Consolidating All Our Blogs

One of the rules of blogging is to publish often enough that people know your blog isn't dead. Unfortunately for District 25, we have a number of blogs that seem very dead. Not even Zombie dead where they get up an shamble around.

Part of the reason for this is we divided up our leadership team's efforts into multiple blogs. That made our already busy leaders have to produce enough content to keep their blog at least shambling. To combat these zombie blogs we're consolidating all of our blogs into one. If you want to keep up with what is going on in District 25, go to the main blog.

Toastmasters District 25 Blog

Announcing the D25 Toastmasters Bulletin Board!

District 25 has a new way for members to communicate… the D25 Toastmasters Bulletin Board on Facebook. It is a place where members can share information on topics of interest that are not necessarily District-related. If you wish to be a member of this group, please send a request to join from the Group page or ask another group member to add you.

How is this different from the D25 Facebook Page or Hot Topics?

• The D25 Facebook Page is a place for picture albums or announcements of District or Toastmaster-related events. 
• Hot Topics is emailed twice a month and is about District 25 announcements, Toastmaster-related stories, or club special events. 

What are the benefits to joining and using this new Facebook Group?

• Broader Content- Requests for judges of non-Toastmaster contests, or other posts that are not necessarily Toastmasters-related. Offers the opportunity to post about club special events, open houses, youth leadership events, gavel clubs, files, pictures, and accomplishments.  
• Visibility- Posting to the D25 Toastmasters Bulletin Board will place your communications front and center instead of on the Visitor Posts section on the left-hand side of the current D25 Facebook Page. 

We hope you will find this new Facebook group helpful. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Amelinda Salas, DTM
Public Relations Manager
amelindasalas@d25toastmasters.org

How's Your Brand?

Do you remember "rebranding"?

Back in 2011, Toastmasters International changed its brand for the first time in 70 years, updating the logo, colors, fonts, imagery and messaging to make the Toastmasters identity clearer, and to increase awareness of its impact around the world and its focus on leadership.

Here in District 25 our aim is that every club website will reflect the new branding and that each club will have a banner with the new logo.

Does your club need new branded materials?

One way to get them is to win them! Check this promotion out and see if your club can win some branded materials:
https://www.toastmasters.org/Leadership-Central/Public-Relations/Video-Brand-Contest

Many branded items are available for download here:
https://www.toastmasters.org/Leadership-Central/Logos-Images-and-Templates

If you are ordering merchandise from the Toastmasters online store, you can add these free items to your cart.
https://www.toastmasters.org/Search-Results?keyword=free&it=item

Please contact us if you have questions about how your club can update its brand!

Mary Walker
Public Relations Manager
marywalker@d25toastmasters.org

Make Finding Your Club Easy With a Map

Have you made it perfectly clear how visitors can find your club? Let's check out an important way for them to do so — the Club Information page on the Toastmasters International website. Here's the page for Afterburners Club #6191: http://reports.toastmasters.org/findaclub/zoomclub.cfm?ClubNumber=6191

Look at your own club's page by changing the club number in the URL. (Or go to the D25 Find a Club listing and click on the TI logo next to your club. http://d25toastmasters.org/find_a_club_name.htm)

Is the location accurate? If not, any club officer can log into Club Central on the TI Members home page (http://www.toastmasters.org/Members.aspx) and choose "Update my club meeting information." Besides the correct street address, be sure to specify if you meet inside a church or business, and even what room number.

Does the map show the correct location? Under "Meeting Information" there is an inconspicuous line that says "Click here to review and update your map location." You'll get a popup window where you can fix the map. The update may take a couple of days to be reflected on the web page. Always go back to the page later and verify that all is correct.

If you have any difficulty with updating your TI Club Information page, please get in touch with me.

Jodie Sanders
Public Relations Officer
JodieSanders@d25toastmasters.org

Time to Dust Off Your Club's Website!

What does your club's website look like? Is it an asset? Does it work to bring in prospective members to your meetings? Do visitors say "I found your site and your club looked appealing, so here I am?"

Flagship Speakers won the Club Website award at the spring 2013 conference.

If the answer is yes, your club has a good chance of winning a prize in the D25 Club Website Contest at the Fall Conference on Nov 16. If the answer is no, there is plenty of time to rectify the situation!

We've beefed up the rewards this year: First, second and third prizes will be worth $100, $75 and $50, so it's definitely worth making the effort to spruce up your site if it's looking a bit dusty or rusty. See the entry requirements and judging criteria here.

Need some advice on how to improve your site? Check out the D25 Club Website page for suggestions and links to resources. District Public Relations Officer Jodie Sanders will be happy to look at your website and give you honest feedback that won't cost you anything.

The Most-Frequently-Asked Question about FreeToastHost Websites

"We don't know the administrator password for our website. How can we find out what it is?"

FreeToastHost provides for the problem of lost passwords or departed website administrators.

• First, make sure that your club's TI Find a Club page has the correct contact email address. To check this, search by club number. If the email address is out of date, an officer must log into Club Central and update the information.
• Go to http://www.toastmastersclubs.org/change/ and fill out the form and submit.
• An email will be sent to the club's contact email address to ask for authorization.
• When the authorization is given, you will get an email telling you how to log in as administrator.
• Once that's done, make sure more than one club officer knows the password to guard against this situation in the future.

If you are having difficulty with any of these steps, contact one of us:

Jodie Sanders, Public Relations Officer, jodiesanders@d25toastmasters.org
Jamie Pickering, Division C Governor, jamiepickering@d25toastmasters.org

Get a Quick Response with a QR Code

Do you know what a QR code is? Maybe not by name, but you have surely seen them, especially on printed material, and if you have a smartphone, you've likely used them.

These odd-looking pictures are actually 2-D barcodes. However, they can store much more information than the familiar UPC barcodes that are on your grocery store items.

Charles Sanzone of Tip Top Toastmasters suggests that a QR code might be useful to promote your club, or an event like an open house. Here's how to do it:

• The barcode can be generated online. 
• It is a picture that you save to your computer. 
• Place it in the document for an event flyer or for a club business card. 
• Print the items and post them or hand them out. 
• Smart device users can take a picture of the code with their device's camera. (They must have an appropriate app installed.)
• The user will be taken to the website, social media profile, or whatever text you included when you made the barcode. No worries about mistyping a web address.

Thanks for the tip, Charles!

Jodie Sanders
Public Relations Officer

Find out more about QR codes and make your own here: