Explainers, checklists and reference pages

The guidance is written in three shapes, and each one does a different job. An explainer sets out a situation, what happens if it is left alone, and what to do about it, in that order. A checklist turns that into a list you can work through with someone else in the room, such as a departing treasurer or a registrar's support desk. A reference page states a specific requirement, names the body it comes from, and gives the date it was checked, so you can go and look it up yourself.

The situations it deals with

Most of what lands on this site falls into a small number of recurring problems, and the pages are grouped around them.

• A domain registered in the name of someone who has since left the committee
• What a small club, society or charity actually needs to do about members' data
• Publication duties that apply to parish councils and village halls specifically
• Handing over logins, accounts and access when a committee changes

The piece on what a governing document probably says about digital assets is a fair example of the kind of question that turns up here: not obviously about the website until someone goes looking for the answer.

Where the information comes from

Where a page states what a regulator or a registry requires, it names that body and the date the guidance was checked, so the claim can be checked at the source. This covers data protection and publication duties for small organisations. It is not legal advice, and an organisation with an unusual set of circumstances should get independent advice rather than rely on a general page for a specific case.

The pages are written by the practice behind the Living Site, described on the about page along with what that service is.