Meeting Topics

The first meeting of the year is always a good time for attendees to reflect upon the prior year and look towards the new year. This meeting topic will get attendees thinking and sharing and should spark interesting group conversation.

Introduce the meeting topic and let attendees know you will be asking questions for people share their thoughts and experiences about the year that just ended and for the year that just started. 

SUCCESSES
Have each person share with the group at least one SUCCESS  they experienced in the past year.

Question prompt: “What is at least one success you experienced in the past year?”

REGRETS
Next, have each attendee share at least one REGRET  they have from the prior year.

Question prompt: “What is at least one regret you experienced in the past year?”

LEARNINGS
Then, have each attendee share a key LEARNING from last year that has influenced them.

Question prompt: “What is a key learning from past year that has influenced you?”

HOPES
Close the meeting by having each person share something they HOPE will happen in the current year.

Question prompt: “What is something you hope will happen this year?”

NOTES:
Ask each person follow-up questions and allow for group conversation following each time someone shares their thoughts. If you are holding an in-person meeting, consider giving attendees a pen and notecards to write down their thoughts before sharing with the group.

This is a personal reflection activity for attendees to do quietly and then share broadly with the group. Introduce the activity by telling attendees they will be thinking about how they want to live with more intentionality for the next 12 months. (Pass out notecards and pens to attendees if this is an in-person meeting.)

Have people write down 3 WORDS they believe will help guide how they live, speak, and act throughout the year. Explain how these three words are to help guide and focus the decisions they will be making. (For example, someone could write down these three words: PATIENCE, COURAGE, and PLAY.)

After everyone has written down their three words, have each person share their three words with the group. When sharing, attendees should explain why they chose each word.

For the stuttering support group I lead, these were the words attendees chose.

NOTES:
Ask each person follow-up questions and allow for group conversation following each time someone shares their three words.

For people who stutter, some speaking situations are more challenging to confront while other situations are super easy to do. This meeting topic will get attendees relating to each other based upon how their emotions impact their stuttering in different speaking situations.

Introduce the meeting topic and let attendees know you will be sharing a variety of speaking situations. For each situation, attendees will use a scale from 1 to 5 to reflect how challenging they find that speaking situation. Showing 1 finger conveys NOT CHALLENGING and showing 5 fingers means VERY CHALLENGING.

1.  Introducing Yourself to New People
2.  Asking for Help
3.  Giving a Toast
4.  Apologizing for a Mistake in a Group/Public Setting
5.  Expressing Romantic Feelings
6.  Ending a Romantic Relationship
7.  Arguing with Someone
8.  Delivering Bad News
9.  Speaking Up in Meetings/Classroom
10.  Speaking to Authority Figures (bosses, professors, etc.)
11.  Being Interviewed on the TV or Radio
12.  Job Interviews
13.  Public Speaking / Giving Presentations
14.  First Dates
15.  Calling Your Credit Card Company
    

NOTES:
Ask the group follow-up questions and allow for group conversation following each vote on the speaking situation. You do not need to use all of the speaking situation prompts. Choose the situations that will work best for your group.

Stuttering has played roles in popular songs going back decades. This MUSIC TRIVIA meeting topic will highlight a few songs that include stuttering and singers who stutter.

Start the activity by telling attendees that they will be asked a total of seven Music Trivia questions. Each question will include a song soundbite followed by a question. (As group leader, you will need to use your phone or laptop to stream the video link below.)

The first six questions are worth 5 points each. (Meeting attendees will need to keep their own score.) Following each song snippet, tally scores and then discuss how the band/artist is connected to stuttering.

For the final question (#7), attendees will total their score and then decide how many points to risk (all, none or some of their points).

NOTES:
You will need to pause the video following each song soundbite to allow for people to tally scores. You should also encourage conversation between questions. While some people will not know the band/artist/song, everyone should find the connection to stuttering very interesting.

If you find it difficult to kickstart group conversations then this meeting topic will help. You can use this as either a meeting introduction icebreaker or as the meeting topic. Conversation is bound to flow naturally with this SERIOUS or SILLY meeting activity.

The list of SERIOUS questions will have people sharing something personally reflective. On the other end, the  list of SILLY questions will have attendees sharing something fun about themselves. Both will spark good, free-flowing meeting conversation.

NOTES:
For in-person meetings, have attendees draw their own question from the SERIOUS or SILLY stack and let the conversation flow. (You can go through multiple rounds depending upon the size of your meeting.)

For online meetings, ask the attendee if they want a SERIOUS or SILLY question and share the question aloud for everyone to hear. (Go through as many rounds as time allows for the size of your group meeting.)

Many people who stutter find on-the-spot speaking challenging. These situations happen in the classroom, at work during a meeting/conference call, and throughout our everyday life. This meeting topic will give attendees a pressure-free space to practice impromptu speaking through a fun PRO/CON Debate activity.

Start with two volunteers. Explain that they will need to take a side on a topic and explain why their opinion is “right.” Give them a topic from the list below.

(The debate topics are purposely silly to make this a more fun activity. Speakers should try not to ramble. You can give the speakers opportunity to make rebuttals.)

1.  Does pineapple belong on a pizza?
2.  Is a hot dog a sandwich?
3.  Should you make your bed every day?
4.  Would you rather have the ability to fly or turn invisible?
5.  Is cheesecake a cake or a pie?
6.  Does a straw have one hole or two holes?
7.  Would cats be polite or rude if they had thje ability to talk?
8.  Is it possible to high-five yourself and call it a team effort?
9.  Should you eat mac and cheese with a spoon or a fork?
10.  Are phones making us smarter or dumber?
    

NOTES:
Allow for group conversation following each PRO/CON debate. Expect lots of laughter. But also expect attendees to quickly realize how such a silly activity is a serious exercise that we can apply to our lives of living in the moment.

We’ve all read memoirs and autobiographies of interesting people. This meeting topic will get attendees to think reflectively and creatively about writing the book title for THEIR memoir. Attendees will leave the meeting with lots to think about with their stutter journey.

Introduce the meeting topic as an opportunity for attendees to think about the life they have lived up to present day. Ask attendees to share any autobiographies they have read and enjoyed. Next, give each attendee a piece of paper and a pen. From there, have attendees take 5 mins (or so) to think of a memoir title and subtitle for the book they would write today.

Give attendees more direction by explaining a book title should be concise, attention-grabbing, and intriguing. The subtitle should give more information and add more context in an interesting and evocative way.

Once everyone has written down their memoir titles, have them share it with the group. Follow-up questions from you and or the group would be helpful to spark deeper conversation.

If time allows, do a second memoir title activity. Have attendees pretend they’ve lived their perfect life and are now decades older (20+ years). What that memoir title and subtitle would be. Have attendees share their future titles and allow for conversation to follow.

NOTES:
Everyone’s book titles shed light on where their stuttering journey has taken them to present day and how they’ve grown within their stuttering journey. For the group I lead, these are memoir titles from two attendees. You will see notice stark differences in the emotions between the current memoir title and the future title.

Below are memoir titles from my stuttering support group.

Attendee #1
Memoir Today: TRAPPED IN A STUTTER: Light Behind a Stuttering Camera
Memoir Tomorrow: I STUTTER (So What)

Attendee #2
Memoir Today: KEEP MOVING, CHANGE LANES LATER: How I Persevered Through My Life.
Memoir Tomorrow: FRUITS OF LABOR: From Sweating Blood to Sipping Wine

Most of us covet, in some way, how someone else has lived or lives their life. It’s human nature to want to live the life of someone we like, admire, and or respect. This meeting activity will have attendees thinking about the values they appreciate in others and possibly, help attendees to gain a new appreciation for the life they are currently living.

First, pass out to everyone three sheets of paper and a pen. Then, setup the activity by telling attendees they have the power to trade lives with anyone. Get attendees to think about three people they love, like, and or admire enough to live their life.

Have attendees write the names of each person on a different sheet of paper. Next, have attendees write down a few reasons they covet that person. After a few minutes, have people write down a few negative aspects about that person. (Nobody is perfect. Everyone has some negative attributes and characteristics).

As a group, have each person share who they would trade lives with, including the positive reasons and negative reasons they listed.

NOTES:
Allow for group conversation following each time someone shares. Comparing each attendee’s responses will be interesting and spark meaningful group conversation.

It’s common for people who stutter (PWS) to fear speaking situations. It’s also common for PWS to spend silent ‘mind time’ thinking of what words they will say to try and not stutter. Many PWS spend a lot of time thinking before speaking.

Imagine being in a situation where it’s best to say the first thing that comes to your mind. That situation is improv and one of the ground rules in improv is to say words that immediately come to your mind. The other improvisers must play along with whatever is said in the moment. Together, all the improvisers build upon whatever is expressed verbally through speaking and non-verbally through physical actions.

Living in the moment is the beauty of improv. Don’t think, just speak. Don’t plan, just act. With improv, you must trust that whatever you say or do will add to the scene. Many PWS have found that developing the skill of “living in the moment” helps them to gain a greater comfort in everyday speaking situations.

NOTES:
Because there is so much information to share about the Improv Fun & Games meeting topic, click the above button to access the agenda and videos.

Survivor 48 (aired spring 2025) was monumental in raising awareness of stuttering and in providing PWS a role model. Mitch Guerra competed on Survivor 48 and openly stuttered. Eva Erickson also competed on Survivor 48 and she’s on the autism spectrum. This meeting will show video clips from Survivor that will spark meaningful discussion. (Video clip is below.)

Start the activity by telling meeting attendees you will be playing video clips from Survivor 48 that showcase two disclosure methods. Mitch discloses his stutter in a different way than Eva does in telling the other castaways she’s autistic.

There are moments to pause the 14-min long video and get thoughts from attendees. Conversation should flow naturally without much prodding. The final video segment is very powerful and emotional.

Click below to watch the video…

(Most of this video was recorded from my television set and was uploaded to Google drive to avoid any YouTube copyright infringements.)

NOTES:
Allow for group conversation following each time you pause the video. Your group will find there is LOTS to talk about with this emotional and personal video.