Membership

It's that time! Time for a new drive premium!

The OTW, as you may know, is committed to keeping our donors hydrated. Well, maybe not committed, as such, but not standing in anyone's way. And definitely interested in offering donors at levels of US$100 and above a swanky bottle to fill with their beverage of choice. This time, it's a 24 oz. capacity stainless steel water bottle, in a lovely white finish, bedecked with the OTW logo in an ever-stylish and striking red. It's kind of ridiculously sexy, too, with an easy to grip shape and well-fitted screw-on cap. If you find that sort of thing sexy, that is. We won't judge you!

We're still offering a packet of OTW stickers and iron-ons, both useful for transforming your non-OTW related possessions, at a donation level of US$50, and you can opt to get everything -- stickers, iron-ons, and water bottle -- for any donation at or above US$120. We ship donation premiums all over the world. In fact, our premiums-shipping volunteer has been known to particularly enjoy sending packages internationally. We don't judge her, either.

In other news of useful things that you may want to make grabby hands at, we would like to direct your attention to the search bar plugin that resourceful Archive of Our Own user Punk has created! You can now search the AO3 on the whimsy of the moment, going directly to your search results. If you are using Firefox or Internet Explorer 8, you can download the plugin from this page on mozdev.org -- just click the link that says "Archive of Our Own" and answer yes when prompted by the dialogue box. Punk has also pointed out that there's a Fanlore version created by Loren Leah that can be downloaded from mozdev.org as well!

March at the OTW is an exciting month -- we're far enough in to 2010 that we've had time to evaluate our goals and examine our tasks with a fresh eye. We're excited about what we've done so far as an organization and in service of fandom, and we're exhilarated by the possibilities that are just around the corner.

So now, from 9-15 March, we are calling on you to donate. Any amount above US$10 will extend your membership to one year from the most recent donation -- that means if you donate today, you're a member until a year from today. Membership is a way to take part in the work and to accomplish our aims, and anything more you can give helps make our dreams a reality -- our fanworks hosted on servers controlled by fans, on software created for fans, and using fan-created policies. The donations made last March allowed us to buy those servers! \o/ It's an amazing accomplishment, and one we intend to make ever stronger and more sustainable. And we can't do it without you -- your suggestions, energy, hard work, and financial support.

While our members support us, we also want to be clear that we are the sum of our parts -- we are you. The OTW isn't just member-supported; our members are the OTW. We, as fans, want the OTW to reflect our diversity, our globalism, our many voices. Please join us, and bring your friends. Bring the fannish world.

<a href="http://transformativeworks.org/how-you-can-help/support"><img src="http://transformativeworks.org/sites/default/files/memdrive_0.png" alt="9-15 March 2010 OTW Membership Drive" /></a>

Feel free to repost this graphic by copying the text below the image and pasting it into your journal or website.
We know we didn't get a chance to represent everyone, so we invite you to contribute "membership" in your language if it's missing!

We've been accomplishing so much more than we can list for you in a single post! In fact, we'll be posting every day during the drive to spotlight our projects and mission, and to tell you more about why you should help us to sustain our work. The Archive Of Our Own is flourishing in open beta! Transformative Works and Cultures is about to release a much-anticipated issue focusing on Supernatural! Fanlore, where we are recording our history, our (sometimes not-so) common language, our tropes, and our inventions! The zine collections of the Fan Culture Preservation Project! The rescued fansites that make up the Geocities Rescue Project! Advocacy for Vidders and remix artists!

During this drive, we’re also continuing to offer the option of premiums for donations: at a level of US$50 or more you can choose to receive an OTW sticker & iron-on pack, to proudly display your support; at a level of US$100 or more, we're changing things up a little! For the first two days of the March drive (or while they last), we'll continue to offer the OTW insulated travel mug -- beginning 11 March (or as soon as we're out of mugs) we'll roll out an eco-friendly OTW stainless steel water bottle; at US$120, you can opt for either the mug or the bottle (whichever is currently active) along with a sticker & iron-on pack!

During this October membership drive, the OTW is launching a new series of "donation premiums"--that's the technical fundraising term for "small gifts we offer to our donors as a token of our gratitude for your support." (You know--Merch. Tchatzkes. Clutter.)

We're offering two premiums this time around (click to see larger images).

OTW Stickers: Your (Laptop, T-Shirt, Notebook Cover) Looks So...Naked!

If you donate US$50 or more, you can receive an OTW sticker and iron-on pack. The stickers and iron-ons are 3" in diameter; the iron-ons (assorted shapes) are suitable for use on light or dark-colored clothing, tote bags, or other textiles. Stick 'em on your laptop, your writing notebook, your breasts: our Merch Coordinator assures us that they make very generous pasties. Iron-ons turn that boring t-shirt or tote bag from "Blah!" to "Wow"! (or possibly we need to get out more. But really, they're cool!)

OTW Travel Mug! (Get 'Em While They're Hot--No, They're Cool, Just The Coffee Is--I'll come in again.)

If you donate US$100 or more, you can snag an insulated OTW travel mug. It holds 14 oz. of your favorite beverage, plus it's swanky as all hell: acrylic and stainless steel exterior, 18/8 stainless steel inner liner, splash-resistant lid. The OTW graphic is printed with eco-friendly organic inks on both sides of the mug: yes, our mug goes both ways! Come on, you know you want one!

Combo Package!! (Yes, You Can Have It All!)

If you donate $120 or more, you can get it all: the stickers, the iron on, the insulated travel mug, as well as the devotion of all of us here at the OTW. And if you carry something adorned with our logo to a party or a conference or on the bus--well, hey, you might find fans in places you never expected to find us!

ACT NOW! Operators are standing by!

Hello all!

We're writing with an update on our March membership drive, at long last. It was a fabulous drive! We raised $11,142 from 396 donations: 222 members renewed their memberships, 167 new folks joined the organization as members, and the other donations were "just donations" which don't confer membership (voting rights.)

The vast majority of our members are in the United States, with the United Kingdom coming in second. We also have a fair number of members in Canada, Germany, and Australia. Other countries represented on our membership rolls include Belgium, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Timor-Leste, plus we have a handful of donors whose location is "unspecified." Wow!

Most of our donations were in the US$25 range, though many folks gave less and many gave more. (We are grateful to all of our members and supporters, regardless of the size of anyone's donation.) We're thrilled that more than two hundred of our current members renewed their memberships, and over the moon to have a hundred and sixty-seven new members! One of our tasks now is encouraging those who didn't renew their membership to do so.

If you joined the organization during our first year and have not renewed your membership, we'd love to know why and to figure out whether there's anything we can do to entice you to support the OTW again. If you are a member who didn't renew, we'd love to hear from you! Please drop us a comment on this post, or use the handy contact us form, and let us know what we could be doing better.

(Actually, whether or not you're a member who didn't renew, we'd love to hear from you. We'll do our best to answer all comments and emails, so please reach out if you have questions or suggestions for the folks in Dev/Mem!)

All in all, we are thrilled with how this drive went. Most of the money we raised will go toward the cost of colocated servers for the Archive of Our Own; the tech folks are busy researching server options, and we in DevMem are delighted to be able to tell them that we've raised this much money toward "owning the goddamned servers" at last. The rest will go toward assorted organizational costs and into the bank, for when we need it for the ongoing costs of maintaining those servers! And other costs as well, of course.

If you didn't donate during the drive, never fear; you can donate, or become a member, at any time during the year. Our next big push for donations will come in October; until then, we'll be hanging back and working on other Dev/Mem projects. Many thanks to all who donated!

- The Dev/Mem Committee of the OTW: Carla, Elizabeth, Monica, Rachel, Shoshanna, and Vera

Thanks to everyone who participated in the OTW's recent membership drive: by posting about the drive or about the org, by sharing one of our awesome lolcats, and most especially by donating. It will take a few days for the last promised donations to clear, and then your humble DevMem team will take a few days off to decompress, but we hope to post soon with some nifty statistics and graphics so that you can share our glee.

A few folks contacted us late in the drive to say, "I'm not able to donate now, but I hope to have the money to donate sometime soon -- can I still donate after the drive is over?" The answer is yes! Our formal March 2009 membership drive has ended, which means we'll stop proclaiming the awesomeness of the OTW quite so loudly from the rooftops, but you can support the OTW with a donation at any time.

Thanks for being a part of the OTW!

The Development/Membership Committee of the OTW: Carla, Elizabeth, Ignaz, Monica, Rachel, Shoshanna, and Vera

OK, the truth is: you can actually sign up for membership (and donate) to the OTW all year round. But like public television and radio, OTW holds membership drives at fixed times during the year so that we're not constantly pestering you for money. Tomorrow is the last day of our March membership drive; after that, this site will be a free fannish space until October. So here's our last plea for cash!

If you're not a member of OTW, please become a member! If you're already a member, renew your membership! Non-profit spaces like the OTW are one of the ways we fans can push back against the increasing commercialization of the internet and fight the attempted commercialization of our communities. Ten bucks is enough to get you a year of membership and voting rights in our organization.

We are building our own software and buying our own servers. We are stepping away from the increasingly advertising-driven culture of Web 2.0. We are declaring our pride in fandom and the real worth of our fannish communities, practices, activities, and fanworks. We are working together to preserve our many and varied histories and to keep fandom open and alive for all newbies everywhere, without gatekeepers or restrictions.

Join OTW!

These Lolcats were created to promote our fund-raising and membership drive in March 2009. Feel free to use them -- just copy the html below the image and paste into your website or journal!

The 2008 calendar year is almost over...which means 'tis the season for nonprofit organizations to remind their communities that if you want to deduct a contribution on your 2008 taxes, you'll need to donate by 12/31!

As you're thinking about your end-of-year contributions, we hope you'll keep the OTW in mind. You can make a one-time donation or sign up for an easy recurring donation on our website, here — and if your employer offers matching donations, you might be able to double your donation to the OTW; we're happy to help you figure that out as needed, so please let us know.

A donation to the OTW makes a great holiday gift for the fan who has everything.

Thanks for being a part of the OTW in 2008!

-- OTW DevMem

Call for funds

Last month the OTW launched Fanlore, our wiki, which is being populated with new articles as we speak. The first issue of our journal, Transformative Works and Cultures, launched in mid-September. We have recently launched our new website, which means all OTW members can now access our news service via an RSS feed from our own blog. And the Archive of Our Own has entered limited public beta, and is filling up with stories even now! Four of our big projects have gone from dream to reality. We are so psyched about all of this, we hardly have words to express our squee!

So welcome to our October donations drive! From October 13 to October 20, we invite you to make a donation to the Organization for Transformative Works. Every little bit counts, and whether you’re able to donate $10 or $500, your support means the world to us…and enables us to do the things we do.

We accept donations all the time, but we especially hope you’ll donate this week during our October drive. Donate now to help support the work we’re already doing—and the work we’re going to do in the months to come!

One of the new features on our spiffy new website is the ability to sign up for recurring monthly giving. So you can make a onetime donation now, and/or sign up to make a sustaining donation each month automatically! These recurring donations are tax-deductible, and will automatically be charged to you via PayPal without you having to remember to do a thing. The choice is yours.

And as an added bonus, since the OTW just received 501(c)3 (federally-recognized nonprofit) status in the United States, donations to the OTW made by US fans are now tax-deductible! (Fans in other parts of the world will need to consult a local expert to find out how to deduct international donations.)

Please note: if you donate via PayPal, you’ll receive a receipt from them immediately; but you won’t hear from us directly until the donation has actually appeared in our coffers. Thanks for your patience!

Call for talent

The coming OTW elections will mark our transition into Year 2. In our first year, the org has grown by leaps and bounds; more than one hundred fans now work together to make our dreams a reality. And we’d love to have you on board!

Do you have skills in coding, website design, nonprofit management, public relations, building membership, financial accounting, law, copyediting, managing volunteers, and/or speaking languages other than English? Do you want to be an OTW staffer for Year 2? We’re always looking for a few good fans, and we’d love to have you on board as we enter our second year of operation. If you’re interested in being a part of the OTW in this way, click on over to the Willing to Serve post that our Volunteers committee just posted, and let us know who you are and how to find you!

You’re the reason we’re here, doing the work that we do. Thank you for being a part of the OTW!

10/13/2008, 22:55 EST: edited to delete references to annual donations, which we don't currently have the capacity for; Development & Membership apologizes for the error. -- EY