At my Toastmasters meeting last week, I winced a little when a member stood up and explained his meeting role to the group. We do that in Toastmasters -we have people fulfill roles, and always explain what it is we are doing and why. Its good protocol and helps guests and new members to understand what is going on.

The guy who was to be the “Ah Counter” and grammarian for the evening stood and introduced himself and began to explain what his role for the evening would be and why it mattered. The “Ah Counter” has the dubious job of keeping track how many times filler words -such as uhm, ah, like, you know-are used throughout the meeting.

This is so people are more aware of doing this, so that we can encourage speakers to pause briefly or use transition phrases. The grammarian report is to help people use grammar and sentence structure more effectively.

So I was a bit surprised when the guy adds to his explanation, “if anyone stutters, we’ll hit them over the head with this (Toastmasters) manual”. Not one person in the room batted an eyelash or seemed to react that this was anything negative, except me. Of course! I felt my face flush, and said to myself,”what did he just say? No, he didn’t!”

But he did and I didn’t say anything! I am sure he meant no disrespect and  may not even have been aware that he said it. I was aware and so flirted with the idea of saying something quick like, “unless of course you’re me and can’t help it”.

It didn’t seem appropriate to embarrass him, if he would have even been embarrassed by any reaction by me. It’s a moot point now, as I let it pass.

Except it just reminds me that it is up to us, those who stutter, to keep educating and raising awareness so people don’t think its acceptable to make flip comments like that.

Because it’s not!