Welcome to the realtime transcript of the 2007 NCRA Annual Business Meeting that was held on Thursday August 9, 2007 from 2-5pm CST.
The realtime webcast will be brought to you by Speche Communications, providing scaleable, realtime streaming text services for integration with Internet depositions, webcasts, and CART applications.
The Business Meeting was realtimed by Mark Kislingbury, RMR, CRR.
Realtime Transcript
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01:59:59p 1 The meeting will begin shortly. stand
02:02:30p 2 by. The meeting will begin shortly.
02:07:20p 3 although we are seven minutes late, the
02:07:22p 4 meeting WILL begin shortly. please stand
02:09:07p 5 by. please stand by. The meeting has not
02:14:25p 6 yet begun.
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02:15:14p 8 PARKER: If you're a voting member, you
02:15:16p 9 need to make sure you registered and get
02:15:18p 10 your voting materials out at the tables
02:15:21p 11 just opposite this room. If you have come
02:15:23p 12 in without those and you wish to vote, you
02:15:26p 13 need to pick up your materials there,
02:15:27p 14 please.
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02:15:33p 16 Would you also please at this time take a
02:15:36p 17 moment to silence your cell phones.
02:16:20p 18 Microphone stop working again? The mike
02:16:22p 19 is not working. We're sorry, we're having
02:16:26p 20 AV difficulties this afternoon. We're
02:16:30p 21 having AV problems this afternoon. Now
02:16:33p 22 you can hear me.
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02:16:36p 24 Good afternoon, and welcome. Chair is
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02:16:43p 1 honored to call to order the Members
02:16:44p 2 Business Meeting of the 2007 annual
02:16:45p 3 convention of the National Court Reporters
02:16:46p 4 Association in Dallas, Texas. The chair
02:16:50p 5 is delighted that you have made the
02:16:51p 6 commitment to attend your Annual Members
02:16:52p 7 Business Meeting and I'm looking forward
02:16:55p 8 to your input and your participation.
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02:16:59p 10 Now to business. First, here with our
02:17:02p 11 credentials report is chair of the
02:17:03p 12 Credentials Committee, president-elect
02:17:05p 13 Kathy DiLorenzo.
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02:17:09p 15 DiLORENZO: Madam President, the
02:17:10p 16 Credentials Committee reports that there
02:17:11p 17 are 179 voting members registered. By
02:17:13p 18 direction of the Credentials Committee I
02:17:15p 19 move the adoption of the Credentials
02:17:16p 20 Committee report.
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02:17:19p 22 PARKER: The question is on the adoption
02:17:20p 23 of the report of the Credentials
02:17:21p 24 Committee. Are you ready for the
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02:17:22p 1 question? Those in favor of the adoption
02:17:25p 2 of the report of the Credentials
02:17:26p 3 Committee, please raise your pink voting
02:17:28p 4 card. Still looking for it? Okay. Thank
02:17:40p 5 you.
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02:17:40p 7 Those opposed, please raise your pink
02:17:43p 8 voting card.
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02:17:46p 10 Thank you. The affirmative has it and the
02:17:48p 11 report of the Credentials Committee is
02:17:52p 12 adopted. A quorum is present and a voting
02:17:56p 13 body at this meeting is established.
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02:17:58p 15 The next business order is the adoption of
02:18:02p 16 the agenda and the Standing Rules
02:18:03p 17 Committee report. President-elect Kathy
02:18:05p 18 DiLorenzo is chair of these committees and
02:18:07p 19 will give the reports.
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02:18:08p 21 DiLORENZO: Madam President, the agenda
02:18:09p 22 for this meeting is included in the
02:18:10p 23 Members Business Meeting handout
02:18:12p 24 distributed at the entrance, at the
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02:18:15p 1 convention registration desk. Additional
02:18:17p 2 copies were also distributed at the
02:18:19p 3 entrance to the business meeting room.
02:18:20p 4 Please get out your copy of the agenda.
02:18:24p 5 The Standing Rules for this meeting which
02:18:27p 6 we will also be considering are also in
02:18:28p 7 the packet. By direction of the Agenda
02:18:32p 8 Committee I move the adoption of the
02:18:35p 9 agenda as presented.
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02:18:37p 11 PARKER: The question is on the adoption
02:18:39p 12 of the agenda as presented. Are you ready
02:18:40p 13 for the question? Those in favor of the
02:18:42p 14 adoption of the Members Business Meeting
02:18:44p 15 agenda, please raise your pink cards.
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02:18:51p 17 Those opposed please raise your pink
02:18:53p 18 cards.
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02:18:55p 20 Thank you. The ayes have it and the
02:18:57p 21 agenda is adopted.
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02:18:59p 23 DiLORENZO: Madam President, the Standing
02:19:00p 24 Rules are also included in the Members
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02:19:02p 1 Business Meeting handout. By direction of
02:19:04p 2 the Rules Committee I move that the rules
02:19:07p 3 included in the handout be the rules of
02:19:09p 4 this meeting.
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02:19:10p 6 PARKER: The question is on the adoption
02:19:11p 7 of the Meeting Standing Rules as printed
02:19:15p 8 in your handout. Without objection, they
02:19:17p 9 will not be read.
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02:19:19p 11 There's no objection. Is there any
02:19:21p 12 discussion on the rules? Are you ready
02:19:24p 13 for the question? Those in favor of the
02:19:28p 14 adoption of the Meeting Standing Rules,
02:19:30p 15 please raise your pink voting card. Thank
02:19:35p 16 you.
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02:19:35p 18 Those opposed?
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02:19:38p 20 There are two-thirds in the affirmative,
02:19:40p 21 and the member business Meeting Standing
02:19:43p 22 Rules are adopted.
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02:19:45p 24 I would now like to introduce to you your
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02:19:46p 1 board of directors. As I call each name,
02:19:48p 2 will each board member rise and remain
02:19:50p 3 standing, and please hold your applause
02:19:52p 4 until the end. President-elect Kathy
02:19:54p 5 DiLorenzo from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
02:19:57p 6 Vice president Karen Yates of Minden,
02:20:01p 7 Nevada. Secretary/treasurer, SueLynn
02:20:06p 8 Morgan of Lawton, Oklahoma. Immediate
02:20:09p 9 Past President, Merilyn Marquardt-Sanchez
02:20:12p 10 of Phoenix, Arizona. Director Jerry Will
02:20:16p 11 Callaway of Dallas, Texas. Director Brian
02:20:19p 12 DiGiovanna of New York, New York.
02:20:23p 13 Director R. Douglas Friend of Portland,
02:20:25p 14 Oregon. Director Richard Greenspan of
02:20:29p 15 Parkland, Florida. Director Melanie
02:20:31p 16 Humphrey-Sonntag of Wheaton, Illinois.
02:20:35p 17 Director Teresa Kordick of Des Moines,
02:20:38p 18 Iowa. Director Jason Meadors of Fort
02:20:42p 19 Collins, Colorado. Director Laurie
02:20:45p 20 Shingle of Ogden, Utah. Director Tami
02:20:49p 21 Smith of Lansing, Michigan, and our
02:20:53p 22 Executive Director and Chief Executive
02:20:54p 23 Officer, Mark Golden of Vienna, Virginia.
02:20:57p 24 Please join me in thanking the officers
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02:21:00p 1 and directors -- (Applause.) .
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02:21:08p 3 Now I'd like to introduce to you the
02:21:09p 4 person seated to my right. This is Nancy
02:21:12p 5 Sylvester, Professional Registered
02:21:13p 6 Parliamentarian of Loves Park, Illinois.
02:21:18p 7 Ms. Sylvester is a Certified Professional
02:21:22p 8 Parliamentarian and a certified teacher of
02:21:25p 9 parliamentary procedure. She served as
02:21:28p 10 the national parliamentarian of the
02:21:30p 11 National Association of Parliamentarians
02:21:32p 12 and is the author the book especially for
02:21:36p 13 me, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Robert's
02:21:37p 14 Rules and The Guerilla's Guide to Robert's
02:21:40p 15 Rules. We're glad she can be with us
02:21:43p 16 today. Thank you, Nancy. (Applause.)
02:21:51p 17 I'd also like to take a moment to
02:21:52p 18 introduce NCRA's general counsel, Jeff
02:21:55p 19 Altman of McKenna Long & Aldridge in
02:21:58p 20 Washington, D.C. Jeff? (Applause.) .
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02:22:05p 22 Last, but not least, been first since he's
02:22:09p 23 writing the meeting today, our official
02:22:12p 24 reporter for the business meeting, Mark
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02:22:15p 1 Kislingbury of Houston, Texas.
02:22:17p 2 (Applause.) I've never seen a crowd go
02:22:28p 3 more wild than the year Mark was able to
02:22:32p 4 write tsunami. Crowd went wild, whoo. As
02:22:37p 5 has been our practice the past several
02:22:39p 6 years, streaming text of the business
02:22:42p 7 meeting is being broadcast on NCRA's Web
02:22:43p 8 site. The service is being offered
02:22:45p 9 compliments of Speche, a service of
02:22:46p 10 Courtroom Connect.
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02:22:56p 12 I want to borrow a line from a novel that
02:22:58p 13 I recently read. The main character in it
02:23:02p 14 was a teacher and also a public speaker.
02:23:05p 15 And he said, his rule of thumb was, be
02:23:07p 16 sincere, be brief, be seated. So, with
02:23:12p 17 that, I'd just like to give you a quick
02:23:15p 18 overview of this past year. One of the
02:23:19p 19 things I'd like to express to you that you
02:23:21p 20 may not know is that this coming Tuesday,
02:23:24p 21 Chicago, Illinois, our very own CEO, Mark
02:23:27p 22 Golden, will be installed as chair of the
02:23:31p 23 Center For Leadership -- help me --
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02:23:34p 1 GOLDEN: Center for Association
02:23:35p 2 Leadership.
3
02:23:37p 4 PARKER: Excuse me. Center for
02:23:38p 5 Association Leadership. It's right here
02:23:40p 6 on my paper. Mark was also elected just a
02:23:42p 7 couple weeks ago to the board of directors
02:23:44p 8 of Intersteno. We're very proud of Mark.
02:23:48p 9 ASAE, the American Society of Association
02:23:49p 10 Executives and the Center for Association
02:23:51p 11 Leadership comprise about 11,000
02:23:57p 12 associations worldwide. Can you imagine
02:24:02p 13 Mark's reach and the way he elevates NCRA
02:24:04p 14 because of his position with NCRA and now
02:24:08p 15 because of his position as chair, the
02:24:09p 16 center, we're very proud of you, Mark.
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02:24:13p 18 GOLDEN: Thank you. (Applause.)
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02:24:18p 20 PARKER: And to those of you that were at
02:24:20p 21 the TCRA business meeting, I certainly
02:24:23p 22 apologize to you. I'm going to be a
02:24:25p 23 little repetitive in my report to the
02:24:27p 24 membership. This year we had 44
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02:24:29p 1 committees comprised of 341 volunteers and
02:24:34p 2 11 active communities all within NCRA. We
02:24:38p 3 have completed the first year of our first
02:24:40p 4 ten initiatives. We came out with the
02:24:45p 5 Reporter Education Commission, we were in
02:24:46p 6 the second year of the Electronic
02:24:48p 7 Reporting Task Force. One of the things
02:24:51p 8 that I pledged in my nominating address
02:24:55p 9 was that we would find pathways that lead
02:24:57p 10 us to a stronger future. In February of
02:24:58p 11 this year, we launched what's called the
02:25:00p 12 member value proposition, and it's based
02:25:04p 13 on finding avenues from a book called Blue
02:25:08p 14 Ocean Strategy, and there are two types of
02:25:11p 15 oceans, blue oceans and red ones. And red
02:25:13p 16 oceans are where the ocean is full of
02:25:17p 17 competition, and it's bloody -- that's why
02:25:18p 18 it's red -- blue oceans are clear water
02:25:20p 19 and the book studied companies and
02:25:26p 20 industries that reinvented themselves time
02:25:29p 21 and time again and continue to be
02:25:30p 22 successful. And so in February we
02:25:34p 23 launched our member value proposition
02:25:36p 24 based on the book Blue Ocean Strategy.
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02:25:39p 1 We're going to look for some blue ocean
02:25:41p 2 and some nice clean, blue water for all of
02:25:44p 3 us. Look for the launch of the results of
02:25:46p 4 that work this fall. Out of that also
02:25:49p 5 will come a new strategic plan. We'll
02:25:51p 6 also be working on that this fall. Pardon
02:25:57p 7 me.
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02:25:58p 9 When I was interviewed for this position
02:25:59p 10 by the Nominating Committee, I was asked
02:26:04p 11 what my legacy of this association would
02:26:06p 12 be, and I replied then, and as I near the
02:26:11p 13 conclusion of my term as president, I
02:26:14p 14 maintain this position. This wasn't about
02:26:16p 15 me or my year. Every year belongs to the
02:26:18p 16 members of this association.
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02:26:21p 18 I simply wanted to leave it better than I
02:26:24p 19 found it.
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02:26:27p 21 My service to you has been personally and
02:26:29p 22 professionally rewarding, and I thank you
02:26:32p 23 for the experience. During my tenure,
02:26:34p 24 I've learned that it is important to
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02:26:36p 1 always let the member decide what is of
02:26:40p 2 value and that the answers are not always
02:26:42p 3 black and white.
4
02:26:44p 5 I've also learned that expecting NCRA to
02:26:46p 6 save your job if you're doing it with
02:26:49p 7 mediocrity is about like expecting AAA to
02:26:53p 8 prevent you from being in an automobile
02:26:54p 9 accident.
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02:26:56p 11 You know, we're both here to enhance your
02:26:57p 12 experiences, but we act in concert with
02:26:59p 13 you, not independently of you. We need
02:27:03p 14 each other. Margaret Meade, an American
02:27:08p 15 cultural anthropologist said, never doubt
02:27:10p 16 that a small group of thoughtful,
02:27:12p 17 committed citizens can change the world.
02:27:14p 18 Indeed it is the only thing that ever
02:27:18p 19 has. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
02:27:27p 20 (Standing ovation.) As I told the board
02:27:43p 21 on Tuesday, I'm taking away much more than
02:27:44p 22 I gave. But now if you would, welcome
02:27:47p 23 secretary/treasurer SueLynn Morgan as she
02:27:50p 24 presents her report.
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02:27:57p 2 SPEAKER: Good afternoon, everyone. I
02:27:58p 3 stand before you today for the third and
02:28:00p 4 final time as your secretary/treasurer.
02:28:04p 5 The past three years this office has
02:28:06p 6 allowed me to grow professionally while
02:28:08p 7 learning at the same time, and I want to
02:28:11p 8 thank you for having had that opportunity.
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02:28:14p 10 It is my responsibility, along with the
02:28:17p 11 finance committee, consisting of four
02:28:19p 12 board members and myself, to monitor,
02:28:21p 13 review, and evaluate NCRA's financial
02:28:25p 14 performance. Throughout the year we're
02:28:29p 15 responsible for reviewing the
02:28:30p 16 association's monthly financial statements
02:28:32p 17 and investment reports, developing,
02:28:36p 18 recommending, and reviewing financial
02:28:37p 19 policies as needed for the board's
02:28:40p 20 consideration, and reviewing the
02:28:42p 21 association's year-end audit.
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02:28:45p 23 Another important task the committee
02:28:47p 24 performs is it meets with the selected
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02:28:50p 1 auditing firm in executive session,
02:28:53p 2 without the staff present, to review the
02:28:56p 3 year-end audit and to ask questions. This
02:29:00p 4 gives the committee and our auditors the
02:29:03p 5 opportunity to discuss, openly and
02:29:10p 6 confidently, financial areas of concern,
02:29:12p 7 successes, and weaknesses. The firm of
02:29:14p 8 LarsonAllen conducted the audit for fiscal
02:29:18p 9 year 2006, covering the period from
02:29:20p 10 October 1, 2005, through September 30,
02:29:25p 11 2006. Their work consisted of auditing
02:29:28p 12 NCRA's financial transactions to ensure
02:29:31p 13 their accuracy and compliance with the
02:29:35p 14 Generally Accepted Accounting Principles,
02:29:39p 15 GAAP, as well as evaluating the
02:29:40p 16 effectiveness of internal controls and
02:29:42p 17 procedures.
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02:29:44p 19 For this past fiscal year, I am pleased to
02:29:47p 20 report that LarsonAllen reported no
02:29:50p 21 material weaknesses in NCRA's internal
02:29:53p 22 controls or financial standing. In other
02:29:55p 23 words, we received a clean bill of health
02:29:59p 24 from our independent auditors. There are
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02:30:02p 1 copies available for you to review at the
02:30:04p 2 registration desk or at the desk outside
02:30:06p 3 this room.
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02:30:08p 5 In the last several years, as many of you
02:30:11p 6 know or have experienced firsthand working
02:30:13p 7 with NCRA, the association introduced a
02:30:17p 8 wide range of important and valuable new
02:30:19p 9 services and activities. A couple
02:30:23p 10 examples are implementing the Reporter
02:30:26p 11 Education Commission recommendations and
02:30:28p 12 increasing exponentially the level of
02:30:31p 13 support to schools. We also made
02:30:34p 14 necessary, and long overdue, investments
02:30:37p 15 in upgrating the technology systems that
02:30:39p 16 support member services.
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02:30:42p 18 At the same time, the association
02:30:44p 19 continued to experience moderate declines
02:30:46p 20 in membership and had identified no
02:30:49p 21 significant new, or expanded, nondues
02:30:53p 22 revenue opportunities. Through extremely
02:30:56p 23 diligent management of expenses combined
02:30:59p 24 with strong performance of our investments
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02:31:02p 1 and using budget surpluses from prior
02:31:04p 2 years, we continue to advance the
02:31:07p 3 association's strategic objectives. With
02:31:11p 4 each successive year, however, there has
02:31:13p 5 been less opportunity to further belt
02:31:15p 6 tightening, and prior-year surpluses have
02:31:18p 7 been exhausted.
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02:31:20p 9 For fiscal year 2006, I am reporting that
02:31:22p 10 the audited year ended with a $577,690
02:31:31p 11 deficit. It is important to stress again
02:31:33p 12 that money was saved up in prior years to
02:31:36p 13 pay for tragic investments, accounting
02:31:39p 14 regulations, the required income be
02:31:44p 15 reported in the year it was actually
02:31:46p 16 earned and expenses be reported in the
02:31:47p 17 year it was actually spent.
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02:31:50p 19 Fiscal year '03 and fiscal year '04 showed
02:31:54p 20 substantial budget pluses. Fiscal year
02:31:57p 21 '05 showed a modest surplus. In fiscal
02:31:59p 22 year '06 shows substantial budget
02:32:02p 23 deficits, as well fiscal year '07. If you
02:32:07p 24 look at the five-year period, you would
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02:32:09p 1 see that over that longer period, NCRA has
02:32:12p 2 had an essentially break-even performance
02:32:15p 3 financially. At the conclusion of the
02:32:17p 4 current year, all prior year accumulated
02:32:21p 5 savings will be exhausted. NCRA will need
02:32:24p 6 to and will in fact be back on a pay-as-
02:32:28p 7 you-go basis in the coming year. You may
02:32:31p 8 ask the question, how did the deficit
02:32:33p 9 occur? Your board and staff have been
02:32:35p 10 aware of the growing problem, and two
02:32:40p 11 years ago, preparations were being made to
02:32:42p 12 address the problem. The board
02:32:44p 13 anticipates that the investments made in
02:32:45p 14 the future of the profession and in the
02:32:47p 15 operational infrastructure will begin to
02:32:49p 16 yield financial benefits in later budget
02:32:51p 17 years.
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02:32:54p 19 Through the ROSE -- Resources,
02:32:57p 20 Opportunities and Services Evaluation
02:32:59p 21 -- initiative, we have been preparing for
02:33:01p 22 the necessary program adjustments to
02:33:04p 23 operate within our means. The budget for
02:33:06p 24 fiscal year '$08 that the new board will
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02:33:09p 1 be considering for approval at its meeting
02:33:11p 2 at the end of this convention is essential
02:33:13p 3 break-even, with a surplus of
02:33:16p 4 approximately $65,000 on the budget of
02:33:22p 5 $8.7 million. On the investment side, our
02:33:27p 6 portfolio comprised of stocks, bonds, and
02:33:29p 7 many funds is managed by city group, which
02:33:31p 8 until recently was called Smith Barney,
02:33:33p 9 and in fiscal year '06, with $5,763,315,
02:33:42p 10 an approximate 9% increase from the
02:33:44p 11 previous year end. The current fiscal
02:33:48p 12 year to date, our on investments have
02:33:49p 13 performed extremely well. In the first
02:33:51p 14 nine months, the value of our investments
02:33:54p 15 have already increased by an amount equal
02:33:56p 16 to three-fourths of the estimated amount
02:33:59p 17 of cash that will need to be spent out of
02:34:02p 18 our reserves. If this trend continues
02:34:04p 19 through year end, we will essentially be
02:34:07p 20 able to fund the planned operational
02:34:09p 21 deficit entirely from investment earnings,
02:34:13p 22 without reducing the level principal that
02:34:17p 23 was invested at the beginning of the year.
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02:34:20p 1 In terms of our overall financial health,
02:34:22p 2 as of June 30th, our reserves are equal to
02:34:24p 3 63.7% of our fiscal year 2007 operating
02:34:28p 4 budget. For a comparison, the American
02:34:32p 5 Society of Association Executives'
02:34:36p 6 Operating Ratio Report shows that
02:34:39p 7 associations of similar budget size
02:34:41p 8 maintain reserves as a percentage of their
02:34:44p 9 annual operating budget for a reported
02:34:47p 10 average of 58% and a median of 36%. As
02:34:57p 11 you can see, NCRA is financially sound
02:34:59p 12 when comparing its reserves to its yearly
02:35:02p 13 annual budget. The status of our current
02:35:04p 14 financials is in line with our budget
02:35:06p 15 projections. Our May 2007 financial
02:35:08p 16 statements show that revenue is slightly
02:35:09p 17 ahead of last year's levels, with expenses
02:35:13p 18 under budget.
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02:35:14p 20 As I mentioned at the beginning, it has
02:35:16p 21 been an honor serving as your
02:35:17p 22 secretary/treasurer. Thank you.
02:35:20p 23 (Applause.)
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02:35:31p 1 PARKER: Thank you, SueLynn. My
02:35:34p 2 microphone still working. I took my shoes
02:35:36p 3 off. The next business in order is
02:35:39p 4 consideration of the proposed bylaws
02:35:41p 5 amendments. In your packet you will find
02:35:43p 6 a version of the one proposed bylaw
02:35:46p 7 amendment that we will be considering
02:35:47p 8 today. You will notice that the version
02:35:49p 9 in your packet is six pages long and has
02:35:52p 10 line numbers. Please use that version
02:35:54p 11 throughout this portion of the meeting.
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02:35:57p 13 When you go to the microphones to speak,
02:35:58p 14 if you're going to refer to a particular
02:36:00p 15 section of the amendment, please first
02:36:02p 16 state the page number, then the line
02:36:04p 17 number, pause for all of us to find the
02:36:09p 18 exact font, and then begin your comment.
02:36:13p 19 For example, if you didn't understand what
02:36:16p 20 I just told you, "please go to page six,
02:36:20p 21 line ten," then proceed with your comment.
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02:36:25p 23 Since the amendment has been printed and
02:36:26p 24 distributed to the members, if there is no
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02:36:28p 1 objection, neither the Bylaws Committee
02:36:30p 2 chairman nor the chair will read it in its
02:36:33p 3 entirety. Robert Bramanti, chairman of
02:36:45p 4 the Bylaws Committee will present the
02:36:48p 5 bylaw amendment. The chair has requested
02:36:49p 6 the chairman of the Bylaws Committee in
02:36:51p 7 response to questions asked last year to
02:36:53p 8 include in his report the following two
02:36:55p 9 years, background information on the issue
02:36:58p 10 of Direct Member Voting and a
02:37:00p 11 demonstration of Direct Member Voting.
02:37:01p 12 The chair now recognizes Bylaws Committee
02:37:03p 13 chairman Robert Bramanti. (Applause.)
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02:37:13p 15 SPEAKER: Thank you, Madam President. As
02:37:16p 16 Reesa said, I'm Robert Bramanti, I'm a
02:37:19p 17 court reporter in Boston, Massachusetts,
02:37:21p 18 and I'm the chairman of the Constitution
02:37:23p 19 and Bylaws Committee. Before we move the
02:37:24p 20 amendment, I'm just going to give a seven-
02:37:29p 21 slide presentation on what Direct Member
02:37:30p 22 Voting is all about, where it would come
02:37:32p 23 from and where we will go. What is Direct
02:37:35p 24 Member Voting? Online voting for all
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02:37:37p 1 eligible voting members. The bylaw
02:37:42p 2 amendments, contested elections. Why we
02:37:52p 3 are for Direct Member Voting? First,
02:37:54p 4 before even, as the slide says, there was
02:37:57p 5 questions, and requests that we propose
02:37:59p 6 some way to get members who are not able
02:38:01p 7 to attend the business meeting an ability
02:38:03p 8 to vote for the amendments or for
02:38:06p 9 contested elections. So in 2005 the
02:38:11p 10 membership tabled an amendment to bylaws
02:38:12p 11 that would allow for Direct Member
02:38:13p 12 Voting. Asked the Constitution and
02:38:16p 13 Bylaws, study the comments raised at that
02:38:20p 14 business meeting, and to bring you back a
02:38:23p 15 better proposal. We went through the
02:38:25p 16 minutes of that meeting, studied it, tried
02:38:27p 17 to understand what the issues were, and we
02:38:28p 18 feel like we put forth a pretty good
02:38:29p 19 amendment.
20
02:38:33p 21 We sent out in October, I think, or
02:38:35p 22 September or October of 2006 an e-mail
02:38:39p 23 poll. Is Direct Member Voting something
02:38:44p 24 that NCRA members are interested in?
23
02:38:50p 1 87.3% voted yes in favor of this. 103
02:38:53p 2 members, 4.9% said no, and 7.7% not sure,
02:38:58p 3 166 members. It was interesting -- what
02:39:00p 4 was interesting about it was that from
02:39:02p 5 Monday and probably as we got to about
02:39:05p 6 noontime and released the poll till Friday
02:39:07p 7 when we closed it, similarly at noontime
02:39:09p 8 we got almost 2,000 responses, which was
02:39:11p 9 twice as many as we anticipated. So there
02:39:15p 10 was interest.
11
02:39:17p 12 We sent out a second poll later on in the
02:39:19p 13 year. This is meeting attendees voting
02:39:24p 14 via paper ballot. All other eligible
02:39:28p 15 voters vote via secure third party Web
02:39:31p 16 site. This is the original question we
02:39:32p 17 posed to the membership. It's changed
02:39:33p 18 slightly because when speaking with
02:39:35p 19 vendors, they told us this wasn't the most
02:39:37p 20 secure way to go, that we need to get
02:39:39p 21 everybody in the room going out too a
02:39:42p 22 kiosk and voting online so that there's no
02:39:43p 23 results until the end of the day when the
02:39:46p 24 voting is concluded.
24
1
02:39:50p 2 Would you be interested in this process?
02:39:52p 3 And again, 90.4% of the people said this
02:39:54p 4 is a good process. So we sent out another
02:39:58p 5 question, and we said, the original
02:40:01p 6 proposed amendment, any amendment change,
02:40:06p 7 final two candidates for an office and a
02:40:08p 8 rough draft business meeting transcript
02:40:10p 9 for discussion to date reviewed posted to
02:40:12p 10 the Web site within a couple of hours of
02:40:15p 11 the business meeting. Do you believe this
02:40:17p 12 approach would allow online voters to make
02:40:19p 13 a fully informed decision? Almost 94% of
02:40:24p 14 the folks that responded said yes.
15
02:40:32p 16 NCRA has approximately 17,000 voting
02:40:34p 17 members, eligible voting members. And
02:40:35p 18 we've had a steady decline in the last
02:40:37p 19 five or six years. Probably been longer
02:40:38p 20 than that.
21
02:40:42p 22 I think we need to do something about it,
02:40:44p 23 and this is what our Constitution and
02:40:46p 24 Bylaws Committee sees, something needs to
25
02:40:48p 1 be done.
2
02:40:51p 3 Benefits of Direct Member Voting. Allows
02:40:54p 4 every member to vote, makes governance a
02:40:57p 5 more open process, and empowers individual
02:41:02p 6 members. The decisions of the association
02:41:04p 7 with no longer made by the few members
02:41:07p 8 that are able to attend a business
02:41:09p 9 meeting.
10
02:41:11p 11 Puts us on the edge of technology, where
02:41:13p 12 we exist as court reporters, we're on the
02:41:16p 13 edge of technology.
14
02:41:17p 15 Opportunity to draw a huge number of
02:41:19p 16 members to become a little bit more
02:41:21p 17 involved in the association. Shows the
02:41:23p 18 members, the entire membership that they
02:41:25p 19 are -- their opinions matter.
20
02:41:27p 21 Strengthens the bond between membership of
02:41:30p 22 the association, and it gets members
02:41:33p 23 talking. Gets members coming to the
02:41:35p 24 meetings, talking to each other, raising
26
02:41:38p 1 awareness and interest.
2
02:41:43p 3 Thirty-four state associations submitted
02:41:46p 4 resolutions in support of Direct Member
02:41:46p 5 Voting. And this morning, NCSA approved a
02:41:55p 6 resolution that would -- to the board of
02:41:57p 7 directors Direct Member Voting.
8
02:42:02p 9 At this time, David Sims from Elections
02:42:04p 10 Online is here, and David's going to give
02:42:07p 11 us a brief little demonstration on online
02:42:09p 12 voting. David's from Elections Online,
02:42:11p 13 he's been the vendor most of my time
02:42:14p 14 consulting with. What we're going to do
02:42:18p 15 is after David gets through with his brief
02:42:21p 16 presentation, I'm going to move the
02:42:22p 17 question, and at that point because David
02:42:23p 18 has time constraints, has the catch a
02:42:28p 19 flight out, we're going to have any
02:42:29p 20 question for David answer initially before
02:42:33p 21 we get into the debate. So at this time I
02:42:35p 22 would like to welcome David Sims from
02:42:37p 23 Elections Online. Thank you. (Applause.)
24
27
02:42:43p 1 SIMS: Thank you, Robert, and everyone
02:42:45p 2 else. NCRA has set up a little -- not on
02:42:50p 3 this screen, is it? -- a little
02:42:52p 4 demonstration and asked me to walk through
02:42:53p 5 it of how this could work, not necessarily
02:42:56p 6 how it would work but of how it could.
02:42:58p 7 This is a page on the NCRA Web site that
02:43:04p 8 voters would be directed to begin with.
02:43:06p 9 You would have an opportunity to review
02:43:07p 10 the live transcript that's appearing on
02:43:09p 11 this screen, on your -- through this link,
02:43:12p 12 and upon doing that, you'd be able to come
02:43:15p 13 down here and verify that you are in fact
02:43:17p 14 an eligible voter. And please check
02:43:21p 15 eligibility and proceed link. I'm going
02:43:27p 16 to ask Serge confirm that since we logged
02:43:30p 17 in earlier we weren't prompted to log in
02:43:33p 18 the second time.
19
02:43:33p 20 SPEAKER: We signed it in, we did a demo,
02:43:35p 21 he signed in and basically sec verified
02:43:38p 22 against the database, the CRN database at
02:43:40p 23 the association headquarters and then
02:43:42p 24 allowed him to proceed onto the next page.
28
1
02:43:46p 2 SPEAKER: Of course, had we not done that
02:43:48p 3 we would have been prompted to log in with
02:43:51p 4 our NCRA log-in data. That path just gets
02:43:54p 5 you to the Elections Online Web site where
02:43:56p 6 you're again prompted to log in, only
02:43:59p 7 eligible members can vote, so you'd have
02:44:01p 8 to authenticate to get into the system
02:44:03p 9 with a unique user Nam and password. Once
02:44:06p 10 logging in, which I just did, we're
02:44:08p 11 presented with the two things being voted
02:44:10p 12 on. The voters would have an opportunity
02:44:12p 13 to preview the suggested or proposed bylaw
02:44:16p 14 amendments with strike-outs and new
02:44:18p 15 language entered into the smaller window
02:44:20p 16 over here.
17
02:44:24p 18 And you could as well look at the
02:44:27p 19 candidate biographies for Underdog and
02:44:36p 20 Alfred Newman. Once you've made your
02:44:38p 21 decision, you may make your selections and
02:44:41p 22 submit the ballot. The ballot doesn't
02:44:43p 23 immediately go into the ballot box. You
02:44:45p 24 do get an opportunity to preview your
29
02:44:47p 1 selections, and if you have confirmed that
02:44:49p 2 that is what you want to vote for, click
02:44:53p 3 the "submit ballot," thank you, and your
02:44:55p 4 ballot is accepted. So it really is as
02:44:57p 5 simple as that. Only eligible voters can
02:44:59p 6 vote, and only eligible voters can vote
02:45:02p 7 once. So, as Robert said, I am in a
02:45:06p 8 little bit of a rush. We have a few
02:45:08p 9 questions to take, a little bit of time to
02:45:10p 10 take questions, if you'd like, but...
11
02:45:15p 12 SPEAKER: I have a question. My name is
02:45:25p 13 Stan Rizman from New Jersey. I'd like to
02:45:31p 14 know if you have ever heard of an
02:45:33p 15 association that has presented only one
02:45:34p 16 side of the issue and not any negative
02:45:37p 17 facts to -- no, this is for you -- has not
02:45:42p 18 presented any negative facts as to whether
02:45:44p 19 or not online voting is beneficial. Have
02:45:47p 20 you ever heard any association that did
02:45:49p 21 not present both sides of the issue? So
02:45:55p 22 that no.
23
02:45:56p 24 SPEAKER: Thank you. Thank you. Now I
30
02:45:58p 1 have a question for the chairman. --
2
02:46:02p 3 SPEAKER: Just a point of clarification.
02:46:05p 4 We've presented all sides.
5
02:46:06p 6 SPEAKER: Oh, you have?
7
02:46:06p 8 BRAMANTE: We have. But during our
02:46:07p 9 presentation, at leadership, during our
02:46:10p 10 presentation at Boot Camp, we put every
02:46:13p 11 bit of information on the table, asked
02:46:14p 12 questions.
13
02:46:18p 14 SPEAKER: Let me ask you another question
02:46:19p 15 here. I have something that says --
16
02:46:24p 17 PARKER: Mr. Risman, this is engaging in
02:46:29p 18 debate and you'll have an opportunity to
02:46:30p 19 do that. Right now --
20
02:46:32p 21 SPEAKER: I'm asking a question, Madam
02:46:33p 22 President.
23
02:46:36p 24 PARKER: Your question is too vague and
31
02:46:38p 1 you're engaging in debate. There will be
02:46:41p 2 time for debate on the --
3
02:46:43p 4 SPEAKER: You haven't asked the question.
5
02:46:45p 6 PARKER: Stan, please, Mark can only write
02:46:47p 7 one of us at a time.
8
02:46:48p 9 SPEAKER: Okay.
10
02:46:48p 11 PARKER: But you've already engaged in a
02:46:50p 12 debate with Mr. Sims, and Mr. Bramanti has
02:46:52p 13 stepped in to answer your question. If
02:46:54p 14 anyone has questions of Mr. Sims, he has a
02:46:57p 15 flight to catch, so I'll respectfully ask
02:46:59p 16 you if you have a question of Mr. Sims,
02:47:01p 17 please ask it, but please do not engage in
02:47:03p 18 debate because there will be an
02:47:04p 19 opportunity for you to do that in just a
02:47:06p 20 moment.
21
02:47:07p 22 SPEAKER: Will there be an opportunity to
02:47:09p 23 question the chairman of the committee?
24
32
02:47:11p 1 PARKER: Yes. Yes.
2
02:47:12p 3 SPEAKER: Thank you.
4
02:47:12p 5 PARKER: Yes, ma'am?
6
02:47:13p 7 SPEAKER: Hi. I'm Melinda Walker from
02:47:15p 8 South Riding, Virginia, and the question I
02:47:18p 9 have is on the online voting, what if the
02:47:20p 10 Web site gets overwhelmed by several
02:47:22p 11 reporters voting at the same time, and
02:47:26p 12 what is the capacity for it not to shut
02:47:28p 13 down?
14
02:47:28p 15 SIMS: There are 1,700 eligible voters
02:47:33p 16 -- 17,000 -- you'd need to increase your
02:47:38p 17 membership about a hundredfold before the
02:47:40p 18 server would not be able to tolerate the
02:47:41p 19 traffic. By the way, Elections Online had
02:47:47p 20 proprietary elections in South Riding the
02:47:49p 21 past two years.
22
02:47:51p 23 PARKER: Any more questions for Mr. Sims?
24
33
02:48:02p 1 SPEAKER: Sorry, can't help myself.
02:48:03p 2 What's the largest voting organization you
02:48:06p 3 have that votes online and can you tell me
02:48:09p 4 the name of it?
5
02:48:10p 6 SPEAKER: The DC bar, 60,000 members.
7
02:48:12p 8 SPEAKER: Thank you.
9
02:48:14p 10 SPEAKER: Kevin Daniel, Las Vegas,
02:48:16p 11 Nevada. And my question is, if someone
02:48:19p 12 ran for an office from the floor at the
02:48:22p 13 last minute, how would you accommodate
02:48:24p 14 this --
15
02:48:24p 16 SPEAKER: I think that's a procedural
02:48:26p 17 question more than a technical one. We
02:48:27p 18 did discuss it, and, Robert, do you want
02:48:30p 19 to -- I mean we can add -- if there's -- I
02:48:33p 20 think you make a nominee in realtime, can
02:48:38p 21 definitely be added in realtime to the
02:48:40p 22 ballot.
23
02:48:40p 24 SPEAKER: Thank you.
34
1
02:48:42p 2 SPEAKER: Diane Sonntag, Tucson, Arizona.
02:48:47p 3 Who reports the online voting total for
02:48:52p 4 results? Is it someone from your company
02:48:54p 5 --
6
02:48:54p 7 SPEAKER: Yes.
8
02:48:55p 9 SPEAKER: Okay, and they report it to NCRA
02:48:57p 10 who reports it back to us?
11
02:48:58p 12 SPEAKER: Yes.
13
02:48:59p 14 SPEAKER: Thank you.
15
02:49:03p 16 PARKER: Any other questions for Mr. Sims?
17
02:49:05p 18 SPEAKER: Yes, just one question. I'm
02:49:07p 19 Carol Fitzsimmons from New Jersey. And I
02:49:09p 20 was interested in the one vote per
02:49:11p 21 person. If I were to register and come in
02:49:14p 22 here and hold my hand up and vote and then
02:49:17p 23 go online, could I possibly do two votes
02:49:21p 24 or three, repetitive?
35
1
02:49:26p 2 SPEAKER: That's a procedural --
3
02:49:27p 4 OBOLENSKY: Can I clarify?
5
02:49:28p 6 FITZSIMMONS: I'm just concerned about the
02:49:29p 7 one vote per person.
8
02:49:31p 9 OBOLENSKY: Absolutely. The way we
02:49:32p 10 propose the amendment is that every member
02:49:34p 11 in the association would not go with a
02:49:36p 12 hand vote, they would vote online at a
02:49:39p 13 kiosk outside, and once that vote is
02:49:41p 14 tallied, you lose the ability to vote. So
02:49:45p 15 you get one vote.
16
02:49:47p 17 FITZSIMMONS: Okay. With username and
02:49:49p 18 password, even if you have two separate
02:49:51p 19 usernames and passwords to get in? I
02:49:55p 20 mean, I've seen that. You could have a
02:49:57p 21 username and password and -- is it your
02:50:00p 22 -- your membership number that gets into
02:50:03p 23 play here?
24
36
02:50:04p 1 SPEAKER: I'm not really sure --
2
02:50:05p 3 FITZSIMMONS: -- I'm 605 or whatever --
4
02:50:08p 5 SPEAKER: Your membership number would be
02:50:10p 6 validated off the association database.
7
02:50:12p 8 FITZSIMMONS: Okay, thanks.
9
02:50:15p 10 SPEAKER: Hello. Arnella Sims -- hi,
02:50:19p 11 cousin -- from Los Angeles, California,
02:50:21p 12 and my question also had to do with the
02:50:23p 13 password issue. How would you prevent
02:50:26p 14 someone from using someone else's NCRA ID
02:50:30p 15 number, seeing as it's printed on
02:50:33p 16 materials, it's on magazines, how would
02:50:35p 17 you stop someone from using that online
02:50:39p 18 who was not authorized to do so?
19
02:50:40p 20 SIMS: I think what we talked about was
02:50:43p 21 generating unique usernames and passwords
02:50:46p 22 just for the election at one point. We
02:50:48p 23 also talked about using unique usernames
02:50:50p 24 and passwords that voters may already be
37
02:50:52p 1 familiar with. I don't think there's any
02:50:53p 2 final decision that's been made regarding
02:50:55p 3 that.
4
02:50:57p 5 PARKER: Mr. Waga.
6
02:50:59p 7 WAGA: I'm woody Waga from the Garden
02:51:02p 8 State of America.
9
02:51:02p 10 Mr. Sims, what is your fee to facilitate
02:51:04p 11 this process?
12
02:51:06p 13 SIMS: It's 100%. I've been in business
02:51:11p 14 five years and done over 400 elections.
02:51:12p 15 This is actually quite typical. There's
02:51:14p 16 nothing unorthodox about this election.
17
02:51:17p 18 WAGA: What did I miss? What is your fee
02:51:22p 19 for facilitating --
20
02:51:23p 21 SIMS: Oh, I'm sure, what is your faith in
02:51:25p 22 your ability to -- (audience laughter.)
23
02:51:35p 24 SIMS: The fee, I don't know if we want to
38
02:51:37p 1 disclose fees at this meeting?
2
02:51:39p 3 WAGA: We're a member-driven
02:51:41p 4 organization. It's okay to talk about it.
5
02:51:46p 6 SIMS: Frankly, we hadn't even arrived at
02:51:47p 7 a fee yet. We've just been discussing
02:51:50p 8 procedurally how it will be conducted. I
02:51:52p 9 will say that the pricing for the product
02:51:54p 10 is disclosed on the Web site. It's based
02:51:55p 11 on the number of eligible voters, along
02:51:57p 12 with any customization that might be
02:51:59p 13 required.
14
02:52:01p 15 WAGA: If we had -- if we had 15,000
02:52:05p 16 registered voters, what would your fee be
02:52:07p 17 for the year? Approximately is good
02:52:13p 18 enough.
19
02:52:14p 20 SIMS: I don't even know off the top of my
02:52:16p 21 head. Fifteen thousand? 4,600 plus a
02:52:22p 22 couple other miscellaneous fees, $5,000,
02:52:24p 23 give or take.
24
39
02:52:27p 1 WAGA: Thank you.
2
02:52:31p 3 PARKER: Mr. Lemons?
4
02:52:34p 5 SPEAKER: Keith Lemons, Nashville,
02:52:36p 6 Tennessee. The question I have is since I
02:52:37p 7 am a member of several Web sites where you
02:52:39p 8 have to have a username and password I'm
02:52:41p 9 probably not the only person in the world
02:52:42p 10 who forgets their password, remembering
02:52:47p 11 the username. Is there going to be some
02:52:49p 12 methodology that you have of being able to
02:52:52p 13 retrieve the password if you know your
02:52:53p 14 username but can't remember your password?
15
02:52:57p 16 SIMS: I believe that they were going to
02:52:59p 17 have at the kiosks, were going to be
02:53:04p 18 manned by the people that have the
02:53:06p 19 usernames and passwords so they can
02:53:07p 20 provide it to you at the spot. Another
02:53:08p 21 way to get it is make your e-mail address
02:53:11p 22 in the field at the bottom and it will
02:53:13p 23 send your username and password to you in
02:53:15p 24 realtime.
40
1
02:53:15p 2 LEMONS: That was my question. Thank you.
3
02:53:17p 4 PARKER: Any other questions of Mr. Sims?
02:53:20p 5 Thank you very much for your
02:53:21p 6 demonstration. Have a safe flight.
02:53:25p 7 (Applause.)
8
02:53:52p 9 BRAMANTI: Madam President, on behalf of
02:53:53p 10 the Bylaws Committee, myself, Catherine
02:53:55p 11 Phillips and Bill Oliver, members, I move
02:53:58p 12 the adoption of the bylaws amendment
02:54:00p 13 regarding Direct Member Voting as printed
02:54:02p 14 and distributed to its members.
15
02:54:05p 16 PARKER: Thank you. The question is on
02:54:06p 17 the adoption of the bylaw amendment
02:54:08p 18 regarding Direct Member Voting, as printed
02:54:10p 19 and distributed to members. Is there any
02:54:12p 20 discussion? As you approach the
02:54:17p 21 microphones, we have two microphones, a
02:54:20p 22 pro microphone, a con microphone. You
02:54:22p 23 have three minutes to speak under the
02:54:24p 24 rules. Please remember to state your
41
02:54:26p 1 name, city, and state. If you've already
02:54:29p 2 spoken once, please be courteous to those
02:54:32p 3 who have not yet spoken, and yield the
02:54:33p 4 microphone to him or her. And you need
02:54:35p 5 your pink card, if you're colorblind, it
02:54:40p 6 looks like this, to speak. So if you
02:54:42p 7 would, please, if you would like to speak,
02:54:44p 8 please line up behind the microphone.
9
02:54:49p 10 WAGA: Point of order.
11
02:54:50p 12 PARKER: Yes, sir.
13
02:54:51p 14 WAGA: I would like to see since we have
02:54:52p 15 an election this year, and that's a secret
02:54:54p 16 balance, I would like to see this vote be
02:54:57p 17 on the secret balance as well instead of
02:55:00p 18 holding up a pink card, so members can
02:55:01p 19 vote their conscience rather than standing
02:55:04p 20 up and exposing themselves, maybe feeling
02:55:07p 21 a little bit uncomfortable.
22
02:55:09p 23 PARKER: It has been moved that we vote
02:55:12p 24 via secret ballot on the Direct Member
42
02:55:13p 1 Voting amendment. Is there a second?
2
02:55:16p 3 SPEAKER: Second.
4
02:55:17p 5 PARKER: This requires a majority vote.
02:55:19p 6 You can use your -- is there any
02:55:21p 7 discussion? Any discussion on voting by
02:55:26p 8 secret ballot? For the bylaws amendment?
02:55:31p 9 Have I heard no discussion. All those in
02:55:34p 10 favor raise your pink cards. Opposed?
11
02:55:39p 12 Motion passes, and will be a ballot vote.
02:55:42p 13 Thank you, Mr. Waga. Now back to
02:55:44p 14 discussion on the bylaws amendment.
15
02:55:50p 16 You do still need your pink card to speak
02:55:52p 17 so that we can identify you as an eligible
02:55:54p 18 member. Oh. Pro first. Mr. Matthews?
19
02:56:01p 20 SPEAKER: Good afternoon. My name is
02:56:02p 21 Bruce Matthews. I'm from Cleveland,
02:56:04p 22 Ohio. I rise to speak in favor of the
02:56:07p 23 amendment. Every year for 25 out of the
02:56:13p 24 last 26 years, I've left the business
43
02:56:19p 1 meeting of NCRA and someone has said to
02:56:21p 2 me, isn't it a shame that only these few
02:56:23p 3 members decide the important issues of our
02:56:27p 4 association. And I think it's kind of
02:56:31p 5 ironic that 147 people or whatever we came
02:56:35p 6 up for the quorum today are here to decide
02:56:40p 7 whether our membership of 17,000 will be
02:56:44p 8 able to vote.
9
02:56:47p 10 We all know what happens here when there's
02:56:48p 11 a big issue, the pros and cons get
02:56:52p 12 together and they try to get everybody
02:56:54p 13 from that state to attend the convention,
02:56:56p 14 they try to get people from the
02:56:58p 15 neighboring states to attend to vote for
02:57:00p 16 their side. It seems to me like having
02:57:03p 17 Direct Member Voting would make this whole
02:57:06p 18 process easier. With the technology that
02:57:09p 19 we have today and e-mails, you can e-mail
02:57:13p 20 to your heart's desire to try to get
02:57:15p 21 people over to your side.
22
02:57:17p 23 I think it's kind of a money issue here.
02:57:21p 24 A lot of people these days are not able to
44
02:57:23p 1 attend the convention. They go to get
02:57:25p 2 their CEU's at their state conventions or
02:57:30p 3 maybe through the journal, through reading
02:57:33p 4 things, going to college classes. They
02:57:35p 5 don't come to the convention. Direct
02:57:37p 6 Member Voting is present in many other
02:57:39p 7 associations these days. Next year, in
02:57:43p 8 2008, we'll be electing a president of the
02:57:46p 9 United States, and wouldn't it be really
02:57:49p 10 ridiculous if everyone had to fly to
02:57:52p 11 Washington, D.C., to vote for president.
02:57:55p 12 Do you think that everybody who votes for
02:57:57p 13 president knows all the issues that are
02:57:59p 14 involved, or even in fact if they know the
02:58:03p 15 issue, whether or not they have an opinion
02:58:06p 16 on it.
17
02:58:09p 18 I think that we should do the same thing
02:58:10p 19 here. You shouldn't have to come to the
02:58:11p 20 convention to vote. I've been a member
02:58:13p 21 for a long time. I try to come every
02:58:16p 22 year, but I can see that there's going to
02:58:18p 23 be a point when I might not be able to
02:58:20p 24 come, but I'm still interested. You're
45
02:58:22p 1 not going to have 17,000 people voting.
02:58:25p 2 You're going to have more than you have
02:58:27p 3 now, which is a good thing, and once
02:58:31p 4 -- all I'm saying is this is really a
02:58:33p 5 no-brainer, and I would hope that you
02:58:35p 6 would pass this amendment. Thank you.
02:58:36p 7 (Applause.)
8
02:58:44p 9 PARKER: Mr. Benowitz?
10
02:58:45p 11 SPEAKER: I'm Alan Benowitz from Miami,
02:58:48p 12 Florida, and I'm here to vote against the
02:58:50p 13 amendment for the following reasons, and I
02:58:51p 14 appreciate that we have this forum that
02:58:53p 15 allows us to express detergent opinions.
02:58:56p 16 I really disagree. While there are many
02:59:01p 17 good points in favor of the amendment, I
02:59:03p 18 feel there are more points in favor of
02:59:04p 19 being against the amendment. While we've
02:59:08p 20 always felt as a profession that the human
02:59:10p 21 interface has always provided preservation
02:59:14p 22 of our profession, I feel the same is true
02:59:16p 23 by coming to conventions. Many people
02:59:19p 24 come here for mentoring, for business
46
02:59:23p 1 development, to have hands-on experience
02:59:25p 2 with new products and technology at the
02:59:28p 3 exhibits, the continuing education
02:59:34p 4 benefits are great because of the
02:59:37p 5 interactivity. I think when you are
02:59:41p 6 online there is less opportunity for
02:59:44p 7 interactivity and interface with others.
02:59:47p 8 I also feel that some of the benefits of
02:59:50p 9 attendance would be minimized. Some of
02:59:53p 10 the issues which I've already mentioned.
11
02:59:56p 12 I understand the board has voted
02:59:57p 13 unanimously for this, and I encourage
03:00:02p 14 free, independent thinking by all members,
03:00:05p 15 that the board should really consider the
03:00:07p 16 feelings of everybody, not just how they
03:00:09p 17 feel. It's unusual to have unanimous
03:00:10p 18 voting, and I would hope that free,
03:00:14p 19 independent thinking is expressed in the
03:00:17p 20 future.
21
03:00:19p 22 I think less attendance at conventions
03:00:22p 23 will also not benefit our vendors who are
03:00:25p 24 responsible for subsidizing many of our
47
03:00:28p 1 events and lowering the costs of the
03:00:30p 2 association. I think revenue will be lost
03:00:36p 3 that the association gains by having large
03:00:38p 4 attendance. I have a few bullet points
03:00:42p 5 here and I'll be out before the three
03:00:44p 6 minutes are up.
7
8
03:00:48p 9 SPEAKER: One minute.
10
03:00:49p 11 BENOWITZ: Thank you. I think interactive
03:00:53p 12 business discussion creates ideas, sail
03:00:59p 13 something on the Internet -- a lot of
03:01:00p 14 people, a lot of our reporters are really
03:01:02p 15 friendly with their computer programs that
03:01:04p 16 allow for their software production as a
03:01:06p 17 court reporter but not familiar with the
03:01:07p 18 -- the other benefits of their computer
03:01:10p 19 systems. I think the continuing education
03:01:14p 20 seminars enhance that, and I know a number
03:01:18p 21 of other people have other ideas against
03:01:22p 22 it, for it. I'll sit down at this time.
03:01:25p 23 Thank you. (Applause.)
24
48
03:01:31p 1 PARKER: Mr. Smith?
2
03:01:32p 3 SPEAKER: My name is Duane Smith, and I am
03:01:34p 4 from Baltimore, Maryland. And, gosh, I'm
03:01:38p 5 really nervous. I've never spoken at a
03:01:40p 6 public meeting before. (Laughter.)
03:01:44p 7 Before I make my comments I'd like to
03:01:46p 8 thank Mark Kislingbury once again for
03:01:48p 9 agreeing to go through this painful
03:01:49p 10 process and -- (Applause.) And I'd also
03:01:58p 11 like to thank Robin Cooksey, the president
03:02:02p 12 of the Texas Court Reporters Association,
03:02:03p 13 for being such wonderful hosts here in
03:02:05p 14 Dallas, and thank you for having us here.
03:02:08p 15 (Applause.) And as part of my comments
03:02:17p 16 I'd like to thank the humble opposition on
03:02:19p 17 both sides of this issue for being so
03:02:20p 18 polite and direct and treating each other
03:02:23p 19 with love and respect, as we should. It's
03:02:25p 20 really -- it's really refreshing to me to
03:02:27p 21 see people acting in a civil manner at a
03:02:29p 22 business meeting, so thank you, both
03:02:32p 23 sides.
24
49
03:02:34p 1 I want to say one thing about this
03:02:35p 2 particular issue. I heard the complaint
03:02:37p 3 that -- well, I've heard a couple of
03:02:39p 4 comments from people that I've talked to
03:02:40p 5 who opposed this motion. First one was
03:02:43p 6 that the board must be up to something.
03:02:47p 7 So I just thought I'd let you know that in
03:02:48p 8 1999, I guess it was in Orlando, the
03:02:52p 9 -- the real first discussion of Direct
03:02:53p 10 Member Voting was held in a bar at -- at
03:02:57p 11 the convention with Gary Sonntag, a friend
03:02:59p 12 of mine who is not here, and his wife,
03:03:01p 13 Melanie, a friend of mine who is here, and
03:03:04p 14 we spoke for ten minutes, and they then
03:03:08p 15 beat on me for 45 minutes telling me all
03:03:10p 16 the reasons that there shouldn't be Direct
03:03:11p 17 Member Voting because they spent the money
03:03:13p 18 and put the time in to come to the
03:03:15p 19 conventions, and that was worst
03:03:17p 20 something. My friend Gary Sonntag called
03:03:21p 21 me about three months later and you said,
03:03:23p 22 you know what, you're right. Everybody
03:03:24p 23 who pays dues, thousands of reporters all
03:03:29p 24 over the country, they pay their dues,
50
03:03:31p 1 they do their work, and they're members
03:03:32p 2 that contribute in their own way, whether
03:03:35p 3 they can afford to be here or not is not
03:03:37p 4 really the issue. It's whether or not
03:03:39p 5 they should have a right to participate in
03:03:40p 6 the process. And in my opinion, every
03:03:42p 7 single member has value. I can tell you
03:03:44p 8 that, you know, I've been the president of
03:03:46p 9 this association, but the position I hold
03:03:49p 10 today I value higher, and that is member
03:03:54p 11 -- every single one should count. We need
03:03:56p 12 to respect that. We have the ability to
03:03:58p 13 do it, the technology. Let's give it a
03:04:00p 14 chance.
15
03:04:02p 16 To the 20-some thousand members who are
03:04:04p 17 not here, who may be reading these
03:04:06p 18 comments on the Internet, I just want to
03:04:08p 19 say one thing to you. As president, I've
03:04:13p 20 loved and respected every single one of
03:04:15p 21 you, and I know the people on this board
03:04:18p 22 and I know they feel the same way. But I
03:04:19p 23 want you to know something. You're not
03:04:20p 24 being heard, you're not being heard, you
51
03:04:24p 1 haven't been heard for years, while you
03:04:26p 2 were home with your kids or whatever you
03:04:27p 3 were doing, you were being herded, and
03:04:31p 4 unfortunately you're being herded by a
03:04:33p 5 small group of people, and I'm one of the.
6
03:04:34p 7 SPEAKER: Time.
8
03:04:35p 9 SMITH: The hundreds of this in this room
03:04:38p 10 every year deciding your future, you
03:04:39p 11 deserve a chance. Thank you. (Applause.)
12
03:04:47p 13 PARKER: Mr. Starkman.
14
03:04:50p 15 SPEAKER: Thank you. Ladies and
03:04:53p 16 gentlemen, my name is Irv Starkman from
03:05:02p 17 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and I would
03:05:04p 18 like to tell you why I am voting against
03:05:06p 19 this amendment. Before stating my
03:05:07p 20 reasons, let me state the obvious. We are
03:05:12p 21 part of the judicial system. If a party
03:05:16p 22 does not sustain its burden, it loses, I
03:05:21p 23 think, pure and simple. The proponents
03:05:26p 24 here have not sustained their burden. The
52
03:05:31p 1 proponents have listed the ABA as
03:05:34p 2 substantiation on their position for
03:05:40p 3 Internet voting for bylaws or officer
03:05:42p 4 voting. The ABA does not have such a
03:05:48p 5 procedure. The proponents compiled a list
03:05:49p 6 of 51 associations in the United States to
03:05:55p 7 support their position, but practically
03:05:58p 8 none of them have the type of Internet
03:06:01p 9 voting that is being proposed here. I
03:06:05p 10 hope you agree with me that it would be
03:06:08p 11 far more relevant if the proponents had
03:06:12p 12 surveyed associations who have Internet
03:06:16p 13 voting or bylaws and officer elections
03:06:19p 14 like it is being proposed here. Another
03:06:24p 15 reason I'm going to vote "no" is the
03:06:30p 16 potential for abuse is great. Two large
03:06:33p 17 state associations or companies can get
03:06:35p 18 together and dominate the vote by urging
03:06:38p 19 their members to vote a certain way. Your
03:06:43p 20 vote here would be practically meaningless
03:06:49p 21 because the report is tracking a 12-hour
03:06:52p 22 window after a business meeting in which
03:06:53p 23 members can vote. There can be no doubt
03:06:57p 24 that the members who vote in that 12-hour
53
03:07:00p 1 window will not have had the opportunity
03:07:05p 2 to listen to the debate and therefore
03:07:10p 3 would be uninformed voters. I have been
03:07:14p 4 coming to association conventions for over
03:07:18p 5 40 years and have even changed my intended
03:07:21p 6 vote after listening to discussion on the
03:07:25p 7 floor. In conclusion, I urge all of us to
03:07:31p 8 vote "no." I believe if this amendment
03:07:34p 9 passes, we will soon see a proposal to
03:07:39p 10 expand membership to voice writers, sound
03:07:43p 11 recording operators, and anybody else that
03:07:47p 12 can't be a member, which will mean the end
03:07:50p 13 of a court reporter-only association.
14
03:07:53p 15 SPEAKER: Time.
16
03:07:53p 17 SPEAKER: Thank you.
18
03:07:53p 19 PARKER: Thank you, Mr. Starkman.
03:07:55p 20 (Applause.) Mr. Weber?
21
03:08:00p 22 SPEAKER: Bill Weber, Pittsburgh,
03:08:03p 23 Pennsylvania. As you can see, my good
03:08:05p 24 friend Irv Starkman is from the opposite
54
03:08:08p 1 side of the state also, so we're on the
03:08:10p 2 opposite aisle, opposite state, but we
03:08:12p 3 love each other. I want to thank my golf
03:08:15p 4 buddy, since Duane thanked everybody,
03:08:17p 5 because we had a lively debate in the bar
03:08:19p 6 after golf yesterday on this subject, and
03:08:21p 7 no one was injured. So it can't be bad.
8
03:08:27p 9 It should be a lively debate. But I think
03:08:30p 10 there's a lot of smoke that is being
03:08:33p 11 presented in fear. I think if you look at
03:08:35p 12 those statistics, it's so clear. 93% of
03:08:40p 13 the membership want this opportunity. And
03:08:43p 14 I have heard many people during the debate
03:08:48p 15 back on the voice writers, say, you
03:08:51p 16 haven't asked the members what they think,
03:08:52p 17 what about what the members think? The
03:08:54p 18 members should have a voice. Well, now we
03:08:56p 19 are going to give the members a voice if
03:08:58p 20 we pass this proposed amendment change.
03:09:02p 21 And overwhelmingly they say, give us,
03:09:05p 22 please, give us the opportunity to vote.
03:09:07p 23 I don't see -- it's a poll tax. What we
03:09:09p 24 have in place is simply a poll tax. If
55
03:09:12p 1 you can afford to buy a plane ticket, if
03:09:14p 2 you can afford to pay $150 a night to come
03:09:19p 3 here, then you can vote. If you can't, if
03:09:21p 4 you have small children, sick children,
03:09:23p 5 you're a single parent, forget about it.
03:09:25p 6 You're not going to get to vote. I don't
03:09:28p 7 know -- I don't understand how anyone who
03:09:30p 8 pays their dues, just like everybody else
03:09:32p 9 in this room, you can say, guess what, you
03:09:34p 10 can't vote, because you're too stupid.
03:09:37p 11 I've heard people say, they're not
03:09:38p 12 informed enough out there. Like we are
03:09:41p 13 the protectors. You know, we're just a
03:09:43p 14 small group. Just to rebut one argument
03:09:47p 15 made about attendance membership will go
03:09:49p 16 down, may I ask what the registered
03:09:51p 17 attendance so far is for this convention?
18
03:09:56p 19 GOLDEN: It's approximately 1500 people as
03:09:58p 20 of noon today.
21
03:09:58p 22 SPEAKER: 179 voters here?
23
03:10:01p 24 GOLDEN: Correct.
56
1
03:10:01p 2 SPEAKER: I don't think that's going to
03:10:03p 3 affect attendance at the convention.
4
03:10:05p 5 SPEAKER: One minute.
6
03:10:05p 7 SPEAKER: Because only 179 people chose to
03:10:07p 8 come here out of 1500, so I think that's a
03:10:10p 9 frivolous argument.
10
03:10:12p 11 The other thing I'd say is, you know, at
03:10:14p 12 one time only men could vote. Maybe that
03:10:18p 13 wasn't so bad. (Laughter.) Kidding
03:10:24p 14 -- 95% female membership, I -- at one time
03:10:33p 15 only white men could vote. At one time
03:10:34p 16 only property owners could vote in this
03:10:36p 17 country. Now we have a female running for
03:10:38p 18 president, we have a Hispanic man running
03:10:40p 19 for president, we have an African-American
03:10:43p 20 running for president. And we're going to
03:10:46p 21 restrict ourselves to this? Anybody in
03:10:48p 22 this country can run for an office, and
03:10:49p 23 anybody can vote. And all you have to be
03:10:52p 24 is a citizen, and you don't have to watch
57
03:10:56p 1 debates. And God help you if you do watch
03:10:58p 2 the debates. So thank you. I'm for it.
03:11:00p 3 (Applause.)
4
03:11:09p 5 SPEAKER: Arnella Sims from Los Angeles,
03:11:12p 6 California. I'm -- have a few concerns,
03:11:15p 7 one of which is I'm not sure how the
03:11:16p 8 polling of the membership was done. I
03:11:18p 9 only remember receiving one of the surveys
03:11:22p 10 by e-mail, and my initial response was no,
03:11:26p 11 and I didn't receive any of the other
03:11:27p 12 polling. So I'm not sure that the entire
03:11:29p 13 membership was polled on this issue.
03:11:32p 14 Someone can correct me if that's the
03:11:34p 15 case. I'm also a little concerned that
03:11:37p 16 this document was passed out as we walked
03:11:39p 17 in, which indicated recent postings by
03:11:42p 18 NCRA members on the subject of Direct
03:11:44p 19 Member Voting. These are all pro
03:11:47p 20 arguments. It would have been nice to see
03:11:50p 21 some of the con arguments as well.
22
03:11:56p 23 There have been a lot of statements on the
03:11:57p 24 pro side that I have agreed with, and
58
03:12:00p 1 there have been other statements that I
03:12:02p 2 have not agreed with, the same with the
03:12:04p 3 con arguments.
4
03:12:05p 5 However, I think that what we are seeing
03:12:07p 6 here is a question of comfort level. And
03:12:10p 7 so I would therefore make the following
03:12:12p 8 motion to amend the proposed amendment to
03:12:16p 9 Article 9, Section 3(C) --
10
03:12:23p 11 GOLDEN: Could you give us a page and line
03:12:25p 12 number, please?
13
03:12:27p 14 PARKER: Page and line number, please.
15
03:12:31p 16 SPEAKER: Page four, line nine. I would
03:12:40p 17 move to add the following words at the end
03:12:42p 18 of the sentence. "Such electronic voting
03:12:47p 19 shall be authorized as a pilot project for
03:12:50p 20 a period of two years and shall end no
03:12:55p 21 later than the conclusion of the 2009
03:12:58p 22 Annual Business Meeting. The board of
03:13:03p 23 directors shall thereafter make a full
03:13:06p 24 report to the membership."
59
1
03:13:08p 2 My rationale for making this proposed
03:13:13p 3 amendment to the amendment --
4
03:13:13p 5 SPEAKER: One minute.
6
03:13:14p 7 SPEAKER: -- is that this would allow
03:13:16p 8 electronic voting to be put in place
03:13:18p 9 temporarily for the board and the members
03:13:19p 10 to have some experience With It, how it
03:13:22p 11 works --
12
03:13:22p 13 PARKER: Arnella -- you're debating a
03:13:32p 14 motion that has not yet been seconded. Is
03:13:34p 15 there a second to her motion? Can you
03:13:41p 16 repeat, such electronic voting shall be
03:13:43p 17 authorized as a pilot project for a period
03:13:46p 18 of two years.
19
03:13:52p 20 SPEAKER: Is my time being credited in --
21
03:13:53p 22 GOLDEN: A new motion will be in front of
03:13:55p 23 the floor, yes.
24
60
03:13:56p 1 SPEAKER: Let me -- I was almost done with
03:13:58p 2 my remarks. I just don't --
3
03:14:01p 4 PARKER: I apologize for interrupting.
5
03:14:02p 6 GOLDEN: The standing rule, though, is for
03:14:04p 7 the motion to be presented in writing,
03:14:06p 8 which will greatly facilitate the
03:14:08p 9 discussion --
10
03:14:09p 11 SPEAKER: I have it in writing. I just
03:14:11p 12 wanted to read it before --
13
03:14:13p 14 To repeat, it says, "such electronic
03:14:15p 15 voting shall be authorized as a pilot
03:14:18p 16 project for a period of two years and
03:14:21p 17 shall end no later than the conclusion of
03:14:24p 18 the 2009 Annual Business Meeting. The
03:14:29p 19 board of directors shall thereafter make a
03:14:31p 20 full report to the membership. Again, my
03:14:34p 21 rationale is that this amendment would
03:14:36p 22 allow the electronic voting to be put in
03:14:38p 23 place temporarily, would allow the board
03:14:41p 24 and the members to experience it and see
61
03:14:44p 1 how it worked, and then it would provide
03:14:46p 2 an opportunity for the members to give
03:14:48p 3 further direction to the board of
03:14:50p 4 directors as to how to proceed.
5
03:15:10p 6 PARKER: Thank you very much. (Applause.)
03:15:29p 7 We will now vote on the --
8
9
10
03:15:30p 11 SPEAKER: Are we going to have discussion?
12
03:15:31p 13 PARKER: The motion before you is to add
03:15:32p 14 the following sentences to the end of the
03:15:36p 15 proposed amendment. Line nine, add the
03:15:43p 16 words, "such electronic voting shall be
03:15:45p 17 authorized as a pilot project for a period
03:15:48p 18 of two years and shall end no later than
03:15:50p 19 the conclusion of the 2009 Annual Business
03:15:52p 20 Meeting. The board of directors shall
03:15:55p 21 thereafter make a full report to the
03:15:56p 22 membership." Is there discussion? One
03:16:01p 23 moment, please.
24
62
03:16:12p 1 If you're standing in line to discuss the
03:16:14p 2 main motion, if you'll step aside so that
03:16:17p 3 people can discuss -- so that we can have
03:16:19p 4 discussion on the amendment to the main
03:16:20p 5 motion.
6
03:16:22p 7 SPEAKER: What do you want -- do I have to
03:16:24p 8 get out of line for that?
9
03:16:26p 10 PARKER: No, if you'll just step to the
03:16:27p 11 side. If there's anyone who wishes to
03:16:29p 12 speak to the -- to the motion to amend the
03:16:32p 13 amendment.
14
03:16:36p 15 SPEAKER: I just wanted to ask a
03:16:38p 16 question. Deborah Sheen from Oregon. The
03:16:42p 17 language of the proposed amendment
03:16:43p 18 certainly has its merits. Does that
03:16:45p 19 preclude the program from going forward if
03:16:47p 20 it's successful as worded?
21
03:16:57p 22 PARKER: This would have no effect. It
03:17:00p 23 doesn't keep it from and doesn't stop it.
24
63
03:17:06p 1 GOLDEN: No, I think -- correct me if I'm
03:17:09p 2 misunderstanding the question. The debate
03:17:10p 3 now will be on the amendment to the
03:17:12p 4 amendment. Following debate and a vote,
03:17:17p 5 if the amendment passes or the amendment
03:17:20p 6 fails, you would then return to discussion
03:17:23p 7 of the main motion, which is the total.
03:17:27p 8 If this amendment passes, the main motion
03:17:30p 9 will be changed. If this proposed
03:17:33p 10 amendment to the amendment fails,
03:17:36p 11 discussion will continue on the amendment
03:17:39p 12 as originally presented.
13
03:17:42p 14 PARKER: So if you wish to discuss the
03:17:43p 15 amendment to the amendment, please step to
03:17:45p 16 the microphone. Ms. Antone.
17
03:17:49p 18 SPEAKER: I'm Peggy Antone from Houston,
03:17:50p 19 Texas, and I have a question regarding the
03:17:52p 20 amendment. At the end of the --
21
03:17:54p 22 PARKER: Excuse me. The amendment to the
03:17:56p 23 amendment?
24
64
03:17:56p 1 SPEAKER: The amendment to the amendment.
03:17:59p 2 At the end of the two-year proposed pilot
03:18:02p 3 project, when it is submitted to the
03:18:04p 4 membership, it would be submitted to the
03:18:07p 5 membership via voting online, or strictly
03:18:11p 6 at the meeting? (Laughter and applause.)
7
03:18:21p 8 PARKER: Anyone else who wishes to speak
03:18:22p 9 to the amendment?
10
03:18:27p 11 SPEAKER: Tori Pittman, North Carolina. I
03:18:29p 12 have a question regarding the living,
03:18:31p 13 breathing document that is the
03:18:35p 14 Constitution and Bylaws. It is going to
03:18:37p 15 be incumbent upon the CMV committee to
03:18:42p 16 make sure that this is addressed in two
03:18:44p 17 years, because this document has a time
03:18:46p 18 frame on it, so we need to make sure that
03:18:51p 19 we are cognizant of this document and its
03:18:54p 20 -- I don't know what -- it is a living
03:19:01p 21 document, and we need to make sure that
03:19:03p 22 stuff is in there that doesn't need to be
03:19:06p 23 in there after a date certain is removed
03:19:08p 24 so we will need another amendment to the
65
03:19:10p 1 Constitution and Bylaws to be addressed at
03:19:12p 2 that later point.
3
03:19:13p 4 PARKER: Thank you. Mr. Lemons?
5
03:19:15p 6 SPEAKER: Question I have, is will this
03:19:17p 7 amendment to the amendment create a domino
03:19:19p 8 effect for the rest of the amendment
03:19:21p 9 proposed in pages four, five, and six?
03:19:27p 10 Will we need to put a self-limiting
03:19:30p 11 amendment language in each one of those
03:19:32p 12 other proposed amendments in order to keep
03:19:36p 13 them essentially in sync with the first
03:19:42p 14 proposed amendment to the amendment? If
03:19:44p 15 that makes sense.
16
03:19:45p 17 PARKER: It does make sense, Keith, but I
03:19:51p 18 would need to review the original
03:19:53p 19 amendment to see whether or not, and the
03:19:54p 20 motion has not been to amend other
03:19:56p 21 sections of the Constitution and Bylaws.
22
03:19:58p 23 SPEAKER: Then I will just say that I
03:19:59p 24 believe that it does -- would require the
66
03:20:02p 1 same sort of amendment to each of the
03:20:03p 2 proposed amendments further than that down
03:20:05p 3 the line, because they will then be -- if
03:20:09p 4 this amendment to the amendment passes,
03:20:12p 5 and then the amendments pass, each one
03:20:15p 6 would be self-limiting, we would have had
03:20:21p 7 to make them also limiting -- I probably
03:20:24p 8 didn't make a bit of sense --
9
03:20:26p 10 PARKER: I understood you. Okay, thank
03:20:28p 11 you. Mr. Matthews?
12
03:20:30p 13 SPEAKER: Bruce Matthews, Cleveland,
03:20:31p 14 Ohio. I speak against the amendment to
03:20:34p 15 the amendment simply because of what
03:20:38p 16 member Antone brought to the floor. If we
03:20:42p 17 do this on a pilot project basis and it
03:20:47p 18 works wonderfully and then there's a big,
03:20:49p 19 huge fight about, do the members get to
03:20:51p 20 vote online to decide this very issue that
03:20:53p 21 we're trying to decide today, it's just
03:20:56p 22 ridiculous to even think about. So I
03:20:59p 23 would vote against the amendment to the
03:21:01p 24 amendment.
67
1
03:21:03p 2 PARKER: Ms. Sims?
3
03:21:05p 4 SPEAKER: Arnella Sims from Los Angeles,
03:21:07p 5 California. The reason I proposed the
03:21:10p 6 amendment to the amendment in the spot
03:21:11p 7 that I did was I believe that that would
03:21:13p 8 take care of all of the rest of the
03:21:16p 9 proposed amendments on this issue. In
03:21:18p 10 fact, if you look at page one, line 11, it
03:21:24p 11 specifically refers to Article 9 and talks
03:21:29p 12 about electronic mail or other means of
03:21:32p 13 electronic transmission as specifically
03:21:36p 14 authorized under Article 9. So that is
03:21:38p 15 why I suggested the language be in Article
03:21:42p 16 9 so that there would not need to be a
03:21:45p 17 wholesale rewriting of the rest of the
03:21:46p 18 proposed amendment.
19
03:21:52p 20 PARKER: I'm going to ask Nancy Sylvester
03:21:53p 21 to explain this to us.
22
03:22:02p 23 SYLVESTER: When you put in your bylaws a
03:22:06p 24 potential pilot project, it does cause
68
03:22:07p 1 some -- some problems because they are in
03:22:10p 2 your bylaws until you change your bylaws.
03:22:14p 3 So by putting this in here, in two years
03:22:18p 4 you will need to change your bylaws one
03:22:25p 5 way or the other.
6
03:22:26p 7 A thought -- and please do not take this
03:22:28p 8 as me commenting against the concept -- a
03:22:31p 9 thought is to remember that your bylaws
03:22:34p 10 are amendable in two years, and what many
03:22:37p 11 times groups do when they want a pilot
03:22:40p 12 project is to put it in the bylaws, try it
03:22:44p 13 for two years. If it -- or for however
03:22:46p 14 long they want, and then if it doesn't
03:22:48p 15 work, be prepared to come back and amend
03:22:50p 16 the bylaws. So I want you to think about
03:22:53p 17 putting dates in bylaws. Roberts strongly
03:22:58p 18 recommends that you do not put dates in
03:23:00p 19 bylaws because they are to be an ongoing
03:23:03p 20 document, that they would be put in as a
03:23:06p 21 proviso instead.
22
03:23:11p 23 PARKER: Ms. Wilson? Thank you, Nancy.
24
69
03:23:14p 1 SPEAKER: Cecilee Wilson, Kaysville,
03:23:16p 2 Utah. The problem I have, I'm speaking
03:23:18p 3 against the amendment to the amendment,
03:23:20p 4 and the problem I have with it is since
03:23:25p 5 it's experiment in the bylaws, it would
03:23:27p 6 conceivably, if it did not pass in two
03:23:29p 7 years to continue it, it could conceivably
03:23:32p 8 call into question the results of every
03:23:34p 9 election in between now and then. And I
03:23:39p 10 -- I think that that's something that we
03:23:41p 11 would definitely face, and so with that,
03:23:44p 12 and having -- oh, you -- there was
03:23:47p 13 somebody else against? Or for -- I call
03:23:49p 14 the question.
15
03:23:56p 16 PARKER: Is there a second to calling the
03:23:57p 17 question? The motion before you is the
03:24:07p 18 previous question. It is not debatable.
03:24:10p 19 It takes two-thirds vote. Are you ready?
03:24:13p 20 All those in favor of calling the
03:24:14p 21 question, raise your pink cards.
22
03:24:18p 23 Opposed?
24
70
03:24:21p 1 Thank you. Motion carries.
2
03:24:25p 3 Now we're back to -- we're going to vote
03:24:29p 4 on the amendment to the amendment. I got
03:24:31p 5 it right. Are you ready for the vote?
6
03:24:35p 7 SPEAKER: On the amendment to the
03:24:37p 8 amendment?
9
03:24:37p 10 PARKER: On the amendment to the
03:24:38p 11 amendment. This takes a majority of -- a
03:24:40p 12 majority vote. All those in favor of the
03:24:45p 13 amendment to the amendment, please raise
03:24:46p 14 your pink cards. Those opposed, please
03:24:49p 15 raise your cards.
16
03:24:53p 17 Thank you. The motion fails.
18
03:24:58p 19 We're now back on the main motion. And if
03:25:00p 20 you were in line at the microphone to
03:25:01p 21 debate the main motion, you may please
03:25:03p 22 take your place back at the line. And
03:25:08p 23 boy, my short-term memory is shot. I
03:25:10p 24 can't remember who -- Ms. Sheen
71
03:25:11p 1 (phonetic)?
2
03:25:12p 3 SPEAKER: Deborah Sheen from Oregon, and I
03:25:15p 4 just wanted to say, personally speaking, I
03:25:18p 5 know dozens of court reporters in Oregon
03:25:20p 6 who could not afford the time or the
03:25:24p 7 finances to be here to take a vote, and I
03:25:28p 8 know dozens of reporters from Oregon who
03:25:31p 9 could be voting by e-mail today.
10
03:25:35p 11 PARKER: Thank you. Mr. Jackson?
12
03:25:36p 13 JACKSON: Well, this is not something I'm
03:25:42p 14 as passionate about as some other issues
03:25:45p 15 I've spoken about in the past. I'm afraid
03:25:48p 16 that what we could create is an
03:25:50p 17 environment where this forum would become
03:25:56p 18 ineffective. We couldn't stand here and
03:25:58p 19 debate this issue and discuss it, suggest
03:26:03p 20 corrections, and fight about it because
03:26:06p 21 there would be no incentive for me to come
03:26:09p 22 and give my side of it if NCRA had had the
03:26:13p 23 ability to spend the year at leadership,
03:26:17p 24 at Boot Camp, at every state association,
72
03:26:20p 1 come in -- and an example of it was this
03:26:24p 2 morning, and you came and talked to our
03:26:25p 3 group this morning, you touted this
03:26:27p 4 amendment and that you hoped you'd vote
03:26:31p 5 for it. There was no one in the room that
03:26:32p 6 was -- I'm standing in the back of the
03:26:33p 7 room thinking, boy, I'd sure love to say a
03:26:36p 8 couple of words myself on why I think it's
03:26:38p 9 a bad idea. But, you know, we don't get
03:26:41p 10 the opportunity. We just get NCRA's view
03:26:45p 11 of how this is going to go. And this is
03:26:49p 12 not so bad. But I can see circumstances
03:26:54p 13 down the road where NCRA has spent a year
03:27:00p 14 promoting -- I'll go overboard -- tape
03:27:06p 15 recorders, hopefully many, many years
03:27:08p 16 after I'm dead and gone. But you have the
03:27:16p 17 opportunity to sell that idea to so many
03:27:17p 18 people with the communication ability that
03:27:20p 19 you have, through the magazine, through
03:27:21p 20 leadership, through Boot Camp, and, you
03:27:26p 21 know, leadership was something that
03:27:28p 22 started back years ago when I was vice
03:27:31p 23 president of the Texas association and Joe
03:27:35p 24 Reed was president of the association and
73
03:27:38p 1 a guy named Terry Ritter from Denver
03:27:42p 2 called and said we need to get together
03:27:45p 3 and talk about things that are going on in
03:27:47p 4 our state and see if we can't work things
03:27:49p 5 out and see if we can't develop the
03:27:50p 6 ability to fight some of these issues with
03:27:52p 7 tape-recorders, and that was back a long
03:27:54p 8 time before you guys picked up on the
03:27:56p 9 idea. So I'm used to what you do and I
03:27:59p 10 know how it works and I really respect how
03:28:02p 11 this association's grown over the years.
12
03:28:05p 13 But if -- if I get a stock proxy in the
03:28:09p 14 mail and it says I have 10,000 votes, and
03:28:12p 15 I look at all the things on that proxy,
03:28:14p 16 and I know that I can check either "for"
03:28:17p 17 or "against" and it's not going to make a
03:28:20p 18 hill of beans because there's a board
03:28:21p 19 sitting out there that has 20 million
03:28:23p 20 votes, so I never even bother to send the
03:28:25p 21 thing in. But I read it, and if I decide
03:28:28p 22 that there is nothing on that agenda -- if
03:28:31p 23 there's something on that agenda that
03:28:32p 24 hurts me, I just sell my stock. I have
74
03:28:35p 1 far too much invested in this association
03:28:37p 2 to just sell my stock when this board
03:28:40p 3 comes up with something that's
03:28:43p 4 detrimental.
5
03:28:43p 6 PARKER: Thank you, Mr. Jackson.
03:28:45p 7 (Applause.) Mr. Dreger?
8
03:28:53p 9 SPEAKER: Matthew Dreger, Detroit,
03:28:54p 10 Michigan. I'm the past chair of NCSA.
03:28:58p 11 And in 2005 NCSA brought to the NCRA board
03:29:01p 12 of directors its concerns regarding what
03:29:04p 13 it developed from in-depth workshops and
03:29:07p 14 meetings regarding Direct Member Voting.
03:29:09p 15 The NCSA membership oftentimes considered
03:29:11p 16 some of the most knowledgeable and
03:29:13p 17 involved members in NCRA is made up mostly
03:29:16p 18 of state association presidents and
03:29:19p 19 enthusiastic state board members moving up
03:29:22p 20 in leadership.
21
03:29:24p 22 You have trusted your NCSA delegates to
03:29:26p 23 leadership and NCSA meetings supported by
03:29:30p 24 the NCRA to put forth ideas and
75
03:29:32p 1 resolutions while working with the NCRA
03:29:34p 2 board to move this organization forward.
03:29:37p 3 NCSA has done this as a collective, under
03:29:41p 4 the honest and forthright leadership of
03:29:43p 5 the NCSA governing committee and its chair
03:29:45p 6 and vice chair. I want you all to know
03:29:47p 7 that I take great personal offense at the
03:29:50p 8 untrue statements in this document about
03:29:52p 9 NCSA called kick up your heels regarding
03:29:54p 10 its investigation into direct member. In
03:30:00p 11 the stock -- receive a proxy to vote by
03:30:03p 12 mail. In our industry we are currently
03:30:06p 13 promoting technology of streaming Internet
03:30:08p 14 text, we are promoting e-mail transcripts
03:30:10p 15 and ASCII discs. Outside of this room is
03:30:12p 16 a vendor showcase filled with the latest
03:30:13p 17 technology of this century for our
03:30:16p 18 profession. We have the means, knowledge,
03:30:19p 19 and technology to take the spoken word
03:30:22p 20 and, in a mart of .3 seconds, throw it up
03:30:25p 21 on a screen so that everyone can see it.
03:30:28p 22 Yet when it comes to our own membership,
03:30:30p 23 we have people standing up, counting off,
03:30:33p 24 moving from one side of the room to the
76
03:30:35p 1 other, or holding up pink cards. That is
03:30:38p 2 akin to keeping your membership in the
03:30:40p 3 Stone Age. I urge you to move this
03:30:43p 4 industry forward, to allow folks to decide
03:30:46p 5 between the cost of a family vacation or a
03:30:49p 6 convention weekend to become interactive
03:30:52p 7 in this profession. There were no cons on
03:30:56p 8 the side of all of the NCSA members during
03:30:59p 9 their meeting this morning. They voted
03:31:02p 10 unanimously to bring this forward.
11
03:31:05p 12 One vote, one person. I urge you to
03:31:07p 13 support your leaders. (Applause.)
14
03:31:21p 15 PARKER: Mr. Waga?
16
03:31:23p 17 WAGA: Woody Waga, New Jersey, and please
03:31:25p 18 pardon my back, but I want to face the
03:31:28p 19 membership. I have so much to say that I
03:31:29p 20 must read rather quickly so I can
03:31:31p 21 accomplish all of my thoughts in three
03:31:33p 22 minutes. I'm sorry, Mark.
23
03:31:35p 24 I sincerely compliment Bob and the C&B for
77
03:31:38p 1 their arduous task. It was not easy.
03:31:40p 2 However, I have difficulty living with the
03:31:43p 3 result. Allow me to explain. I hearken
03:31:46p 4 back to 1965 in my first convention, my
03:31:50p 5 early years of involvement in then NSRA.
03:31:54p 6 Believe me, I was shy, young, and quiet,
03:31:56p 7 and listening to the now familiar floor
03:31:58p 8 fights among Kosky, Burt, Sally, Vivien,
03:32:00p 9 Trachte, Roy Voelker. I thought then
03:32:06p 10 conventions were only about fraternizing
03:32:08p 11 and speed contests. So I once asked Irv
03:32:10p 12 Kosky why he fought so hard. Succinctly
03:32:13p 13 he said, quote, "woody, to be sure, there
03:32:16p 14 is a profession when you're age." I did
03:32:20p 15 not grasp the gravamen of his words, but
03:32:22p 16 now, Irv, I owe you. And that's why I
03:32:24p 17 stand. I'm now your age. I'm standing
03:32:27p 18 now for the next crop of reporters.
19
03:32:29p 20 I oppose Internet voting. I call it
03:32:32p 21 absentee voting, because a true debate
03:32:35p 22 could not be held in a similar fashion to
03:32:36p 23 being there live. You know what I mean.
03:32:39p 24 Important topics will be discussed and
78
03:32:41p 1 members. The majority of whom never
03:32:44p 2 attended a business meeting can be -- can
03:32:46p 3 be, I didn't say will be -- can be spoon
03:32:49p 4 fed information via e-mail or telephone.
03:32:52p 5 The vote of which can dramatically affect
03:32:55p 6 our profession.
7
03:32:56p 8 We all know, it's not the same.
9
03:33:00p 10 The board has access to the membership
03:33:03p 11 online. Opposing views do not have the
03:33:06p 12 same access. It's not fair. And we
03:33:10p 13 believe in fair play. Want to hear a
03:33:11p 14 crazy scenario? There are five very large
03:33:14p 15 reporting companies in America. I work
03:33:16p 16 for one of them. Could you imagine if
03:33:18p 17 they have 5,000 members, and they paid for
03:33:22p 18 all their membership, and they told them
03:33:23p 19 all to vote one way? They believed --
20
03:33:26p 21 SPEAKER: One minute.
22
03:33:27p 23 WAGA: One minute? Please understand the
03:33:30p 24 distinction between NCRA and the
79
03:33:31p 1 profession[. | of the] The association
03:33:32p 2 requires members dues to survivor. The
03:33:34p 3 profession must endure within W or without
03:33:36p 4 the association. I want a -- please. I
03:33:38p 5 want the pure shorthand membership. Don't
03:33:40p 6 you? The board was unanimous in its vote
03:33:42p 7 for absence voting, not one dissenting
03:33:45p 8 vote. Why is there a brain trust of
03:33:47p 9 reporters, on this side of the aisle and
03:33:49p 10 why is it so important to NCRA? That
03:33:52p 11 action is low rent for a very high rent
03:33:54p 12 profession. Why? That is why I stand to
03:33:56p 13 oppose. I disagree with Bruce Matthews,
03:33:58p 14 what he said. We don't -- we don't bring
03:34:01p 15 in votes. NCRA brought in votes. Mark
03:34:07p 16 Golden said, please make every effort over
03:34:09p 17 the next few days to talk up the issue and
03:34:11p 18 bring as many reports as possible to the
03:34:13p 19 meeting. That's not right. Where I come,
03:34:15p 20 we call that cute. It's wrong. Spend the
03:34:17p 21 time and the money to promote the
03:34:18p 22 educational process and fill out a school
03:34:22p 23 to which you don't have anything to vote
03:34:23p 24 on. Stack with promoters and educators of
80
03:34:25p 1 our profession --
2
03:34:26p 3 PARKER: Thank you, Mr. Waga.
4
03:34:28p 5 WAGA: God bless reporting. (Applause.)
6
03:34:37p 7 SPEAKER: Hi. My name is Caroline Castle
03:34:41p 8 from Olathe, Kansas, and I won't read
03:34:44p 9 quite as quickly, I hope. I've been a
03:34:45p 10 member of NCRA since 1975. I mention my
03:34:48p 11 longevity in this business so as to make
03:34:50p 12 the point that we've all seen a lot of
03:34:52p 13 changes in the last 30 years. Technology
03:34:54p 14 marches on and waits for no reporter.
03:34:57p 15 This is a theme we hear over and over
03:34:58p 16 again from the leaders of this
03:35:00p 17 organization, who encourage us to stay on
03:35:03p 18 or ahead of the technological curve in
03:35:05p 19 order to maintain or marketability. In
03:35:09p 20 the tech-savvy environment of today, this
03:35:11p 21 is the way it's always been done before,
03:35:13p 22 simply doesn't cut it, as a reason not to
03:35:18p 23 innovate. Sad to say voters can be as
03:35:20p 24 informed or as uninformed as they choose
81
03:35:22p 1 to be, whatever methodology is utilized to
03:35:24p 2 record their votes. Although a
03:35:26p 3 knowledgeable elector is desirable and
03:35:28p 4 beneficial, clearly the requirement for
03:35:30p 5 physical presence cannot guarantee a vote
03:35:32p 6 which is informed. Convention attendance
03:35:35p 7 is a privilege and a joy, but it's not
03:35:38p 8 always financially attainable each and
03:35:40p 9 every year for every member of the
03:35:41p 10 organization, including myself. In my
03:35:44p 11 long membership with NCRA, I have often
03:35:46p 12 felt disenfranchised by being unable to
03:35:48p 13 express my opinion on issues simply
03:35:50p 14 because I couldn't make the convention.
03:35:53p 15 And with today's enhanced technology, why
03:35:55p 16 should that continue to be.
17
03:35:58p 18 We welcome technological advances in other
03:35:59p 19 areas of our professional lives. Why not
03:36:01p 20 this one? I have voted in general
03:36:03p 21 elections for years by use of absentee
03:36:07p 22 ballots. I don't see the distinction for
03:36:10p 23 association elections.
24
82
03:36:11p 1 If it's true, as I recently read in
03:36:12p 2 National Review, that, quote, Americans
03:36:15p 3 are very smart about the things they care
03:36:16p 4 about, let's allow all our members,
03:36:19p 5 present or not, to register their opinions
03:36:21p 6 about things they care about.
7
03:36:23p 8 In the months and years ahead, we will be
03:36:26p 9 faced with decisions on issues vital to
03:36:28p 10 the health of our profession and our
03:36:30p 11 organization, things which are important
03:36:32p 12 to us. So let's be very smart. Please do
03:36:35p 13 not continue to impose a de facto poll tax
03:36:38p 14 on our membership, effectively
03:36:41p 15 disenfranchising them. Let's be equitable
03:36:43p 16 and take all positions into account, using
03:36:45p 17 the most up-to-date means. Thank you.
03:36:48p 18 (Applause.)
19
03:36:57p 20 SPEAKER: Madam President, John Prout from
03:36:58p 21 New Jersey, and I will be brief.
22
03:37:02p 23 I oppose this amendment because I believe
03:37:04p 24 it will have a detrimental effect on the
83
03:37:06p 1 governance of our association. Not only
03:37:09p 2 will open the door to large corporations
03:37:13p 3 -- I'm sorry. I thought there was an
03:37:14p 4 interruption. It not only will open the
03:37:17p 5 door to the large corporations urging
03:37:19p 6 their reporters to vote a certain way, but
03:37:21p 7 also enables states to do the same, even
03:37:23p 8 to join together as bloc votes. Not
03:37:27p 9 knowing the vote outcome for 24 hours,
03:37:29p 10 could also have a deleterious effect when
03:37:32p 11 they are hotly contested issues. And,
03:37:35p 12 frankly, I disagree with the logic for a
03:37:37p 13 twelve-hour window of time to vote. It
03:37:39p 14 will lead to many persons voting without
03:37:43p 15 Elizabeth to the merits of both sides of
03:37:45p 16 the debate and I think, frankly, this is
03:37:48p 17 an example of the need to hear the
03:37:49p 18 debate. I am sure just as some of our
03:37:51p 19 prior meetings where we have had hotly
03:37:55p 20 contested issues there were many people
03:37:58p 21 who came into the room with a certain
03:38:00p 22 opinion on the subject and having listened
03:38:01p 23 to the debate changed the way they had
03:38:04p 24 intended to vote based on that.
84
1
03:38:06p 2 I also wonder about the use of survey
03:38:08p 3 results, when a survey question is simply
03:38:11p 4 so narrow as, "Are you in favor of?" Yes
03:38:16p 5 or no. Without giving any parameters to
03:38:17p 6 it. I think perhaps if there was a more
03:38:20p 7 detailed survey with public parts to a
03:38:24p 8 question, giving parameters of what the
03:38:26p 9 issue might be, the survey results that
03:38:28p 10 have been shown perhaps would have been
03:38:30p 11 very, very different. Thank you.
03:38:32p 12 (Applause.)
13
03:38:33p 14 PARKER: Thank you, Mr. Prout. At this
03:38:37p 15 point, Ms. Baker, before we get to you the
03:38:41p 16 chair of the Constitution and Bylaws
03:38:41p 17 Committee wants to make a point of
03:38:45p 18 clarification.
19
03:38:46p 20 BRAMANTI: Just a point of clarification.
03:38:47p 21 The results would be available by the next
03:38:50p 22 morning. Once the results are completed
03:38:51p 23 the total would be available, so it would
03:38:52p 24 be available by 12 o'clock the next
85
03:38:55p 1 morning. Thank you.
2
03:38:56p 3 PARKER: Ms. Baker?
4
03:38:57p 5 SPEAKER: Lisa Nagy-Baker, Youngstown,
03:38:59p 6 Ohio. This is an issue that is very near
03:39:01p 7 and dear to my heart as I believe it was
03:39:03p 8 born out of a business meeting several
03:39:06p 9 years ago, you'll remember the voice
03:39:07p 10 writers debate. I've been off the board
03:39:12p 11 for a couple years, so I can't really
03:39:14p 12 speak to the ins and outs of the debate at
03:39:17p 13 the board level. I watched it from the
03:39:18p 14 sidelines just as most of you. I have to
03:39:20p 15 say that listening respectfully to the
03:39:21p 16 arguments and the opposition to this
03:39:23p 17 amendment, my overwhelmingly reaction is,
03:39:26p 18 NCRA is damned if we do and damned if we
03:39:28p 19 do. You'll remember that debate three
03:39:32p 20 years ago over the voice writers. I had
03:39:33p 21 the dubious pleasure of chairing that
03:39:35p 22 meeting and I'm not likely to forget it in
03:39:38p 23 this lifetime. Many of the people who
03:39:39p 24 have at this meeting argued that -- I'm
86
03:39:44p 1 sorry -- many of the same people who have
03:39:46p 2 this afternoon argued that members who
03:39:47p 3 can't show up at the meetings shouldn't be
03:39:49p 4 allowed to vote argued at that time that
03:39:51p 5 NCRA needed to listen to the will of its
03:39:54p 6 members more and that such important
03:39:56p 7 issues shouldn't be decided by a few elite
03:39:58p 8 at a business meeting. NCRA heard that
03:40:01p 9 criticism and decided to look into it.
03:40:04p 10 The board created a task force that spent
03:40:06p 11 a year asking members what they thought
03:40:08p 12 about the concept of direct voting and how
03:40:11p 13 they would like to see it work. NCRA did
03:40:13p 14 open member discussion forums at major
03:40:16p 15 meetings and invited NCSA to look into
03:40:18p 16 it. NCSA conducted a vigorous
03:40:23p 17 investigation, identified the pros and
03:40:24p 18 cons, and forwarded their views to the
03:40:25p 19 board.
20
03:40:26p 21 I might point out that NCSA is made up of
03:40:29p 22 state leaders and is completely
03:40:32p 23 independent of the board. If anyone has
03:40:33p 24 figured out a way to manipulate or control
87
03:40:35p 1 NCSA's actions, I've never met them.
2
03:40:37p 3 So two years ago, the board presented a
03:40:39p 4 Direct Member Voting amendment for the
03:40:41p 5 membership to consider. The board was
03:40:43p 6 neutral in that amendment. We just put it
03:40:45p 7 out there, just asking if that is what you
03:40:48p 8 wanted when you complained about being
03:40:49p 9 blocked out of voting on issues of
03:40:51p 10 importance to your association.
11
03:40:53p 12 Many of the same people who are today
03:40:55p 13 criticizing the board for taking a
03:40:57p 14 position and urging passage of the current
03:40:59p 15 amendment --
16
03:41:00p 17 SPEAKER: One minute.
18
03:41:01p 19 SPEAKER: -- at that time criticized the
03:41:02p 20 board for lack of leadership and failing
03:41:04p 21 to take a position. Damned if we do,
03:41:06p 22 damned if we don't. At that time the
03:41:08p 23 membership directed the issue to be
03:41:10p 24 investigated further by the C&B
88
03:41:13p 1 Committee. The committee did that. The
03:41:15p 2 membership directed that there be an
03:41:16p 3 update in demonstration of Direct Member
03:41:19p 4 Voting of last year's business meeting.
03:41:21p 5 The committee did that. The opponents say
03:41:23p 6 that the no con -- no "cons" have been
03:41:29p 7 presented. Maybe the actual word "con"
03:41:31p 8 hasn't been used much, but come on. NCRA
03:41:33p 9 and NCSA have spent the last three years
03:41:35p 10 asking everyone, everywhere it could, what
03:41:38p 11 the cons are, what are the potential
03:41:39p 12 problems? It went out of its way to
03:41:42p 13 contact and talk to the concepts opponents
03:41:45p 14 to understand what they thought the
03:41:47p 15 potential problems were.
16
03:41:48p 17 I think the concerns have been addressed
03:41:49p 18 again and again. I trust the intelligence
03:41:52p 19 of the NCRA membership more than the
03:41:53p 20 opponents do. My experience is that they
03:41:56p 21 can and will exercise their judgment --
22
03:42:01p 23 SPEAKER: Time.
24
89
03:42:02p 1 SPEAKER: Thank you very much.
03:42:03p 2 (Applause.)
3
03:42:08p 4 SPEAKER: Madam President, Jim Woitalla.
03:42:14p 5 I hope that NCRA -- misplaced priorities
03:42:19p 6 of members is not what we're here to be
03:42:23p 7 and I say it's a misplaced priority not to
03:42:25p 8 show up for a business meeting to debate
03:42:26p 9 the issues and the amendments and
03:42:28p 10 elections that matter to us the most. I
03:42:31p 11 think we've all made great sacrifices to
03:42:34p 12 be here. How many people have given up
03:42:36p 13 something to come to this meeting? To
03:42:38p 14 come in early to make this meeting?
03:42:39p 15 Okay. Bruce talked about, you know,
03:42:43p 16 wouldn't it be a shame if we all went to
03:42:47p 17 Washington, D.C., to vote. Well, we don't
03:42:48p 18 do that because we have polling places.
03:42:49p 19 The NCRA polling place is this business
03:42:52p 20 meeting. This is where we come to debate,
03:42:55p 21 this is where we come to offer viewpoints
03:42:56p 22 and to discuss things as members with one
03:42:57p 23 another, before we decide how to vote. I
03:43:00p 24 don't think we can do that by retreating
90
03:43:03p 1 into a virtual world.
2
03:43:06p 3 We don't want to become another WOW, the
03:43:08p 4 World of Warcraft where people spend
03:43:11p 5 chunks of their life doing inane and
03:43:13p 6 mindless, worthless things. I don't think
03:43:17p 7 we have -- we're not being imparting any
03:43:21p 8 value by offering that to our membership
03:43:22p 9 here. If anything, we should make it more
03:43:27p 10 possible to attend these meetings, to
03:43:29p 11 bring more people to these conventions,
03:43:31p 12 because this is where things happen. This
03:43:33p 13 is where the work gets done. And, quite
03:43:36p 14 frankly, we have a dropping member of
03:43:39p 15 voting -- eligible voting members. The
03:43:40p 16 people who are here are part of a growing
03:43:44p 17 percentage, maybe not a growing number,
03:43:46p 18 but a growing percentage of the
03:43:49p 19 representatives who show up to make the
03:43:50p 20 decisions.
21
03:43:56p 22 It's fear about online voting? I don't
03:43:57p 23 have any fear about it. We can buy as
03:43:59p 24 many security as we want to make this
91
03:44:02p 1 process work any way we want it to. But,
03:44:04p 2 you know, everybody wanting to vote?
03:44:06p 3 Quite frankly, we all want a lot of
03:44:09p 4 things. I want to not to have to come
03:44:12p 5 here to debate issues and, you know, just
03:44:14p 6 simply cast a ballot. But you can't do
03:44:19p 7 that because that's not responsible
03:44:20p 8 governance. And I think that we have to
03:44:22p 9 look at what's responsible and what's
03:44:24p 10 fair, and I think that, you know, giving
03:44:26p 11 everybody the opportunity to vote, yes,
03:44:31p 12 they have that opportunity right now.
03:44:32p 13 They choose not to exercise it by coming
03:44:35p 14 these things meetings. Thank you.
03:44:42p 15 (Applause.)
16
03:44:42p 17 PARKER: Ms. George.
18
03:44:43p 19 SPEAKER: Kimi George, Oklahoma City,
03:44:47p 20 Oklahoma. I'm going to talk about being
03:44:49p 21 on the membership committee for ten years
03:44:51p 22 and calling over 5,000 members. Perhaps
03:44:54p 23 some of you in this room, although I would
03:44:55p 24 assume if you can afford to come to this
92
03:44:57p 1 convention, that you do pay your dues on
03:44:59p 2 time. I have talked to many, many
03:45:03p 3 members, and I've heard some very, very
03:45:05p 4 sad stories of how they've lost their job,
03:45:08p 5 how they're off work, they took one depo
03:45:11p 6 in 60 days, they've had a baby,
03:45:15p 7 congratulations, they got married, they
03:45:16p 8 moved to a state where there's 8,000 court
03:45:19p 9 reporters, there's no work, and there's
03:45:21p 10 other members of the membership committee
03:45:22p 11 here today, and I think they would agree
03:45:25p 12 with me that not everybody is able to come
03:45:28p 13 to such a eloquent event as the
03:45:30p 14 convention. They all want to know what
03:45:34p 15 has NCRA done for them.
16
03:45:37p 17 I think with online voting, that they
03:45:40p 18 would feel like they were a part, that
03:45:44p 19 they were not paying their 200-plus
03:45:46p 20 dollars a year for a magazine, and that's
03:45:49p 21 what they say, why should I pay 200 and
03:45:52p 22 something dollars for a magazine. They
03:45:54p 23 would feel more a part of this
03:45:57p 24 organization if they felt like they had
93
03:45:59p 1 their one vote that they paid their $280
03:46:02p 2 for.
3
03:46:05p 4 Membership has gone down every year that
03:46:07p 5 I've been on that committee. We all
03:46:10p 6 understand that if we could double the
03:46:13p 7 members in this room from 17 to 34,000, we
03:46:17p 8 wouldn't be paying $280 a year. So I'm
03:46:22p 9 for it. I think it's the technological
03:46:25p 10 thing to do. We are leaders of the
03:46:28p 11 technology, and let's give the little guy
03:46:29p 12 his one vote. Thank you. (Applause.)
13
03:46:37p 14 SPEAKER: Lillian Freiler, Pennsylvania, I
03:46:42p 15 call the question.
16
03:46:52p 17 PARKER: Is there a second? Any
03:47:00p 18 discussion on calling the question?
03:47:01p 19 There's no discussion. Excuse me --
20
03:47:03p 21 WAGA: Yes, I have discussion on calling
03:47:05p 22 the question.
23
03:47:06p 24 PARKER: There's no discussion on calling
94
03:47:07p 1 the question, Mr. Waga. I apologize. I
03:47:09p 2 misspoke.
3
03:47:11p 4 WAGA: Well, I didn't misspeak.
5
03:47:12p 6 PARKER: I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.
03:47:16p 7 Are you ready for the question? The
03:47:18p 8 question is on calling the question, all
03:47:20p 9 those in favor of calling the question,
03:47:23p 10 hold up your pink cards. Thank you.
11
03:47:27p 12 Those opposed?
13
03:47:41p 14 Thank you very much. The motion carries.
03:47:42p 15 The question has been called. We'll now
03:47:45p 16 go immediately to the vote. The vote will
03:47:51p 17 be by ballot. Are you ready for the
03:47:53p 18 question?
19
03:48:01p 20 Would the elections committee please step
03:48:02p 21 forward, please?
22
03:48:22p 23 WAGA: Excuse me, Madam President.
24
95
03:48:24p 1 PARKER: Yes?
2
03:48:25p 3 WAGA: I don't know if I need to remind
03:48:26p 4 everyone that we have agreed to go to a
03:48:28p 5 secret ballot and --
6
03:48:31p 7 PARKER: We're preparing the ballots right
03:48:31p 8 now, and that's why I brought the
03:48:33p 9 elections committee up so we can get
03:48:40p 10 secret ballots for you.
11
03:48:49p 12 If you'd hold up your pink card so we know
03:48:52p 13 you're an eligible voter when we begin to
03:48:54p 14 distribute. You don't have to hold them
03:48:55p 15 up just yet.
16
03:49:00p 17 Okay, now, hold up your pink cards,
03:49:02p 18 please, so we may distribute the ballot
03:49:06p 19 for you.
20
03:49:42p 21 What we are using for this election, is
03:49:44p 22 the election committee that was appointed
03:49:45p 23 for the contested election. When you get
03:49:51p 24 your ballots, please mark it and fold it
96
03:49:53p 1 one time, and the election tellers will
03:49:56p 2 pick them up.
3
03:50:23p 4 When you've finished marking your ballot
03:50:25p 5 and folding it once, please hold it up so
03:50:27p 6 the tellers can come back and pick them
03:50:29p 7 up, please.
8
03:51:10p 9 Pete? They don't have ballots yet. We're
03:51:24p 10 just waiting on the elections committee to
03:51:26p 11 hand you a ballot. If you have not yet
03:51:30p 12 received a ballot, please keep your pink
03:51:32p 13 cards visible.
14
03:52:20p 15 Hand your pink ballot in with your green
03:52:22p 16 ballot. Keep the pink ballot up until
03:52:30p 17 we've handed you a green ballot.
18
03:52:41p 19 If we could keep the noise level to a low
03:52:44p 20 din in here while we're getting the
03:52:46p 21 ballots distributed, please. Thank you
03:52:47p 22 very much.
23
03:53:25p 24 If you have not yet received a green
97
03:53:26p 1 ballot, keep holding your pink cards up,
03:53:30p 2 if you have not yet received your green
03:53:31p 3 ballot. Please be patient. Bear with us,
03:53:33p 4 folks.
5
03:56:03p 6 After you voted, we need to verify you're
03:56:08p 7 an eligible voter so that we need to see
03:56:11p 8 your pink card as well as your green
03:56:13p 9 ballot when we come by to get your ballot,
03:56:16p 10 please.
11
03:56:30p 12 Please raise your pink card only if you
03:56:33p 13 have not yet received a ballot. Anyone
03:56:36p 14 not received a ballot yet?
15
03:57:21p 16 If you have not yet received a green
03:57:24p 17 ballot, please hold up your pink cards.
03:57:27p 18 Anyone not yet received a ballot?
19
03:57:51p 20 Okay, does everyone have their green
03:57:53p 21 ballots? A couple back at the back.
03:58:00p 22 Anyone not have a green ballot? Please,
03:58:03p 23 everyone. Please. Let's come to order,
03:58:12p 24 please. Anyone not have a green ballot,
98
03:58:16p 1 please raise your pink card. Okay,
03:58:19p 2 Paulita, someone in the -- one of the
03:58:22p 3 election committee members -- do you have
03:58:24p 4 a ballot? Everyone? Okay.
5
03:58:27p 6 We're now going to collect your green
03:58:29p 7 ballots. The election committee will now
03:58:34p 8 collect the green ballots.
9
03:59:50p 10 Hold up ballots that have not yet been
03:59:52p 11 collected. Please remain quiet until all
03:59:57p 12 the ballots have been collected. Thank
03:59:59p 13 you so much.
14
04:00:51p 15 Please, everyone, maintain quiet until all
04:00:54p 16 ballots have been collected.
17
04:02:23p 18 Please if you have not had your ballot
04:02:25p 19 collected, please lift it in the air so
04:02:27p 20 the tellers can see it.
21
04:02:39p 22 Anyone else who has not yet had their
04:02:40p 23 ballot collected?
24
99
04:02:52p 1 Up here, Mr. Benowitz. Anyone else who
04:02:56p 2 has not yet had their ballot collected?
04:03:02p 3 Thank you. The tellers will now go out to
04:03:08p 4 tally the votes.
5
04:03:15p 6 It's come to my attention that watching us
04:03:17p 7 online today is Sue Wolk, Senior Director
04:03:23p 8 of Meetings and Conventions. And if we
04:03:24p 9 could observe a moment of silence. Sue
04:03:27p 10 lost her husband on Monday of this week
04:03:31p 11 and had to fly home.
12
04:03:37p 13 Thank you very much. We love you, Sue.
14
04:03:40p 15 It gives me great pleasure to ask
04:03:42p 16 Executive Director and Chief Executive
04:03:43p 17 Officer Mark Golden to give us his annual
04:03:46p 18 message. (Applause.)
19
04:03:55p 20 GOLDEN: Thank you, Reesa, for choking me
04:03:59p 21 up right before I have to speak. There is
04:04:01p 22 really nothing like a good debate to get
04:04:04p 23 the adrenaline flowing and fill a little
04:04:06p 24 time while we wait for the results. I
100
04:04:08p 1 will do my best to now sedate you back
04:04:11p 2 into a near catatonic state.
3
04:04:20p 4 Seriously, debate is a healthy thing. I
04:04:21p 5 would even argue a vital thing for any
04:04:23p 6 organization. G. K. Chester son is a
04:04:27p 7 writer whom I greatly, greatly admire, and
04:04:30p 8 he was in his time a very famous debater.
04:04:34p 9 He engaged in fierce debates on religion,
04:04:37p 10 politics, economics, and culture with the
04:04:40p 11 leading thinkers of his age, in a period
04:04:43p 12 of time when listening to a -- such a
04:04:46p 13 philosophical debate on the radio was as
04:04:48p 14 common and popular form of entertainment
04:04:50p 15 as television reality shows are today.
16
04:04:54p 17 Chesterton was ferocious, uncompromising,
04:04:58p 18 and vigorous in arguing his point of view,
04:05:01p 19 as vigorous an advocate as anyone you
04:05:04p 20 could imagine. He was also famously
04:05:07p 21 beloved, beloved even by, I could almost
04:05:10p 22 say, especially by the very people he
04:05:13p 23 disagreed with most intensely.
24
101
04:05:17p 1 He recognized that, within civil society,
04:05:19p 2 differences of opinion do not stem from
04:05:21p 3 differences in value. Even when one
04:05:25p 4 disagreed on points of fundamental
04:05:27p 5 importance, the goodwill and integrity of
04:05:30p 6 the opponent in a debate was simply to be
04:05:33p 7 assumed, and when the debate was ended,
04:05:35p 8 win or lose, Chesterton would be the first
04:05:37p 9 to clap his adversary on the back,
04:05:40p 10 congratulate him on the good points of his
04:05:41p 11 argument, and treat him to the first round
04:05:43p 12 at the bar.
13
04:05:46p 14 So let's see what I can now do to expedite
04:05:48p 15 this business and move all of the tired
04:05:51p 16 debaters to the bar without further delay.
17
04:05:54p 18 First is my privilege and honor to make a
04:05:56p 19 presentation that has become something of
04:05:58p 20 an NCRA tradition, which I of course
04:06:02p 21 walked up without. Advocacy on behalf of
04:06:09p 22 the profession is one of the central
04:06:13p 23 objectives in the association's strategic
04:06:14p 24 plan.
102
1
04:06:17p 2 NCRA has done a lot in the last year and
04:06:19p 3 can be justifiably proud of its advocacy
04:06:22p 4 accomplishments on issues like federal
04:06:24p 5 funding for court reporting schools,
04:06:28p 6 promoting realtime steno against the
04:06:30p 7 expanded use of electronic recording, jobs
04:06:33p 8 protection, court security, and e-filing
04:06:36p 9 and transcript sales.
10
04:06:39p 11 We could not have accomplished any of
04:06:41p 12 those objectives without the energy and
04:06:43p 13 time put behind our program by our
04:06:46p 14 members. It is not glamorous work. It
04:06:50p 15 doesn't give you immediate gratification.
04:06:53p 16 The payoff always comes weeks or months,
04:06:55p 17 sometimes even years after you put the
04:06:57p 18 effort in.
19
04:06:59p 20 So I would like to ask all of you in the
04:07:01p 21 audience who made even one phone call or
04:07:03p 22 wrote one letter, who made one visit to a
04:07:08p 23 legislator, state or federal, who wrote a
04:07:09p 24 check to the political action committee,
103
04:07:12p 1 or worked on a committee or task force to
04:07:14p 2 try and craft and implement rules that
04:07:17p 3 benefit the profession, any of you who
04:07:19p 4 gave any of your time in any way this past
04:07:22p 5 year, advocating on behalf of the
04:07:24p 6 profession, if you'd please rise. And all
04:07:31p 7 of us need to give you a big round of
04:07:33p 8 applause and thank you. (Applause.).
9
04:07:39p 10 You may not see any direct connection
04:07:41p 11 between your one small effort and the more
04:07:45p 12 than $2 million in funding for realtime
04:07:47p 13 education that is currently pending before
04:07:49p 14 the U.S. congress, or the new
04:07:51p 15 certification legislation that was passed
04:07:53p 16 in several states this year, or the
04:07:56p 17 countless bad ideas that, but for your
04:08:00p 18 intervention, would have been passed into
04:08:02p 19 law. None of these things would have
04:08:03p 20 happened without you.
21
04:08:05p 22 And there is no better example of the
04:08:08p 23 passionate and effective advocate than our
04:08:11p 24 outgoing president, Reesa Parker. So on
104
04:08:15p 1 behalf of a grateful profession, and in
04:08:17p 2 recognition of your tireless efforts
04:08:19p 3 advocating on its behalf it's my pleasure
04:08:21p 4 to present you, Reesa, with this flag
04:08:23p 5 which was flown in your honor over the
04:08:26p 6 United States capitol by congressman Jeb
04:08:30p 7 Hensarling. (Applause.) Since NCRA last
04:08:43p 8 convened its Annual Business Meeting,
04:08:45p 9 there has been an extraordinarily high
04:08:46p 10 level of activity to be reported on. On
04:08:48p 11 the Hill, we continue to push for our
04:08:51p 12 authorization bill, which will create a
04:08:53p 13 steady source of funding for court
04:08:55p 14 reporting schools to invest in improving
04:08:58p 15 their recruitment and training efforts.
04:09:00p 16 In a parallel effort, we have been working
04:09:03p 17 with schools to secure direct grants, and
04:09:05p 18 as I mentioned, pending appropriations
04:09:07p 19 bill includes nearly $2 million in said
04:09:11p 20 funds for realtime education.
21
04:09:13p 22 Language has been added to the Court
04:09:14p 23 Security Improvement Act now being
04:09:17p 24 considered by both the House and Senate to
105
04:09:19p 1 ensure that court reporters get the same
04:09:21p 2 level of protection as judges and other
04:09:23p 3 officers of the court.
4
04:09:25p 5 And we continue to work in a broad
04:09:27p 6 coalition of industry groups pushing for
04:09:30p 7 Small Business Health Plan legislation
04:09:33p 8 which, if passed, would open the doors to
04:09:35p 9 affordable health care coverage for small
04:09:38p 10 firms and to the individual self-employed
04:09:41p 11 reporter.
12
04:09:42p 13 In the past several months, we have
04:09:43p 14 shifted tactics in our public relations
04:09:45p 15 efforts, going to a more targeted
04:09:49p 16 approach, focusing initially on five
04:09:52p 17 geographic regions in which there are
04:09:55p 18 court reporting schools. In our first
04:09:57p 19 month taking this approach, our stories on
04:10:00p 20 court reporting as a career have been
04:10:02p 21 picked up by a number of national print
04:10:04p 22 and online publications, including Forbes,
04:10:07p 23 AOL Money News, AOL news, biz Journals,
04:10:14p 24 MarketWatch, Lawyers USA, and Yahoo
106
04:10:16p 1 Politics, as well as local media outlets
04:10:18p 2 such as the Los Angeles times and the
04:10:20p 3 Washington Business Journal, and radio and
04:10:22p 4 television outlets in San Francisco and
04:10:25p 5 Dallas.
6
04:10:28p 7 Our years of building relationships with
04:10:31p 8 external groups like the American Judges
04:10:33p 9 Association and the National Association
04:10:34p 10 of Court Managers paid off when one of the
04:10:38p 11 law journals picked up our story and
04:10:40p 12 contacted The American Judges
04:10:43p 13 Association's current president, judge
04:10:45p 14 Steve Leben who spoke strongly to the
04:10:47p 15 importance of the court reporter in the
04:10:49p 16 courtroom.
17
04:10:51p 18 NCRA is in the past year begun the process
04:10:54p 19 of taking our certification testing
04:10:55p 20 program into the twenty-first century.
04:10:59p 21 Starting this fall, candidates will have
04:11:01p 22 double the number of testing opportunities
04:11:02p 23 each year and nearly five times the number
04:11:07p 24 of testing locations available to them for
107
04:11:10p 1 taking Written Knowledge Tests. We have
04:11:12p 2 engaged Pearson VUE, one of the leading
04:11:14p 3 testing agencies in the country, in order
04:11:16p 4 to make written knowledge testing valuable
04:11:18p 5 in their more than 200-plus secure testing
04:11:23p 6 facilitates throughout the country.
7
04:11:24p 8 And we're not stopping there. An online
04:11:27p 9 testing task force -- say that fast, three
04:11:30p 10 times -- online testing task force -- is
04:11:36p 11 exploring a migration path to allow us to
04:11:38p 12 offer at some point in the future both
04:11:39p 13 written and skills testing at Pearson VUE
04:11:42p 14 sites.
15
04:11:44p 16 Last year, we increased our level of
04:11:46p 17 interaction with schools dramatically,
04:11:48p 18 creating a membership category that allows
04:11:51p 19 schools that have not yet achieved NCRA
04:11:54p 20 certified status, formerly called Approved
04:11:56p 21 status, to participate and benefit from
04:11:59p 22 our school support efforts. In the first
04:12:02p 23 year, 12 schools have been brought into
04:12:05p 24 the NCRA family as Participating Programs.
108
1
04:12:08p 2 Following through on the needs identified
04:12:09p 3 by the Reporter Education Commission, we
04:12:12p 4 created a new staff department and doubled
04:12:14p 5 the number of staff members dedicated to
04:12:17p 6 school outreach and support. We have put
04:12:20p 7 that staff on the road, working one on
04:12:22p 8 one, on site with court reporting schools
04:12:26p 9 to identify areas of need and ways to be
04:12:28p 10 of support. Just since December, staff
04:12:32p 11 has worked on site with 21 different
04:12:35p 12 schools across the country. That includes
04:12:37p 13 certified programs, participating
04:12:38p 14 programs, schools we are trying to recruit
04:12:41p 15 into membership, and schools that aren't
04:12:43p 16 even open for business yet.
17
04:12:46p 18 NCRA's electronic recording task force has
04:12:49p 19 also been working overtime. In this past
04:12:51p 20 year we retained a marketing consultant to
04:12:54p 21 develop messages and strategies that can
04:12:57p 22 be used to market the live court reporter
04:12:58p 23 to court systems considering a switch to
04:13:02p 24 ER. We have conducted two regional ER
109
04:13:06p 1 workshops to provide training to members
04:13:08p 2 so that they can advocate for the reporter
04:13:11p 3 against ER effectively at the local
04:13:13p 4 level. These workshops are designed to
04:13:16p 5 train the trainer, that is, to build a
04:13:20p 6 network of trained and competent court
04:13:22p 7 reporting advocates in the field who can
04:13:24p 8 extend the network even further by
04:13:26p 9 training additional court reporting
04:13:27p 10 advocates at the local level.
11
04:13:31p 12 The board has established a task force to
04:13:33p 13 develop strategeries to both protect the
04:13:35p 14 profession from unregulated, and
04:13:38p 15 uncompensated, distribution of transcripts
04:13:40p 16 by online transcript repositories, as well
04:13:43p 17 as exploring opportunities for reporters
04:13:45p 18 to sell transcripts, and get paid for
04:13:48p 19 them, through such entities.
20
04:13:52p 21 And this is just the tip of the iceberg in
04:13:54p 22 terms of activities I might report on.
23
04:13:58p 24 I do think NCRA does a pretty good job of
110
04:14:00p 1 keeping the membership informed of
04:14:01p 2 activities like these through our regular
04:14:04p 3 reporting in print and electronic form,
04:14:07p 4 JCR, NewsFlash, specialty Community of
04:14:10p 5 Interest newsletters, on the Web site, and
04:14:12p 6 the online Forum. If we haven't been
04:14:15p 7 reaching you, it is honestly not because
04:14:17p 8 we haven't tried.
9
04:14:19p 10 But there is one event too recent to have
04:14:22p 11 been extensively reported on anywhere
04:14:23p 12 else, so I'd like to end my report today
04:14:25p 13 by briefing you a little bit on it.
04:14:27p 14 Namely, the just-concluded Intersteno
04:14:29p 15 World Congress in Prague in the Czech
04:14:32p 16 Republic. As you may be aware, Intersteno
04:14:36p 17 is a federation of reporting associations
04:14:37p 18 from around the world. NCRA is the
04:14:41p 19 national group within Intersteno,
04:14:44p 20 representing the United States.
21
04:14:46p 22 Every other year, Intersteno holds a World
04:14:48p 23 Congress. This year was one of those
04:14:50p 24 summers. And the 46th Intersteno World
111
04:14:53p 1 Congress ended just two weeks ago today.
04:14:57p 2 The congress brought attendees from
04:14:59p 3 throughout Europe and the world to the
04:15:03p 4 luxurious campus of the University of
04:15:05p 5 Agriculture in the Prague suburb of
04:15:08p 6 Suchdol in the Czech Republic.
7
04:15:11p 8 It was my honor to plan, organize, and
04:15:13p 9 conduct the educational programs that were
04:15:16p 10 held in Prague, and that was quite an
04:15:17p 11 experience. Many of you I know have
04:15:19p 12 organized and offered seminars and
04:15:22p 13 conventions.
14
04:15:23p 15 Imagine having to manage 18 speakers
04:15:27p 16 packed into nine and a half hours of
04:15:29p 17 presentations that were delivered in
04:15:32p 18 Czech, Hungarian, Chinese, German, and
04:15:35p 19 English. Followed by questions from the
04:15:37p 20 audience in those languages, plus French,
04:15:41p 21 Italian, Spanish, and Japanese. The
04:15:45p 22 lectures addressed developments and
04:15:47p 23 practices in capturing and manipulating
04:15:48p 24 text using the pen, computer, steno, voice
112
04:15:53p 1 recognition, and recording. NCRA's own
04:15:56p 2 soon to be president-elect Karen Yates
04:15:58p 3 offered a very well received presentation
04:16:00p 4 on realtime applications and how the
04:16:03p 5 technology is used here in the United
04:16:06p 6 States. One particularly interesting
04:16:08p 7 presentation unveiled a German scientist's
04:16:10p 8 concept for a new text entry device, which
04:16:13p 9 he called "the weasel," which would
04:16:19p 10 theoretically allow typing at several
04:16:21p 11 hundred characters per minute using just
04:16:23p 12 one hand.
13
04:16:25p 14 But what Intersteno is really all about is
04:16:27p 15 its contests. It has contests in
04:16:29p 16 typewriting, in word processing, in text
04:16:33p 17 capturing -- by pen, by voice, and by
04:16:37p 18 steno machine -- in realtime, in minutes
04:16:40p 19 and summary taking, in text correction,
04:16:42p 20 and a number of more where I still can't
04:16:44p 21 quite figure out what they're testing. In
04:16:48p 22 this regard, I would be remiss if I did
04:16:50p 23 not acknowledge the tireless efforts of
04:16:55p 24 NCRA member Virgine Biggers who has for
113
04:16:57p 1 many years carried on the unheralded and
04:16:59p 2 largely thankless task of organizing and
04:17:01p 3 conducting the contests for the English
04:17:04p 4 language competitors. Now, at Intersteno,
04:17:08p 5 competitors enter each of these contests
04:17:11p 6 in three divisions separated by age
04:17:13p 7 -- students under 17, juniors 17 to 20,
04:17:16p 8 and seniors -- seniors. (Laughter.) The
04:17:22p 9 youngest competitor was 11.
10
04:17:26p 11 Intersteno contests are quite different
04:17:27p 12 from the speed and realtime contests you
04:17:29p 13 are probably familiar with here at the
04:17:31p 14 NCRA convention and in your own states.
04:17:34p 15 They have a scoring method which is much
04:17:37p 16 more subjective -- they would argue,
04:17:42p 17 artistic -- than the one we use. An error
04:17:46p 18 isn't necessarily an error. Errors are
04:17:48p 19 weighted. An error that changes the
04:17:50p 20 meaning of the text -- such as omitting
04:17:53p 21 the word "not" from a sentence -- is
04:17:56p 22 penalized more heavily than an error that
04:17:58p 23 violates the verbatim quality of the
04:18:01p 24 transcription, but still conveys the
114
04:18:05p 1 proper meaning. I am very pleased to
04:18:09p 2 report that NCRA's own Laura Brewer won
04:18:11p 3 the shorthand competition. (Applause.)
04:18:33p 4 (Standing ovation.)
5
04:18:37p 6 And of course second and third places were
04:18:41p 7 won by, with apologizes to mark, Fang Wang
04:18:44p 8 of China and Fani Fadma Oubella of
04:18:48p 9 France. Laura finished just out of the
04:18:57p 10 medals in the realtime competition,
04:19:00p 11 placing fourth behind, again with
04:19:02p 12 apologies, Francesca Cabiati of Italy in
04:19:05p 13 first, and Yan Liu and again Fang Wang,
04:19:11p 14 both of China.
15
04:19:14p 16 Certainly one of the most heartwarming
04:19:16p 17 moments of the entire congress was at the
04:19:18p 18 awards ceremony, when the winner was
04:19:22p 19 announced in the junior division, the same
04:19:24p 20 competitor finishing and capturing both
04:19:27p 21 machine shorthand and realtime competition
04:19:30p 22 for her division. Both of those laurels
04:19:33p 23 were won by Miriam Martin Garcia of
04:19:35p 24 Spain. She is not only a highly competent
115
04:19:39p 1 and professional writer, she is a lovely,
04:19:42p 2 poised, and charming young woman who
04:19:45p 3 happens to be totally blind.
4
04:19:48p 5 Also worthy of note, NCRA's good friend
04:19:51p 6 Dr. Boris Neubauer of Germany again
04:19:54p 7 captured the world title for multilingual
04:19:58p 8 transcription, having successfully taken
04:20:00p 9 three minutes of dictation and accurately
04:20:03p 10 transcribed in, get this, his native
04:20:07p 11 German plus 16 additional languages:
04:20:16p 12 Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English,
04:20:16p 13 Esperanto, Finnish, French, Interlingua,
04:20:22p 14 Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian,
04:20:22p 15 Spanish, Slovak, and Swedish. And he
04:20:31p 16 speaks better English than I do.
17
04:20:35p 18 Attending an Intersteno meeting is a
04:20:37p 19 fascinating experience. Seeing how very
04:20:40p 20 different the reporting profession is in
04:20:42p 21 other lands is a very useful thing. Now,
04:20:46p 22 it isn't a question of which country is
04:20:48p 23 more advanced or which country is "better"
04:20:52p 24 than another, whatever that might mean.
116
04:20:54p 1 But just looking at the profession from a
04:20:57p 2 different perspective, which can help
04:20:59p 3 shake you free of preconceived notions,
04:21:02p 4 the blinders that cause you to see only
04:21:04p 5 what you are expecting to see, rather than
04:21:06p 6 what is actually going on with steno,
04:21:09p 7 realtime, and other technologies in other
04:21:11p 8 places. Sometimes we can't imagine doing
04:21:15p 9 things any differently than the way we are
04:21:17p 10 currently doing them because that's the
04:21:19p 11 way we have always done them. Seeing how
04:21:22p 12 this same skill has developed and is being
04:21:26p 13 used in other societies and cultures shows
04:21:29p 14 you how different things could be.
15
04:21:33p 16 Now, don't get me wrong. I would not
04:21:35p 17 trade the privilege of living in the good
04:21:37p 18 old U.S. of A. for anything in the world,
04:21:39p 19 but we still could learn a thing or two
04:21:42p 20 from the parliamentary reporters in
04:21:44p 21 Germany and Italy, from the steno
04:21:47p 22 education system in China, and from how
04:21:50p 23 keyboards and shorthand skills are being
04:21:52p 24 incorporated into general high school
117
04:21:54p 1 education in Hungary and into the training
04:22:00p 2 of the unemployed in the Czech Republic.
04:22:01p 3 The next Intersteno World Congress will be
04:22:03p 4 held in 2009 in the somewhat more
04:22:06p 5 luxurious Olympic Village facilities in
04:22:10p 6 Beijing, China. It would be worth
04:22:12p 7 considering saving up those frequent flier
04:22:15p 8 miles now for the opportunity to be
04:22:16p 9 present.
10
04:22:18p 11 You have further business to conduct this
04:22:21p 12 afternoon, so let me end where I began, by
04:22:23p 13 saying thank you to every member who took
04:22:25p 14 it upon themselves to contribute more to
04:22:27p 15 the association than just their dues.
04:22:30p 16 Don't get me wrong, we need your dues, and
04:22:33p 17 thank you for continuing to pay them, but
04:22:37p 18 thank you even more to those who gave
04:22:38p 19 something of themselves by serving on a
04:22:41p 20 committee or task force, by sharing their
04:22:43p 21 expertise and knowledge in a seminar, by
04:22:46p 22 mentoring a student, or a new professional
04:22:50p 23 who stepped in to give a hand to a fellow
04:22:53p 24 reporter in time of need, come on
118
04:22:54p 1 committed themselves to professional
04:22:55p 2 development, not because they needed "the
04:22:59p 3 points" but because they recognized their
04:23:01p 4 obligation to remain at the top of their
04:23:03p 5 game in an ever changing world, or simply
04:23:07p 6 to all of you who went to work each day
04:23:10p 7 and conducted yourselves in a manner that
04:23:12p 8 gives the most compelling testimony
04:23:14p 9 possible to the high standards of
04:23:16p 10 excellence of the professional court
04:23:18p 11 reporter, captioner, or CART provider.
12
04:23:21p 13 It is to you that any credit for NCRA's
04:23:23p 14 success should go. And it would be
04:23:26p 15 impossible for those in formal positions
04:23:28p 16 of leadership to get anything done without
04:23:29p 17 you.
18
04:23:33p 19 It has been my great personal and honor
04:23:37p 20 and privilege to be able to serve as your
04:23:40p 21 Executive Director and Chief Executive
04:23:41p 22 Officer this past year. I look forward
04:23:48p 23 hopefully to many more. So very humbly
04:23:50p 24 and sincerely I want to thank you all of
119
04:23:52p 1 you for your contributions to NCRA. Thank
04:23:54p 2 you, and God bless. (Applause.)
3
04:24:12p 4 PARKER: Thank you very much, Mark. Now
04:24:13p 5 I'd ask Merilyn Sanchez to come up to
04:24:17p 6 present the nominating committee report
04:24:18p 7 and just as an aside, Merilyn led a
04:24:21p 8 contingent of court reporters last month
04:24:22p 9 to China, and one of the questions they
04:24:24p 10 asked her is, why are all of you so old?
04:24:30p 11 (Laughter.) Mr. Prout?
12
04:24:37p 13 SPEAKER: John Prout, New Jersey. Before
04:24:40p 14 the report of the nominating committee is
04:24:42p 15 heard, I rise to call into question the
04:24:44p 16 constitutionality of the committee and
04:24:46p 17 therefore object to this body even
04:24:47p 18 receiving a report from a committee not
04:24:49p 19 duly constituted. The first of my
04:24:53p 20 objections is as follows. Article 3,
04:24:56p 21 section 1(d) of our Constitution and
04:24:59p 22 Bylaws states, quote, at the first meeting
04:25:01p 23 of the board of directors following the
04:25:02p 24 close of the annual convention, the
120
04:25:04p 1 president shall appoint, with the advice
04:25:06p 2 and consent of the board of directors, the
04:25:07p 3 members of the nominating committee in
04:25:10p 4 addition to alternates to serve in the
04:25:14p 5 event of answers of committee members.
04:25:16p 6 Notices of such appointments shall be made
04:25:17p 7 to the members as soon thereafter as
04:25:19p 8 practicable, close quote. As soon
04:25:23p 9 thereafter as practicable certainly would
04:25:24p 10 be the next issue of the JCR, which came
04:25:26p 11 out in October. And I would note that
04:25:29p 12 nominations must be made by mid-November.
04:25:32p 13 At last year's meeting I commented that I
04:25:34p 14 thought the board should publish the names
04:25:36p 15 of the committee members without
04:25:37p 16 realizing, it is a requirement. And after
04:25:39p 17 receiving the JCR and realizing that my
04:25:42p 18 comment was not acted on, I reviewed the
04:25:45p 19 Constitution and Bylaws, I found that what
04:25:47p 20 I thought was a good idea was actually a
04:25:48p 21 requirement.
22
04:25:50p 23 I then contacted the executive committee
04:25:53p 24 and the names were published in the
121
04:25:54p 1 January edition, clearly not meeting the
04:25:57p 2 required, quote, "as soon thereafter as
04:25:59p 3 practicable," close quote, especially when
04:26:02p 4 nominations had to be made by
04:26:03p 5 mid-November.
6
04:26:05p 7 My second objection to the
04:26:07p 8 constitutionality of the committee also
04:26:09p 9 brought to the attention of the executive
04:26:11p 10 committee last December when it could have
04:26:14p 11 been corrected arises from the appointment
04:26:15p 12 of a retired lifetime member to the
04:26:17p 13 committee. In our Constitution and
04:26:19p 14 Bylaws, Article 3, membership, Section 2,
04:26:25p 15 classes of members, sets forth six
04:26:26p 16 separate classes of membership, one being
04:26:29p 17 registered members, and another class
04:26:31p 18 being retired lifetime members. Clearly
04:26:34p 19 you cannot be in more than one class. I
04:26:38p 20 quote from our Constitution and Bylaws.
21
04:26:41p 22 Article 3, nomination and election of
04:26:44p 23 officers and directors, Section 1,
04:26:47p 24 qualifications of nominating committee.
122
04:26:50p 1 A. A nominating committee for the
04:26:52p 2 nomination of officers and directors of
04:26:54p 3 the association shall be composed of four
04:26:58p 4 registered members, close quote, in
04:27:00p 5 initial caps, referring to the class of
04:27:02p 6 member, quote, "and the Immediate Past
04:27:04p 7 President," close quote. And section B
04:27:09p 8 states, quote, "Each of the four
04:27:11p 9 registered members," close quote, again
04:27:13p 10 referring to the class of member, quote,
04:27:16p 11 "shall have at least," close quote, and it
04:27:18p 12 goes on to detail experience requirements.
13
04:27:20p 14 Article 3, membership, Section 9,
04:27:23p 15 privileges, in section A states, "All
04:27:27p 16 classes" Quote, "all classes of members
04:27:30p 17 shall enjoy the plives of the association
04:27:34p 18 except where certain privileges are
04:27:35p 19 specifically restricted to a specific
04:27:37p 20 class of member in this Constitution and
04:27:41p 21 Bylaws, close quote. Now, that clearly
04:27:44p 22 does not leave any room for doubt. I
04:27:46p 23 submit the Constitution and Bylaws
04:27:47p 24 restricts service on the nominating
123
04:27:48p 1 committee to a specific class of
04:27:50p 2 membership, that of registered member.
04:27:54p 3 That said, you cannot be in more than one
04:27:58p 4 class of membership. Therefore I submit
04:28:00p 5 appointing a member from anything other
04:28:02p 6 than a class of registered member violates
04:28:05p 7 the constitution and by laws as does the
04:28:07p 8 failure to publish the names of the
04:28:08p 9 committee members and renders the
04:28:09p 10 committee null and void. And I believe
04:28:12p 11 this will necessitate accepting
04:28:14p 12 nominations for all positions from the
04:28:16p 13 floor.
14
04:28:17p 15 PARKER: Thank you, Mr. Prout. Please
04:28:19p 16 allow the chair to plane to the members
04:28:20p 17 what has occurred up to this point
04:28:22p 18 regarding the issue and then the chair
04:28:24p 19 will rule on your point of order.
20
04:28:26p 21 On December 6, 2006, John Prout informs
04:28:29p 22 the executive committee via e-mail of his
04:28:32p 23 concerns over, number one, the failure to
04:28:34p 24 publish the names of the nominating
124
04:28:36p 1 committee, and number two, eligibility of
04:28:39p 2 Bernie Goldstein, retired RPR, to serve on
04:28:42p 3 the committee.
4
04:28:43p 5 On December 13, 2006, the executive
04:28:45p 6 committee reached consensus that, number
04:28:48p 7 one, on the issue of publication of
04:28:50p 8 nominating committee names, bylaws
04:28:53p 9 requirements that, quote, notice to the
04:28:54p 10 membership shall be made to the membership
04:28:57p 11 as soon thereafter as practicable, closed
04:29:00p 12 quote, or being met, and number two, on
04:29:03p 13 the issue of Mr. Goldstein's eligibility,
04:29:05p 14 that appointment of a retired registered
04:29:07p 15 member fell within the meaning of the
04:29:09p 16 bylaw.
17
04:29:10p 18 On December 13, 2006, I informed Mr. Prout
04:29:13p 19 via e-mail of the executive committee's
04:29:16p 20 conclusions and specifically invited him
04:29:18p 21 to make an official challenge of the
04:29:20p 22 constitution or operation of the
04:29:22p 23 nominating committee if he had remaining
04:29:24p 24 concerns.
125
1
04:29:25p 2 On December 16, 2006, Mr. Prout responded
04:29:28p 3 via e-mail that, number one, he disagreed
04:29:31p 4 with the conclusions reached by the
04:29:33p 5 executive committee but, two, declined to
04:29:36p 6 pursue an official challenge.
7
04:29:38p 8 On December 18, 2006, in a conference call
04:29:41p 9 conducted with the entire board, the board
04:29:44p 10 of directors concurred with the executive
04:29:45p 11 committee's actions in the matter. The
04:29:49p 12 Chair has confered with the
04:29:50p 13 parliamentarian who indicated three things
04:29:52p 14 regarding the objection. Number one, the
04:29:54p 15 objection has been answered by the board
04:29:55p 16 of directors who, according to our bylaws,
04:29:59p 17 Article 19, Section 1(a) has the authority
04:30:02p 18 to rule on this matter. Number two,
04:30:05p 19 Roberts Rules of Order, our parliamentary
04:30:11p 20 authority indicates that the raising of an
04:30:14p 21 objection or point of order must be done
04:30:16p 22 in a timely matter. Notice and
04:30:17p 23 opportunity was given to the member
04:30:19p 24 originally raising the concern to have
126
04:30:21p 1 these matters addressed in the manner
04:30:22p 2 timely enough to have any necessary
04:30:25p 3 corrections made prior to the nominating
04:30:27p 4 committee meeting and conducting its
04:30:29p 5 business.
6
04:30:30p 7 Number three, the nominating committee
04:30:31p 8 chair has indicated that all decisions
04:30:33p 9 made by the nominating committee were
04:30:35p 10 unanimous. Therefore, even if
04:30:37p 11 Mr. Goldstein had been disqualified, the
04:30:40p 12 outcome of the committee's actions would
04:30:41p 13 not have been changed. This is Roberts on
04:30:45p 14 page 430 indicates that if a vote is cast
04:30:48p 15 by a person not qualified to vote, the
04:30:50p 16 vote of that individual should be declared
04:30:52p 17 illegal, if it is impossible for the votes
04:30:55p 18 to affect the results and that the
04:30:58p 19 election should proceed with the
04:30:59p 20 announcement of the results. Since the
04:31:01p 21 vote by the nominating committee was
04:31:03p 22 unanimous, obviously Mr. Goldstein's vote
04:31:05p 23 could not have affected the results.
04:31:08p 24 Therefore, the objection or your point of
127
04:31:10p 1 order is not well taken, and the chair
04:31:12p 2 rules that the slate presented by the
04:31:14p 3 nominating committee is legal and we will
04:31:16p 4 proceed with the report of the nominating
04:31:19p 5 committee.
6
04:31:19p 7 PROUT: Madam President, I respectfully
04:31:21p 8 disagree with the ruling that the board
04:31:24p 9 complied with the Constitution and Bylaws.
10
04:31:26p 11 PARKER: Your appeal is ruled out of
04:31:28p 12 order.
13
04:31:32p 14 Let's continue with the report from
04:31:35p 15 Merilyn Sanchez.
16
04:31:37p 17 SANCHEZ: Madam President, the nominating
04:31:39p 18 committee submits the following
04:31:40p 19 nominations. I will ask each nominee to
04:31:42p 20 stand as I call his or her name. Our
04:31:46p 21 three new directors that have been
04:31:49p 22 nominated for a three-year term are
04:31:51p 23 Shirley Hall, RDR, CRR, CBC, CRI, CPE, of
04:31:58p 24 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Judith Lehman,
128
04:32:03p 1 RMR, of Shelbyville, Illinois, and Adam
04:32:08p 2 Miller, RPR, CRI, of Middletown, Delaware.
3
04:32:12p 4 For secretary/treasurer, R. Douglas
04:32:14p 5 Friend, RMR, CRR, of Portland, Oregon.
6
04:32:19p 7 For the office of vice president, SueLynn
04:32:20p 8 Morgan, RPR, of Lawton, Oklahoma. And as
04:32:27p 9 president-elect, Karen Yates, RPR, CRR,
04:32:31p 10 CCP, CBC, of Minden, Nevada.
11
04:32:36p 12 This completes the report of the
04:32:38p 13 nominating committee. I would like to
04:32:40p 14 thank the other committee members that
04:32:42p 15 served on this committee: Yvonne Fenner,
04:32:44p 16 Bernie Goldstein, Tammie Shedd, and Bill
04:32:48p 17 Weber for their hard work. I know Bill's
04:32:51p 18 here. I haven't seen anyone else. Would
04:32:53p 19 you please stand if any other committee
04:32:55p 20 members are present? (Applause.) This
04:33:08p 21 concludes my report.
22
04:33:09p 23 PARKER: Thank you, may recall in. In
04:33:11p 24 accordance with Article 6, Section 2 of
129
04:33:14p 1 the Constitution and Bylaws, Kathy
04:33:16p 2 DiLorenzo, RDR, CRR, CBC, will
04:33:20p 3 automatically assume the office of
04:33:20p 4 president of the National Court Reporters
04:33:23p 5 Association. She will assume her duties
04:33:25p 6 at the close of this convention.
7
04:33:28p 8 It is now time for the election
04:33:30p 9 -- (Applause.)
10
04:33:39p 11 It is now time for the election of
04:33:41p 12 nominating officers and directors to the
04:33:42p 13 following offices that have not been
04:33:44p 14 contested for the respective terms set
04:33:46p 15 forth in the report of the nominating
04:33:48p 16 committee. Those nominated to the
04:33:51p 17 following offices have not been
04:33:53p 18 contested. Directors, three-year terms,
04:33:54p 19 and forgive me if I don't read all your
04:33:58p 20 credentials after your names, Shirley hall
04:34:00p 21 of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Judith Lehman
04:34:01p 22 of Shelbyville, Illinois, Adam Miller of
04:34:04p 23 Middletown, Delaware, as directors; vice
04:34:07p 24 president SueLynn Morgan of Lawton,
130
04:34:09p 1 Oklahoma, and Karen Yates as president-
04:34:11p 2 elect of Minden, Nevada.
3
04:34:16p 4 Those in favor of electing the officers
04:34:17p 5 and directors just read, please raise
04:34:20p 6 -- we're just going to do this since we've
04:34:21p 7 had some pink problems -- your yellow
04:34:25p 8 voting card.
9
04:34:31p 10 Thank you. Those opposed, please raise
04:34:33p 11 your yellow voting card. The motion is
04:34:37p 12 carried unanimously, and it is my pleasure
04:34:40p 13 to declare these officers and directors
04:34:42p 14 duly elected to the 2007-2008 NCRA board
04:34:45p 15 of directors. Congratulations!
04:34:47p 16 (Applause.) Paragraph these officers and
04:34:57p 17 directors will be formally installed at
04:34:59p 18 the premiere seminar tomorrow morning.
19
04:35:02p 20 Petitions were received prior to June 15,
04:35:07p 21 contesting the office of
04:35:08p 22 secretary/treasurer. The chair has
04:35:10p 23 appointed Harvey Schulman of Atlanta,
04:35:12p 24 Georgia, as chairman of the election
131
04:35:13p 1 committee. The members of the committee
04:35:14p 2 are Paulita Kundid of Daytona Beach,
04:35:18p 3 Florida, and Cecile Gordon of New
04:35:21p 4 Baltimore, Michigan. The responsibility
04:35:23p 5 of the election committee is to verify
04:35:24p 6 that the candidates meet the requirements
04:35:26p 7 set forth in the NCRA Constitution and
04:35:28p 8 Bylaws. To supervise and conduct the
04:35:31p 9 election, and to supervise and conduct our
04:35:35p 10 previous report, and to report the
04:35:36p 11 election results as soon as they become
04:35:38p 12 available.
13
04:35:40p 14 Chairman Schulman will now report. He's
04:35:50p 15 way in the back of the room like a movie
04:35:52p 16 star walking slowly so we can all watch
04:35:56p 17 him. Are you going to report the results
04:36:06p 18 of the vote also while you're up here?
19
04:36:23p 20 SCHULMAN: Madam President, the results of
04:36:27p 21 the voting have been tabulated. The
04:36:29p 22 number of votes cast were 316. Number of
04:36:33p 23 "yes" votes, 218; number of "no" votes,
04:36:37p 24 98.
132
1
04:36:40p 2 PARKER: Thank you, Mr. Schulman. 316
04:36:44p 3 votes cast, 218 "yes" votes, 98 "no"
04:36:52p 4 votes. There are two-thirds in the
04:36:53p 5 affirmative and the Direct Member Voting
04:36:56p 6 amendment is adopted and amended.
04:37:15p 7 (Applause.)
8
04:37:18p 9 Election chair Schulman, I don't know
04:37:20p 10 where you went. Come back. You're not
04:37:22p 11 finished. Where's your script?
12
04:37:50p 13 SPEAKER: The petitions contesting the
04:37:52p 14 office of secretary/treasurer have been
04:37:54p 15 reviewed and verified as eligible.
04:37:56p 16 Contesting the nomination of R. Douglas
04:37:59p 17 Friend, RMR, CRR of Portland, Oregon, is
04:38:02p 18 Tami Smith, RPR, CPE, of Lansing,
04:38:06p 19 Michigan.
20
04:38:07p 21 PARKER: Thank you. The candidates will
04:38:08p 22 be allowed no more than seven minutes for
04:38:10p 23 their presentation, and one supporting
04:38:12p 24 speech of no more than three minutes.
133
04:38:15p 1 Questions from the floor will not be
04:38:16p 2 allowed. We will now hear from our
04:38:19p 3 candidates and their supporting speakers.
04:38:21p 4 Each candidate shall speak no longer than
04:38:23p 5 seven minutes and the supporting speaker
04:38:25p 6 no longer than three minutes. The chair
04:38:27p 7 appoints Dave Wenhold as timekeeper. If
04:38:32p 8 you would come forward, Tami Smith and
04:38:35p 9 supporting speaker Glenda Fuller.
10
04:39:01p 11 SPEAKER: Thank you, Madam President. I'm
04:39:05p 12 so used to calling you Reesa. I had to
04:39:10p 13 think. Tami is the best qualified
04:39:12p 14 candidate to serve the reporting
04:39:14p 15 community. Tami believes that NCRA is
04:39:19p 16 your association, and believes -- and
04:39:21p 17 because of this, Tami wants to hear from
04:39:23p 18 you what you want, what your concerns are,
04:39:26p 19 how you feel about issues. Tami is the
04:39:31p 20 people's choice for the people's voice.
04:39:33p 21 Years back, Dave Wenhold came to Austin
04:39:36p 22 and give a seminar on what a difference
04:39:38p 23 one person can make. I have never
04:39:41p 24 forgotten that seminar. And when Tami
134
04:39:44p 1 asked me to speak on her behalf, that
04:39:47p 2 seminar came to mind. Tami will make a
04:39:50p 3 difference, a difference for you.
04:39:53p 4 Qualifications for Tami? I will just
04:39:57p 5 mention two. Before she became a court
04:39:59p 6 reporter, she worked in banking and
04:40:03p 7 management, and when I looked at her
04:40:05p 8 résumé from Michigan and all the
04:40:07p 9 association she has done, I think she
04:40:09p 10 started at janitor for the association,
04:40:12p 11 worked her way through president, and has
04:40:14p 12 been extremely active legislatively. So
04:40:21p 13 that, to me, speaks volumes for me. The
04:40:28p 14 issues facing NCRA and our profession, one
04:40:30p 15 of the biggest ones is electronic
04:40:32p 16 recording. It's now happening in the
04:40:34p 17 deposition suites and also in the
04:40:37p 18 courtroom. Every state is having
04:40:40p 19 legislative issues arise about this.
04:40:44p 20 Courts are embracing this technology, and
04:40:47p 21 it's inferior technology. Tami Smith
04:40:50p 22 knows of these issues and is ready to
04:40:52p 23 fight for you. Many of Tami's Michigan
04:40:56p 24 court reporting family is here to support
135
04:40:58p 1 her, and I think that was them. Her
04:41:02p 2 Michigan family is supporting her because
04:41:04p 3 they know the battles that Tami has fought
04:41:07p 4 for the reporters of Michigan. Bear, her
04:41:12p 5 husband, is here, and he is the biggest
04:41:15p 6 cheerleader for her in our profession.
04:41:18p 7 From the first time Tami served on a
04:41:20p 8 committee, I knew she was smart, has
04:41:22p 9 wonderful communication skills, is
04:41:23p 10 fearless in her fight for ethics in our
04:41:25p 11 profession. Since we are in the south, I
04:41:27p 12 have been working on Tami's southern
04:41:28p 13 drawl, and I have to be honest with you,
04:41:31p 14 she needs some work, but knowing Tami by
04:41:34p 15 convention end she will be saying "fixing
04:41:36p 16 to" and "let me hear from y'all" and will
04:41:39p 17 be a southerner. Please vote for Tami.
04:41:44p 18 (Applause.)
19
04:41:50p 20 SPEAKER: Good afternoon. Thank you,
04:41:51p 21 Glenda. This is a very exciting day for
04:41:54p 22 me, and even though I'd like to think it's
04:41:57p 23 all about me, it's really about you and
04:41:59p 24 your association. Who do you want in a
136
04:42:02p 1 position of leadership? You want someone
04:42:05p 2 who will understand your fears and
04:42:07p 3 concerns about what's going on in your
04:42:10p 4 profession and association. You want a
04:42:13p 5 reporter working in the trenches every day
04:42:15p 6 just like you. You want someone who
04:42:18p 7 understands as firm owners, you worry
04:42:21p 8 about the high cost of doing business. As
04:42:25p 9 freelancers, when equipment cost is
04:42:27p 10 growing, and tort reform is lowering your
04:42:29p 11 income. As officials, keeping your job in
04:42:35p 12 the face of ever growing budget concerns
04:42:38p 13 and the allure of electronic technology.
04:42:40p 14 As CART providers, when the ADA says
04:42:45p 15 reasonable accommodation, and you know
04:42:47p 16 it's not. As captioners when you know
04:42:49p 17 your work is being outsourced to inferior
04:42:51p 18 methods. As educators, as you struggle to
04:42:54p 19 provide the best education you possibly
04:42:55p 20 can to your students. And even as
04:42:57p 21 students, as you worry about whether
04:42:58p 22 there's truly a future for you, I have and
04:43:04p 23 will continue to understand your fears and
04:43:10p 24 concerns. Not only with the watchful eye
137
04:43:11p 1 on the financial health of NCRA for
04:43:14p 2 protecting you in our profession. The
04:43:17p 3 position of secretary/treasurer itself is
04:43:18p 4 important, but there's so much more, so
04:43:23p 5 much more to being secretary/treasurer
04:43:25p 6 than keeping an eye on the balance sheets,
04:43:28p 7 investments, audits, and cash flow. A
04:43:30p 8 good secretary/treasurer does all those
04:43:33p 9 things, but a great secretary/treasurer
04:43:35p 10 will also be cognizant of all the issues
04:43:38p 11 that affect you and strive to make sure
04:43:40p 12 your concerns and fears are realized.
04:43:43p 13 Sitting at that board table representing
04:43:46p 14 each of you and the profession. I'll be a
04:43:49p 15 great secretary/treasurer. I want your
04:43:51p 16 vote. Let me tell you some of the reasons
04:43:54p 17 why. I only wish there was time to tell
04:43:56p 18 you more. I worked at the state
04:44:00p 19 association level as a chief examiner for
04:44:02p 20 both the state and national tests. While
04:44:04p 21 president, revamping the MAPCR
04:44:07p 22 infrastructure and budget, being a
04:44:09p 23 newsletter editor, convention planner, and
04:44:13p 24 going to the Capitol to lobby for anti-
138
04:44:16p 1 contracting language and page rate
04:44:18p 2 increases. At the Reno convention in
04:44:20p 3 2003, I participated in the discussion of
04:44:26p 4 the rebirth of NCSA and have been there
04:44:27p 5 every step of the way. Look at what NCSA
04:44:30p 6 has turned into today, and they still
04:44:33p 7 don't rely how powerful they were at
04:44:35p 8 times. The committee that Glenda and I
04:44:37p 9 worked in together, there are only a few
04:44:39p 10 of us that worked on rewriting the bylaws
04:44:42p 11 four years ago. That process awakened a
04:44:45p 12 renewed passion for the governments by
04:44:48p 13 many people in this room. When director
04:44:51p 14 member voting started, I was the chair of
04:44:54p 15 the original task force that researched
04:44:57p 16 that issue and helped write the first
04:44:59p 17 proposed language, and I've continued
04:45:00p 18 working on this issue until this very day.
19
04:45:06p 20 I believe new and fresh ideas are great,
04:45:07p 21 but we shouldn't automatically toss out
04:45:10p 22 the old. I believe we don't necessarily
04:45:13p 23 need to do different things, we just need
04:45:15p 24 to do things differently. I believe that
139
04:45:18p 1 the big world out there is looking at us
04:45:21p 2 the same way, and we need to get them to
04:45:23p 3 look at us with a new vision and with
04:45:25p 4 respect. I believe that we need to look
04:45:35p 5 at the way we see ourselves and what we
04:45:37p 6 do. It's not just a job, it's a
04:45:39p 7 profession. I'm sensible, hard working,
04:45:40p 8 determined, enthusiastic, energetic,
04:45:44p 9 dedicated, and involved. I have common
04:45:45p 10 sense and the knowledge and the courage to
04:45:48p 11 ask the hard-hitting questions that need
04:45:51p 12 to be asked when called upon, be it with
04:45:52p 13 the auditors, investors, or NCRA staff. I
04:45:57p 14 have the support of my husband, family,
04:45:59p 15 friends, and my work family. I'm willing
04:46:02p 16 to devote my time as secretary/treasurer
04:46:05p 17 and an officer of NCRA to you, the
04:46:07p 18 membership.
19
04:46:09p 20 Your decision has a greater impact on you
04:46:11p 21 than you realize. As secretary/treasurer,
04:46:14p 22 I'll sit at the board table, not only as
04:46:17p 23 your financial watchdog, but I'll also sit
04:46:19p 24 there as a participating, working member
140
04:46:22p 1 for you on the board. I'll advocate for
04:46:26p 2 you, the firm owner, the freelancer, the
04:46:29p 3 official, the CART provider, the
04:46:35p 4 captioner, the educator, disputant. Never
04:46:37p 5 forget the power of your vote today or any
04:46:38p 6 day. In trying to come up with a slogan
04:46:42p 7 for this campaign I thought about the word
04:46:43p 8 "friend," and it occurred to me, over the
04:46:47p 9 last 20 years, I've had the privilege of
04:46:49p 10 becoming friends with many of you, but
04:46:51p 11 remember, you need a leader on the NCRA
04:46:54p 12 board, not just a friend. I have been and
04:46:58p 13 will be your friend, but I will be a
04:47:00p 14 leader. I'm asking you to mark your vote
04:47:03p 15 for Tami Smith as secretary/treasurer.
04:47:05p 16 You'll be glad you did. Thank you.
04:47:08p 17 (Applause.)
18
04:47:18p 19 PARKER: Thank you, Tami. Now I'd ask
04:47:20p 20 Bill Carroll and Doug Friend to approach
04:47:23p 21 the dais, please.
22
04:47:32p 23 CARROLL: It's always great to see my
04:47:34p 24 friend and brother Mark Kislingbury write
141
04:47:36p 1 realtime. You know Mark, the big national
04:47:39p 2 speed champion, the Guiness Book of
04:47:39p 3 Records holder, and when I get up to speak
04:47:44p 4 he starts sweating profusely. He says
04:47:47p 5 he's from Texas, but he doesn't understand
04:47:49p 6 a word I say. He can write 400 words a
04:47:52p 7 minute of people that talk very good
04:47:54p 8 diction, but, you know, have him take me
04:47:57p 9 at 400 words a minute, then people will be
04:47:59p 10 impressed.
11
04:48:05p 12 I'm here to talk about my good friend Doug
04:48:08p 13 Friend and I also tell him, it's a little
04:48:11p 14 dangerous for me to speak for him, because
04:48:13p 15 this convention being in Texas and so many
04:48:15p 16 Texans here that know me so well, I could
04:48:18p 17 really hurt him. Hope y'all don't hold it
04:48:23p 18 against him. But I've known Doug for 15
04:48:24p 19 years. We were in a -- we still are, an
04:48:28p 20 organization called National Network
04:48:29p 21 Reporting Company, and I was on the board,
04:48:33p 22 as a matter of fact Doug took my place on
04:48:35p 23 that board, and we've gone to seminars and
04:48:39p 24 gatherings all over the country together
142
04:48:42p 1 and really got to know each other well.
04:48:44p 2 Doug is a firm owner -- owner in Portland,
04:48:46p 3 Oregon, and has a very good firm there.
04:48:50p 4 Doug had to stop reporting because of a
04:48:55p 5 very odd accident on an airplane. He got
04:48:57p 6 his finger caught on a seat back and took
04:48:59p 7 the tip of his finger off, and so he had
04:49:02p 8 to stop reporting. I thought it was kind
04:49:04p 9 of a lame excuse, really, because you
04:49:05p 10 know, I mean he could still write, just
04:49:08p 11 not have the -LG key. Try that, Mark.
04:49:13p 12 But he gave it up and is managing the firm
04:49:15p 13 now. Doug has been very, very involved in
04:49:19p 14 the Oregon Court Reporters Association and
04:49:24p 15 he will have served as president of that
04:49:26p 16 association. He's been very involved in
04:49:29p 17 national; he's on the board presently, and
04:49:32p 18 he's been a delegate and a committee
04:49:36p 19 member of the national committee of state
04:49:38p 20 associations, the Firm Owner's Community
04:49:41p 21 of Interest, all kinds of -- let's see
04:49:45p 22 what else here -- part-time professionals
04:49:48p 23 task force, board ethics task force,
04:49:50p 24 emerging leaders task force, Citizens for
143
04:49:52p 1 Impartial Justice evaluation task force.
04:49:54p 2 He loves task forces, I think.
3
04:49:58p 4 He's very involved in his community,
04:49:59p 5 particularly in his church, and he's very
04:50:03p 6 involved in music. He's a piano player,
04:50:08p 7 and, you know, for me to go to speak for
04:50:11p 8 Doug, I love Tami Smith. Tami is a
04:50:16p 9 friend. And I told her earlier if she'd
04:50:20p 10 have asked me to speak for her, I'd be
04:50:22p 11 glad to speak for her, too. And I think
04:50:23p 12 our association is very lucky to have two
04:50:24p 13 people with the qualifications that both
04:50:26p 14 Tami and Doug have and if they both want
04:50:29p 15 to be secretary/treasurer of our
04:50:31p 16 association, so we are very lucky about
04:50:32p 17 that.
18
04:50:33p 19 And all I would ask is that you give Doug
04:50:36p 20 your consideration. I know he's a good
04:50:39p 21 man, and thank you for your time.
04:50:41p 22 (Applause.)
23
04:50:49p 24 FRIEND: Madam President, members of the
144
04:50:51p 1 board, and members of NCRA, I am proud to
04:50:53p 2 stand before you today as the nominating
04:50:55p 3 committee's choice to be your
04:50:57p 4 secretary/treasurer for the coming year.
04:51:00p 5 I answered a detailed questionnaire, gave
04:51:03p 6 the nominating committee my résumé,
04:51:05p 7 submitted myself to a 45-minute interview
04:51:07p 8 with them, and came out as the candidate
04:51:09p 9 that they chose. You know, the board of
04:51:12p 10 directors of an association of this
04:51:13p 11 caliber needs all kinds of people. We
04:51:17p 12 need people who are willing to be made fun
04:51:18p 13 of by being hypnotized or by singing
04:51:22p 14 karaoke to raise money or even by playing
04:51:25p 15 Jan Brady at the NCRF fund-raiser in
04:51:30p 16 Vancouver. The board needs diversity. It
04:51:31p 17 needs dreamers, and it also needs people
04:51:34p 18 who cares the details. I see one of my
04:51:37p 19 jobs as secretary/treasurer to make sure
04:51:38p 20 that your board is informed of fiscal
04:51:40p 21 details, of opportunities and
04:51:43p 22 consequences, so that proper decisions can
04:51:45p 23 be made.
24
145
04:51:46p 1 The job of secretary/treasurer is going to
04:51:48p 2 be evolving over the next few years. As
04:51:50p 3 our membership rolls have declined, it
04:51:53p 4 stands to reason that several of our resin
04:51:55p 5 streams are also down.
6
04:51:56p 7 As NCRA moves forward, the board will have
04:51:59p 8 to make some hard choices. In order to
04:52:00p 9 offer you and the public new offerings for
04:52:02p 10 education, we must ponder carefully the
04:52:04p 11 value of each new offering and ponder the
04:52:08p 12 value of already existing offerings so
04:52:12p 13 that we use our funds to the maximum
04:52:14p 14 extent possible. I know what my long-term
04:52:18p 15 goal is as an NCRA board member. It is to
04:52:20p 16 see that NCRA not only survives into the
04:52:22p 17 second half of this century, but that it
04:52:25p 18 thrives. To do that, I pledge to guard
04:52:28p 19 our cash reserves as if they were my own.
20
04:52:32p 21 You may have noticed that I have run a
04:52:33p 22 very simple campaign. I'd like to take
04:52:36p 23 you through a little exercise that will
04:52:38p 24 demonstrate how I approached this
146
04:52:39p 1 campaign, and also how I will approach
04:52:42p 2 spending your dues dollars in the position
04:52:44p 3 of secretary/treasurer.
4
04:52:46p 5 This is a volunteer position. Serving on
04:52:49p 6 the board of directors takes me away from
04:52:51p 7 my company a month and a half to two
04:52:53p 8 months of every year, and of course that
04:52:55p 9 costs money.
10
04:52:57p 11 I ask myself, does my ego need this
04:53:00p 12 position? Well, heck, it would be great.
04:53:03p 13 But no. And I do not view this position
04:53:08p 14 as simply a steppingston on my way to
04:53:11p 15 being president wannabe. I am your
04:53:18p 16 candidate for secretary/treasurer today.
04:53:19p 17 So what is my motivation to stand here
04:53:21p 18 this afternoon? Well, I love working for
04:53:22p 19 NCRA and giving that to the profession
04:53:26p 20 that has been so good to me. As a matter
04:53:28p 21 of fact, last year my business partner,
04:53:30p 22 Julie, asked me if I planned on going to
04:53:32p 23 work for NCRA because it was obvious I
04:53:34p 24 loved the work so much.
147
1
04:53:36p 2 Ladies and gentlemen, the number one
04:53:38p 3 reason I stand before you today is because
04:53:42p 4 I know and the nominating committee
04:53:44p 5 believed that I am the strongest
04:53:45p 6 candidate. Each of us comes to the table
04:53:49p 7 with our life experiences. I served for
04:53:50p 8 five years on the board of the National
04:53:52p 9 Network Reporting Company. I served on
04:53:54p 10 the Oregon court reporters board for many
04:53:56p 11 years, honored to be its president. I
04:53:58p 12 still serve on the legislative committee,
04:54:01p 13 including having testified before the
04:54:02p 14 Senate judiciary committee. And I am
04:54:04p 15 proud to say that we have gotten bills
04:54:06p 16 passed in the last two legislative
04:54:09p 17 sessions. I have served many times on
04:54:12p 18 church boards and headed music committees
04:54:13p 19 for individual churches as well as for
04:54:15p 20 state meetings with thousands of
04:54:17p 21 attendees. I am currently cochair of a
04:54:20p 22 specialty legal organization, the only
04:54:23p 23 board member who is not an attorney. You
04:54:26p 24 know, SueLynn brought her life experiences
148
04:54:28p 1 to the table in her role as
04:54:30p 2 secretary/treasurer. She brought her life
04:54:32p 3 experiences from her job as an official
04:54:36p 4 and she also brought her experience of
04:54:37p 5 having a bachelor's degree in business
04:54:41p 6 administration and having worked in the
04:54:42p 7 business world. I bring to the table
04:54:44p 8 practical experience. I have managed for
04:54:45p 9 several years what has become a
04:54:47p 10 multimillion-dollar court reporting agency
04:54:50p 11 that has seen growth every year since I
04:54:52p 12 assumed solely administrative duties. And
04:54:56p 13 my firm has no contracts. I understand
04:55:00p 14 long-term financial goals, keeping cash
04:55:03p 15 reserves for those unforeseen instances.
04:55:05p 16 In addition, I understand daily, weekly,
04:55:08p 17 monthly cash flows. I understand fixed
04:55:11p 18 overhead, negotiating leases for copiers,
04:55:15p 19 amortization of capital improvements. I
04:55:17p 20 understand along with NCRA management the
04:55:19p 21 rising costs of having employees, rising
04:55:21p 22 salaries, contributing to retirement
04:55:23p 23 accounts, paying those ever-increasing
04:55:26p 24 health insurance premiums. I bring this
149
04:55:29p 1 day to day fiscal experience to my job as
04:55:31p 2 your secretary/treasurer. And I bring to
04:55:33p 3 the table three years of experience on the
04:55:36p 4 finance committee. During that time I
04:55:39p 5 have been involved in choosing auditors
04:55:42p 6 for this association twice. I was on the
04:55:44p 7 committee when the decision was made to
04:55:45p 8 bring in outside, nonemployee CPAs to work
04:55:49p 9 with our staff on an ongoing base to
04:55:54p 10 ensure that our fiscal safeguards are in
04:55:57p 11 place and strong and that we are always in
04:55:59p 12 compliance with Generally Accepted
04:56:00p 13 Accounting Principles. You know, NCRA's
04:56:03p 14 long time finance director just left to go
04:56:05p 15 work for another association, and so my
04:56:08p 16 knowledge is more important than ever. I
04:56:10p 17 decided before I ever filled out my
04:56:12p 18 questionnaire for the nominating committee
04:56:13p 19 that I wasn't going to try to buy this
04:56:15p 20 position in any way.
21
04:56:16p 22 I never solicited a letter of support for
04:56:18p 23 the nominating committee, and you can tell
04:56:21p 24 that I have not tried to sway you either
150
04:56:23p 1 in the past few weeks or here at the
04:56:25p 2 convention by any means other than my
04:56:27p 3 qualifications.
4
04:56:28p 5 I do not want to be your
04:56:31p 6 secretary/treasurer just because I'm
04:56:33p 7 popular or because I may have perfect
04:56:34p 8 hair. (Laughter.).
9
04:56:36p 10 I want to be and I should be your
04:56:38p 11 secretary/treasurer because I bring the
04:56:40p 12 most life experience to the table, because
04:56:41p 13 I bring the most experience of NCRA's
04:56:44p 14 financial workings to the table, and
04:56:45p 15 because I vow to do my job in a way that
04:56:49p 16 will keep NCRA strong and healthy and
04:56:51p 17 working for court reporters long after I'm
04:56:53p 18 retired. I thank you for your attention.
04:56:56p 19 (Applause.)
20
04:57:06p 21 PARKER: Thank you, Doug. Please take out
04:57:10p 22 your yellow ballot entitled "Election
04:57:13p 23 ballot, secretary/treasurer." Mark your
04:57:16p 24 ballot with one choice, fold the ballot,
151
04:57:18p 1 and pass it to the inside aisle where the
04:57:20p 2 election tellers will pick them up.
3
04:58:56p 4 If your ballot has not yet been collected,
04:58:58p 5 please raise it so that it can be
04:59:01p 6 collected.
7
04:59:05p 8 Any other ballots that need to be
04:59:09p 9 collected, please? Please raise your
04:59:18p 10 ballots in the air if they need to be
04:59:21p 11 collected. Some in the back left.
04:59:25p 12 Everyone, please, if you have not had your
04:59:27p 13 ballot collected, please lift it. Anyone
04:59:35p 14 else?
15
04:59:44p 16 Anyone else? Have all voted who wish to
04:59:57p 17 vote? The poll is closed. Is there any
05:00:07p 18 new business to come before the
05:00:09p 19 convention?
20
05:00:17p 21 SPEAKER: Paula Laws, Ft. Lauderdale,
05:00:21p 22 Florida. Just a couple things. To Sue
05:00:23p 23 Wolk, sincere condolences. Heartbreaks
05:00:27p 24 for you, Sue. Also, Joni Pfeiffer, a
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05:00:30p 1 30-year reporter, Miami, died this week of
05:00:32p 2 lung cancer. I just wanted our thoughts
05:00:34p 3 and prayers to go out to her, her family.
05:00:36p 4 And one last comment, you know, perception
05:00:44p 5 sometimes becomes your reality, when it is
05:00:46p 6 or isn't. And when we have an issue as
05:00:52p 7 not debated, but also as thought out in
05:00:55p 8 our membership and when they had different
05:00:58p 9 opinions, it would really be nice if the
05:01:00p 10 different opinions, whether they're pro or
05:01:03p 11 con, if the people who are on the con side
05:01:07p 12 want to do a white paper, that it could be
05:01:10p 13 submitted along with the other papers so
05:01:15p 14 that we have -- so all members' opinions
05:01:18p 15 are respected. Thank you.
16
05:01:20p 17 PARKER: Thank you, Paula. (Applause.)
05:01:28p 18 Ms. Antone.
19
05:01:29p 20 SPEAKER: Peggy Antone, Houston, Texas,
05:01:31p 21 and this is probably ridiculous, but the
05:01:34p 22 little overall guide that you handed out
05:01:38p 23 today with our registration packets that
05:01:39p 24 has everything listed together on the day
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05:01:43p 1 that it's happening, by the time that it's
05:01:45p 2 happening, I would request that you please
05:01:48p 3 consider putting this in the registration
05:01:49p 4 packet, because I found registration
05:01:54p 5 packet -- I'm flipping pages back and
05:01:56p 6 forth and back and forth, so my ridiculous
05:02:00p 7 suggestion is to -- (Applause.)
8
05:02:03p 9 PARKER: Thank you, Peggy. You see, if we
05:02:06p 10 had Sue here, she would have gotten those
05:02:11p 11 in the registration pacts. Sorry, Peggy,
05:02:14p 12 we apologize but we'll certainly take note
05:02:16p 13 of it. While we're waiting on the results
05:02:17p 14 of the vote, I just wanted to thank each
05:02:20p 15 and every one of you for your thoughtful
05:02:23p 16 commitment to this association and your
05:02:27p 17 participation in this business meeting; it
05:02:28p 18 is important. And I just thank you for
05:02:30p 19 your show of support and your
05:02:31p 20 professionalism and courtesy to one
05:02:32p 21 another and to me throughout this year.
22
05:02:35p 23 Is there any other new business?
24
154
05:02:40p 1 SPEAKER: Hi. Christa Townes from Spring,
05:02:44p 2 Texas. I just have a question about the
05:02:45p 3 actual registration stuff that we got. We
05:02:51p 4 don't have the cards, punch cards.
5
05:02:57p 6 PARKER: You don't have punch cards
05:02:59p 7 anymore because you have a bar code on
05:03:01p 8 your badge and you'll get scanned as you
05:03:03p 9 complete a course.
10
05:03:04p 11 SPEAKER: Okay, thank you.
12
05:03:05p 13 PARKER: You're welcome. Any other new
05:03:08p 14 business?
15
05:03:10p 16 MUJTABAA: Wow, and I thought those bar
05:03:12p 17 codes were just for the compobitors to
05:03:14p 18 scan so we can win something in there.
05:03:16p 19 That's really nice to know. My other
05:03:20p 20 question is --
21
05:03:21p 22 PARKER: Would you state your name --
23
05:03:21p 24 MUJTABAA: This is Sharon Mujtabaa,
155
05:03:32p 1 Hawaii, aloha, and I have a question,
05:03:35p 2 because a couple years ago, I was not able
05:03:38p 3 to attend the convention but I so enjoyed
05:03:42p 4 reading the streaming of the meeting, and
05:03:44p 5 I just want to ask if this is something
05:03:47p 6 that NCRA is going to continue or this is
05:03:50p 7 going to be a permanent thing?
8
05:03:52p 9 GOLDEN: It has been a permanent thing for
05:03:54p 10 about five years.
11
05:03:55p 12 MUJBATAA: I just want to make sure,
05:03:56p 13 Mark. Thank you.
14
05:03:58p 15 PARKER: Any other new business? Just
05:04:00p 16 wanted to remind everyone that the PAC
05:04:05p 17 calendars are for sale, Men of Court
05:04:10p 18 Reporting, men of court reporting, says
05:04:13p 19 something, law and disorder, and when's
05:04:15p 20 your cardinal signing? Is that tonight?
05:04:18p 21 Tonight at seven p.m. in...? What room?
22
05:04:22p 23 WENHOLD: Good question.
24
156
05:04:22p 1 PARKER: He doesn't know the room. Look
05:04:25p 2 for the guys here on the calendar. Also
05:04:28p 3 to board members who have a board photo
05:04:31p 4 immediately following this meeting.
5
05:04:35p 6 GOLDEN: Texas 4.
7
05:04:37p 8 PARKER: In Texas 4, for photo.
9
05:04:42p 10 GOLDEN: Men of court reporting reception
05:04:43p 11 is in Texas 1 and 2.
12
05:04:46p 13 PARKER: Texas 1 and 2 is the calendar
05:04:48p 14 signing, Texas 1 and 2, the Men of court
05:04:51p 15 reporting, seven p.m. The Opening
05:04:52p 16 Reception where we can all raise a glass
05:04:54p 17 with one another is at 5:30, and it's in
05:04:56p 18 Texas C and D. And we're currently in
05:05:01p 19 Texas C, so I think we're using part of
05:05:03p 20 the reception area. Mr. Waga?
21
05:05:13p 22 WAGA: Madam President, we who served on
05:05:14p 23 the board for many years all know that we
05:05:17p 24 live or die with the vote, and we respect
157
05:05:20p 1 the vote. And the case of the election
05:05:22p 2 that was just had regarding online voting,
3 I respect the results of the vote,
4 participate in it, limited opportunity to
5 thank you, Madam President, for a very
6 hard year. Thank you.
7
8 PARKER: Thank you. (Applause.)
9
10 PITTMAN: Madam President, thank you. I
11 had a question or a comment with regard to
12 Mr. Prout's motion or his call of the
13 question of the nominating committee. I
14 understand that the executive committee
15 determined that it wasn't -- in a question
16 such as this, it is fair for the
17 membership to ask why it was -- the
18 decision was made. My assumption, at
19 least in part, in terms of the timeliness
20 issue has to with publication in terms of
21 you had a two to three-month lead time on
22 the journal, I understand that, but I
23 think it might have been helpful for those
24 of us in the room to have understood why
158
1 the executive committee made those
2 decisions. Thank you.
3
4 PARKER: First of all, the executive
5 committee initially discussed the issue
6 and then we brought it before the entire
7 board and the entire board made the
8 decisions related to that. Jeff Altman,
9 our general counsel, can you speak to the
10 -- and you can step to the mike down there
11 if you'd like. Speak to the issue as soon
12 as practicable, which is related to the
13 publication of --
14
15 SPEAKER: Mark might have the chronology
16 better.
17
18 SPEAKER: Maybe we should do away with
19 words like as soon as practicable and be
20 specific about things. Maybe rewrite the
21 bylaws, it doesn't seem to go over too
22 well around here. But -- but this is
23 again, and is preaching to the choir
24 sometime, it's an ongoing problem with the
159
1 bylaws the way they were written, and hard
2 to understand, very difficult times, so
3 maybe we can work on some wording issues.
4
5 PROUT: Madam President, since we have a
6 little delay, I would submit once again as
7 I did before that certainly as soon as
8 practicable would be the next publication
9 going out to the membership, was the
10 October issue, so it could have been
11 accomplished clearly. But I would ask for
12 the parliamentarian's ruling, whether with
13 the wording of our Constitution and
14 Bylaws, particularly the classes of
15 membership I referred to, and the section
16 on the nominating committee, can a
17 lifetime retired member be an appointee of
18 the nominating committee, based on the
19 language as it currently exists in our
20 Constitution and Bylaws?
21
22 SYLVESTER: First of all, I -- the
23 parliamentarian does not rule on
24 anything. The parliamentarian is here as
160
1 an advisor, and they simply advise, and
2 then according to Roberts, the chair has
3 the right to either follow that advice or
4 to ignore it. But the parliamentarian
5 makes no ruling because, remember, there
6 is no such motion as appeal the decision
7 of the parliamentarian. The decision of
8 the -- of the presiding officer. But you
9 heard my advice given to your presiding
10 officer when she gave you the three issues
11 that I had advised with them, that the
12 bylaws allow for that body to make that
13 and that body and the body made that
14 decision. I was in on that decision, but
15 that body made that decision and my advice
16 was your bylaws, give them the power to
17 make that decision.
18
19 PROUT: Well, given the fact that the
20 bylaws call for the appointment of four
21 registered members to the committee, and
22 you are advising that the executive
23 committee and/or the board can say we can
24 disregard that and appointment someone
161
1 from another class --
2
3 SYLVESTER: No, I am not advising that, no
4 I am not deriving any disregarding of what
5 was said. I have called after the fact, I
6 have given the advice that the board of
7 directors according to Article 19, is it,
8 of your bylaws, has the authored to make
9 that decision, and they have made that
10 decision.
11
12 PROUT: And I understand that. And
13 actually what I was asking for was
14 something more prospective. Given the
15 fact that the language in the Constitution
16 and Bylaws refers specifically to the
17 classes of membership and the section on
18 the nominating committee refers only to
19 one class of membership, pro speculatively
20 just for the guidance of the future of the
21 board, can another class of membership be
22 appointed to the nominating committee?
23 I'm asking for your advice.
24
162
1 SYLVESTER: My advice to the -- actually
2 to the president directly was that I
3 thought this area of the bylaws needed to
4 be further clarified, that it -- as was
5 interpreted, has let some gray years and
6 needs to be further clarified.
7
8 SPEAKER: Four registered members. That
9 needs to be clarified.
10
11 GOLDEN: Would you like the -- from the
12 December conversations? First of all, the
13 issue of -- as soon as practicable, at the
14 -- by August 5th, 2006, which would have
15 been the postconvention board meeting,
16 only three of the five intended
17 appointments to the nominating committee
18 had responded in the affirmative. An
19 additional committee member accepted
20 appointment mid-September, and we were not
21 able to secure a decline of appointment
22 from the remaining member until September
23 28th. As quickly as practicable
24 thereafter, i.e., by September 29th, an
163
1 alternate had been -- had been appointed
2 to fill that spot, so that the roster was
3 not finalized until October 2nd. The copy
4 deadline for the December JCR was October
5 15th. It was theoretical possible to
6 repeat that for a variety of reasons, none
7 of which I can remember. It was -- we
8 missed that deadline, we included it in
9 the next available, which would have been
10 the November 15th deadline, and it was
11 published and distributed. When that
12 information was provided to the nominating
13 committee I'm having to renew -- read
14 something I haven't looked at for six
15 months, give me a few moments. December
16 15th, the communications were conducted
17 between the president and Mr. Prout.
18 Mr. Prout was informed of the board's
19 interpretation that in fact given that
20 timing that the as soon as practicable
21 standard had been met. Asked if the
22 person, Mr. Prout, providing the protest
23 wished to challenge it formally, he
24 declined to do so. On the issue of
164
1 eligibility of a retired member to serve,
2 I think Mr. Prout most of the relevant by
3 laws language, I shall not reiterate, and
4 he very accurately excerpted and provided
5 that. The membership on the committee in
6 question was Bernard M. Goldstein, a
7 member of the fellow of professional
8 reporters and an RPR retired, a member of
9 NCRA since 1963, earned his RPR stats in
10 1971, and actually changed to retired
11 status only in January of this past year
12 -- or, excuse me, 2006. Prior NCRA
13 committee service included but is not
14 limited to service on the CART committee
15 in '72-'74, the cat and CART company, '85,
16 '88, public relations committee, '88-'89,
17 prior nominating committees on '89 and
18 '90, and the CART cap and CIC committees
19 in '89 and '90. As the executive
20 committee and subsequently board discussed
21 it, registered member is commonly
22 understood to mean a reporter who has
23 achieved NCRA certification. The bylaws
24 state that achieving NCRA certification is
165
1 the so criteria for eligibility to become
2 a registered member. Mr. Bernstein had
3 never allowed his membership or his RPR to
4 lapse and continued to enjoy the right to
5 describe himself as an RPR, albeit as an
6 RPR retired. Retired lifetime members are
7 relieved of the obligation to pay further
8 dues but are otherwise -- and this is
9 noted in the bylaws -- continue to enjoy
10 all membership rights and privileges,
11 including the right to continue to use the
12 RPR designation. The appointment was made
13 by the president-elect at the time in good
14 faith on the assumption that as an RPR he
15 enjoyed continued status as a registered
16 member which we noted was an error.
17 Mr. Bernstein at the time of his
18 appointment to the nominating committee
19 had held continuous membership in the
20 association for 43 years, had earned and
21 sustained his RPR and registered member
22 status for 35 years, had transitioned to
23 retired status less than four months prior
24 to his appointment to the nominating
166
1 committee and enjoyed status as a fellow
2 of the academy of professional reporters,
3 a distinction reserved to registered
4 members of extraordinary qualifications
5 and exemplary professional practice and
6 serve as a credit to the profession of
7 verbatim Stenographic reporting, in the
8 bylaws. As noted, the issue of his
9 visibility was raised first with the
10 executive committee with the president,
11 and she referred to the executive
12 committee on December 6th, considered by
13 the executive committee in the days that
14 followed and acted upon by the board of
15 directors at its December 18th meeting.
16 The executive could be felt in the board
17 subsequently concurred that while a
18 stricter letter of the law interpretation
19 should be adhered to in the future,
20 Mr. Goldstein's appointment was consistent
21 with the spirit and intention of the
22 applicable bylaw. The executive felt and
23 consequently concurred that
24 Mr. Goldstein's status as a retired RPR
167
1 caused no harm to the interests of any
2 member. The member raising the objection
3 Mr. Prout was informed that the board's
4 action on December 13th and invited to
5 formally challenge that ruling, no
6 challenge was forthcoming. In the
7 ultimate conduct of its nominating -- of
8 its affairs the nominating committee chair
9 has further reported that all decisions by
10 the nominating committee were in fact
11 unanimous and as the parliamentarian had
12 ruled, even if had advised and the
13 president and board had relied upon that
14 advice, even if Mr. Bernstein had been
15 disqualified and had been removed the
16 outcome of his actions would have been
17 unchanged so the board committed to more
18 care in the future. Actually I think that
19 would be a safe assumption on both the
20 issues that had been raised. And I think
21 that's accurate.
22
23 PARKER: We now have the results of the
24 election. For secretary/treasurer.
168
1 Election committee chair, Harvey Schulman
2 will now issue the report.
3
4 SCHULMAN: Madam President, there were 273
5 votes cast for Doug Friend, 167; for Tami
6 Smith, 106.
7
8 PARKER: Those cast, 273. 167 for Doug
9 Friend. 106 for Tami Smith. Doug Friend
10 has received a majority of the votes
11 cast. The chair declares Doug Friend
12 elected as secretary/treasurer.
13 (Applause.)
14
15 Is there any additional new business?
16 We'll no longer debate the issue that was
17 brought up in new business by Tori Pittman
18 because the board has already ruled and
19 the board has the final authority for the
20 interpretation of the bylaws. So if your
21 new business has something that is related
22 to something other than that, we'd be
23 happy to hear you. Pardon me?
24
169
1 PROUT: Just on that point, Madam
2 President, point of order --
3
4 PARKER: No, Mr. Prout, you may not have
5 --
6
7 PROUT: Not going to hear any further
8 comments on it?
9
10 PARKER: Please speak your point of order,
11 state your point of order.
12
13 PROUT: I think it's important to note,
14 based on the remarks that were made, we
15 have to keep in mind that the language in
16 the nominating committee section refers to
17 registered members and a lifetime retired
18 member is a separate category of
19 membership. In addition, it's been said
20 that I was advised that if I wanted to
21 file a -- an action or a complaint or
22 whatever the terminology was, that I was
23 advised and I didn't do that. In the
24 quote from the e-mail, it is -- if you
170
1 wish me to bring the matter of the
2 member's service --
3
4 PARKER: Mr. Prout, it is not a point of
5 order. You've stated your point of order,
6 and you've been heard.
7
8 ANTONE: Excuse me, I would like to hear
9 this.
10
11 SPEAKER: Move to overrule the chair.
12
13 PARKER: You may finish reading the
14 e-mail.
15
16 PROUT: Just for the benefit of the
17 record. If you wish me to bring the
18 matter of the member service on the
19 nominating committee to the board's
20 attention for consideration and
21 discussion, I am happy to do so. I had
22 already brought it to the board's
23 attention by notifying the president.
24
171
1 GEANELL ADAMS: Madam President, may I
2 make a motion to adjourn?
3
4 SPEAKER: Second.
5
6 LEMONS: Madam President, I've been
7 standing here waiting to be recognized for
8 five minutes.
9
10 PARKER: Mr. Lemons?
11
12 SPEAKER: This is very short. My name is
13 Keith Lemons from Tennessee. Since our
14 Constitution and Bylaws have again proven
15 to be mishmash, and we have a working set
16 of clean, lean, and almost perfect bylaws
17 to be reconsidered, I would ask the next
18 board to -- to consider bringing the
19 bylaws revision back into focus next
20 year. (Applause.)
21
22 PARKER: Chair would hear your motion
23 again.
24
172
1 GEANELL ADAMS: Madam President, I make a
2 motion that we adjourn.
3
4 PARKER: Is there any objection to
5 adjourning? We have no objection, the
6 Annual Business Meeting of the 2007 annual
7 convention is adjourned, sine die.
8 (Applause.)
9
10 (Concluded 5:22 p.m.)
11
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