Sep 2008 Newsletter, vol. 18
Welcome to the second September issue of the OTW Newsletter! We're constantly on the lookout for ways to keep fandom up-to-date and informed about what's going on behind the scenes here at OTW, so twice a month, Community Relations compiles updates about what the various committees are working on and we share them here.

All issues of the newsletter will be tagged accordingly, so you can follow our progress chronologically.

Academic Journal Update from mafaldastasi

September 15th: the TWC academic journal has just released its first issue!
http://journal.transformativeworks.org

Read the full press release here:
http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/announcement

The TWC team are already planning No. 2, to be released March 15, 2009. The team have issued a call for papers for an issue entitled Games as Transformative Works, guest edited by Rebecca Carlson, which is available here:
http://journal.transformativeworks.org/docs/twc-no-2-games-cfp.rtf.

Accessibility, Design, and Technology Update from black_samvara

We're currently internally beta testing the archive and uploading our first round of real stories. This gives us a chance to identify and fix some of the small (and not so small) weird things the archive does. If all goes well weíll be making the Archive available to browse (It's too early have lots of people creating accounts, sorry!) within the next month.

When we upload a new version of code, we call it a Revision and this week we passed the Revision of the Beast (666) which may give some small idea of how hard people are working!

Board Update From kellyannbessa

The Board continues to be careen between giddy and exhausted as numerous projects inch toward launch. Turns out it *is* possible to function on two hours of sleep and massive amounts of fangirl joy.

Community Relations Update from ciderpress

This week, ComRel has mostly been eating yoghurt. We are working with the different committees to support them as they prepare to launch various projects.

Content Policy Update from ainsley

Content policy continues its work on internal policies to go along with the archive beta.

Development and Membership

We're very pleased to announce that our tax-exempt, nonprofit status has been officially approved by the IRS. Please see this post:

http://community.livejournal.com/otw_news/38706.html

for more details.

Elections update from eponis

The Elections Committee was excited to unveil our Elections FAQ and 2008 Timeline last week, which lay out all the details of how and when to declare candidacy, campaign, and vote.

Now we're plunging into the business of carrying it out! We're continuing to work with our third party polling vendor, and we've set up a team for our election helpdesk. Most recently, we've begun to invite and recruit potential candidates to run. Remember that you must be a paying OTW member by October 19 in order to vote, so be sure to sign up before the deadline!

Financial

No update at this time.

Legal Update from killalla

The Legal Committee was pleased to hear of the approval of the OTW's 501(c)3 application for tax exempt status, and would like to extend our congratulations and thanks to all of the OTW committees and volunteers who assisted with this effort.

We continue to provide support and review to other committees on a variety of matters. And as always, we attempt to respond promptly to queries from the public as they arise.

Open Doors from Francesca Coppa

As the Archive opens, Open Doors is thinking about the next phase of its existence and actually putting a team together. We're still in early days, but if you're interested in fanfic preservation, and getting existing endangered work into the safe harbor of the Archive, please consider volunteering for Open Doors. More news soon!

Public Relations Update from jacquez

The Public Relations committee has been traveling, so work's been going slowly! We've been trying to keep on top of the inbox and organizing our communications generally.

Systems

The Systems committee has been doing what it does best, staying on top of as many requests as we can and keeping the all the plumbing in order. We have a new Systems Chair to help manage work flow and communications while our brilliant tech-heads do esoteric things (of which I have little understanding) at very high speeds.

We're also embarking on a systems-wide security overhaul to make sure all leaks are patched; updates will follow as we progress.

And, finally, it looks like we may have finally settled on a regular weekly meeting time that will allow our crack team of elite international IT specialists to gather and fight crime at full strength from this point forward.

Translations

No updates at this time.

Volunteers and Recruiting Update from kellyannbessa

Our committee has recruited a new member, AnnaK, who will be a huge help to us during the upcoming volunteer drive, and the committee changeover at the end of this term. Welcome, Annak!

We are currently looking for graphic artists to create pretty things for the new website and archive.

Let us know if you are interested!

Webmasters Update from juniperphoenix

The Webmasters recently welcomed our new PHP guru, Gryvon, who will be working closely with Development & Membership to improve our siteís capabilities for membership and donation processing.

We are continuing to make cosmetic and usability tweaks to Website 2.0. We have also begun to write documentation of the website project in the OTW internal wiki. This will serve as a website users manual for us and for other OTW staffers.

Wiki

No updates at this time.

What details would you like to know? Please give ComRel a helping hand and let us know! Email us at comrel @ transformativeworks.org.

-femmequixotic, bethbethbeth, ciderpress, mirabile_dictu, shrift, svmadelyn
Community Relations Committee