2017 OTW Board Election

The 2017 Organization for Transformative Works Board of Directors election took place between June 21 and August 15, 2017.
On June 21, 2017, the candidates for the 2017 OTW Board Election were publicly announced. Six candidates, none of whom had previously served on the Board, contested three available seats. In alphabetical order by given name, the candidates were:
* Claire P. Baker
* Danielle Strong
* Erica Dulin
* Gimena Calixto
* Jessie Camboulives
* Milena Popova2017 OTW Elections Candidates Announcement, Organization for Transformative Works, published June 21, 2017 (Accessed June 21, 2017).
On August 15, 2017, the Elections Committee announced the 2017 Elections Results. Claire P. Baker, Danielle Strong and Jessie Camboulives (in alphabetical order) were successfully elected to the board of directors and began their terms on October 1, 2017.2017 Election Results, Organization for Transformative Works, posted August 15, 2017. Accessed August 15, 2017.
==Timeline==
On April 15, 2017, the OTW Elections Committee published a news post announcing that the official timeline for the 2017 OTW Board Election had been posted.2017 OTW Elections Timeline and Membership Deadline, OTW Elections, published April 15, 2017 (accessed April 17, 2017). The post highlighted a change in timings to the 2017 election which would affect all subsequent OTW Board Elections: the start and end dates had been brought forward in time, in order to avoid conflicts with other OTW events.
This change began with the OTW 2016 Board Election, which took place from July to September 2016, instead of the usual dates of September to November. The 2017 election was then held between June and August 2017, with the election membership deadline moving up to June 30. This deadline will remain the same for all future OTW Board Elections.
Key dates for the 2017 OTW Board Election were as follows:
* June 19: Candidacy deadline at 11:59pm UTC
* June 21: Candidates publicly announced
* June 28: Deadline to submit Q&A questions for candidates
* June 30: OTW membership deadline for prospective voters
* August 11: Voting begins at 12:01am UTC
* August 14: Voting closes at 11:59pm UTC
* August 15: Election results announced
* October 1: Board turnover begins.Elections Timeline, OTW Elections.
For a more detailed timeline of events for the OTW 2017 Election, refer to the Elections Timeline.
==Candidates' Platforms==
Members of the public were able to submit questions for the candidates via the Elections Committee and in three separate candidate chats: one involving all six candidates, and two involving groups of three candidates. Candidates responded to five batches of Q&As on the following topics: Volunteer Positions, Volunteer Management, Personal Interview, OTW Changes and Communication and Outreach.
Issues raised by the candidates included Board transparency, OTW documentation and Org literacy among volunteers, how to increase membership engagement and better inform the wider userbase about Org projects, solving the issue of volunteer retention and burnout, and how to improve recruitment rates for understaffed committees. Candidates also discussed how they would allocate a hypothetical extra year's worth of donations to the Org,Chat Transcript: July 29, 2017, OTW Elections, published July 30, 2017 (Accessed August 15, 2017). and how the OTW might prepare for the possible advent of paid employees over the next two to six years.Chat Transcript: July 26, 2017, OTW Elections, published July 30, 2017 (Accessed August 15, 2017).
As in the 2016 Board Election, the candidates also grappled with the issue of what safeguards could be put in place to protect the OTW against a Board that began to work against its best interests, such as a vote of no confidence in the Board, or committee chairs acting as whistleblowers against the Board.
==Election Statistics==
The 2017 Election had a total of 5,376 eligible voters, of whom 682 cast a ballot, representing 12.7% of potential voters.Election Statistics for 2017, OTW Elections. Posted September 1, 2017 (Accessed September 2, 2017). Voter turnout in 2017 decreased from the 2016 election, where turnout was 15.1%, although it was still higher than in the 2015 election, where turnout was only 7.8%.Election Statistics for 2015, OTW Elections. Posted November 24, 2015 (Accessed September 2, 2017).
The number of ballots cast also decreased by 28.3% from the 2016 election.
==References==
Category:OTW Board Elections 
Category:2017 Events