Upgrade your incoming officers! - WordPress for Toastmasters*

As July 1 comes closer, club webmasters should be preparing to not only update the list of officers displayed on the website but also give at least some of them another promotion — increased access to the website’s back end functions.

There is a case for giving elevated security rights to most every officer, for example so the VP of Education can modify the meeting agendas, the VP of Public Relations can post to the blog, the VP of Membership can add user accounts for new members, the Secretary can record minutes that will be stored on the website, and the Treasurer can set up and track online payments.

The exact division of responsibility will vary between clubs depending on the comfort level various officers have with technology, but the club webmaster should not be doing it all. And every club webmaster should have a backup — at least one other person who has full administrative rights to change website settings.

The place to designate new officers is on the Toastmasters screen under Settings (there is also a link to it under TM Administration). The settings screen is only accessible to site administrators. At the same time that you designate new officers from the member list, you can click the checkbox labeled “Grant all officers Manager security status (able to edit website content, agendas, and user accounts.).”

If you prefer to hand out those superpowers more selectively, there is a spot farther down the page where you can choose individual members to promote to Manager. You can also designate an additional Administrator.

Other security roles including Contributor (can submit but not publish blog posts), Author (can publish blog posts), and Editor (can edit all content) can be assigned from the Users tab on the dashboard. Check the checkbox next to one or more accounts that you want to promote, specify the role, and click the Change button.