WordPress for Toastmasters*The latest WordPress for Toastmasters software update includes a new meeting minutes document type and email functions previously only available on Toastmost.
You set up mailing lists and minutes in the new TM Email and TM Minutes menu sections of the administrator’s dashboard. You need administrator rights to view the TM Email section or editor rights to view the TM Minutes section.
TM Email
Previously, the email configuration screens were previously displayed on the Toastmost service under a menu labeled “Toastmost” because those features were only available as Toastmost services. In addition to adding them to the open source software version, the new menu structure aims to make the purpose of these configuration screens clearer.
The software does not provide email accounts per se but it can forward messages, for example on the demo.toastmost.org website:
- demo-president@toastmost.org forwards to the club president.
- demo@toastmost.org as a mailing list for distribution to all members of the club (only for messages coming from other club members).
- demo-officers@toastmost.org as the officer email list.
- demo-customforwarder@toastmost.org as a custom forwarding address you define.
- demo-info@toastmost.org as a general email inbox that forwards to one or more officers.
- If you registered as the official Club Central email on toastmasters.org, demo-info@toastmost.org can also:
- Selectively forward Base Camp manager messages to one or more officers.
- Send an automated response to clubleads@toastmasters.org messages generated when someone completes the form on your club’s Find a Club page.
If your website has its own domain, the prefix (“demo-” in the examples above) is not needed. For example, the clubawesome.org website has a members@clubawesome.org members email list.
More details:
- General forwarding, Base Camp message forwarding, and Find-a-Club automated response
- Member and officer email lists
- Custom email forwarding addresses
Meeting Minutes
Previously, there was some functionality for posting meeting minutes as blog posts, with a “members only” category that could be applied to restrict viewing those documents to logged in members. Making them a separate post type on the website enforces a clearer separation. A previously published tool for extracting member meeting role and attendance records for use in minutes has been updated to work with this new feature.
A link to the section of the website where members can view the minutes documents has been added to the top of the members dashboard. Members of the general public who find their way to that section of the website will only see the headlines and a prompt to log in.
These minutes documents are maintained separately from the blog posts, web pages, and events posted to your website, but you will edit them in the same WordPress editor you use for other website content. You can also upload images and files to embed in your minutes.
Note: the members-only security feature does not necessarily protect documents uploaded into the website from being viewable by non-members. They won’t be easily discoverable but you should not upload documents containing highly sensitive information (such as passwords or social security numbers) into the website.
