Document Last Updated February 24, 2006

Club Member Website User Guide

FreeToastHost.org is owned by Toastmasters International, created to host Toastmasters club websites completely free of charge, without annoying ads or spam. Your club website is a template driven series of interactive applications designed to help your club function at its peak. As a club member, there are so many ways you can take advantage of the features of your website. This guide will show you some of those ways. It is important to note that your clubs webmaster may choose to deactivate some of these tools. Check with your webmaster or clubs website administrator to see which tools are available for member use. Your website is supported by your clubs webmaster or website administrator. Please contact him or her for assistance with any website issues. FreeToastHost.org does not provide telephone or e-mail support. You can browse the FAQs and Technical Support boards at http://www.freetoasthost.org.

Browser / OS Compatibility
The web-based software used on FreeToastHost was created and is extensively tested on a Windows platform with the latest Internet Explorer and Mozilla based-browsers. We cannot guarantee that all the features will work on other operating systems and other browsers, but from what the members tell us most everything works on just about every combination. Firewall Notice: If you are using a firewall on your local PC or network, and your firewall is set NOT to allow use of cookies and/or use of environmental variables, you will have problems using the software. Either disable your firewall software when using FTH or create an exception for this website. Consult your firewall documentation for complete details.

Organization / Navigation
Getting around your website is simple. The complete menu will always appear on the left hand side of the page. This is organized by Main Menu Information that both members and visitors will find helpful Toastmasters.org Links Links to the Toastmasters International main website that both members and visitors will find useful

Articles Articles written to help Toastmasters become better communicators Members Only Information and tools for members of the club only. Most of these areas are password protected.

Your Username and Password

To protect private and/or sensitive information, club member information and the majority of tools and applications are in a password protected directory. When your account was setup on your club website, you were sent an e-mail with your username and password (if not, ask your clubs webmaster to resend you this information). You must enter this username and password in the password authentication window (see figure 1a) exactly as it appears as in your e-mail when you attempt to access a members only web page or tool. Your username is generally your firstname.lastname (all lowercase) and the default password is letmein. You are strongly encouraged to change this password to a custom password. Note: if at any time you forget your username and password, just click the Forgot Your Login? link under the members only section of the main menu. Then, select your name from the pull down list and your username and password will be sent to your e-mail address. Dont bother your webmaster!

figure 1a

Club E-mail Distribution List

You can instantly send e-mail to all the members in your club by sending the e-mail to your club e-mail list. This list address is in your welcome e-mail. The list is actually maintained by you, the member, by keeping your e-mail address up to date (see Edit Your Member Profile / Private Member Directory). Never publish this address on a public web page.

Club News
The Club News is a link to the discussion board application where you can get the latest information relating to your club. Your club officers will generally post updates here. As a member, you can also make posts. Before you post on the boards, you must log in using your member username and password (see figure 2a).

figure 2a To read any of the posts, simply click on the topic. To make a new post, after you click the Log in link and complete the log in, click the new topic icon and follow the on screen instructions. By keeping the Club News forum updated and active, members can stay informed and keep motivated.

Guest Feedback
Like the Club News, the Guest Feedback is an interactive forum, specifically for guests to post comments about their experiences at your meetings. This is a great forum to stay in contact with guests and encourage them to visit again. Guests do not have to log in when making poststhey can post as a guest. Their posts can be anonymous or they can choose to leave their name. Guest feedback helps us to make sure we are doing all we can to make guests experiences the best they can be.

Club Calendar
The Club Calendar is an interactive on-line calendar maintained by your club officers. Here you can find your regular meetings, special meetings, officer meetings, club presentations and events, conference information, and more. To access the details of the event, click on the event (see figure 3a).

figure 3a Once you click on the event, you will see the details as well as have the option to be reminded of this event by e-mail. This feature is great for those who tend to forget meetings and/or other Toastmasters events. To be reminded of an event, follow the on screen instructions (see figure 3b).

figure 3b

Toastmasters.org Links
Toastmaster International maintains a fantastic website full of useful information to the Toastmaster. Your website has several links to some of the most useful information. It is suggested that you visit http://www.toastmasters.org and take some time to browse their website.

Articles
Your website has several links to articles written to help Toastmasters become better communicators. Talk to your webmaster about adding your own articles to this menu.

Duty Roster
The Duty Roster is the gem of the FreeToastHost.org website. It is an interactive agenda containing the roles in your club meeting. It was created to give the members complete control over the agenda, while the VP of education oversees the process, makes sure members are participating evenly, and ultimately makes sure roles are filled. The duty roster is in the password protected members only area, therefore requires member login to access. You can access your duty roster by clicking the duty roster link under the Members Only header on your main menu. Once in, you will be able to Print out a 11 x 8 sign up sheet of all future meetings set up in the duty roster: click the Click here to print one out link at the top of the page. Be sure to change your print orientation to landscape (wide not tall). The Toastmaster should bring this to the meeting (see suggested policy below) Send any set up roster to the group via e-mail: once the roster for the week has been created, it can be sent to all club members via e-mail, in HTML format, by clicking the Send Roster button. Print out any individual duty roster: print out any single roster by clicking the Print Roster button. When printing, you will be given the option to order the roles and add times for each role. This makes and excellent handout for each meeting to keep members on track. E-mail any individual club member signed up for any of the rolesyou can also add a custom note to the mailing: at the top of the roster, there is a text area for a custom message. This message will NOT be saved; it will just be sent out once when you click the Send Roster button. Sign yourself up for any upcoming available role: look at the meeting rosters date, find an available role you wish to take, then click the Available link. Because you are in the members only area, the web browser knows who you are and will fill in your name. Remove yourself for any role for which you are currently signed up: find your name next to the role you cannot fill, and click your name. It will switch back to Available. Create notes on the roster, let the club members know you will not be able to make the meeting, etc.: at the bottom of the each roster there is a section titled Meeting Notes. Each member has his or her own notes. As a speaker, you can enter your complete speech details, including introduction for the Toastmaster. These information (besides the introduction, which is only made available to the Toastmaster) is made available to all other members.

figure 4a In addition, as Toastmaster on the first roster listed (usually Toastmaster for the next upcoming meeting) you have administration access to the roster (see figure 4b). This means you can Delete a roster: click the Edit / Delete this roster link, then scroll to the bottom of the roster and select the delete this roster button, then click the Update / Save Roster button. When a roster is deleted, the data is stored in a history file. This data is used to keep track of which members did which roles. Therefore, when you delete a roster, make sure the members assigned to the roles accurately reflect the meeting. If a meeting is cancelled, or you do not want to save the data to the history file for any reason, check the box to the right of the delete box. Insert a new roster: click the Insert new roster below link above the roster where you want to add the new roster after. Most of the time, this is the last roster listed. Most clubs like to have about 2-3 months of rosters created in advance, giving members plenty of time to plan for roles. When you create a new roster, enter the date of the meeting, including the year. Remove/change/add any member from any role: click the Edit / Delete this roster link. Each role will have a pull down menu with all the names of the members in the club, including a Do Not Use and Available. Select the appropriate member/option from this list, then click the Update / Save Roster button at the bottom of the roster to save the changes (see figure 4c). If the speaker(s) give you their speech information, you can enter it in the roster directly, making it available to other members.

figure 4b

figure 4c Note: All Toastmasters clubs are unique and can choose their own methods of scheduling roles. The following is the suggested policy/procedure that works best with this on-line software. Check with your clubs VP of Education to see if there are any changes/differences in policy. Suggested Duty Roster Procedure Traditionally, the VP of Education is responsible for the duty roster. This responsibility can be quite overwhelming and time consuming. Therefore, many clubs share this responsibility with the Toastmaster. This way, 1) the VP of education does not get "burned out" 2) this important responsibility does not depend upon the VP of education attending every meeting, and 3) all members of the club have the opportunity to work on their leadership and organization skills. NOTE: The Toastmaster for the first meeting shown on the roster page has full editing rights to all entered rosters. After the last meeting: The new Toastmaster, or the Toastmaster for the upcoming meeting takes possession of the meeting sign-up sheet, sends out the duty roster for the upcoming meeting, and is responsible for filling the roles for that meeting. The Toastmaster may choose to

send out the roster several times as updates to the roster are being made. The Toastmaster creates a new roster for the next meeting following the last scheduled meeting. The Toastmaster edits the current rosters based on the changes made from the meeting's sign up sheet, which he or she has possession of as Toastmaster for the next meeting. The Day of the Meeting (or the night before if an early morning meeting): The Toastmaster sends out the duty roster one more time. In addition, the Toastmasters also prints out, and brings to the meeting, the duty roster sign up sheet, that can be passed around to members so that they can sign up for meetings several weeks in advance. Immediately after the meeting: The Toastmaster that just completed "Toastmastering" :) deletes the current duty roster for the meeting that had just passed. This will give editing access to the current Toastmaster, and the process can start over again with the new Toastmaster. * If the Toastmaster does not have Internet access, or for any other reason chooses not update the schedule him or herself, it is the responsibility of the VP of Education to do the task.

Club Goals
The Distinguished Club Program is an annual program, running from July 1 through June 30. The program consists of 10 goals your club should strive to achieve during this time using the Club Success Plan as a guide. World Headquarters tracks the progress of your club toward these goals throughout the year, sending quarterly progress reports to your club president (monthly reports are available on the Toastmasters International web site). At year-end, World Headquarters calculates the number of goals the club achieved and recognizes it as a Distinguished Club, Select Distinguished Club, or Presidents Distinguished Club based on the number of goals achieved and the number of members it has. For full details, see The Distinguished Club Program PDF. You can check on your club achievements on a regular basis to see how your club is doing. Your VP of Education or website administrator should be keeping this area up to date.

Member Goals
Goal setting is a very important part of Toastmasters. This goal-setting tool was created to help Toastmasters commit to a number of speeches in a given timeframe. Each member has full access to create/modify his or her own goals.

figure 5a

To create or edit your goals, click the edit icon then you will be in edit mode (see figure 5b).

next to your name. The screen will refresh,

figure 5b If you click the checkbox under the private column, your goals will be visible only to you, and the officers/webmaster who has admin access to the website, otherwise, your speaking goals can be seen by the other members of the club. Under the Current column, enter your current Toastmasters achievements. The first pull down menu contains CTM, ATM-B, ATM-S, ATM-G, and DTM. The second contains CL and AL, and the third contains the numbers 0-9. These numbers represent the number of speeches; so for example CTM 6 would mean the member has her CTM plus 6 speeches toward her ATM. Under the Dates (month/year), you enter your anticipated achievements in the top set of pull down menus, then once that time from is reached, you enter your actual achievements in the bottom set. Once you are done with your updates click the Update Goals! button.

Mentor / Mentee Request Form

A mentor is a more experienced member who takes a personal interest in, and helps another member. Mentors serve as role models, coaches, and confidantes, offering knowledge, insight, perspective and/or wisdom useful to the other member. A mentor can help a new member become familiar with your club or can assist a more experienced member in learning special skills. This form is where members can request to serve as a mentor or to be mentored by another member. The results of this form are submitted to your VP of Education, or to the person leading the mentoring program.

Speech Feedback
This is a link to the Speech Feedback discussion board where club members are encouraged to evaluate each other and give feedback on speeches. Follow the Log In procedures as described in the Club News section.

Brainstorming

This is a link to the Brainstorming discussion board where club members are encouraged to share ideas for improving their club. Follow the Log In procedures as described in the Club News section.

Speaking Tips and Tricks

This is a link to the Speaking Tips and Tricks discussion board where club members are encouraged to share their knowledge and experience with other members. Follow the Log In procedures as described in the Club News section.

Available Downloads
This is where you can find club documents, instructions, and other useful information for download. Note that there are two available downloads links, one under the main menu and one under members only. The one under members only contains extra downloads made available only to club members with a valid username and password. To download a file to your local PC, simply click the name of the document you wish to download (see figure 6a). Only your webmaster can add files to download.

figure 6a

Edit Your Member Profile / Private Member Directory

Your information is kept in a secure area on the website. You have access to update this information via the private member directory. Under the members only section, click the Edit Your Member Profile / Private Member Directory link. You will be prompted for your username and password. You will see at the top of the page a section with your information as it is currently entered in the website database (see figure 7a). You will see your role history from this area as well as change/update your Title (officer title, toastmaster achievements) Telephone E-mail address

Password Website photo Information listing options (public and private areas) Information about yourself

figure 7a Private and Public Areas Many members are rightfully concerned about privacy of their information. Your FreeToastHost.org website is designed to keep your information secure and give you, the member, the option of how much information you want to share and with whom you want to share it. Note: your e-mail address will never appear in any public area of the website. This means that spambots (programs created to search the Internet for e-mail addresses), will never find your e-mail address since it only appears in areas where usernames and passwords are required. The private area, also known as the Private Member Directory, is in the password protected members only section. Only club members have access to this information. Here you can find contact and general information on all the clubs members who have not specifically requested that their information be hidden from their fellow club members. You can also print this information by clicking the Click Here link directly above the member listing. The public area, also known as Meet Our Members, is linked under the main menu. By default, members are NOT included in this area. Members must uncheck the option that reads Do NOT post my name, photo, or bio in the public area. In their member profile. It is important to note that ONLY members names, photos and bios appear in this public areano e-mail, telephone, or

other contact info will appear. Your listing in the public area helps give prospective members and idea of the backgrounds of the current members in the club. It is important to keep your information up to date.

Other Links
Your webmaster can add other links to your website. Be sure to check out all the links on the left side menu of your website. Enjoy your website!

Bo Bennett, DTM [email protected] Creator of FreeToastHost.org