like to help staff the booth, please contact DevMem at devmem at transformativeworks.org. We'd love to have you join us.

In addition to the booth, there will be a number of sessions that OTW members, volunteers and supporters will be taking part in, including:

• How Fandom Has Shaped Social Media Spaces (and vice versa), a panel featuring OTW Committee Members Aja Romano and Heidi Tandy
• Out of the Closet: Third-Wave Slash and Social Change, with OTW Committee Members and Supporters including moderator Aja Romano, Catherine Tosenberger, and Kate Tanski
• How To Debate Clueless And Uninformed People About Transformative Works, or El Tango de Roxanne, a presentation on law and transformative works with OTW Legal Committee members Heidi Tandy and Rachael Vaughn

Ascendio is taking place at the Loews Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. We hope to see many of you there!

The fantastic thing about the October 2011 Membership Drive is that it was a success -- but, better than that, it was a week where our community came together and displayed strength, dedication, passion, and greatness. It was awe inspiring to see fans in action.

Actually, to just say the drive was a success understates matters. By any measure it was groundbreaking -- we received 432 donations, 177 of which were from new members, both higher numbers than ever before. Our average donation amount was US$38.09. Paired with our matching grants, the total donations received over the course of the drive came out to US$21,456 -- also a number higher than we've ever reached before in one drive.

At this moment, the OTW has 881 active members from 23 countries. And we're all fantastic, since we spent a week spreading the word that fans are building the future and the future is now.

All we can say is this: Thank You.

As a follow-up to yesterday's giveaway we're excited to announce that anatsuno will receive Cecilia Tan's generous donation!

PS! You can still send in your swag pics for a free Kudos tattoo!