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You've just inherited a website

Somebody built this site, kept the fixtures or the newsletter up to date for a while, and then left the committee. Nobody wrote down where the domain was registered, who holds the login, or what happens if the site is simply left alone. That is the ordinary way a club, society or parish website ends up in front of you.

What tends to go wrong first

The failure is usually quiet. A renewal notice goes to an email address nobody checks any more, or the one person who could log in to the hosting account has moved on and stopped replying. By the time anyone notices, the site is either offline or still running on details only one former volunteer ever had.

Where to start

  • Find out who is listed as the registrant for the domain, and whether that person is still involved with the club.
  • Ask whoever built or last maintained the site for the logins, the registrar account, and the email address the site is registered to, before they stop answering.
  • Check what the governing document says about who is responsible for the club's digital assets, if it says anything at all.

Each of these is worked through in full, with the specific questions to ask and the order to ask them in: what happens when the website person leaves, and what to get from whoever is leaving, before they stop answering emails.

The questions worth answering first

Each of these is a question worth settling on its own, and each links to a page that answers it in full.

  • Who is listed as the registrant on the domain

    The domain may be registered in a former member's name, and that changes what you need to do next.

  • What was actually handed over when the last person left

    A list of what to ask for from whoever built or ran the site, before they stop answering emails.

  • What the governing document says about digital assets

    Most constitutions were written before anyone thought to mention a website or a domain, and that gap matters when the committee changes.

  • How members' data is stored and who can see it

    A membership list, an email newsletter or a booking form all count, and the ICO's expectations of a small organisation are narrower than most committees assume.

  • Whether the site has a statutory publication duty

    Parish councils and village halls in particular have specific things they must publish, separate from anything a club chooses to put online.

  • How the fixture list, calendar or newsletter is kept current

    A site that looks abandoned is often just unattended, and the fix is usually about who has access.

  • What the next committee will need when this one moves on

    A short checklist to leave behind so the next person does not start from nothing, the way you probably did.

Each page stands on its own. Read the one that matches what you are actually facing, and leave the rest for later.

Who this site is for

Living Sites is written for whoever ends up holding the website when the person who understood it has left the committee. That is usually the secretary, the treasurer, or whoever was once described as good with computers and never quite escaped the job. It covers the parts of that role nobody hands over on paper: who actually owns the domain, what the governing document says about digital assets, what a regulator expects of an organisation this size, and what to ask for before the previous person stops answering emails.

Who reads this

  • Committee members who have just been handed a website with no notes, no login list and no idea where to start.
  • Treasurers and secretaries trying to decide whether a site that has gone quiet is worth reviving or replacing.
  • Parish councils and village halls with specific publication duties attached to their site.
  • New clubs and societies setting up a website for the first time who want to get ownership and access right before it becomes someone's problem.

Each page in the guidance section answers one of those questions fully enough to act on without searching anywhere else: who the registrant is, what to get from a departing officer, what a small organisation actually has to do about members' data. Print the one you need and hand it to whoever needs it next.