Your Board Graduates. Your Org Doesn't Start Over.
One library every member can open, officer seats that hand over their own access and open tasks, and terms that close without losing a thing. How ChaptOS carries an org through the officer handoff.
It's the second week of September, and the new treasurer needs last year's budget. They know it exists. They find a link to it pinned in the group chat, open it, and get a page that says You need access. The person who owns it graduated in May. They send the request anyway, and then they start rebuilding the budget from bank statements.
Most orgs go through some version of this every year. The officer handbook is in someone's personal Drive. The venue contract is an attachment in an email nobody forwarded. The bylaws are a .docx on a laptop that left campus. Nobody hid any of it. Each file lived with whoever made it, and when that person left, the file went with them.
ChaptOS is built so the record belongs to the org instead. Files sit in one library every member can open. Each officer seat carries its own access and its own open tasks, so new officers inherit them by taking the seat. And when a term ends, it gets filed instead of wiped.
The interactive examples in this post use a fictional chapter. Start with where its files are right now. Try to open one, then file them all.
Tyler does anyone have the venue contract??
Docsthe chapter's library
- nothing here yet
- nothing here yet
- nothing here yet
- nothing here yet
Four places, three of them locked. Try opening the handbook.
01Docsone library everyone can open
Most orgs have plenty of files. What they don't have is one place to look for them. When the bylaws are in Drive, the dues sheet is a link in the chat, and the contract is in someone's inbox, finding anything means knowing who to ask. Then the file turns out to be private, and you have to ask someone else.
The Docs page is the chapter's library. Officers add a link to anything the org uses: a Google Doc, Sheet, Form or Drive folder, or any page on the web. ChaptOS reads the title and labels what kind of file it is, so members can tell a sign-up form from a budget at a glance. Every member sees the same library, whether they're the president or joined last week. Nobody has to request a copy or work out who to ask.
Folders keep it from turning into one long list. Make one for each part of chapter life, such as bylaws, treasury, recruitment and events, and drag a doc onto a folder's tab to file it. Within a folder, drag docs into the order people need them. Pin the few things people ask for most, like the bylaws, the officer handbook and the dues tracker, and they sit above everything else as cards. Press / on the page to search titles and notes across every folder.
Adding and arranging docs takes the Docs permission, which keeps the library tidy. Everyone else can still open every file in it. Each doc also records who added it, so a question about a file goes to the right person.
Switch between the secretary's view and a new member's. File the loose docs at the bottom by dragging them onto a folder's tab (or tap one, then the folder), pin something, or press / and search for "dues".
Docs
The chapter's library
Drag a loose doc onto a folder's tab, or tap the doc and then the folder.
One thing ChaptOS can't change is who owns a file. A link to a document in someone's personal Drive is still private, however neatly it's filed. So before the handoff, move the chapter's files into an account the org owns, such as a shared chapter Gmail or a shared drive, and set sharing so anyone with the link can view. Then file the link. After that, nobody's graduation takes a file with it.
02The seathand over a seat, not a password
In most orgs, a new officer gets set up by hand. Someone adds them to the right groups, shares a pile of files, passes on a login, and forwards whatever tasks are still open. Anything that gets missed turns up in February, when nobody remembers who had it.
In ChaptOS, access belongs to the role, not the person. The Treasurer role can manage the treasury and charge dues. The Secretary role can take attendance and arrange Docs. Tasks can be assigned to a role too, like "Treasurer: reconcile December", and they stay with whoever holds it. When the newly elected treasurer takes the seat in Settings, they get the role's access and its open tasks right away. The outgoing treasurer stays on the roster and keeps a member's access.
That means there's no list of shares and invites to work through, and nothing important gets lost in a forwarded message. Roles are yours to define, too: rename them, add a seat your org invented, and choose what each one can do. The roles and permissions guide covers the details.
Pick a seat on the board and hand it to the person who was elected. Watch its access and open tasks move with it. Hand over all four to seat the new board.
The old board stays on the roster as members. Only the seats change hands.
What it can do
- ✓Treasury & the ledgerAWAndre
- ✓Charge and waive duesAWAndre
Open tasks 3
- Reconcile DecemberJan 5AWAndre
- Send the spring dues reminderJan 10AWAndre
- Pay the retreat depositJan 12AWAndre
No passwords to pass on. Assigned to the role, so they move with it.
03The termend it without losing it
At the end of the year, a lot of orgs start over: a new spreadsheet, a new folder, a new group chat. Everyone gets a clean start, and last year's records end up somewhere nobody looks.
In ChaptOS, ending a term is one step. Under Settings → Semesters, create the next term with its dates and make it active. The dashboard starts fresh because it shows the active term. The term you just finished isn't deleted. Its events, ledger, attendance and standings are filed under its name, and you can still read all of it.
Docs aren't filed by term at all. The library carries straight through, so the venue contract is still in Events and the handbook is still pinned at the top.
The old term stays useful, too. Ask Chapt can answer questions about it: what formal cost, who ended the term still owing dues, where a file lives. The next board doesn't need the last one on call to find out what happened.
Do it before the handover, not after. If you switch terms while the outgoing board is still around, someone who knows the answers is there when the first question comes in.
Make spring the active term and watch fall get filed. Then open the filed term, or ask about it.
Semesters
Filed
Nothing is deleted. The old term just stops being the default view.
04Two weeks outa handoff checklist
Elections usually come a few weeks before the handover, which is enough time to do this properly. Here's the order we'd suggest:
- Gather the files. Ask every officer to add the links they use to Docs, including the ones they made on their own accounts. Copy anything that lives in a personal account into the chapter's account first.
- Sort the library. Make one folder per area, file the loose docs, and pin the three or four that people ask for most.
- Update the handbook. Each outgoing officer writes a page for their seat: what they did each month, who they called, and what they'd do differently. Pin it.
- Assign ongoing work to roles. Any task that belongs to the job rather than the person goes to the role, so it moves with the seat.
- Hand over the seats. In Settings, give each role to its newly elected officer and take it off the outgoing one.
- Start the new term while the old board is still around to answer questions.
- Hold one meeting together. Bring the old board and the new one, and take the minutes in ChaptOS. As our post on meetings explains, that's where decisions get kept.
05Something the next board can open
Officers graduate. That's how student orgs work. Everything they knew doesn't have to leave with them. When the files, the access and the history all stay with the org, a new board can spend September doing the job instead of figuring out what the last board did.
If your elections are coming up, now is a good time to set up your org and get the library in order before the handover.