Currently we have 3 branches and trunk. If a developer makes a change in one branch, they alone are responsible from merging that change to the 3 other branches and eventually back to trunk. There's a published chart on the merge order that gets updated periodically.
So, we have lots of little merges happening across branches.
In the past, we have had one person cut branches and do merging back, mainly from branch to trunk. If there is a conflict, the 2 or 3 developers who caused the file conflict would resolve it. The branch and merging strategy was handled by an individual and mainly involved bring branches back to trunk.
Is having individual developers merge typical? Or should it be handled by one person and coordinated at specific intervals to manage the branches?