Governance practice · Practical guide
Changing an Action Owner: Accountability and Handover
Reassign meeting actions with an explicit decision, preserved history and realistic deadlines instead of silently rewriting accountability.
Make the ownership change explicit
An action register should distinguish the original owner, current accountable owner, supporting contributors and the person who authorised reassignment. Confirm whether the action is an operational task or an instruction arising from a board resolution. Changing the owner of an action does not amend the underlying decision or transfer reserved decision-making authority.
Record the reason without blame
Capture a concise reason such as role transition, capacity, leave or a dependency on another team. Do not copy private personnel details into the general register. Preserve the old assignment, effective date and handover status in an audit trail. Where a deadline changes, record the authorised new date and explain the impact on dependent work.
Obtain a usable handover
The outgoing owner should provide status, source decision, evidence gathered, blockers, stakeholders and next milestone. The incoming owner confirms acceptance and flags unrealistic assumptions. A handover is incomplete if the new owner cannot access necessary approved papers or does not understand what evidence will demonstrate completion.
Fictional worked example
A fictional sports club’s secretary leaves mid-term. An outstanding accessibility audit action moves to the facilities lead following a recorded chair approval under committee policy. The old due date remains visible; the new due date is explicitly approved. The register retains the original assignment and links to the relevant approved minute.
Check the next meeting
Review whether the new owner accepted the task, whether dependencies have been resolved and whether escalation is necessary. Keep the action open until completion evidence is verified. Do not mark it done because ownership changed or because a reminder was sent.
Scope: General operational guidance, not jurisdiction-specific legal advice. Check applicable bylaws, policies and law. Examples are fictional; the public demo does not retrieve customer records.