111111

District 23 – Division D TLI

TMLogo200x166Dear Toastmasters of Division D,

Thank you so much for having me out to speak in El Paso! I always enjoy my trips to El Paso and Southwest New Mexico. I was a little surprised by the cold weather this trip. I guess I just thought it was always 100 degrees in El Paso.

A special thank you goes to Bonnie Smith & her crew for putting on such a great event. And to my presentation partner, Daniel Rodriguez, for his outstanding work on putting together an HPL that will help every club in Division D have a club website. I know you have Daniel's info, but if you need to contact him and have lost his email address, he said I could provide it here: dan16ln@hotmail.com.

Here are my notes and other thoughts after our session Saturday afternoon:

Tracy's Information


Website Articles & Book

Some Ideas for Photos and Images

We talked a lot about using your own photos in your club, but sometimes that's not always possible when you're blogging. Here are some other ways to find engaging photos and images:

Hosting Options

  • Free Toast Host 2.0
    • Free for Toastmasters clubs
    • All the branding is done for you!
    • Quick and easy to setup ... have your club online tonight
    • My only complaint: It's hard to keep "fresh."
    • Get started here: www.ToastmastersClubs.org
  • Blogger
    • Free for anyone! (Your Toastmasters club website, your author website, your professional speaker website, you small business website, etc!
    • Super easy to keep fresh! Take pictures during club meetings and have new content on your website before you leave the meeting.
    • My only complaint: For a Toastmasters club, you will spend a little more time getting the branding set up correctly (if you need help with the branding, check out TI's Virtual Brand Portal)
    • A blog post (article) I wrote last year on getting started using Blogger: Getting Started With Blogger
    • By the way, both of the clubs I attend use Blogger as our club website hosting engine: Lubbock Toasters and Llano Estacado Toastmasters and so does out city website Toastmasters in Lubbock (I'm generally the chief photographer at Lubbock events, but if you scroll back far enough on those three sites you'll find a few pictures of me.)
    • Get started here: www.Blogger.com
  • WordPress
    • It's a little bit more complicated than the previous two, but it's got a lot of OOMPH! under the hood. It might be overkill for your club, but if you are launching a small business, author, or professional (even semi-pro) speaker website, I wholeheartedly recommend WordPress.
    • This website (15 Minute Mondays) uses WordPress as the engine.
    • Get started here: www.WordPress.com
  • Easy Speak
    • One part club management software, one part club website.
    • If you need help generating club schedules, this might be the tool for you.
    • My personal feeling is that this is better as a club management/scheduling package than a marketing platform. If you want to use Easy Speak as a club website, I suggest making it the "Members Area" and use Free Toast Host (which has a lighter weight club management offering) or Blogger (no club management but awesome marketing features) as your "Web Visitors Area."
    • Get started here: www.Easy-Speak.org

Regardless of which platform you choose, pick a platform and have a website ... for your club, for your small business, for yourself!

Topics from the Group


Statistic Sources

Toastmasters International's Virtual Brand Portal

Posting During Meetings

I mentioned that I will often create blog posts during club meetings. I do this on my smartphone using the Blogger app which is available for both Android phones/tablets (link to Google Play store) and iPhones/iPads (link to iTunes store.) By using the app, I can quickly snap a photo, type a few short comments, and the blog post is live on the website before the meeting is adjourned.

WordPress.org vs WordPress.com

Rather than answer this myself, I found an answer directly from WordPress' support page:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/

PayPal vs Square for Collecting Club Dues

This came up at another Toastmasters event and I thought I'd share it with all of you. Square is a great tool for collecting club member dues from their credit or debit cards. My club recently switched to PayPal because of one added feature. Like Square, PayPal has a card swiper that attaches to your Apple or Android mobile phone (or tablet.) However, PayPal has the added benefit of allowing the club treasurer to email invoices to members so that the members can renew their dues right from their home or office.

Contact Me


Email:

Tracy@15MinuteMondays.com

15 Minute Mondays Facebook:

www.facebook.com/15MinuteMondays

LinkedIn:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/tracythomason

Personal Facebook:

www.facebook.com/tracythomason

        (Yes, I'm a huge Elvis fan)

Leave a reply