Hello everyone,

Last night, the Dallas Chapter of the National Stuttering Association held it’s monthly meeting and here’s a quick recap of what happened.

With 18 members in attendance it was a slightly smaller meeting than usual, but not any less exciting, as we had one new member (Hi, Priyanka!), one second timer (Welcome back, Brandon!), and three eager SLPs (Rock on Gigi, McKenna, and Sharon!) ready to kick-start our September meeting.

We started the night with a fun, new way to introduce ourselves that included toilet paper, proving that the Dallas Chapter is never boring. Members were asked to pick between 1-3 squares of toilet paper as they walked into the room, without knowing why. After, they were told the amount of toilet paper squares they took would be the amount of facts they shared about themselves with the group– the reaction on people’s faces were priceless! Brett took 3 squares and told us about his dog named Tyson, Ron revealed he is addicted to TV shows, and Jacob is an uncle! Our introductions are always a great way to learn new tidbits about our members and this time was no exception–our members are full of surprises and talents!

After introductions we made a few announcements, chief among them is the addition of two new members to our leadership team!  Let’s welcome Briana Pipkin as our new “First Timer Ambassador” and  Josh Sniderman as our “Fundraising Chair” for the Dallas Chapter. With the addition of them to our leadership team, we intend to continue the long standing tradition of the Dallas chapter being at the forefront of the stuttering community! As our chapter is ever-growing and evolving, we are looking for others to join our leadership team. If you think you have what it takes, contact us and a position will be made available.

And with that, we moved on to our topic of the night: “The Art of Debate: Is Effective Communication a Matter of Fluency?”. As people who stutter, we may often view our speech as something that prevents us from communicating effectively. Our opinions, thoughts, and ideas may get compromised– but should they really be? Is effective communication a matter of fluency, or is it something else? We hosted our first NSA Dallas Debates to debunk the myth.

We split into teams and argued the important questions, such as:

Should stuttering be considered a disability?
Which came first– the chicken or the egg?
Is Texas BBQ overrated?
Is texting helpful or harmful for a person who stutters?

We allowed each team some time to formulate a good argument, present their case to the judges, and then, by show of hands, the members of our group decided who won the debate, with the winning team moving on to debate a new team.

The Dallas chapter is known to have fun in meetings but this was a blast! With many literal laugh out loud moments, as well as some thoughtful points presented, our members showed that perfect fluency is not required to be an effective communicator, and that good, thoughtful points are worth the wait.

Another great meeting in the bag!

Stutter on, and we will see you in a couple weeks for our October Chat and Chew!

Dallas NSA