Excelsior Advanced Toastmasters Club

05/22/2026

We had a lively time at Excelsior Advanced Toastmasters this past Saturday.

Jon King from Simply Speaking Toastmasters attended as a guest.

Tom Lloyd as meeting Toastmaster selected the theme of "Rebirth and New Beginnings." Alan Swartz selected "Transition" as the word of the day.

Marcia Wood provided the inspiration.

In her speech "Against All Odds," Dori Rinehart told an inspiring story about her great-grandmother who moved to New York City from Chile with two of her children and established herself as a writer, speaker, and activist. She also lived in Los Angeles for a time before returning to Chile. This speech was done for the Connect with Storytelling project in Level 3 of the Engaging Humor path. Chelsa Newberg evaluated Dori's speech.

For his speech project Moderate a Panel Discussion in Level 4 of the Presentation Mastery path, Jim Roth selected three panelists, Alan Swartz, Joyce Feustel, and Joy Davidson, each of whom addressed aspects of Jim's speech title "Who Can We Become?" Their remarks related to ways that our club attract more members and serve our existing members better. Greg Howell evaluated Jim's remarks and those of the panelists.

Tammy Sutterfield served as table topics master, Gordon Savage served as general evaluator. Nancy Winston was the timer, Joy Davidson was the ah/ha counter, and Alan Swartz was the grammarian and counted the use of the word of the day.

Notes by Joyce Feustel, VP of Education.

04/19/2026

We had a delightful meeting at Excelsior Advanced Toastmasters Club today.

Meeting Toastmaster Dori Rinehart's theme was "The Wisdom of Winnie the Pooh," and she sprinkled a number of insightful quotes from books about Winnie the Pooh throughout the meeting.

Dori also brought the word of the day: "Insight."

Former member Sheryl Smith attended the meeting.

Tammy Sutterfield provided the inspiration.

Speakers were Nancy Winston and Joyce Feustel.

In her speech, "Move," Nancy did a terrific job of demonstrating a wide variety of body language (facial expressions, gestures, and whole body movement) as described in the project "Using Body Language" from the Better Speaker Series. There are three types of gestures: conventional, descriptive, and emotional. Tammy Sutterfield served as Nancy's evaluator.

In her speech, "Turning Conflict Into Clarity," Joyce stressed the importance of active listening, being open-minded, and empathetic while addressing conflict within a group or between two people. She referenced two of the seven habits from the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey: Begin with the end in mind, and seek first to understand. Her speech was done for the Understanding Conflict Resolution" from the Persuasive Influence Path. Linda Rinehart evaluated Joyce.

Chelsa Newberg served as table topics master, giving us a word and asking us to tell us about a song we liked that has the word in the song.

Greg Howell served as general evaluator. Gordon Savage was the timer for our in-person gathering, and Dori Rinehart was the online timer. Tom Lloyd provided the ah/ha counter and grammarian reports.

Notes by Joyce Feustel

03/28/2026

Our meeting Toastmaster Gordon Savage chose "Words of Wisdom" as the meeting theme for the March meeting of Excelsior Advanced Toastmasters Club, and he sprinkled several quotes by Mark Twain throughout our meeting.

We had two guests - Eric Durigan and former member Sheryl Smith.

Since this was Marcia Wood's last meeting with us in person before she moves to Appleton, Wisconsin, we honored her with a cake. We sure are grateful that she will continue to attend our meetings virtually after her move. Thanks Alan Swartz for purchasing the cake and presenting it to Marcia.

Speakers were Joy Davidson, Tom Lloyd, and Angelita Sims.

Joy's talk title was "One Step From Stupid" and was done for the Lead in Any Situation project in Level 5 of the Team Collaboration Path. Marcia Wood evaluated Joy's talk.

Tom's talk title was "On the Road Again," and was done for the Ice Breaker project in Level 1 of the Presentation Mastery Path. Alan Swartz evaluated Tom's talk.

Angelita's talk title was "The Letter That Didn't Define Her," and was done for the Effective Body Language project in Level 2 of the Presentation Mastery Path. Jim Roth evaluated Angelita's talk.

Joyce Feustel was the table topics master and ah counter, Chelsa Newberg was the general evaluator, Tammy Sutterfield provided the Word of the Day and served as the grammarian, and Jim Roth was the timer.

Notes by Joyce Feustel, VP of Education

02/27/2026

We had great energy at our Excelsior Advanced Toastmasters meeting last Saturday!

Joyce Feustel as meeting Toastmaster selected the theme of discipline and word of the day as intentionality.

Tom Lloyd provided a fascinating inspiration about the bamboo tree.

Chelsa Newberg gave a delightfully funny talk "My Teenage Years" for the ice breaker project in the Persuasive Influence path, and Angelita Sims evaluated the speech.

In Jim Roth's speech "What Vision Do We Want?", he differentiated between having a current vision and having a future vision. After his prepared talk, he facilitated a discussion about the visions that members have for the vision of our club and their observations about the club as it is now. Tammy Sutterfield evaluated Jim's speech.

Gordon Savage served as table topics master, Marcia Wood provided the educational moment on the enhancements of the pathways program and served as general evaluator, Joy Davidson provided the grammarian report, and Alan Swartz provided the timer's report.

Notes by Joyce Feustel, VP of Education

Photo credit to Marcia Wood.

01/19/2026

Yesterday we had a terrific time at our Table Topics Contest and International Speech Contest at Excelsior Advanced Toastmasters.

Thanks to everyone who served in a helping role who participated as a contestant.

Toastmaster: Tom Lloyd
Chief Judge: Alan Swartz
Timer: Dori Rinehart
SAA: Alan Swartz
Counters: Joyce Feustel for the Table Topics contest and Chelsa Newberg for the International Speech contest

Contest winners

Table Topics Contest
1st place winner Tammy Sutterfield
2nd place winner Chelsa Newberg
3rd place winner Gordon Savage


International Speech Contest
1st place winner Joyce Feustel
2nd place winner Tammy Sutterfield
3rd place winner Gordon Savage

The winners of each contest advance to the Area F1 contest on Saturday, February 28 at 10 a.m. at Columbine Library, 7706 W. Bowles Ave., Littleton, 80123.

See below for pictures of the contest winners:
Left photo: Table Topics Contest winner Tammy Sutterfield
Right photo: International Speech Contest winner Joyce Feustel

Come visit our club at our next meeting, February 21 from 9:15 - 11:15 a.m. at Lutheran Church on the Mountain, 14099 W. Jewell Ave., Lakewood 80228 or online over Zoom. Email [email protected] for the meeting link.

Meeting notes by Joyce Feustel, VP of Education

12/14/2025

We had SO much merriment (word of the day) at today's meeting of our Excelsior Advanced Toastmasters Club with many members in holiday garb. Those in person got to experience the festive display of holiday items brought by Nancy Winston as well as snacks from a number of members.

Nancy as our meeting Toastmaster selected the theme of Happy Holidays.

Our speakers were:

- Gordon Savage with his talk "Learning to Drive" which he did for the Intro to Vocal Variety and Body Language speech project in Level 1 of Engaging Humor.

- Marcia Wood with her talk "The Crazy College Neighbors" which she did for the Ice Breaker speech project in Level 1 of Engaging Humor.

- Greg Howell with his talk "Brown Betty" which he did for the Connect With Storytelling speech project, an elective in Level 3 of Persuasive Influence.

Tom Lloyd led the table topics session, with Tammy Sutterfield, Jim Roth, and Alan Swartz answering Tom's questions.

Joyce Feustel as General Evaluator emceed the evaluation portion of the meeting introducing Dori Rinehart to evaluate Gordon's speech, Chelsa Newberg to evaluate Marcia's speech, and Linda Rinehart to evaluate Greg's speech.

She called for the timer's report from Tammy Sutterfield, the grammarian's report from Alan Swartz, and the ahs/pauses counter and word of the day report from Jim Roth.

Finally, she provided a review of the meeting, focusing primarily on giving feedback to the three speech evaluators.

Notes by Joyce Feustel, VP of Education

11/20/2025

We had a lot of fun at our November meeting with our meeting Toastmaster Chelsa Newberg's theme of "You Can Teach an Old Dog New Tricks."

In Chelsa's inspiration for the meeting, she told us about passing the test to become a Behavioral Technician, which is a career change from being a preschool teacher.

Speakers were:

Jim Roth, with his speech "I Changed" for the Understanding Your Communication Style speech project. Joyce Feustel evaluated Jim's speech.

Nancy Winston's speech "I Told You So," was also done for the Understanding Your Communication Speech Project. Joy Davidson evaluated Nancy's speech.

Joyce Feustel, with her speech "It Takes a Village" for the Introduction to Toastmasters Mentoring speech project. Alan Swartz evaluated Joyce's speech.

We learned a lot from Linda Rinehart's educational moment "The Power of the Pause."

She also provided reports on the use of the Word of the Day, ah counter, and grammarian.

Tom Lloyd served as general evaluator, and Angelita Sims was the table topics master. Gordon Savage was the timer.

We continue to have our in-person gatherings at Lutheran Church on the Mountain and the online attendees coming in through Zoom, meeting from 9:15 - 11:15 a.m. on the 3rd Saturdays.

We will have our holiday meeting on December 13.

Notes by VP of of Education Joyce Feustel.

10/23/2025

Great advice from Toastmasters International about the importance of feedback.

🌟 Speaking is only half the journey. Feedback takes you the rest of the way.

10/21/2025

We had such a delightful time at the October 18 meeting of our Excelsior Advanced Toastmasters meeting.

President Jim Roth both presided over the meeting and served as the meeting Toastmaster with the theme of Scary Speaking. The word of the day was "frightful."

For the educational moment, he shared a scary story based on an event that happened during a camping trip he took when he was in junior high school. Then he pointed out the elements of the story that made it scary.

In his speech, "Beyond the Club: Using Your Voice to Impact Podcast Audiences," guest speaker Stephen Jaye, an experienced Toastmaster and podcast host, shared some key recommendations for people aspiring to be guests on podcasts.

Then he did a "mock" podcast interview with member Gordon Savage and one with member Chelsa Newberg to demonstrate how he approaches being a podcast host.

Many thanks, Stephen, for both your excellent presentation and for giving us a taste of what a podcast interview can look like.

Alan Swartz as table topics master brought us some challenging questions that related to the theme of the day, and everyone got to participate.

Chelsa Newberg served as general evaluator, Joyce Feustel evaluated Stephen's speech, Joy Davidson was the timer, and Nancy Winston served as ah-counter, grammarian, and the counter of the use of the word of the day.

Our next meeting is Saturday, November 15, from 9:15 - 11:15 a.m. Our format is hybrid, with some members attending through Zoom and the other members attending in-person at the Lutheran Church on the Mountain, 14099 W. Jewell Ave., Lakewood CO 80228.

Notes by VP of Education Joyce Feustel

09/29/2025

We had a fascinating meeting of Excelsior Advanced Toastmasters Club yesterday with Joy Davidson in her debut as the meeting Toastmaster.

Her meeting theme was "High Road Leadership: a leadership lifestyle committee to high values and principles, such as integrity, humility and the value of all people."

Drawing from material in the 2024 book by John Maxwell "High Road Leadership - Bringing People Together in a World That Divides," Joy shared examples of high road leaders, middle-road leaders, and low-road leaders.

Table topics master Gordon Savage asked thoughtful questions related to theme, eliciting some powerful answers from table topics speakers.

David Cahill, provided a lovely inspiration about his Ireland, where he lives, welcomes people from all over the world when they move to his country.

Chelsa Newberg brought the word of the day: Charismatic.

Prepared speakers were Dori Rinehart and Alan Swartz.

Dori's talk "The Myth of Having it All Together" was done for the Engaging Humor speech project in Level 3 of the Engaging Humor Path. With lots of self-deprecating humor, she gave a number of examples of way in which she doesn't have it all together and the self-acceptance she has for being who she is. David Cahill evaluated Dori's speech.

Alan's talk " Don't Think. Just Do Your Job" was based on his experience serving as an officer during the Vietnam War. He pointed out that those who fought there did so to save the guys they were fighting with. This speech was done for the first speech in the Evaluation and Feedback project in Level 1 of the Motivational Strategies Path. Jim Roth evaluated Alan's speech.

Nancy Winston shared an informative slide show of her experiences at the Toastmasters International 2025 Convention in Philadelphia. She encouraged everyone to attend this convention at least once.

Tammy Sutterfield as general evaluator introduced the speech evaluators, called for reports from the Linda Rinehart as timer, Chelsa Newberg as Word of the Day and ah counter, and Joyce Feustel as grammarian.

Then Tammy provided a very incisive review of the meeting as a whole.

Come visit our next meeting at 9:15 a.m. Mountain Time on Saturday, October 18. We meet in person at Lutheran Church On the Mountain in Lakewood, CO and via Zoom.

At that meeting we have a guest speaker, experienced podcast host and Toastmaster Stephen Jaye, with his talk: "Beyond the Club - Using Your Voice to Impact Podcast Audiences."

Notes by Joyce Feustel, VP of Education