Before I got into details, I asked him to check with his host organization on the corporate communications or public relations policy. This was because his club is a in-house club under a host organization.

Most host organizations, especially companies, have strict policies to protect the company image or branding. The Toastmasters Clubs under the organizations also have to observe these policies on top of the Toastmasters policies.

Over the years, I had seen Toastmasters Clubs being shut down by the host organizations, partly because of the policy issues. But on the positive note, some host organizations provide free web hosting for its affiliated Toastmasters Club, either in the public or intranet domain.

Community Clubs have more options on setting up a club website, and many of such options are free.

The first one is the freetoasthoast (http://www.freetoasthost.org/) -> the official one recommended by Toastmasters International.

I personally have not used it myself, but I know there are many clubs using it. I had checked with some of the users, and in general, the feedback is most likely positive as such.
1. easy to use
2. the template is there with most of the Toastmasters publicity material

Personally, I have observed the only set back: the club website will look like most other clubs’ websites. It is not easily to stand out.

I have known other free options as follows:
1. Blogspot or Blogger (http://www.blogger.com/)
2. http://www.wordpress.com
3. http://www.webs.com

The setback for these options, is other than blogspot, the other 2 will put ads to on the website.

Of course, there are some clubs prefer to have their website with paid hosting services, and this shall be discussed in the future posts.

Earth Hour is a global event organized by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature, also known as World Wildlife Fund) and is held on the last Saturday of March annually, asking households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and other electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change. Earth hour was conceived by WWF and The Sydney Morning Herald in 2007, when 2.2 million residents of Sydney participated by turning off all non-essential lights. Following Sydney’s lead, many other cities around the world adopted the event in 2008. Earth Hour 2010 will take place on March 27, 2010 from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., local time.

In the same page, all the achievements were highlighted. Every hour, the organizer hope to outdo the previous year in term of participants, reduction of power consumption in the hour etc.

But in between the year, does the overall power consumption reduced?
Do these supporters committed to a reduction in power consumption for the year ahead?
Do these supporters support the Earth Hour for publicity or image purpose?
Or after the Earth Hour, life goes back to usual?

Just this afternoon, I saw a friend commented on the Facebook on how cold it was in a government building due to air-conditioning. This is a wastage of energy. So much for the supporter’s commitment.

I hope that, this year, it would be a difference. A difference that every supporters really committed to the taking action to reduce power consumption and counter climate change.

For me, I will not switch my lights off for this purpose. I believe that it is a on-going process to counter climate change.

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