Last night the Dallas Chapter of the National Stuttering Association (NSA) held it’s monthly meeting and here’s a quick recap of what happened.
We had 19 people in attendance, including 3 new people, all ready to have a good conversation about “Stuttering Etiquette”, lead by our very own Jacob Colson.
Our meeting started with introductions, followed by the question “What are you planning to do for International Stuttering Awareness Day, this coming October 22nd?” and the responses were as varied as our group. One person said he would post NSA flyers at work, another said that he would post on Facebook about how much he has learned and grown thanks to the support of our group, and one more said that she would wear, for the first time, her “Keep Calm and Stutter On” t-shirt in public and answer any questions that might come her way about it.
Worth mentioning that in a group effort to raise awareness, many of our members are participating in a “Tough Mudder” race that day, under the team name Stutter On! If you are interested in joining the team, there are still spots available, but be sure to do it BEFORE FRIDAY and let us know when you do register. Send us an email if you have any questions or want to confirm your spot on the team.
We also talked about the upcoming screening of the documentary “The Way We Talk” on Friday, October 21st at the Callier Center Richardson Addition. This is going to be a big event for our chapter and, as we mentioned during the meeting, we need volunteers to make it so. If any of you are willing to help us as greeters, directing people to where to park, or manning our swag table that day, please contact us as well. The almighty Dallas chapter needs to make it’s presence felt that day and we are counting on you! It is going to be a team effort.
Finally, we moved on to our main topic of the evening: Stuttering Etiquette. Jacob defined the term as “the way you react to people talking about your stuttering”, and posed the question “How do YOU react?” to the group, to start the discussion.
The answers starting pouring in and quickly showed where people are in their stuttering journey, making clear that the way you react to other people tells a lot about yourself, your confidence, and your attitude. Also demonstrating that being able to talk to other people about your stuttering is a big step, and how much it helps educate others, “making it easier for the people that will come after you”.
After a brief but meaningful discussion we split into groups to discuss further and allow everybody to talk. Some takeaways from the groups were that “getting angry just makes YOU look bad”, the importance of good humor and that, except for a very small number of cases, “people are just trying to help you.”
Great meeting!
Usually that would be the end of it, but this time we didn’t want to say “goodbye” just yet and a small group of us went out to finish the night off with some gelato. If that’s not a sign of a great group I don’t know what is!
Thank you all for coming and for your continuing enthusiasm to make the Dallas chapter such a supportive one!
See you next month!
Dallas NSA