We had a most excellent turnout for the last meeting!  There were 8 of us (6 members and 2 Co-leaders), and we welcomed back some regulars we hadn’t seen in a while.

A lot of our discussion revolved around tough communication situations like having to speak on the loud speaker at a grocery store, talking on the radio while flying a plane, and volunteering in class. A member noticed that he doesn’t have as much difficulty speaking when on stage with his band, and he thought it might have to do with “ownership” over the situation since the crowd is there to listen.

One member told a story about how calling out coordinates to his military unit was sometimes problematic since any time he repeated a number when he stuttered could mean they started shooting at the wrong target.  Because  his unit understood about the stuttering, they had a system in place so the receiver would repeat the coordinates back to verify before giving the go ahead.

We also played around with different speaking patterns since people don’t stutter when singing, whispering or speaking with an accent. One member noticed that he also doesn’t stutter when he runs cross-country and is chatting with his running partner.

The big news is that WCAX is going to do a big story about stuttering and the support groups!  They will interview us on Tuesday the 23rd and follow some members in their daily life, so we’ll make sure to share the piece when it airs!

Next session on October 7th, we’ll have a special visitor who was a long time member of the group (DK) who now heads the NSA chapter in Minnesota– see you then!