Ahsan opens to mosques on Sunday, November 15.Ahsan opens November 15.

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When a volunteer steps down

Mosque offices run on volunteers, and volunteers move on. A routine that keeps the lists, the giving records and the passwords with the mosque, so a handover takes an afternoon, not months of chasing.

For boards, office volunteers and whoever is taking over a role.

The problem to avoid

A volunteer sets up the membership spreadsheet, the email list and the online giving account on their own laptop, under their own email address. Years later they move away, or simply get busy, and the mosque finds that the only copy of its records, and the only way into its accounts, went with them. Nobody did anything wrong. The records were just never the mosque’s in the first place.

List what the office runs on

Once, and then each year, write down every place the mosque’s work lives, with who can open it and who pays for it:

  • The membership list, the households and their contacts.
  • Giving records: count sheets, online giving, pledges and year-end statements.
  • Weekend school registrations, attendance records and fees.
  • Hall bookings and the calendar.
  • The email list, and any group chats the office uses.
  • The website, its domain name and the social media accounts.
  • The bank’s online access and the card-payment account.
  • The phone number, the prayer timetable file and the prayer-hall screen’s settings.

Accounts in the mosque’s name

  • A mosque email address, such as one for the office, owns every account, not anyone’s personal address.
  • At least two administrators on each account, both from the board, so one person leaving never locks the mosque out.
  • Payment details in the mosque’s name for every subscription, so nothing lapses when someone’s card changes.

Roles, not personal copies

Give each volunteer access to the part their job needs, in the mosque’s own system, rather than a copy of the whole list to keep on a laptop. A teacher needs their class, not the membership list; a counter needs the count sheet, not the giving history. When a list has to be exported, note who exported it and why. Children’s records are for the people named to look after them, and don’t leave the system casually.

Passwords

Keep the mosque’s passwords in a password manager with a shared vault the mosque owns, or at the very least in a sealed list held by two officers. Turn on two-step sign-in wherever it is offered. When someone with access leaves, change the passwords they knew that same week.

The handover, step by step

  1. List what they had. Using the list above, note every system and account the volunteer could open.
  2. Bring everything home. Anything kept only on their own devices or personal accounts moves into the mosque’s system, and someone checks it arrived complete.
  3. Hand over the open work: unanswered requests, unpaid invoices, pending bookings, and anything promised to someone but not yet done.
  4. Close their access on their last day, and change any shared passwords.
  5. Ask them to delete their own copies of members’ details, and record that they confirmed it.
  6. Introduce the successor. An hour together, with the list in front of them, is worth more than any manual.

Check the mosque can leave, once a year

Whatever system the mosque uses, it should be able to download every list it keeps as a spreadsheet, at any time, without asking anyone’s permission. Try it once a year, after the board election for example, and make sure the files open and are complete. A mosque that can take its records with it never depends on one person, or one vendor.

Common questions

Who should own a mosque’s online accounts?

The mosque, through an email address it controls, with at least two board members as administrators on each account and payment details in the mosque’s name.

What if a former volunteer has the only copy of a list?

Ask for it promptly, in writing, with a date. Record what was handed back, rebuild the list in the mosque’s own system, and ask them to confirm they have deleted their copies.

Should volunteers keep member lists on their own laptops?

Better not. Give them access to the part of the mosque’s system their role needs, so nothing has to leave it, and note any list that is exported.

How often should a mosque check who has access to what?

Whenever a volunteer changes roles or leaves, and once a year in any case. After the board election is a natural moment.

In the live demo, the sample mosque’s records live in one back office: each person sees only the parts their role needs, every download of a list is logged, and every list exports as a spreadsheet. More about how Ahsan handles data.