IFTF is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization which supports interactive fiction.
The governance of IFTF is handled by:
The Board is responsible for long-term strategy and planning. If IFTF embarks on a major new initiative, that probably started with the Board.
The Board is not directly responsible for day-to-day operation, but they have oversight over the rest of the organization. If an IFTF program goes seriously off the rails, the Board has the power to step in and make changes.
Board members serve three-year terms, and cannot serve more than two consecutive terms. This policy ensures that fresh perspectives rotate into the Board regularly. The world of interactive fiction is constantly changing; we want IFTF to stay in touch with it.
The current Board of Directors: Albert Bassili, Justin Bortnick, David Cornelson, Leena van Deventer, Hugo Labrande, Kofi Oduro, Mark Sample
For more information on these people, see our Directors and Advisors page.
The officers carry out specific roles in the day-to-day operation of IFTF. Officers may or may not be board members. (Except the President, who always is.)
President: Justin Bortnick
The President runs meetings, makes decisions, and reminds people to do things. If the organization needs a public face (talking to major donors, etc), the President is it.
Vice President: Kofi Oduro
The Vice President fills in when the President isn’t available.
Treasurer: Colette Zinna
The Treasurer keeps track of IFTF’s finances and manages the bank account.
Technical Officer: Doug Valenta
The Technical Officer manages technical services. This is the person who knows how all the servers work. The IT support for the organization.
Secretary: Hugo Labrande
The Secretary takes notes at meetings and makes sure the organization knows what happened when.
To reach out to our leadership, see our Contacts page.
The advisors are specialists, entrepreneurs, and academics with an interest in interactive fiction. The advisors have no formal responsibility within IFTF. As the title says, they provide advice and ideas to the Board of Directors.
For the current membership of the Advisory Board, see our Directors and Advisors page.
IFTF runs “planning summits” a few times a year, at which the Board, the officers, and the advisors are invited to discuss ongoing and future plans.
The real work of IFTF is handled by the program committees. These manage IFTF services such as IFDB and the forum, as well as regular events such as NarraScope and the IFTF Grants.
Program committees are relatively independent and self-organized. (Some programs, like IFComp, predate IFTF by decades!) IFTF’s job is to keep the program committees stable, funded, and happy.
Each program has a chairperson who is responsible for running that particular show. The program chairs report to the Board.
When IFTF launches a new program, it will generally convene a new committee to manage it. The new chair might be a board member, but in general IFTF tries to separate strategic planning (the Board) from hands-on operation (the committees).
The currently active committees include:
IFTF has two committees that serve the organization as a whole, rather than running a specific IFTF service:
To reach out to any of our committees, see our Contacts page.