Drivers Start Your Engines!
Effective administration of your easy-Speak site is a crucial element in the success of your ability to manage your online or land-based (in-person) clubs. It all begins in the Control Panel!
- Where is the Control Panel?
- What is the Control Panel?
- What can you do in the Control Panel?
This is where you structure everything!
Where is the Control Panel?
The Control Panel is usually hidden from view unless you are the Administrator or VPE of your easy-Speak site. That is a sensible thing given the power of this ‘engine’ that drives everything. It is good idea to make the Control Panel ONLY available to those with in-depth knowledge of its purpose and experience with its use.
Your Web Master will need access to the Control Panel for administration of the site, maintenance of club officer positions and permissions as well as Club Setup options and role allocations. Your VPE will need access to the Control Panel for maintenance of meeting locations, physical or virtual, as well as management of roles and awards in meetings. Your VP Membership may need access to the Member Survey Manager for surveys and analytics of the club membership from time to time. If you have one of those positions or permissions in your club you will see the location of the Control Panel at the bottom of the site page.
What is the Control Panel?
The Control Panel manages the following elements of your club site:
Import Tools enable the bulk upload of:
- new members for a brand new club
- speech completion records by existing club members
Toastmasters Tools enable the management of:
- Club Officers – maintenance of officer positions
- Club Setup – maintenance of General information, Display preferences, Options, Role Allocation, Meetings and TMI information.
- Locations Edit – maintenance and updates of physical and virtual addresses
- Meeting Awards – management of meeting awards
- Meeting Roles – management of meeting roles
- Member Survey – management of Member Surveys and Reports
- Member status – management of Member status eg visitor, guest, member
What can you do in the Control Panel?
There is a great deal you can do in the Control Panel. Too much to include in one blog post. Details of the attributes of the Control Panel are contained and explained in the easy-Speak Knowledge Base. 
In this blog I will focus on one of the most useful attributes for management of your club’s meeting roles. If you need more you may wish to join us in the Help Desk Webinar scheduled for July 28. Details are displayed in the Event page for the easy-Speak Toastmasters Community in Facebook.
Managing the Roles in your Meetings!
- Do you have some general roles that you use on a regular basis?
- Do you have some specific roles that you put in place from time to time?
- Do you want your members to be able to self-assign themselves for those roles?
- Do you need to specify if those roles may be assigned depending on certain criteria?
These questions and your answers will determine what you will change in the Meeting Roles tool and the Club Setup, Meeting Role Allocation Settings in the Control Panel.
For instance in the Role Manager (see below) you can edit to have the roles assignable or fillable, and determine whether they can repeat.
For instance in the Role Allocation Settings (see below) you can determine how many meetings before any role, major roles, and which roles will repeat. You can also determine the time frames for attendance confirmation, volunteering online and when to prevent changes.
Have I whet your appetite for more? What more do you need help with? Why not join the easy-Speak Toastmasters Community and seek the wisdom of the crowd! Better still, join the Help Desk Webinar on July 28. You can register for this event by joining the community and selecting the Events page.
Next week I will zoom in and focus on other features of the Control Panel and in particular how to give ‘zing’ and ‘pizzazz’ to your Home page in easy-Speak.
During the next few weeks I will be focusing on how the easy-Speak club management tool can be used to advantage for online clubs. If you have something in particular that you would like to see in those posts, please leave me a comment.
