5 members were present. We started the meeting by acknowledging that one of the group's founders & a chapter leader, Mihaela, has stepped down as chapter leader & will only occasionally attend meetings as she pursues a medical career. Matt & Mihaela founded the group about 3 years ago, & both have worked tirelessly to keep it going. Mihaela created this website blog & has kept it timely. She's also put in a ton of energy as a chapter leader to keep the meetings interesting. She will be missed. We wish her luck in her studies. Matt will assume the role of sole chapter leader for the second-Thursday-of -the-month meeting. Yours truly will continue to lead the fourth-Thursday-of-the-month meeting.
We continued with the topic: "In your past, what was your worst fear about stuttering? Is it still your worst fear now?" This was another all male group, so it wasn't surprising that 4 members said talking to females had been their worst fear. One member added talking to females on the phone was especially anxiety ridden. Another said talking in front of a group was his worst fear. One member said he tried to alleviate fear of talking to females during his school years by getting involved in extra curricular activities such as sports. This helped him build self-esteem & took his mind off stuttering. Several members agreed that hiding your stuttering went along with a fear of talking to females. One member brought up that as he gets older, he doesn't worry so much about what others think of him because of his stuttering. All of this led to a discussion about how with all the modern non-verbal ways to communicate - texting, emails, social media - people don't have to actually speak to "talk" to each other. We discussed how for people who stutter this could be used to avoid speaking. One member who has a daughter said he wouldn't want her to respond to a boy who asks her out on dates by texting, email, etc. It's too cold & informal. He wants the boy to present himself in person or at least on the phone. Makes sense to me.
A member active in Toastmasters talked a little about that organization & gave out some literature. He said you can simply say at the beginning of a speech that you stutter & joined Toastmasters to work on your stuttering.
That's all for now folks. Next meeting is on Thursday, October 9th led by Matt. Remember the mantra: Second & Fourth Thursdays - 5:45PM - Kaiser.
