When rights follow the office

Where it started

An association runs on volunteers, and the offices change hands. Knowledge then lives in folders, mailboxes, WhatsApp groups and on private computers - and leaves with the next election. What was needed was not a tool for one administrator but one that survives the handover and can be used on the side, on a phone.

The evening of the annual general meeting

The moment an association shows how organised it is. This is how it runs today:

1. 1 Attendance is recorded at the door. Only those present can vote.
2. 2 The projector shows the current agenda item and the speakers’ list - people raise their hand on their phone.
3. 3 Secret ballot on your own phone: ballots and the voter list are stored separately, like a real ballot box. Nobody can see who voted for what, and nobody can vote twice.
4. 4 The result appears on the screen with bars and a countdown.
5. 5 And it goes straight into the minutes - nobody copies numbers from a scrap of paper late at night.

Before - today

WhatsApp group

Its own chat with groups, voice messages and pictures - the data stays on the association’s server.

Paper list for the T-shirt order

An association shop with sizes; stock is reserved on ordering, and there are no payment-provider fees.

A webmail login per office

The offices’ mailboxes are read and answered inside the portal. When an office changes hands, only the permission changes.

A cash book in Excel

An audit-proof cash book: sequential receipt numbers, reversal instead of deletion, receipt photos read automatically - and an audit package for the cash auditors at the press of a button.

A receipt pad

Expenses or cash payouts: the recipient signs on the device, and receipt and booking are created in one step.

Sending dozens of logins one by one

One job for all members who have never signed in.

What else is included

• Public site with news, chronicle, board and council group - the latter two fill themselves from the offices assigned.
• Every event has its own page that can be shared and that Google shows as an event. Events are cancelled rather than deleted - nobody turns up for nothing.
• Meetings from the invitation with agenda to the minutes, which a second person reviews before members see them.
• Dues with SEPA direct debit and reminders, donation receipts printed as an annual batch.
• Subscribable calendar, volunteer rota with shifts, surveys, photo gallery, digital membership card.
• An AI assistant that reads receipts, summarises minutes and writes a monthly letter - it can be switched off, and what is sent to it is visible.
• No cookie banner, because nothing is tracked.

What made it special

Rights per office

Not "administrator" and "user", but chair, secretary, treasurer, council member - each with a deputy. Council group meetings are visible only to councillors, explicitly not to the association’s chair. Whoever takes over the office takes over its view; a handover is one click, not a training session.

Public and internal in one

The event the board enters appears on the public site. No second content system, no double maintenance.

Volunteering means: on the side

The portal is an app on the phone, with push notifications. Two-factor sign-in is mandatory for the board - if someone loses their phone, access is reset through a proper process, not in the database.

Limits

The portal is not double-entry bookkeeping and no substitute for a tax adviser. It keeps a cash book the way an association keeps one - in a way that passes an audit. It does not try to be more.

Questions

Where is the data held?

On a server in Germany, on behalf of the association, with a data processing agreement. Backups are held in Germany as well.

Is the chat encrypted?

The connection is; the chat itself is not end-to-end encrypted - messages are stored on the association’s server. The privacy policy says so. For an association that is usually a better trade than a WhatsApp group.

What happens when the board changes?

Rights belong to the office, not the person. Whoever takes over the office gets its view - and whoever hands it over loses it.