All 18 official court reporters in Utah received notice that their positions in the Utah court system will be eliminated as of June 30, 2009.
Why is their position being eliminated? Because of the budget crisis throughout their state and a decision by their Judicial Council, who voted to eliminate their position.
Why is this something you need to think about? Because these official reporters were not given any notice that a vote was even taking place! They had no idea their jobs were on the line.
COCRA and your other associations are taking a proactive approach to making sure California doesn’t go through a crisis such as happened in Utah.
The PAJTF, Preserving Access to Justice Task Force, within COCRA is taking action. In fact, the PAJTF has a meeting scheduled today with officials in the Bay Area to implement our message to administrators, legislators, and others who play an active role in our future.
Please support your association and help keep officials working and protecting the rights of fellow Californians when involved in the legal process!
The NCRA Nominating Committee is actively seeking the most qualified people to continue the progressive leadership of the National Court Reporters Association. Voting members of NCRA are invited to submit nominations for officers and directors to be voted on during the 2009 Convention next August. Positions to be chosen are President-Elect; Vice President; Secretary-Treasurer; and three directors with terms of three years each. You may submit the enclosed form or simply send a letter (or e-mail) to the Chair of the Nominating Committee, c/o Laura Butler at NCRA (lbutler@ncrahq.org).
If you are able to include or post the attached in your newsletter or Web site, we would appreciate it. Nominations closed November 21, 2008.
and Electronic Recording, on a Positive Note? CONGRATULATIONS TO THE DEPOSITION REPORTERS ASSOCIATION [DRA]! DRA worked hard to ensure the passage of a National Court Reporters Association [NCRA] bylaws amendment, and they won!
Thanks to all of you who voted through direct member voting, 72.1 percent decided any state with NCRA membership exceeding ten percent may have more than one NCRA affiliate.
COCRA supported DRA from the beginning and may benefit from all of their hard work. We are grateful to know such an amazing group of freelance court reporters! HOW MANY OF YOU ARE A MEMBER? Christina Schwandt from Bakersfield, California, is a member of COCRA, CCRA, DRA, AND NCRA!
When we, at COCRA, spoke with Christina at the NCRA conference, we were, frankly, completely inspired.
How wonderful it is to know that there are reporters like Christina out there, going above and beyond to ensure all of our futures are supported. She is the reporter that enables all associations to thrive in a difficult atmosphere for our profession.
With everything going on in a court reporter’s busy world, he/she may think, “I have to buy gas, groceries, and this economy is bringing me down. I can’t belong to any association. Besides, what have they done for me lately?”
Well, thank goodness for Christina Schwandt. Her generosity to her profession and all associations made it possible for COCRA and our other associations to fight and win, once again, in Sacramento this year.
Each and every association listed above helped California defeat ER. Without the support of reporters like Christina, we may have lost the battle.
Thank you, Christina! ELECTRONIC RECORDING [ER] EXPANSION - WHAT’S A CERTIFIED SHORTHAND REPORTER TO DO?
Laura Dennis, PLC, of L. Dennis & Associates, Inc., and Nate Smith, NCRA Senior Government Relations Specialist, NCRA Staff Liaison, and ER Task Force member say, “Stay positive.” There is plenty of evidence that already proves ER is an inferior product that causes mistrials, delays, and more money to the public than some would ever admit to. Maybe it’s time we focus on how valuable certified shorthand reporters are to our great country!
We, at COCRA, started thinking about all the things court reporters do for the U.S. besides providing the best record available.
Have you heard about the court reporters donating their time to transcribe over 1,000 videos sent to the Library of Congress to document stories of our U.S. veterans?
Have you heard about the official court reporters in San Francisco who did pro bono court reporting for the Battered Women’s Shelter?
Have you heard about the court reporters in Los Angeles who raised over $18,500 to sponsor a search-and-rescue dog team in memory of Julie Ann Brandau, the reporter killed in Atlanta in March of 2005? Those donations came from reporters and friends of reporters from all over the country.
Not only are there many articles pointing out the finer points of the court reporter, such as “Human Touch Beats Technology,” but many people don’t realize that court reporters provide the closed captioning that helps over 50 million Americans every day.
Next time somebody does the “court reporter finger dance” when describing your profession, be sure to point out some of these positive aspects of being a court reporter. Offer a realtime demonstration to anyone who wants to watch. Let everyone know that we are a profession that will continue to provide the best record out there. Be inspired!
Thanks, once again, for your valuable time.
The COCRA Team
Those of you who are NCRA members are probably more than aware that his year saw a historic change in the way NCRA conducts its elections. This is the first year that NCRA has allowed members to vote online. We have the results for the two contested seats and bylaws amendments.
Jason Meadors, RPR, CRR of Fort Collins, Colorado 509 votes (45.2%)
Position of Director (three-year term)
Tami Smith, RPR, CPE of Lansing, Michigan 519 votes (52.5%)
Donna Collins, RPR, CRR, CCP, FAPR of Dallas, Texas 470 votes (47.6%)
Bylaws Amendments
1. That Article III, Membership, Section 3, Participating Members, be changed to include CART providers among the list of reporter types eligible to join as Participating Members.
1,035 members (96.1%) voted in favor
41 members (3.8%) were opposed.
2. That Article III, Membership, Section 5, Student Members, be simplified and the four-year limitation on eligibility for Student Membership be eliminated.
989 members (95.7%) voted in favor
44 members (4.3%) were opposed
3. That Article XVI, Affiliated Units, Section 3(c), Definitions, be amended to allow states that have more than 10 percent of NCRA’s membership to have more than one affiliated unit.
751 members (72.1%) voted in favor
290 members (27.9%) were opposed
COCRA has been pushing for our members to support DRA’s bylaws amendments to Article XVI regarding allowing affiliated status to those states that have more than one court reporter association. We congratulate DRA on the DECISIVE passage of their amendment to the bylaws.
WOW - The last few weeks have been crazy! The fight to keep Electronic Recording out of the budget was a HUGE fight. Thankfully, we have our hard-working lobbyists (along with far too many people to list - and I would hate to leave out a single one of them!), who did a fantastic job of keeping ER at bay. They talked with everyone who would listen, and then some, about the downfalls of using ER as a means of keeping the record. Please read previous blogs to see what it all entailed.
WHEW - We can finally breathe a sigh of relief . . . NOT!!!
Now, more than ever, we need to prepare for the next step. We need to fortify our forces, rally the troops, and go on the offense!
What does that mean for you and me? What is our role as reporters?
COCRA needs your support for our Legislative Fund. It’s extremely important that our lobbyists keep up with where we have left off this year. Next year will be here before you know it - with a new budget that will most likely have even more cuts! Therefore, I urge each of you to contribute a minimum of $60 - obviously, the more the better - to the Legislative Fund. Think of it, that’s only a few pleas. We can’t afford not to!
Please don’t delay. Send your contributions to: California Official Court Reporters Association - Legislative Fund, One Capitol Mall, Suite 320, Sacramento, CA 95814.
Many of you COCRA members who’ve attended our annual conferences in the past have probably had the opportunity to hear a legislative report given by Barry Broad, COCRA’s lead legislative advocate in Sacramento. And if you’ve heard Barry speak, you know that he’s deeply invested in defending the court reporting profession. You may have even picked up on what a colorful personality he is.
Yet what you may not know is that Barry is also a published author. Barry’s novel “The Eve of Destruction” gets released soon and if you’re wondering what Barry’s novel is about, you can check out this synopsis published in an interview that Barry gave to the Los Angeles Times.
As lawmakers droned, he fell into a daydream. Broad, an avid news consumer and armchair geopoliticist, began pondering the Middle East, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.
“What if CIA secret agents could engineer a Chernobyl-like nuclear meltdown that would stymie Iran’s ambitions to build a nuclear bomb?” Broad mused. “What if Iran’s mullahs could smuggle a radioactive ‘dirty bomb’ into the Port of Los Angeles and set it off at Griffith Observatory?” And “what if both events were to occur simultaneously?”
Almost makes the battles that officials have with electronic recording pale in comparison. You can read the rest of the interview with Barry and learn more about his book by clicking here. And Barry will be having a book signing in Sacramento next month and I’ll post more info on it or update this post.
COCRA is excited to announce new training exclusively for official reporters through the California Center for Judicial Education & Research (CJER), which is the education division of the AOC.
And here’s the best part: You can receive this education on the job, during your work hours at NO cost to the reporter, and it qualifies for your continuing education requirements!
COCRA’s Lyn Yard said, “As a supervising reporter, I had attended other training programs through CJER, which were always professional, relevant and well presented, and I thought, Why is there nothing offered specifically for court reporters?So I took the idea to the COCRA board, and they unanimously agreed to initiate contact with CJER about developing reporter training and education.”
Lyn told us, “When I first contacted Maggie Cimino [CJER Education Division Manager] about the possibility of developing a court reporter education program, her response was, ‘Wonderful!But we have been unable to determine how to provide education at times when reporters could be available.’”Maggie reported that CJER had investigated this possibility during the RRTF (concluded in 2004), and had even developed some curriculum, which they shared with us.It had been determined that the only time reporters were available to participate in continuing education was in the evenings and on the weekends, and CJER is unavailable to provide services during those times.
(For your convenience, directions on how to vote through NCRA’s Direct Member Voting Process and DRA’s amendment are listed below)
Mark your calendars! On July 24th, 2008, at 10:30 a.m., NCRA will hold its annual business meeting.
Why is this important to you? Because DRA has an important amendment that will pass if enough of you vote through “Direct Member Voting.” We realize most of you may not be able to attend the business meeting in Anaheim; therefore, it is vital you follow the directions below so your vote and voice will count.
With DRA’s permission, we copied their message below. If you would like to read it directly from their site, please go to www.caldra.org.
DRA is working hard to ensure all court reporters throughout the State of California have a voice. Let’s do them the service of joining in their efforts.
Directions for Direct Member Voting:
Go to http://www.ncraonline.org/ July 15, 2008
Make sure NCRA has your current email address
You can contact them by clicking on the “sign-in” link or the “View/Edit Member Information” link in the left-hand column
If you do NOT see those two links, contact NCRA at 800-272-6262
On July 24, 2008, at 10:30 a.m., you will sign on to a secure site and watch the transcript and video feed of the meeting. You can then vote through a private link for up to 12 hours.
JULY 24, 2008 AND VOTE TO SUPPORT OUR PROPOSED BYLAWS AMENDMENT!
The Deposition Reporters Association of California will again seek an NCRA bylaws amendment in order to have the opportunity to be considered an affiliate.
Some of you may recall a proposed amendment to accomplish this in 2002 and 2003. The vote in 2003 was favorable, 135 for/95 against, just not reaching the two-thirds required for the amendment to pass.
Since that time NCRA has endeavored to treat DRA, as much as possible, as a recognized state affiliate, which is greatly appreciated. However, we still aspire to be a full-fledged partner with NCRA, able to proudly say we are an NCRA affiliate working for the benefit of the profession, able to propose resolutions to NCSA, able to vote on resolutions proposed by others, able to give voice to the hundreds of NCRA members that DRA represents.
The previous bylaws proposal was to add language to allow for more than one affiliate in states with over 3,000 NCRA members. We have decided this time to use a percentage instead of a specific number. Hence, the proposed change would read as follows:
Amend Article XVI, Section 3(c) to read:
“Only one affiliated unit [shall] may be recognized from any one state, with the exception of states wherein the number of NCRA members exceeds 10 percent of NCRA membership.”
The change from “shall” to “may” is to ensure that potential affiliate status is not automatic, giving the NCRA board discretion to decide whether it is appropriate.
DRA appreciates that multiple state associations would not be sustainable in most other states. However, in California they do exist and are large enough to support full-time paid lobbyists and executive directors.
This amendment is not about seeking to replace the current California NCRA affiliate (CCRA). Rather, we are seeking inclusion for our NCRA members who have chosen DRA to represent them in their state and who wish that representation to be extended to the national arena. There is no avenue to do so without a bylaws amendment.
NCRA is known as an association of members, not states. We believe that denying DRA the opportunity to affiliate with NCRA and to have a full voice at NCSA is in conflict with this premise and disenfranchises many members based solely on a geographic determination. In terms of NCRA membership, DRA ranks among the top ten associations in the country.
DRA hopes that NCRA and its affiliate state leaders want to hear about its accomplishments and programs, including several legislative successes. We hope they want to hear, as well, a perspective that sometimes differs from that of the California NCRA affiliate.
DRA exists, has thrived and grown for over ten years, and is “home” to hundreds of NCRA members. Our goal is inclusion, participation and recognition.
Please join us in Anaheim on July 24th at the NCRA annual business meeting, in conjunction with the convention, when this amendment will be discussed and voted on! GIVE IT YOUR VOTE OF SUPPORT!
If you can’t make it in person and wish to vote on line, here is what you will need to do:
Join NCRA if you haven’t already!
Verify NCRA has a current email address for you. You can do this by going to www.NCRAonline.org. Look for the “View/Edit Member Information” comment in the left-hand column or call 800-272-6272.
In order to vote via the Web at the Anaheim business meeting, members will be able to sign on to the secure web site, review the transcript and video feed for the meeting, and vote through a private, secure link during the 12-hour voting period. Results will be verified by a third party.
The NCRA link is not up yet but will be clearly visible on NCRA’s site,
As you may or may not be aware, our official reporting positions in Probate, Family Law, Mental Health, and Civil - Law & Motion courtrooms were slated for consideration of electronic recording expansion through the legislature.
The Assembly Budget Subcommittee Number 4 understood from early on that California Shorthand Reporters [CSRs] are a vital, valuable, and cost-effective means of providing a certified, verbatim record. They voted to against expansion of ER into other California courtrooms.
Thanks to our state leaders’ hard work, the Senate Budget Subcommittee Number 4 now realizes how valuable we are as well! They had originally recommended expanding electronic recording, but today the Legislative Joint Conference Committee disagreed and did not include Electronic Recording in California’s budget trailer bill.
You, our members, truly cannot understand how close all official reporters in California came to losing our ability to continue to provide access to justice in the above-mentioned courtrooms.
Celebrate today!
Tomorrow, be prepared for the next ER attack. ER will ALWAYS be a threat to our professional community and our fellow Californians who deserve access toan accurate, verbatim record.
A person’s life can change based on what is said in court or in a deposition. Because we are certified by the State of California -Department of Consumer Affairs, and we continue to educate ourselves, parties to a case are confident they are getting the best, most cost-effective method of the record.
Our association has and continues to compile data proving ER costs millions of dollars to parties and the states in which ER is utilized; retrials, dismissals, civil penalties, and other mishaps all cost citizens both emotionally, financially, and physically.
Thanks to all of the great support from the assembly members and senators who listened, learned, and made a decision based on fact; ER is simply not a cost-effective method to producing an accurate record.
COCRA is sending thank-you letters to all members of both committees. We urge you, our members, to do the same. Their names and addresses are listed below.
And remember their efforts in future elections. They supported us based on facts. We want them to remember those facts and be in their positions in the legislature when this issue is raised in the future.
COCRA sends a huge “official” thank you to SEIU, AFSCME, IFPTE, DRA, and CCRA! Our unions and fellow associations were there alongside COCRAevery step of the incredibly grueling stairway to succeeding in defeating ER…once again.
Assembly Budget Subcommittee Number 4 Juan Arambula - Chair Dem-31 Hugh Burns State Building
2550 Mariposa Mall
Suite 5031
Fresno, CA 93721
(559) 445 - 5532
(559) 445 - 6006 fax
Paul Cook Rep-65 34932 Yucaipa Blvd
Yucaipa, CA 92399
Ph: (909) 790-4196
Fax: (909) 790-0479
Chuck DeVore Rep-70 3 Park Plaza Suite 275
Irvine, CA 92614
Ph: 949-863-7070
Fax: 949-863-9337
Mary Hayashi Dem-18 Chief of Staff: Mr. Christopher Parman 22320 Foothill Boulevard, Suite 540 Hayward, CA 94541
Tel: (510) 583-8818
Fax: (510) 583-8800
Gene Mullin Dem-19 * 1528 South El Camino Real
Suite 302
San Mateo, CA 94402
(650) 349-1900
(650) 341-4676 Fax
*Assemblymember Mullin has termed out.But a letter of support for future efforts would be nice.
Sandré R. Swanson Dem-16 1515 Clay Street
Suite 2204
Oakland, CA 94612
Tel: (510) 286-1670
Fax: (510) 286-1888
John Laird - Dem. Alternate Dem-27 701 Ocean Street, 318-B
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Tel: (831) 425-1503
Fax: (831) 425-2570
Roger Niello - Dem. Alternate Rep-5 4811 Chippendale Drive Suite 501
Sacramento, CA 95841
Ph: (916) 349-1995
Fax: (916) 349-1999
Senate Budget Subcommittee Number 4
Michael Machado – Dem Senate District 5 1020 N Street, Suite 506 Sacramento, CA 95814 Ph: (916) 323-4306
Christine Kehoe – Dem Senate District 39 2445 Fifth Ave., Suite 200
San Diego, CA 92101
Ph: (619) 645-3133
Fax:(619) 645-3144
Dick Ackerman – Rep Senate District 33 17821 E. 17th St., Ste 180
Tustin, California 92780 Ph:(714) 573-1853 Fax:(714) 573-1859
Help is needed to ensure funding for captioning program!
Cerritos College in Norwalk, California needs our support in obtaining Congressional funding to create a captioning program. A huge portion of the captioning grants involve recruitment and advertising for the court reporting and captioning professions. The rest relates to equipment, software, resource material, training and curriculum.
Cerritos College is the only California school applying for earmarks this year. No California school has yet received Federal funding for this purpose, though several schools across the nation already have.
Part of the NCRA grassroots process is to get court reporters, captioners and consumers to write letters of support to our state senators and our local representatives. Please go to Cerrritos College’s websiteto help in this important process.
