Who needs access to what

A typical under-11 team might have two coaches, a team parent coordinator, and a team manager. Each has different needs. The coach planning sessions needs an overview of who's coming to training and matches. The coordinator ordering kits needs sizes and parent contact details. The manager booking pitches needs to know when the team is available.

Problems arise when you use one person's private email or phone as the contact point. When that person leaves, you lose contact with parents, the season's history, and payment records. You must avoid this.

Therefore define clearly: This person can send messages to the whole team. This person only sees attendance lists. This person manages who else has access. Write it down, and discuss it at the first parents' meeting.

Start with as few administrators as possible

In volunteer teams, the temptation is to give everyone access to everything, because "we trust each other". This creates confusion. If four people can change training days, you end up with double bookings. If three can message parents, families receive conflicting instructions.

A good model: One team manager has administrator access and can add or remove others. Two or three people can send messages and update lists. Everyone else can only see information relevant to their role. When someone leaves, the manager removes their access the same day.

If you must change who is administrator mid-season — because the manager falls ill or moves away — ensure at least two people always know how to transfer this role. Write down the steps on paper in the team's archive folder.

Privacy when parents get access

Some teams give parents login credentials so they can update whether their child is coming to a match. This requires you to think through what each parent should see. They should see information about their own child, training days for the team, and general team communication. They should not see other children's absences, other parents' phone numbers, or internal discussions among coaches.

When you give a parent access, explain explicitly what they can do: "You log in, see the training schedule, and tick whether Silje is coming on Saturday. You cannot send messages to other parents from here." If a parent asks about something they don't have access to, refer them to the team manager.

If a child leaves the team mid-season, remove the parents' access within one week. This is particularly important if the family moves to another team in the same club, where access might overlap.

When passwords are forgotten or misused

Set a clear procedure for what happens when someone loses access. If the coach is standing on the pitch Saturday morning and can't get in to see who has reported absence, there must be a solution that takes minutes, not days. Decide in advance who can reset access, and how they're contacted — preferably by phone, not email which is checked rarely.

If you suspect access has been misused — for example, that someone has sent inappropriate messages on behalf of the team, or shared information they shouldn't have — change all passwords immediately, and contact your club for guidance. Don't wait until the next committee meeting.

A sentence you can use when explaining this to new parents: "We are careful about who has access to the team's information, because we take the privacy of all families seriously."

What happens with team mergers or promotion

When two under-13 teams merge into one under-14 team, you must clearly separate the old teams' data from the new team's. Don't let four different people from two teams have administrator access simultaneously. Choose one new team manager, transfer only information that's relevant (names, dates of birth, contact details), and archive the rest.

A digital tool like MyTeams lets you create a new team and invite only the relevant players and parents, so you start with clean lists. This is tidier than trying to delete people from an existing team.

When a team is promoted and gets a new head coach from outside the club, the new coach must get their own login credentials, not use the previous coach's account. Always log in as yourself, never as someone else.

Annual review of access

Set aside 20 minutes at the start of the season to check who actually has access to the team's systems. If you see names of people who left two years ago, remove them. If you have a separate email list or chat group, review that too. Old access quickly becomes a security hole.

Write down at the parents' meeting who has which role this year, so everyone knows who to contact. "Marte is team coordinator and sends out information about matches. Jonas is coach and manages attendance at training. Questions about finances go to Hanne." Then parents don't have to guess, and you avoid messages going to the wrong person.