You should have received a postcard some weeks ago telling you to save the date of September 20th, 2008, for COCRA’s Fall Conference. Now, I know what you’re saying. Didn’t COCRA have their annual conference in April? Well, the answer is, yes we did. And it was such a huge success and we got back such great feedback from the attendants. And one comment we had was from a person asking us if we were going to hold another conference in the fall. We thought about it and decided, what the heck? Let’s hold another conference in the Fall.
Now, aside from the fact that we want the chance again to see all of you who came in April, as well as the fact that we hope to see those of you who couldn’t make it in April, there are three main reasons why we decided to have a Fall Conference.
Reason Number 1: NCRA CEU Deadline Is September 30th
We know that many of you are members of NCRA and that you attend our conferences and their conventions to maintain the minimum number of CEUs for your various NCRA-issued licenses like the RPR. Well, the deadline to get your CEUs into NCRA if this year is your last year in the three-year cycle is September 30th. So show up at our conference in September, collect 6 CEUs, and if you’ve acquired the number of CEUs you need, you’re good to go!
Now, keep in mind that if you had planned on attending the DRA or CCRA conventions to pick up any remaining NCRA CEUs before the deadline, keep in mind that both conventions will be held after the deadline for this year. COCRA’s Conference is September 20th and falls before the deadline.
Reason Number 2: California Rules of Court Rule 10.474.
What is California Rules of Court Rule 10.474? Well, there’s a long answer and there’s a short answer. Here’s the long answer which is the section of Court Rule 10.474 that applies to official reporters:
(c) Hours-based requirements
(2)
Each court employee who is not a manager or supervisor must complete 8 hours of continuing education every two years, with the exception of employees who do not provide court administrative or operational services. Those employees are not subject to the continuing education hours-based requirement but must complete any education or training required by law and any other education required by the court executive officer.
If that’s the long answer, what’s the short answer? Well, it’s this: Every court employee has to complete 8 hours of education within a two-year period. You’re probably wondering then when the two year period began. Well, the answer is it began in January of 2007!! But don’t panic!! If you haven’t gotten your 8 hours of education you can eliminate 6 of them by showing up to COCRA’s Fall Conference and then picking up another 2 hours at DRA’s or CCRA’s convention.
We will provide all Fall Conference attendees with a letter attesting to the fact that attendees have earned 6 hours of continuing education.
Reason Number 3: COCRA Partners with StenoCast
The Fall Conference will focus primarily on the nuts and bolts of getting your realtime together. Our main speaker will be Michael Appleton of StenoCast. In addition to giving attendees an overall look at realtime, he’ll also give attendees a look at tech gadgets that will be of interest to reporters, and he’ll also be discussing why your next choice for a computer should be an Apple computer. This will be the first time that COCRA will be partnering with a third party vendor and we think that this Fall’s seminars focussed on realtime will be beneficial for everyone attending.
Now, over the next few weeks I’ll be giving those of you planning on attending more information on the conference, the FABULOUS location, as well as how easy it is to get to the conference for those of you from out of town. So be sure to keep checking back!!
