{"id":669,"date":"2011-03-30T16:39:31","date_gmt":"2011-03-30T21:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikeraffety.com\/blog\/?p=669"},"modified":"2012-04-19T23:54:04","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T04:54:04","slug":"is-toastmasters-really-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikeraffety.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/30\/is-toastmasters-really-international\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Toastmasters really international?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Our membership is clearly international, about a third live outside the United States.\u00a0 But what about services to our members?<\/p>\n

When can you call World Headquarters with questions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roughly 9 AM to 5 PM, California time.\u00a0 Obviously, that may not be so convenient for people living in Europe, Asia, Australia, or elsewhere.\u00a0 It may not even be convenient for those who work 9-5 near WHQ but can’t make personal phone calls while at work.<\/p>\n

The solution?\u00a0 Schedule 1-2 staffers working into the evening (perhaps 10 PM), or even overnight, and give them Skype and instant messaging accounts too.\u00a0 (Bonus points if they speak multiple languages!)<\/p>\n

Where do your Toastmasters purchases get shipped from?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Southern California.\u00a0 All of them (except maybe personalized club banners).\u00a0 Manuals, trophies, contest kits, shirts, ribbons, everything. This can take weeks to deliver, at a high expense (plus import duties).\u00a0 It’s especially ironic when the trophy was made in China.<\/p>\n

The solution?\u00a0 Paper items can be handled by regional contract printers and fulfillment services, and\/or delivered electronically (member choice).\u00a0 Trophies and ribbons might be handled by licensing a few proven companies to produce quality Toastmasters-branded merchandise locally.\u00a0 This results in better service to the member at lower cost!<\/p>\n

Where does your club send dues?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Southern California, in US dollars.\u00a0 In many countries, this can be done on-line with a credit card, but in some countries, credit cards may not be widely used (e.g., cell phones are commonly used for payments in Africa<\/a>), and clubs may not be allowed to have their own bank accounts (forcing the treasurer to hold the club funds and\/or use a personal credit card).<\/p>\n

Plus, there’s the aggravation of currency exchange — the member will probably pay the club in a local currency, but the payment to WHQ will be in US dollars, and when it clears the bank, it may not be the same as what the member paid.\u00a0 The bank will probably charge a fee for the conversion, too.<\/p>\n

The solution?\u00a0 For countries with enough members (more than 2000 maybe?), WHQ should set fixed dues once or twice a year in the local currency, and contract with a global bank to collect and process those payments in country (both on-line as well as by mail).\u00a0 The bank then remits the dues to WHQ in US dollars, taking a few percent off as their processing fee.<\/p>\n

This takes the currency exchange risk off the member and club, who can least afford it due to their small size.\u00a0 It also provides the flexibility to possibly set dues based on the local standard of living.<\/p>\n

These are just a few ideas about what we could improve.\u00a0 What are your thoughts?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our membership is clearly international, about a third live outside the United States.\u00a0 But what about services to our members? When can you call World Headquarters with questions? Roughly 9 AM to 5 PM, California time.\u00a0 Obviously, that may not be so convenient for people living in Europe, Asia, Australia, or elsewhere.\u00a0 It may not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8],"tags":[87,121,120],"class_list":["post-669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2vp-campaign","category-miscellaneous-toastmasters","tag-dues","tag-global","tag-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikeraffety.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikeraffety.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikeraffety.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikeraffety.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikeraffety.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/mikeraffety.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":727,"href":"https:\/\/mikeraffety.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669\/revisions\/727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikeraffety.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikeraffety.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikeraffety.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}