Monday, October 20, 2008

October 14th Meeting Recap

After a slow summer of meetings, the NC Triad Chapter of the National Stuttering Association came back with a bang for fall! The chapter met on Tuesday night October 14th from 7-9pm in the Benbow Room on the ground floor of Elliott University Center on the campus of UNCG. The meeting was attended by 9 people (1 chapter leader, 4 people who stutter, and 4 SLP graduate students). Christine opened the meeting by reading the welcoming words. There were 4 first-time attendees so Emily gave a brief history of the NSA and the purpose of the group. Then, we did a round of introductions and what brought people to the meeting. The ISAD online conference was brought up on the big screen and we browsed around the sight as a group. The title of one paper brought up a discussion about situations where a stutterer is fluent. Three out of four of the people who stutter report being fluent when they are very angry and yelling or arguing with someone else. Meeting attendees were encouraged to visit the site on their own and pick a paper that interests them to talk about at an upcoming meeting.

Then, we watched clips of Joe Biden speaking about stuttering at various meetings. Drew was gracious enough to put together these clips. One of the clips was of Biden speaking at a benefit for the American Institute for Stuttering. Biden used the word "debilitating" multiple times when referring to stuttering, and this brought about an interesting discussion about whether "debilitating" is an appropriate descriptor. Arguments for both sides of the debate were presented. Towards the end of the meeting, the chapter leader brought up that the SpeechEasy representative for the area proposed coming to a chapter meeting. The group discussed this possibility and decided that they were open to this idea. Sheree read the closing words to end the meeting. The chapter will meet again on Tuesday November 11th from 7-9pm in the Benbow Room.