FreeToastHost 4 Migration Checklist for VPEs

FreeToastHost 4 is rolling out in phases. Your club keeps its web address when it moves, but officers still need a plan for agendas, role assignments, and member communication while the site cutover happens. This checklist is for VP Education officers who want meetings to stay calm even if website tools feel different for a few weeks.

Disclaimer: Toastmanagers is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Toastmasters International. Toastmasters® and Pathways are trademarks of Toastmasters International. FreeToastHost is a Toastmasters International club website service. Feature notes below are based on publicly available FTH4 materials and may change as the rollout continues.

What you should assume about FTH4

• Migration is phased. Clubs are notified when their turn comes; you usually do not pick the date.
• Your public URL is intended to stay the same after migration.
• Content, members, meeting history, and settings are meant to carry over, but admin workflows can feel new.
• Some FTH3 tools may arrive later in FTH4. Public docs have listed items such as e-blast and automated FTH3 data migration as still coming during the rollout period. Verify against current FreeToastHost documentation for your club.

The recommended ops path during migration

Keep the public club website on FreeToastHost if that is working for guests. Run scheduling, role reminders, and printable agendas somewhere that is not mid-migration. Toastmanagers is built for that second job and is free for core club ops.

For the product split (website vs meeting ops), see Toastmanagers vs FreeToastHost.

Checklist: two weeks before your cutover (or as soon as you are notified)

1. Export a current roster. Pull names and emails from FreeToastHost, Club Central, or your existing schedule sheet. Save a local CSV you control.
2. Write down your meeting pattern. Day, time, timezone, cadence (weekly / biweekly), and the role set you actually use (not the ideal template nobody follows).
3. List the next four locked meetings. Speakers, evaluators, Toastmaster, and any committed speech titles. These are the meetings you cannot afford to lose in a tooling shuffle.
4. Decide the source of truth for roles. Pick one place officers will edit during migration week. Dual-editing FTH and a spreadsheet at the same time creates missed reminders.
5. Tell the officer team the plan in one paragraph. Example: public site stays on FreeToastHost; role schedule and reminders move to Toastmanagers for the next cycle.

Checklist: set up Toastmanagers beside FreeToastHost

1. Create the club at toastmanagers.com/signup. Set timezone and meeting cadence first.
2. Import members. Use CSV import from the members tools (roster-style export with name and email columns). Prefer silent import if you want to announce later in one email.
3. Generate upcoming meetings and manually lock the next one or two with known assignments from your pre-cutover list.
4. Turn on the opt-in public page if guests need a simple next-meeting link that is not your FreeToastHost homepage. Path shape: /c/your-club-slug. Keep FreeToastHost as the SEO homepage if you already rank there.
5. Copy the tokenized iCal feed from club settings (Data & Calendar) into Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook for officers who live in calendars.
6. Confirm export works. Download the club data ZIP (members, schedule/assignments, attendance CSVs) once so you know you can leave anytime.

Checklist: migration week

1. Do not rebuild next week's agenda from memory. Copy the locked Toastmanagers (or Sheet) assignments into whatever public agenda view you still show guests, if you show one.
2. Send one member email with: public website URL (FreeToastHost), schedule URL (Toastmanagers), and who to contact if a role is wrong.
3. Lock reminders early for the next meeting so people are not relying on a website feature that may look different after the cutover.
4. Spot-check Pathways speech details for speakers on the next two meetings. Titles and projects are easy to drop when tools change.
5. Keep a paper or PDF agenda backup for the meeting immediately after migration. Generate it from Toastmanagers once roles are stable.

Checklist: two weeks after

• Retire duplicate schedule tabs or old FTH agenda habits that officers still edit by mistake.
• Add a "Members: view schedule" link on the FreeToastHost site pointing to Toastmanagers.
• Rotate the iCal token if it was pasted into a public channel by accident.
• Export club data again and store it with officer transition files.
• Ask members one question: "Did you get the right reminder for your role?" Fix the workflow, not the blame.

When to keep scheduling on FreeToastHost instead

Stay on FreeToastHost agendas if your club already likes that workflow, officers are trained on it, and migration has not disrupted role signup or email tools for you. Toastmanagers is optional. The point of this checklist is continuity, not a forced switch.

Quick link map

• Create a Toastmanagers club
• FreeToastHost vs Toastmanagers (what each tool is for)
• Leaving a Google Sheets schedule
• OurClubHQ vs Toastmanagers

---

Last Updated: August 2026 | Sources: Public FreeToastHost 4 welcome and documentation pages describing phased migration, URL continuity, and features still landing during rollout. Always confirm details with your club's FreeToastHost notices.