kerfuffle

[thisaintbc]

 
Most of you are probably already aware of the recent kerfuffle about AO3's treatment of certain volunteers, the resignation of three board members, and the ongoing election. If you aren't, this journal does a decent job of summarizing things. In reading up on these events and trying to understand what's going on, I've found myself consistently surprised by pieces of information that just sort of come up in discussion.

A few things I have learned about AO3 over the past few days:

• Board members can serve as Committee Chairs simultaneous to their term. I understand why it was done this way when the org was first started, but this seems to so obviously fly in the face of any reasonable system of checks and balances. 
• Many OTW volunteers aren't members, and therefore can't vote in elections. I guess I should have known this, because membership is entirely donation-based and there's no mention of it anywhere on the volunteering page, but I didn't! The fact that someone can volunteer hundreds of hours and not get to vote, but I get to vote because I mailed AO3 a check for less than a meal at a cheap diner would cost me, is jaw-dropping.
• It is incredibly difficult to find information about the OTW's internal structure. 
  • The board currently has seven seats. This number is nowhere on the Board's fanlore page and I also didn't find it on the OTW's Board of Directors "About" page; I figured this out by going back through the past few election cycles and counting the number of people on the board post-election. Presumably (hopefully) this is somewhere in the elections information and I just didn't see it, but having to hunt for something that seems like pretty basic info is frustrating.
  • The OTW currently has 18 committees. The About page has more information about this than the board, but things like how committee chairs are selected are still incredibly opaque. I've been using AO3 for over a decade and before today I probably would've been able to name less than half of the committees.

Some (maybe a lot!) of you are probably already familiar with these things, but I feel like I don't see people talking about the first two except incidentally in regards to other topics? And I guess I was just wondering if anyone else was flabbergasted by this, or had other things you've learned about the structure of the OTW you wanted to share, or...anything.

Comments

[ride_4ever]

TYK for posting these succinct observations that have helped me through some of my state of overwhelm.

[thisaintbc]

<3 I’m glad this was helpful for you!! It’s a lot, and people are talking a lot about complex structural issues and detailed solutions—but these comparatively simple questions of accountability, equity, & transparency really stuck out to me as I started to read what people were saying & try to search for information.