Seven people were present for the meeting, which is not too bad for this time of year. Thanks to all who attended. We had the pleasure of having with us Jeff Olevson, Regional Chapter Coordinator (RCC) of the Southwest & chapter leader of the San Jose, CA Chapter. It was great for me to meet Jeff in person, after communicating by email & phone for a couple of years. Jeff is a very energetic guy who is very much involved in the NSA. He's a true believer. As Southwest RCC, he covers Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico & Utah. (Did I get this right, Jeff? And when are you going to start covering Alaska?) Jeff had a lot of informative & interesting things to say throughout the meeting. He said he's always enjoyed supporting other people, stutterers & non-stutterers alike.
We opened with introductions along with the question: "Who was your favorite teacher during your school years & why?" Responses included elementary, high school & college teachers. The responses mostly talked about a teacher who made the subject interesting, motivated students & was a fair teacher whose goal was not to fail people. There was general agreement that teachers are very important people in most people's lives - for better or worse.
Next, we had a topic for discussion - "Why do you come to NSA group meetings?" Most people talked about meetings providing a safe, comfortable place to talk about stuttering & other topics with other people who stutter. One member said he originally started coming to meetings after a mortifying experience where he had to read out loud in front of a class & was embarrassed with his stuttering. He later dropped the course because of this. He continues to come partly to prevent this sort of thing from happening again. A couple of people said they stutter the least at NSA meetings & have the least anxiety or embarrassment there when they do stutter. One person, a speech therapist, said she mainly comes to learn more about stuttering from the true experts. Another long time NSP/NSA member said he's been to hundreds of chapter meetings & comes for the social contact as much as anything else. (The NSA was originally the NSP - National Stuttering Project.) We talked about occasionally having a "socializing" meeting such as playing miniature golf. The point was made that the "socializing" meetings should not replace the regular meetings, but supplement them. Good point. The "socializing" meetings could become addictive. The long time member also attends the Riverside Chapter meetings (this guy is a real NSA junkie), where they have an annual "Holiday Party" & gift exchange - a once-a-year great socializing meeting.
We were running out of time, but started a second discussion topic: "Which speaking situations do you find the easiest?" Most of us have talked in meetings about which speaking situations are hardest, so this was a different perspective. This of course tied in with the above topic as most people who stutter find NSA meetings to be the easiest speaking situations. However, there were variations, such as one person who prefers to speak to people one on one & face to face, instead of from behind a barrier as she must do at her job. Another person said the easiest speaking situation for him was talking with his wife, with whom he either doesn't stutter, stutters without any embarrassment or anxiety or stutters but isn't aware that he's stuttering. This final point has always been an interesting one - i.e. if you stutter but are not aware that you're stuttering, is it the same as not stuttering at all? Do you sometimes "forget" that you stutter? These could be topics for another time.
That's all for now.Thanks again to Jeff for being with us. The next meeting is Thursday, August 13 (it's August already?!). Same time, same place led by master golfer, Ramones fan & martial artist extraordinaire Matt. Be there!
