Email for external services; some practical considerations
Use of personal email addresses for club-related 3rd party services is discouraged.
(domain registrars, Zoom, Paypal, find a club, social media, etc)
FreeToastHost cannot provide support with issues related to using 3rd party services. We can only advise best practices for using FreeToastHost.
Using personal email addresses for these things can (and occasionally does) create issues when a former club member is no longer available and the service can no longer be accessed. The only way forward is to create a new account for the external service and utilize the recommendations in this document to avoid similar problems in the future.
The FTH Archive email
If direct control over a standard email account is preferred for external service subscriptions, you have the option of using your club's archive email address.
This offers several benefits;
- Emails from external websites are captured as club business related emails.
- The archive email account could be set up to forward emails to someone if needed.
- This circumvents occasional issues encountered when using the FTH email forwarding system for external accounts. (domain registrars, Zoom, Paypal, find a club, social media, etc)
It is IMPERATIVE that your admin console contains the login credentials for the archive email account. USE OF A MEMBERS PERSONAL EMAIL FOR THIS IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN!
Your club must always have access to this account. If archive email account access is lost your external accounts may not be recoverable. FreeToastHost cannot help with this.
Reference document:
https://support.toastmastersclubs.org/doc/item/email-settings
If you prefer more flexibility with email access, review the following tips for using FTH email addresses.
FTH email addresses
The FTH forwarding email addresses (often referred to as aliases) offer benefits and limitations that are important to understand with regard to their use outside of FreeToastHost.
A key point to understand is that any email sent to a @toastmastersclubs.org address does not arrive at a server within FTH. It is simply passed on to the personal email(s) related to that particular @toastmastersclubs.org address. The nature of this process is why @toastmastersclubs.org cannot behave as ‘from’ addresses and why these FTH email addresses cannot be configured in an email client (or accessed directly via a web portal). There’s no mail server to access.
Troubleshooting a missing email is usually an issue of ensuring the external service address is whitelisted in your FTH site. Occasionally an address must also be whitelisted in your personal email client.
Remember the FTH server does not receive email, it's an intermediary between the sender and the personal email of the club member.
Reference documents:
https://support.toastmastersclubs.org/doc/item/ensuring-that-members-receive-email
https://support.toastmastersclubs.org/doc/item/reducing-spam
Which address format to use?
Each club has a set of email addresses that never change and are always usable.
Your club number addresses always work even if your club uses a website alias or custom domain.
[description]This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. (replace xxxx with your club number)
FreeToastHost recommends these versions of your email be used for external subscriptions and services. (domain registrars, Zoom, Paypal, find a club, social media, 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 a new 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; the club number versions.
Reference document:
https://support.toastmastersclubs.org/doc/item/email-lists-and-aliases
Which FTH email addresses are best for these things?
Public FTH addresses are officer aliases, contact address, custom one-member groups with public option enabled, and the admin email address.
Be aware that officers have the option to disable their FTH email alias.
The admin email address
Only the admin email address cannot be disabled and is very likely to always work. (assuming the admin's personal email address is still good.)
The club contact address
Use of the contact address is optional. If you believe this address was used for an external account, be aware of it's status (enabled/disabled) if you are trying to retrieve email from an external service.
A benefit of this address is more than one recipient can be assigned. Keep in mind these officers will also receive submissions of the Contact Us form on your website.
Using the club number version of this address is recommended. Especially in your Club Central contact information at Toastmasters International. This will ensure that your club will receive potential new member contact info regardless if there are issues or changes with your website alias or custom domain.
All clubs have at least one external location that contains an email address for your club; Find-A-Club at Toastmasters.org
FTH recommends using a club number version of an email address to ensure continuity regardless of changes in officers, website alias or custom domain.
Reference document:
https://support.toastmastersclubs.org/doc/item/updating-club-contact-on-toastmasters-international-site
Our admin is gone and their personal email still receives club emails
If you cannot access your site’s admin panel, follow the procedure to change club site administrators;
https://support.toastmastersclubs.org/doc/item/when-previous-administrator-is-no-longer-available
Once your club has a new site admin, check your site’s admin console for stored login credentials of external sites.
- See the section below ‘Where to record login information”.
If none are found you should be able to run the password recovery procedure on the external site to restore access for your new administrator.
Where to record login information
Your FTH site contains three areas to store login credentials of external services. Site administrators must ensure these are maintained to help avoid issues with losing access to them.
Website Settings module
1. Basic Settings: Registrar Information (for Custom Website Domains)
2. Social links: Login Details / Notes for the Above Websites
Email & Contact forms module
3. Email settings: Club Archive Email Address & Club Archive Email Login Information/Password
Keep track of external site accounts
A good habit is to include a review of these when preparing for the new Toastmaster year and anytime an officer change-over occurs.
Reference document:
https://support.toastmastersclubs.org/doc/item/officer-changeover-checklist
Short term unavailability of an officer
The following is a trick that can be used by someone comfortable navigating Membership Management.
You need to receive something from (external account; Zoom, Paypal, etc) and the contact info is (for example) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. but your treasurer is not available.
The first point to remember is that officer email aliases are tied to the role, not the person. You can temporarily change the recipient of email sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.;
To accomplish this, temporarily change the Officer Role in Membership Management to someone who can manage the external service. (Treasurer for the purposes of this example)
Ensure everyone involved is notified when doing this so officers do not get anxious if they see a different name for their role in the website.
Reference document:
https://support.toastmastersclubs.org/doc/item/main-membership-panel#officer-roles