Describe the current state, working files and next deadline, then name the new owner and when responsibility transfers. Agree on any overlap for questions and its ending. Confirm access before the handover closes, and treat ongoing help as a separately defined commitment.
You have passed a project to another person, but questions keep arriving as though you still own it. Some follow-up is reasonable. An open-ended handover makes it hard to tell when a question has become a new request for work.
Write a short account of the current position. Include the last decision, the location of the working files and the next deadline. Name the new owner and the date on which they take responsibility. Check that they have the access needed to begin.
Allow for a defined overlap
Offer a period for questions if that fits the arrangement: "I can answer handover questions until Friday." Say where those questions should go, particularly when several people are involved. The overlap should have an end that everyone can see.
After that date, direct new decisions to the current owner. You can still answer a factual question about earlier work when you choose. If the new owner needs ongoing help, discuss that as a separate commitment with its own time and scope.
Passing on a recurring newsletter
An illustrative exampleSuppose another volunteer takes responsibility for a newsletter. Prepare a short handover naming the current draft, approved template and next send point. Explain which review is still needed, and check that the new owner can open the files. Offer a limited question period through the group's usual channel. Tell contributors who now receives new material. After the overlap ends, direct decisions about future editions to the new owner. You can still answer a factual question about an earlier issue, but recurring production support needs its own agreement. The handover then has a clear transfer of responsibility, with enough context for the next person to work without repeatedly reopening the transition.
Close the transfer properly
Tick the steps as you work through them.
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When questions keep returning
Check whether the new owner is missing information or whether people still use the old contact route. Repair a specific gap and update the route publicly within the relevant team. If ongoing help is genuinely required, name its scope and time instead of letting the transition extend indefinitely. Keep factual historical questions separate from decisions about new work. Where an essential task still has no owner, raise that explicitly before treating the transfer as complete; an announced ending cannot substitute for required coverage.
Write the transfer agreement
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