Many initiatives in Maastricht face the same issue - they are started by highly motivated people and very effective in the beginning. However, once the initial members leave Maastricht, it is often difficult to assure that new members, board members or project leaders will be able to work as effectively. To ensure the continuity of your project and prevent your brilliant ideas from dying out, it is important to plan how you will transfer all of your knowledge to new people.

These are some key principles to help you with that:

• Start thinking about this early. Sometimes it can feel as if your time as a board member/project leader will last for eternity and you will have plenty of time for these things later. However, in the rush of classes, exams and planning activities, time flies by very quickly. As soon as you know when you and your fellow team members will be departing the project, start planning the transfer.
• Document everything. Make a habit of writing down everything essential you learn in the process of running the project. Think especially about which people or organisations are useful to be in contact with, what resources are available to you, what problems you have dealt with and how have you managed to resolve them. When transferring to the new team, compile this knowledge into a comprehensive resource (such as a document, or for example a Notion page).
• Choose the new board soon. Although it is not always possible, we highly recommend ensuring that two boards will be able to work in overlapping terms, i.e. that there will be at least one month in which they both work on projects together. This is the most effective way to ensure that the new board will be able to deal with unforeseen challenges. So if your board terms last one academic year, you should choose new board members around May.
• Transfer the knowledge personally. To create a smoother transition, make sure that the 'old' and 'new' board members with the same role sit together individually, instead of collectively handing over the project. In this way, the ins and outs of a specific role are transferred better.

<aside> 💡 Every year the SIH organises a workshop on Board Transitions. A guest speaker with knowledge on this topic provides a workshop on board transitions to assure this knowledge transfer goes smoothly. Want to make sure you receive an invite? Send an email to [email protected].

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