A new chapter was started in Boca Raton in March. There were 13 people at the first meeting which was organized by Dale Williams, Ph.D. The Boca Raton Chapter will meet the first Wednesday of the month at 7:00 p.m. at Florida Atlantic University.
The Houston chapter meets every second and last Wednesday of the month. They work on speech targets at the first meeting, and then have more of a supportive group at the last meeting. Average attendance is 7- 9 people. They are hoping to do a workshop soon.
Richard Schwerdt reports that at a meeting in late February, SLP students from the University of Kansas attended. He felt that the students added to the discussion and both students and the NSP members who were there got a lot out of the meeting. One person drove 140 miles to attend.
The Long Island chapter is going through some transitions. Several members have moved or are planning to leave the area in the near future. Sal Alessi, Long Island chapter leader, is facing this challenge with some innovative ideas. He says that at least one of the two scheduled meetings per month are devoted to fun and relaxation. Recently, they celebrated one member's birthday with dinner at a restaurant, followed by several exciting games of pool.
In celebration of the Manhattan Chapter's first anniversary, NSP member Jeff Shames hosted at party at his home. Numerous members and their spouses/partners attended. Topics of conversation included the difficulties in finding living space in New York City, finding different ways of meeting members' needs, and the ways that stutterers and non-stutterers relate, both in and out of their respective groups. The Manhattan Chapter meets the second and fourth Wednesday of each month at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center. They average about 6-12 people at each meeting.
Carol Buckingham reports that they had a good meeting in February. There were three in attendance and they played Life Stories and had fun doing it. They are considering having another bowling party as the one they had last summer was very well attended.
A new group was formed in Orlando on February 27. Eight folks attended the first meeting which was held at the Orange County Library where all future meetings will be held. This chapter will meet the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. The second meeting was held on March 12 with six people in attendance. Topics of discussion for this meeting included: 1) How I eased through a touchy situation 2) How can I effectively desensitize myself to a stuttering situation, 3) The use of humor as a tension breaker..
Eight people attended a meeting in early February. They had a time for "open mike" and then discussed the movie "Eye for an Eye." They talked about the girl in the movie who stuttered and shared the opinion that the killer had mocked her.
This group has had several very interesting meetings recently. At a meeting in early February, they discussed the following: 1) Do you stutter when you are forced to answer a question? 2) If you encounter a situation that gives you a hard time, what do you do to get by? 3) Is your speech an impediment to what you want to do? 4) Why do we stutter? This range of questions opened the meeting up to some very interesting discussions.