I. Transformative Works and Cultures Publishes Its 30th Issue

On 15 September, the Transformative Works and Cultures team published the journal's 30th issue. This was a large issue on general topics, containing over 20 items whose subjects range from eighteenth-century prophecy to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There's something for everyone!

The team is now working on the next issue, number 31. “Fan Fiction and Ancient Scribal Cultures” will be guest-edited by Frauke Uhlenbruch and Sonja Ammann and is scheduled to be released on December 15, 2019. They're also looking forward to the issues coming out next year (and beyond): check out the TWC website to view open Calls for Papers.

II. AT THE AO3

This month, Open Doors completed the import of a little piece of gundam wing, an archive which originated way back in 2001. We're happy that it's found a permanent home on the AO3!

Good news for those with questions about tagging their fanworks: this month, AO3 Documentation uploaded a new and improved Tags FAQ. Use it to find answers to all of your questions, including what tags are, how they are organized and what to do when the tags you want don't seem to exist. One thing that we all know for certain is that our Tag Wrangling team are kept busy: in August, they wrangled approximately 256,000 tags! (September numbers will be available next month.)

And finally for AO3 news, our user-facing teams have been busy as usual: the Policy and Abuse and the Support teams each received around 1,100 tickets across the month. Policy and Abuse ask for users' patience as they deal with your incoming tickets: the team is small and made up of volunteers and where cases are complex, it can take some time to get through them. They would like to request that users submitting a report bear in mind that the more information you can provide, the easier it is to investigate. As a reminder, non-fanworks such as prompt posts, fic searches, RP ads, etc are not allowed on the Archive and will be removed where they are reported. A warning will also be noted on the account and future violations may cause an account to be suspended or banned.

The Support team further reminds users that they are unable to provide users with updates on the status of cases reported to Policy and Abuse. Our privacy policy means that only Policy and Abuse staffers have access to the information in their queue.

III. COMMUNICATIONS AND CONTENT PRODUCTION

The OTW's Communications committee has been busy this month. On 5 September, they led celebrations of the OTW's 12th anniversary, marking the location by releasing updated flyers and info sheets as well as a series of genre-themed graphics which fans can use on their own websites and social media pages to show support for the OTW. They also published a Guest Post, chatting to Angie Fiedler Sutton of the G33K Out podcast; a Five Things interview with Volunteers and Recruiting staffer Frost the Fox; and two issues of This Week in Fandom, volumes 121 and 122.

As well as keeping our own website busy, Comms staffers have continued to respond to media requests received in the wake of the AO3's Hugo win. As usual, you can find all the latest articles in which OTW projects appear in our Press Room on transformativeworks.org.

Meanwhile, Fanlore ran the two-week long Stub September challenge, focused on growing stubs into full-blown articles. Participants were rewarded with some fantastic badges courtest of the team's new graphic design volunteers! Fanlore also reports a general uptick in editing activity thanks to the excitement around the AO3 Hugo Award. Many, many thanks to everyone who worked hard at documenting it all!

IV. GOVERNANCE

The OTW Board voted on, and is proud to announce, its new Officer roster for 2019/2020: Natalia Gruber as President, Lex de Leon as Secretary, and Yuechiang Luo as Treasurer. The Board also extends its thanks to Priscilla Del Cima and Kristina Busse for their hard work as their tenure on Board comes to an end, and to Claire P. Baker and Jessie Casiulis as they pass their officer roles onto the next cohort.

Development and Membership and Translation were both busy throughout September preparing for the October fundraising drive. You can expect to hear more about that in our newsletter for October!

V. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PEEPS

Volunteers & Recruiting: As of 24 September the OTW has 815 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.

New Directors: Kirsten Wright, Rebecca Sentance

New Committee Chairs: Morgan Drake (AO3 Documentation)

New Committee Staff: Briar, Fiona M, Kelly Gritten, memorizingthedigitsofpi, MorningStarlight, Semnai, x_lazart_x (all AO3 Documentation) and 1 other AO3 Documentation staffer, Audrey J. (Communications), Silas O'Neill (Communications), Seamus Johnston (Systems), Ashley Pancho, arwenxs, eastofoktober, Jocelin, Kyrstin, Leila Varzideh, Mile, Nick_S, SashaK (all Support) & 4 other Support Staffers

New Fanlore Volunteers: djiange, Jercy Dee, memorizingthedigitsofpi and 4 other volunteers

New Tag Wrangler Volunteers: 1hillarynguyen, Alana, Amy2, Aurita, batcat229, Blue_Link13, ceci, cirelle, Cordz, Danielle Plung, Dawn Huang, Dia, Dixon, eak_a_mouse, fulltimeDreamer, gecko, Gwen O, hmsphere, Jacqui, JakUnderhill, Jody, Kay, Leah Kim, Liekinloimu, Martisz, Masha, Mavis, Megan S, Minx, Mosaik, mysk, papernote, Patricia Tang, peaandsea, pumpkinpaix, Quine, Ron Geromy, Siki, SWColeson, Terri Morgan, toby, Upasana Das, Zhimo, Zhirong, Zozo and 2 other Tag Wranglers

Departing Committee Chairs: Angelique Jurd (Communications)

Departing Committee Staff: Angelique Jurd (Communications)

Departing Tag Wrangler Volunteers: waveridden and 1 other volunteer

Departing Translation Volunteers: Lez, Naroen, Natalia Suzdal, Ula and 1 other volunteer

For more information about the purview of our committees, please access the committee listing on our website.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.