December Meeting Recap

The NC Triad chapter of the National Stuttering Association met Tuesday December 8th from 7-9pm in the Benbow Room in the Elliott Center on the campus of UNCG. There were 5 people in attendance (4 people who stutter and 1 chapter leader/SLP). The meeting started with a round robin reading of the welcome words. Then, each person shared their favorite holiday memory or holiday tradition. The chapter leader relayed a discussion that had been held on the chapter leader's list-serve about if the concept of being called a support group or self-help group deterred people from attending for the first time. The consensus of the group was that self-help denotes the idea of practicing our speech and support group denotes discussing how stuttering is affecting our lives. Many in the group liked the idea of devoting some of our meeting's time to practicing speaking.

This started a great discussion about the purpose and future plans of our own chapter. One point that was brought up is that our chapter's website and entry on the NSA's local chapter list makes it seem at first that the chapter is only for students of UNCG because we meet on the campus. Another attendee reported that they felt more comfortable and prepared about what to expect from reading the meeting recaps on our website (nsagso.blogspot.com). The discussion naturally turned to what lies ahead for the chapter next year. At the next meeting, flyers will be handed out for people to post around town. We'll try to host a social event at a restaurant or coffee place on a non-meeting day to hopefully meet new people. We'll also start putting the meetings back up on local community calendars. The rest of the meeting was about having some fun, so we played the party game Apples to Apples. The closing words were read to end the meeting. Our next meeting will be Tuesday January 12th from 7-9pm in the Benbow Room on the ground/bottom floor of the Elliott Center on the campus of UNCG. I hope that everyone has a happy and safe holiday and enjoys our winter weather!