How to hand off your chapter.
Every chapter does this once a year, usually in a rush, usually in April. Done well it takes an afternoon. Done badly, next year’s treasurer spends September locked out of the chapter’s own money. Here is the version that works.
The whole thing, in five lines
- 1Decide who takes each position, and write it down somewhere other than a group chat.
- 2Run the transition in GreekLink so every role moves at once.
- 3Transfer Stripe access before your treasurer loses their school email.
- 4Confirm dues pay out to the chapter’s bank account, not a person’s.
- 5Hand over the things GreekLink doesn’t hold: bank signers, EIN letter, nationals portal, social logins.
First, find out who actually has the keys.
Titles and access drift apart over a year. Before you move anything, write down the honest answer to four questions:
- Who can edit roles in GreekLink today?
- Whose email address is on the chapter’s Stripe account?
- Who is a signer on the chapter bank account?
- Which of those people is graduating in six weeks?
If the same graduating senior is the answer to more than one, do their handoff first. Everything else can be fixed later; access held by someone who has left campus and stopped answering email cannot.
Run the transition in GreekLink.
Settings → Officer transition. Pick the positions changing hands, choose who takes each one, and review. Before anything is applied you get the permission changes spelled out in plain language — who loses what, who gains what — so there are no surprises about who can suddenly see grades or post a dues cycle.
Everything moves in one step, and the handoff is recorded. Next April, whoever is sitting in your chair can look up exactly what happened this April.
One safeguard worth knowing: the person who created the chapter can always restore their own access. A transition can hand away every officer position and still not lock the chapter out of its own account.
The step almost every chapter misses
Changing the Treasurer role in GreekLink does not move your Stripe access. Those are two separate systems, and Stripe’s rules are strict for a good reason: it is where the money is.
Your chapter’s Stripe account is controlled by whoever set it up. Only that person can transfer it to someone else. If they graduate, lose their school email, and stop answering — your only remaining option is a support ticket with Stripe, and that is a slow, painful way to spend a semester.
Do this while the outgoing treasurer still has access
- 1Add the incoming treasurer to the Stripe account as a team member, so two people can get in.
- 2Check where payouts land. It should be the chapter’s bank account — never a personal one.
- 3Transfer account ownership to the incoming treasurer.
If your Stripe account is registered to a person
Some chapters sign up using a student’s own name, Social Security number, and personal bank account, because that is the fastest way through the form. If that is your setup, dues are legally paying out to an individual — and no amount of role transferring fixes it. The chapter needs to re-register with its own EIN and bank account. Do it now rather than the week your treasurer graduates.
What GreekLink doesn’t hold.
The app carries your roles, dues, events, hours, and history. These four live elsewhere and need their own handoff.
Chapter bank account
Signers have to change at the branch, in person, with the new officers present. Most banks will not do this over the phone. Start it early — it is the slowest item on this list.
EIN letter and tax filings
Your IRS EIN confirmation letter, last year’s 990-N filing, and any state registration. Keep a copy somewhere the chapter owns, not in a personal Drive.
Nationals and campus portals
Your national headquarters portal, your university’s student-org system, and the IFC/Panhellenic roster. Each has its own officer-update form and its own deadline.
Social accounts
Instagram, the chapter email, anything with a password. Move them into a shared password manager the chapter controls rather than passing a note.
When to do it.
The single biggest predictor of a clean handoff is doing it before anyone leaves campus. Access is easy to give away in person and very hard to chase down in July.
Two weeks before
Elections are done. Outgoing and incoming officers sit down together for thirty minutes. Nobody has graduated yet — this is the whole trick.
Transition day
Run the handoff in GreekLink, transfer Stripe ownership, and update bank signers at the branch. Do all three the same afternoon.
The week after
New treasurer posts a dues cycle and confirms a test payout lands. New president checks that they can edit roles and see everything they need.
Officer transition is built into GreekLink.
Move every position in one step, see exactly which permissions change before you confirm, and keep a record of who handed off what.