News

Jan Casbeer
Survey
Courtroom 21

WINTER E-SKRIPT – JANUARY 2009
(view in pdf format)

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope that everyone has sufficiently recovered from the wonderful “hecticness” of the holiday season. What, that’s not a word? Attorneys make them up all the time, why can’t a reporter make one up?

Here’s what we’d like to share this quarter:
• Fall Regional meeting
• Certification testing
• Plans for 2009 – call for officers, annual meeting
• Attorney Outreach
• Hot Topics in Court Reporting

FALL REGIONAL MEETING – NEW BERN
If you didn’t have the opportunity to attend this great meeting, you missed a fantastic session! We had a round-table session about hot topics in reporting (see below), a Federal Marshal, our own Tracy Reinke on captioning, and a modern-day archaeologist.

NCCRA celebrated its 50th anniversary with a birthday cake, and officers Katie Thomas (president) and Jenny Carroll (secretary/treasurer) ascended to their positions. Thanks to Evon Pepin and Harry Hagopian for their fantastic work in organizing the event.

NOVEMBER TESTING – RALEIGH
This year we thought we’d try a new location for the fall NCRA certification examinations – to see if we could get more interest in the tests. Chief Examiner, VP Suzanne Patterson, found us Wake Tech North Campus and we had the opportunity to test in a new venue. Sadly, the numbers weren’t much higher than our usual attendance in Kinston. Even MORE sadly, there was only one pass for any of the tests – one new RPR.

Would anyone be interested in getting together and doing some CRR practice sessions? Sharing tips on how to practice, dictionary work, etc, before the May exam? (which will be in Charlotte again)

2009 OVERVIEW
Our entire slate of area directors is wrapping up its term of service this fall – that means we need folks to volunteer to assist in running our organization. Contact any of your officers to ask what’s involved. It’s not painful… really!
The May test will be held in Charlotte, and Jill Turner will again be your Chief Examiner. Look for further details closer to the time of the test.

Our annual convention this year is to be a big one. Your board is developing a program sure to please – who knows, we may even get a visit from an NCRA Board member! If you have suggestions, please contact your Board!

ATTORNEY OUTREACH
Have you noticed how fast the young lawyers speak? How about how fast they READ from a document? Perhaps you’ve noticed that their records aren’t as clean as a more mature and experienced attorney.

Wouldn’t it be GREAT if we had the chance to discuss with these baby lawyers the way to make a clean record? We have the opportunity; we just need to get in contact with the law schools and find out if we can offer to teach during a class, offer to participate in mock trials – showing our realtime? And the results of their speed and sloppiness? – or participating in CLE programs on working with a court reporter?

Some feelers have already been sent out to Elon, but there are many law schools here in NC. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to get a foot in the door at Carolina, Duke, Campbell, and Wake? Anyone know anybody? Is anybody willing? This is a win-win situation for all court reporters!

HOT TOPICS IN COURT REPORTING
During our seminar in Charlotte, and again at the seminar in New Bern, we had round-table discussions about the topics that seem to be of importance in our profession. These topics were discussed openly during our meetings. Please look out for the condensed version of these topics on the site shortly.

YOUR STATE EDITOR
As you know, I have stepped down as President (and I thank you all so much for the lovely award) and I hope to be able to upload more and more items of interest on our website for you to review.

If you have anything you wish to submit, either to the newsletter or the site, please contact me at torirdr@gmail.com and I will certainly strive to get the site updated a little more quickly than I have in the past!

Between now and then, may I suggest a few court reporter groups?
www.depoman.com
www.csrnation.com
and the CR Forum at
http://community.compuserve.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?nav=start&webtag=ws-crforum&redirCnt=1

See you on the reporter pages!

Tori