I. OTW ELECTIONS SEASON BEGINS

Our Elections team has been busy as this year’s OTW Board Directors election season has begun! The election will be held from 9-12 August, but in the meantime you can learn more about the three candidates competing for positions on the Board at our Elections page (for personal reasons, one of the original four candidates has withdrawn her candidacy). The Elections Committee would like to thank everyone who contributed questions for the upcoming candidates Q & A, answers to which will be posted to the Elections page.

Please note that the deadline to become an OTW member in order to vote in the upcoming election has now passed. If you don’t want to miss out next year, you can join at any time by making a US$10 membership donation at the OTW’s donations page.

II. FANLORE BINGO

This month, Fanlore concluded a very successful Bingo Challenge event which saw lots of participants – both established editors and newcomers – taking part to complete their 'bingo cards' and earn adorable badges. Thanks to everyone who took part!

III. AT THE AO3

Our AO3 Documentation team uploaded a new FAQ, explaining how to format content on AO3 using HTML. Look out for more FAQ updates coming soon!

The Open Doors committee was happy to complete the Born For War archive import, first announced in February.

The Policy & Abuse committee received around 2,000 tickets this month, which is more than usual. They ask for your patience as they work through them! Meanwhile, our Tag Wrangling team wrangled over 262,000 tags and Support received approximately 1,400 tickets.

IV. LEGAL ADVOCACY

June brought good news for Legal’s advocacy project on two fronts. First, the results of the Canadian Parliament’s statutory review of the Copyright Act review were released, and the OTW’s submission was cited favorably in a number of places. This report doesn’t change Canadian law in any way, but it reflects that Canada’s Parliament hears and respects the interests of fans! Second, the OTW joined allies in successfully opposing proposed fan-unfriendly expansions of the right of publicity in New York State.

V. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE PEEPS

Many of our teams welcomed new members this month, including Translation whose 11 new volunteers included four which created new language teams: Afrikaans, Galician, Lithuanian and Macedonian.

In total, the OTW has 722 volunteers as of 26 June. Recent personnel movements are listed below.

New Committee Staff: redheadandslytherin (Translation)

New Communications Volunteers: Atiya B, Elin, and 2 other volunteers

New Tag Wrangler Volunteers: 2 volunteers

New Translation Volunteers: 7 volunteers

Departing Committee Staff: Ingi (Tag Wrangling), Lauren Hanna (Communications), Linde (Volunteers & Recruiting), Priscilla Del Cima (Fanlore) and 1 other Communications staffer

Departing Communications Volunteers: 1 volunteer

Departing Tag Wrangler Volunteers: Adie and 2 other volunteers

Departing Translation Volunteers: RiiaN and 5 other volunteers