TOPIC:

How do I update the Who Is domain registration information from a past member to myself, including update for domain renewals? In addition do renewals happen automatically?

Have the person who purchased the domain transfer it to you.

The individual who purchased it is a past member and we have no up to date contact information, is there any other option available?

Sorry we are not a registrar you need to get incontact with the registrar where the domain was purchased and see what they say.

When asking for help here, please always include your club name & number along with your name in your signature.... Go to your profile and it enter it there, like mine...

Click on link in my signature to do that...

Unfortunately, this is still a periodic problem that we really do not have any control over. All we can do is offer guidance to contact your registrar and give you tips for preventing the problem from recurring in the future once you have it resolved this time.

My club went through this very situation around when we started using FTH2 in 2011. Since we really wanted to keep the custom domain name, our only recourse was to let it expire (the old owner did not renew it, as expected), wait out the registrar's grace period, and wait for the domain name to be put back up for purchase. Additionally, I had to switch my club to using a website alias during the grace period (different email addresses), then carefully watch for the domain name to become available to re-register it for my club, and then finally, retrain my club back on using the custom domain name. The experience was a major *PITA*, and one that I would not wish for any other club.

This very experience is why I tend to advise everyone to only use the club number version of officer aliases, admin email (admin-#####@toastmastersclubs.org), and the contact address (contact-#####@toastmastersclubs.org) in external websites (e.g., registar websites, Paypal, Find a Club, etc.). Reason: club numbers do not change, and if you use officer aliases or the admin email address, the email address automatically gets switched to the new person when new officers or admin takes over. Website aliases and custom domain names are very convenient for quickly accessing your website and for regular club emails, but for things that you need to have reliable access to well into the future, you need to use email addresses that are less likely to become invalid or unusable (club # versions).

You may not think my comments are relevant to your situation, but consider if the email address recorded with the registrar were admin-#####@toastmastersclubs.org (where ##### is your club number) and the registrar password was recorded in your website. You would likely not be in this situation then, since you could easily take control of the custom domain.