Use Shared Drives

2026-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

As I mentioned before, I’ve been helping out with IT support for my kids' school PTA. Most of the people involved are volunteers who just want to get things done, so my goal is always to keep technology from getting in their way.

One of the biggest headaches we’ve solved recently is how we handle our files. If you’re helping a small non-profit, this is the one "tech" change I’d recommend above everything else: use Shared Drives.

The Problem: "Who actually owns this?"</h3>
Until recently, every document we had—meeting minutes, event flyers, treasurer reports—lived in the personal Google Drive of whoever created it. This seems fine at first, but it causes three big problems:

The "Departure" Problem: When a volunteer leaves the PTA, their documents often go with them. Even if they shared a folder with the team, once their account is gone (or they just stop checking it), those files can become "orphaned" or lost.</li>
The Onboarding Mess: When someone new joins, they have to ask ten different people for access to ten different folders. It’s slow, and things always get missed.</li>
The Personal Email Trap: Sometimes people use their personal Gmail accounts instead of their PTA ones. This makes it impossible for the organization to manage access. I recently audited some old files and found they were still shared with people who left years ago, but I couldn't remove them because I wasn't the "owner."</li> </ol>
The Solution: The organization owns the files, not the person</h3>
In Google Workspace, there is a feature called a "Shared Drive." It’s a subtle shift, but it changes everything. Instead of a file belonging to me, it belongs to the Shared Drive itself.
This means:

Safety: If a volunteer leaves, the documents stay exactly where they are. The organization never loses its history.</li>
Simplicity: When a new person joins the team, I just add them to the Shared Drive once. They instantly have every flyer, spreadsheet, and report they need to do their job.</li>
Control: As an admin, I can make sure the right people have access, even if I wasn't the one who originally wrote the document.</li> </ul>
Getting everyone on board</h3>
The hardest part isn’t the technology—setting up a Shared Drive takes about two minutes. The real work is helping your team understand why it matters. It’s about moving from "my files" to "our files."
If you’re helping a small team stay organized, moving to a Shared Drive is the best way to make sure the work you’re doing today will still be there for the volunteers who take over next year. It saves a lot of headaches, and it keeps the focus where it should be. In my case: on helping the school.

My notes and stuff - Google Workspace

Use Shared Drives