News

NCCRA SPRING E-SKRIPT
April 27, 2008

Wow, where has the time flown?! It seems like just yesterday I was wishing everyone a happy new year – and we’re already a third of the way through it!

First, for all the new members – WELCOME! Thanks for joining our association. We look forward to meeting you at one of our events this year. If you’re interested in volunteering, we would love your input.

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For all the returning members – THANKS! Your presence in the association continues to make it a viable endeavor. Please consider sharing your considerable talents in whatever way is most comfortable to you, be it volunteering in a board capacity, being a mentor to a student, offering to assist at a convention or a certification exam, or submitting articles to the newsletter.
In this issue:

• Board Meeting
• Certification Examination
• Regional Meetings
• Delegate to NCRA in Anaheim
• Joinder
• Licensure
• LCC
• CART committee

Board Meeting
Your Board of Directors held a very cost-efficient telephonic meeting in February and we discussed many of the topics outlined above; most specifically, we reviewed the plans for the three regional meetings upcoming in this “off” year. Our secretary and treasurer reports were reviewed, an audit report was delivered (in which Treasurer Briana Nesbit received a glowing assessment!), and we discussed some topics that had been tabled since the previous meeting in Asheville.

We will continue to do our meetings via teleconference as it is a wonderful alternative to driving to some central location and spending a whole day on the road. It was efficient too – we held it under 90 minutes.

Also, if you’re interested in a roster, the Board has declined to POST it on the web site, but if you’re a member in good standing, you may request one from Briana (brinesbit@gmail.com) and she can send you a copy in Word format.

NCRA Certification Examinations
Most of you already know, but in case you didn’t, at the Asheville meeting, long-time Chief Examiner Lisa Garrison and Super-Assistant Cheryl Nuccio stepped down from their volunteer posts. At that time, two new sites were agreed upon for the 2008 testing: Next week, the May examination will be held in Charlotte; in November, the test will be held in Raleigh. It was believed that these sites would be more centrally located and might get more folks to attend.

As an aside, if you weren’t there in Asheville, one of the things we touched on was the fact that we, NCCRA, sponsor this test and it is NOT generally a revenue generator for us (at $6 per person). While the attendance has dropped in recent years by our members, because of the incredible incentive that the AOC offers to its officials for passing the CRR, we still have had good attendance by officials wishing to attain the certification. Please ask your official friends to consider joining NCCRA because this truly IS something we don’t have to do, yet they have received the benefit from our making the effort to continue moving forward with hosting the tests.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL TEST CANDIDATES NEXT WEEK!!

Regional Meetings
This year is the year we have smaller, localized meetings throughout the state. The Western Area meeting is coming up – you should have gotten the information in the mail recently. Please consider joining us in Charlotte on May 17th. We have a full plate for you – with .6 CEUs available – that will get you jump started in realtime, technology, and as an advocate for your fellow court reporters (that’s the roundtable discussion about the state of court reporting). If you would like more information, you can log on to the web site (www.ncreporters.org) or contact Briana at brinesbit@gmail.com for the information.

In the summer we plan to be in Raleigh – time and date still to be determined.

This fall, we head off to the coast – destination New Bern. We’ll have another one-day event for our Eastern area reporters. This meeting will be considered our “annual meeting” at which we will have the business meeting AND an election of some lucky person in our membership as one-year president and another as one-year secretary/treasurer. Briana and I are wrapping up our board service to NCCRA this year after six years. While we’ve enjoyed it, we know you would like to participate and have new blood in the leadership positions.

Next year’s annual meeting will be a larger meeting – we’re talking with South Carolina again – when the two-year positions will all be up for grabs. It will be here before you know it, so make plans to give a little to the association. You’ll be incredibly surprised at how rewarding it is.

Need a few NC Delegates (& Alternates) in Anaheim
If anyone is planning to go to Anaheim for the NCRA annual convention, please know that we’d love two (or more) folks to attend the NCSA (National Committee of State Associations) and find out what’s going on across the nation, make suggestions for the NCRA board in its governance of our national association, and just plain have fun! The NCSA meeting is usually on the Thursday morning of the convention – but you’ll still have time to attend the business meeting after lunch, I promise! It’s great fun and you’ll meet wonderful reporters from all over. If you are going to California and would be interested, please let me know ASAP.

Joinder
Although the AOCR has declined to participate in discussions about merging our three associations, NCVRA is still interested. However, at this point there have been no more meetings in this regard. Currently our delegates to the joint committee are Tori and Briana. Allen McClung of NCVRA is working with Lynn Bodenheimer to come up with times/dates for a group of people to sit down and talk about the governing documents and framework for a new, joint association.

Licensure
This is a hot topic across the country, but currently there is no action pending in our state regarding mandatory (or even voluntary) licensing of court reporters. This committee was tabled until such time as we could move forward with the joinder issue; however, if anyone is interested in working on this project again and spearheading a committee, you’re quite welcome to dive in. NCRA has many great resources and we can learn from other states’ successes in the recent past.

Lenoir Community College
A request has gone out from our liaison committee to ascertain just how many students are currently enrolled at LCC and to make sure they all have a mentor during the grueling process that we all remember. If you would like to be a mentor, contact me and I will put you in contact with Loretta Armstrong, chair of the student liaison committee.

Also, Beverly Toussan, the instructor at LCC, recently asked for support for funding for the program. If you have any questions about the program, I’m sure she’d be willing to send you an email outlining her goals for the school and the requests for grant funding. Her email address is bevtous@yahoo.com

CART Committee
Last fall we discussed adding a CART committee to our standing committees. While it’s not been actually introduced into the bylaws, there are a lot of folks out there providing the service. If you are interested in talking with other reporters providing CART services, contact me and I will compile a list of members and perhaps we can get you all talking to one another and maybe doing some outreach and education.

Impromptu Student-Reporter Gabfest
Last month I was contacted by a couple of students who were interested in just talking about this profession that they’ve started the journey toward. Each was interested in the practicalities of the working world, tips on progressing in school, and – frankly – some people who “get it” to talk to. On April 12th, about 14 students and reporters got together at Michael Dean’s in Raleigh and spent three hours chatting and making new friends. It was an incredibly positive experience. If you’re in an area and you know of a few students that live nearby – or even if you just want to have a session with your fellow reporters – do consider getting together for a few appetizers and drinks. You’ll get to meet reporters in your area, students too, and talk to other folks who speak your language.

Closing
Wow, that was long-winded even for me. However, I want to say how much fun I have working with reporters and students, making this profession strong. I would LOVE to have all reporters become involved in the profession, more than just the daily grind of writing and scoping and producing. Y’all, this is not just a job – it’s your career. Embrace it with all your passion.

I close with a wonderful quote that VP Suzanne Patterson shared with me after her FANTASTIC experience at Leadership last fall.

“Every man owes a part of his time and money to the business or industry in which he is engaged. No man has a moral right to withhold his support from an organization that is striving to improve conditions within his sphere.” (Theodore Roosevelt)

HAPPY SPRING, EVERYONE!
Tori
Tori Pittman, BA, RDR, CRI – NCCRA President, 2005-2007
Contact me at: nccra_president@yahoo.com or unc_rpr@yahoo.com