This facility is available to any member who is designated as an officer on the website.

It can be used for things such as comments about goals, mentor/mentee relationships, periods of unavailability, or anything else that is useful to the club.

Remember to save after you have added or edited the notes.

The following method can also be used to help setup new members who have visual, co-ordination or other challenges.

Members with a shared (or no) email address

The Toastmasters International website requires members to have a unique email address. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that the member without an email address get their own email address via a free provider (gmail, yahoo, outlook etc). Sometimes, ISPs allow one account to have several email addresses or sub-accounts, which is another option.

If the member chooses not to get their own email address, then you can assign a password.

- Enter your (the admin) email in the member's record.
- Save
- Logout as admin
- Authenticate member as normal, click on the authorization link in the member authorization email and and create a password.
- Logout as the member
- Login as Admin and remove your email address from the member's record.
- Give the password to the member.

Be aware that if the member forgets the password, you will need to go through the process again.

Members who have visual, co-ordination or other issues

Use the method above, with the following variation:

When you remove your email address, instead of leaving the field blank, insert the new member's email address in its place, and save.

What is a website alias?

Website Alias - This is what you will use if you are NOT using a custom domain. An alias is what comes before the toastmastersclubs.org / toastmastersdistricts.org domain — it is what replaces your club number in the URL. Example:

https://12345.toastmastersclubs.org

would become

https://myclub.toastmastersclubs.org

...where "myclub" will be the alias. As you can see, the alias is just a simple name. It does NOT include "https://" and cannot be "www" (the "www" is already implied).

Enter the name in the "Website Alias" field (marked with an arrow below).

Make a point of keeping your alias as brief as possible. For example, "myclub" is more effective than "myclubtoastmasters". Remember that, whatever you put in the alias field, "toastmastersclubs.org" gets tacked onto the end. A very long URL is not very friendly to anyone who has to type it in.

Once you establish an alias, your site will still be accessible by the club number in the URL as well, but each URL will require the member/admin to login again, since they are recognized as two separate URLs by the browser.  The browser maintains your login status separately for each URL (separate cookies for each).

You can change your alias at any time. As more clubs register for FreeToastHost websites, fewer aliases will be available. It is first come, first served. When you change your alias, the old one goes back in the pool of available aliases.

If you change your alias, you do not need to worry about changing e-mail addresses. Your e-mail addresses for the club will always use your club number to avoid this problem of invalid/changing e-mail addresses.

Aliases must be in the format of a valid URL subdomain. We accept only letters and numbers.  The following are the rules for creating a valid alias:

1. A website alias must be unique.  You cannot use an alias that another club is already using.
2. A website alias must be at least 3 letters/numbers long.
3. A website alias can only contain letters and numbers (no punctuation, dashes, or underscores).
4. Despite #3, a website alias also cannot be entirely numbers, or a letter "d" followed by entirely numbers. 
   This is not allowed because the system would get confused and think those are club or district numbers instead of website aliases.
5. A website alias cannot be any of the following:  www, support, _domainkey, _dmarc, or an IP address.

When your club first applies for a website, it is issued with a URL (or web address) of #######.toastmastersclubs.org. ####### stands for your club number, so if your club number is 1234567, then the URL would be 1234567.toastmastersclubs.org

If you are happy with that URL, you don't have to do anything else.

DO NOT add the leading zeros to your club number when you use this URL. Using the same example, 01234567.toastmastersclubs.org would not work.

Most clubs, though, want something a bit more distinctive. There are two ways of doing this, aliases and custom domain names.

An Alias is just a name that replaces your club number. So, if your club name is Podunk Toastmasters, you might like to use an Alias of "podunk" (or maybe "podunktm" if another club has taken the first one).

To set an Alias, launch your Admin Console and scroll to the bottom of the window. Put your Alias into the box marked "Website Alias". (Only the alias – not the full website name!) Make sure you leave the Custom Website Domain box empty. Save and close. That's all!

Your new Alias is available immediately.

Your old URL with the club number in it is still available, so if something goes wrong – let's say you misspelled your Alias – you can still use it to get to your site.

You can also change your Alias at any time, for example, if your club changes its name.

A Custom Domain Name is one that doesn't have "toastmastersclubs.org" in it. It will be something along the lines of "podunktalkers.org" It has to be purchased from a domain name registrar and renewed every year.

If you're not sure whether your club has one or not, talk to your treasurer, who will know if a payment has been made.

Setting up a Custom Domain Name is a bit more complicated, and it's different for each registrar (the place the name was purchased from). See http://support.toastmastersclubs.org/doc/item/dns-settings-overview for information.

When you have your new domain name set up correctly with the registrar, you then have to enter it in the Custom Website Domain box in the Admin Console. Leave the Alias box empty. Save and close.

Even when you've done everything correctly, it can take up to 72 hours for the new name to "propagate" – that is, to be recognised right across the internet.

Reasons for having a Custom Domain Name:

• It lets you have a more distinctive URL for your club.
• You do not need to remember your club number to use any of the email lists.
  (e.g. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. vs This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
• You can take it with you if you decide to not to stay with FTH.

In the end, though, the choice is up to you and your club. And whichever one you choose, good, interesting and up-to-date content is always the most important thing.