TOPIC:

I would like to get a sense of whether clubs are getting value from the emailed agenda enhancements I implemented a year or two ago. Specifically, the ability to sign-up for roles by email and print the agenda from the email.

Would anyone be offended if I ditched the dumbed down version of the emailed agenda and just made the version with the response links the "normal' way it works?

We need to keep FTH as lean as possible for good performance, so it is just as important to get rid of old dead unused code as it is to add new features.

Also, if clubs are getting good value out of the emailed agenda enhancements, then there are a couple more enhancements I am considering around being able to easily request a more current version of emailed agenda be emailed to you (from the outdated emailed agenda) and an enhancement to allow you to submit speech details via email.

So... let me know if it would be worth it for me to enhance the emailed agendas functionality even more.

Hi Steve! I created a profile here (my first day being aware of this site) in part to answer your question.

I'm a new VPE (first time officer) as of this month and: YES! The ability to sign up for roles has been incredibly helpful! It has seriously streamlined our club's process for filling rolls. We only have 9 members but I never have to chase people to fill roles. Why? I e-mail the agenda out ahead of every meeting (one week prior and 2 days prior) reminding people to take a look and sign up. It makes things SO easy for us. I can't imagine doing this job without that feature! I also include all pre-meeting announcements in those e-mails so it's a fantastic "only bother you with one e-mail" solution that keeps essential info all in one place.

I have never attempted to print an agenda from e-mail, so I can't speak to that.

I would love to be able to e-mail the agenda to our prospective members or guests, but I believe that is not currently possible. Our workaround is saving and attaching it as a PDF in an e-mail to prospective members / guests, but that's not as efficient as being able to include them when I send out the agenda to everyone.

I don't think auto-emailed agenda updates would be appreciated by my corporate club members; it would just be too much for them. The link to the agenda brings them to the most current/up-to-date version on the website, so they go there to sign up for their preferred role. I don't think we need that feature.

As for submitting speech details via e-mail, how do you mean? That the speaker can submit their project / title / level / pathway and it will automatically populate in the agenda?

I'm the new kid here, but I can see you've done a lot of hard work. Thank you!

Barb

The reason you cannot email the agenda to non members is because it contains members private information. By emailing the Agenda as a PDF you are breaking privacy laws.

Yes a members name is their private information and they must have control over who see it.

I love this feature and wish it were so by default. Ditch the dumbed down version, I say! I would also like to have the Use MAILTO Links In Agenda Emails default to On. I've had to explain both features every few months, and with first time Toastmasters as they are the ones who send out emails urging role signups.

Thanks for your commitment to this venture. Were there a way for every club to pay you $1/month for your time...

Brian, if only Facebook and the other privacy violators were as responsible as FTH!

Thanks, Brian. I was definitely unaware of that.

Something we struggle with, as a small (9 member) corporate club, is attendance and filling rolls. It is typical that we have 4-5 members at a meeting and 2-4 guests / prospective members who just haven't joined yet. It was our club's intention that by sending out the agenda to the recent guests / prospective members could be used to help entice them to attend meetings and join. Particularly because we are adding new meeting types in the upcoming month (an education workshop, an open house, and a contest rather than the usual 2 speech meeting).

We were hoping to get that same information to our guests / prospective members. Do you have any simple suggestions for accomplishing this? We're really looking for extremely efficient, lean solutions because none of us has much time to dedicate since meetings occur during our lunch hour and we have little time left for these administrative matters.

Thank you!

As a corporate club the best way to increase your membership is to get the company HR and executives to get behind the club, recognize Toastmasters as a learning and training opportunity and spread the word.

We already do all that, and unfortunately do still run into struggles. We're planning to invite leadership to attend our upcoming Open House and give a speech. Dates of upcoming meetings are publicized in the daily organization e-mail. We give professional development / continuing education credit for attendance.

Part of the issue is that our campus is enormous (can take 20+ minutes for people to arrive at meeting locations, and we do rotate around campus to ensure nobody in particular is disadvantaged by that) and our work is such that people can get called away on a minute's notice to work that keeps them busy for weeks or months till they can next return. Generally feedback isn't that they disliked anything; they want to keep coming but higher priority work continually floats onto their desks. We can hardly get cross with folks for performing life-saving work rather than refining their public speaking skills, and it's just very tough to compete with that.

On my end, I have worked extremely hard to make our speech evaluations more effective as learning tools for the club. A year ago we had too many "you did great!!!!!!!" style evals, and it drove me bonkers because no speech is perfect. I dove deep into research on the subject of giving feedback, started performing evaluations myself, and have rolled everything into a meeting-long interactive workshop that I'll deliver next month. Hopefully with everyone empowered and confident enough to give honest, thoughtful, and candid feedback we'll continue to improve the service we provide to members. That, at least, is my "little" endeavor to provide a quality meeting experience and convince new folks that it's worthwhile to join.

Sincerely, thank you for the info on privacy. That certainly wasn't on our minds... and not least of which because every person in our organization (aka anyone who would be a guest) already has total access to all contact information of every other person in our organization (aka established members). Thus, the privacy concept does feel a little moot, since our internal database has way more info than just the names that are conveyed on an agenda. Though, point taken about *membership in TM* being something that people should be able to choose to disclose for themselves.

Sigh. Off to refine my workshop presentation!

BarbLF wrote:

As for submitting speech details via e-mail, how do you mean? That the speaker can submit their project / title / level / pathway and it will automatically populate in the agenda?

What I had envisioned is that if I am receiving an emailed copy of the agenda that indicates I am signed up as a speaker, then there would be a button (or link) next to my name that would allow me to fetch some sort of streamlined speech information form when I click the button or link. I could quickly fill out the details for my speech without ever having to log in (or an abbreviated login like for sign-ups via email) , and yes, it would update the actual agenda. There would only be a button or link next to my name as a speaker (not any of the other speakers).

So, in most cases there would be one button or link added to the email for requesting the most up to date agenda be emailed back to you, and another button for the scenario where you are signed up as a speaker.

I am the former VP Ed and find that when there are too many things to click when sending the agenda; the who do the agenda forget to click here and there and it comes out all wrong. We have to keep it as simple as possible and duplicable. Not everyone is computer savvy.

Thank you for your great work!

My clubs *LOVE* the sign up from email option... please keep!

I used a variety of combined options for nudging speakers, uncommitted members and unassigned members. These are fabulous!!

Hi, Steve,
First time here. I'm a VPPR for a club that does not use this functionality as we schedule roles 6 weeks in advance outside of FTH. I tinker with FTH anyway as I was an Area Director and witnessed one of my clubs really struggling to schedule their roles using the website. I'll check with them to see if they enabled the email response for roles option.

Steve,
Yes. District 29 has added an elective for FreeToastHost at our TLI's. It was useful and I've implemented several changes. I've found that by just inserting the firstname in the e-mail, responses have increased 50%. Thanks for all your efforts!

Thomas E. “Tom” Reed, DTM, VC 4, EC4, PCP
Vice President of Education
Winner’s Circle Toastmasters Club

Thank you for providing such a wonderful way for our members to communicate about, check and complete the upcoming meetings agendas.

We like the enhancements.

Thank you.

Steve... Where do I find the quick response links that you are referencing. Thanks...Don S 3577689

Yes. Works in getting members to agree to take assigned role, plus allows for members to indicate they are unavailable. Much better response rate than just sending out agenda. Club still uses the meeting notes area for members to indicate weeks in advance their ability to take on roles. Newer members need to be taught to use the FTH Members site. Please make additional enhancements as necessary. I give short information sessions as necessary.

Joan McCarrell, DTM
Rim Talkers Club 3189442
President and Webmaster

YES INDEED!! I am a first time VPE and I am using the email feature to remind of upcoming meetings and encourage the members to sign up. Unfortunately, we have mostly new members, so it also takes a phone call, bribery, extortion (just kidding) BUT they all respond with "I'll go to your email and sign up". So, THANK YOU for both the ability to email the agenda, and the ability to sign up for a role via the emailed agenda or indicate their absence.
It would be really great if there was an easier way to email a signup sheet weeks in advance without the member having to go to each individual agenda - maybe something like the attached spreadsheet, with the 'claimed' roles auto-filled in and links to sign up for the unfilled roles. I also appreciate the ability to print the agenda from the website. Previously, we were editing a document template every time. I would suggest being able to customize the header.

Yes, I've created an account just to log in and advise it's useful and greatly appreciated.

I am the VP - PR this year and I am trying to get other to use the agenda from the website. I want to use the branded version whether emailed or printed. I like the role confirmation that I just turned on.

However, I may need training on this but it is not that easy to create new agenda templates or modify them. Sometimes we have special events like open house, debates and I found it difficult to add to the agenda template. Again, I am new.

Thanks for asking.

I want to give my strong endorsement for the enhanced email version. It sets a different bar of professionalism and technical excellence for club members and officers to strive for - voluntarily. Some of our officers choose to use manual emails and even phone calls while others gain valuable experience using the group email tools FTH makes available.

I believe the same voluntary participation will happen for "enhanced enhanced" emails i.e. providing speech intros etc. via email replies. All of these options add value for those who choose to use them. This is one of the major advantages to FTH in my opinion - it can be configured and used as a technically simple tool or, for those more technically comfortable, as an advanced tool.

Thanks again for making it so!

Jim Kloss - Secretary
/#3204 - Delaware County Toastmasters
Swarthmore, PA

Another enhancement that could be added is to put the buttons for the Pathways resources into the emailed agendas.

Hello Steve;

I really like that idea

My club hasn't taken advantage of this feature. I will recommend to the incoming VPE to try it out with Toastmasters of future meetings. Thanks for asking.

FYI... For those unsure of what I am talking about, the emailed agenda enhancements are enabled by ticking the Include Response Links option in the Email Agenda dialog. Perhaps we will need to change the name of this option in the future, but that is what it is now.

This option allows members to take, drop, and confirm roles and also report planned meeting attendance right from the emailed agenda via some additional links and buttons that are included. That is what I mean by "enhancements". This functionality could become "baked in" (not an option) in the future, but now it must be enabled via the option.

I have to say "I'm not sure" about this feature with our club. As our web admin more often I've seen our folks go to the online agenda page and sign up for vacant roles there - even after receiving the emails where they can opt to use those features. The email functionality is good though - I've used it on occasion. Maybe it just needs more visibility to become better (albeit "more") utilized by our members. While I'm here, KUDOS to Steve an all the web admins out there who support FreeToastHost and this forum. I still think web admins should be counted as the "9th Club Officer" position.