Student orgs · 6 min read
The student org officer transition checklist
Every spring, a club's merch knowledge walks out the door with the graduating officers — and the new team starts the fall rebuilding from nothing. Here's the handoff that stops that from happening.
Download the transition checklist
CSV — opens in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers. Structure only; no passwords. Hand it off in one file.
Download the checklistThe May handoff is the most under-managed moment in a student organization's year. The outgoing merch chair or treasurer knows the vendor, has the logo files, remembers which sizes ran short — and then graduates, taking all of it with them. The new officer inherits a title and a blank slate, and the first fall order becomes a scramble to re-find files, re-pick sizes, and re-establish a vendor relationship that already existed. None of that work needs to be repeated. It just needs to be handed over.
Work through the sections below with your successor before you leave. Each one is a category of knowledge that's expensive to rebuild and cheap to pass on.
Logo & brand files
- The vector logo — an AI, EPS, SVG, or PDF file, not just a PNG grabbed off the website. Print vendors need vector art to size cleanly.
- Brand color codes (HEX or Pantone) and the approved fonts, so next year's shirts match this year's.
- The final approved artwork files from past orders — the exact files a vendor printed, so a reorder is one email, not a redesign.
Vendor contacts & order history
- Your current merch vendor and the rep you actually work with.
- Copies of the last few quotes and invoices — the paper trail that makes a reorder or a budget request fast.
- Any open or in-progress orders and where they stand.
Reorder specs & size history
- The products you ordered — blanks, colors, styles — and the decoration methods and placements used.
- The size run you ordered and, just as important, which sizes sold out or were left over. Next year's officer shouldn't have to guess.
Budget carryover & accounts
- The remaining merch budget, the dues or funding cycle, and any pending invoices or reimbursements.
- A list of the accounts the role uses — design tools, a storefront, the shared drive where art lives, any vendor portal. Transfer access through your school's or a password manager's proper handoff — never paste passwords into a shared doc.
One more thing worth carrying over: the calendar. Note the order-by dates for the year's recurring runs — welcome week, formals, senior gifts — so the new officer orders ahead instead of late. The merch deadline calculator turns any event date into an order-by date, and when it's time to place the order, the student org approval packet gets it past the treasurer. New to the role entirely? Start with ordering merch for a student organization.
Frequently asked questions
Do it during the spring transition — April or May — while the outgoing officer still remembers the details and has the files. Waiting until fall means the new officer rebuilds everything from scratch right when the first order is due.
The vector logo file. New officers routinely inherit only a website PNG, which a print vendor can't use cleanly, forcing a costly redraw. Make sure the AI, EPS, SVG, or PDF logo is handed over with the rest.
Transfer access, don't share passwords in a document. Use your school's account tools or a password manager's sharing feature, and remove the outgoing officer once the new officer is set up. The checklist lists which accounts to transfer, not the credentials themselves.
