From a post sent to concernedreporters.com
I am a steno reporter from Illinois and have chaired NCRA's membership telemarketing committee for many years. Unfortunately, membership has been declining just from the fact that reporters are retiring, changing careers or staying home and raising their families. I am an RPR, RMR, RDR and FAPR and I do value my credentials. I do not believe that NCRA is trying to get rid of steno reporters. Steno is their lifeblood. I do not believe that just by looking at alternative methods and considering the possibility of testing them (should they even decide that it is worthwhile – and for now they are just looking at it) that means they are trying to get rid of steno reporters.
And I am sure you must realize, voice writers and others using any of the alternative methods cannot become members of the Association without a bylaws change and that requires a vote of the entire membership. And with online voting, that doesn't mean just anyone that attends the convention. We all can vote on bylaws amendments.
Years ago the pen writers did not want reporters who use steno machines to be members. There are still pen writers today and we both are members of NCRA. They are just alternative methods of creating the record. I would also think it is kind of like the sign interpreters and CART providers working together at the same job. They are both alternative methods to get to the same end result. There are times when we may be working in conjunction with someone using an alternative means to make a transcript.
I hope to be a steno reporter until I stop reporting, but I also would like to know that if my hands become disabled, that I may have an alternative method to use and still continue to work at a career that I love.
As a reporter who dictated when I first began as a reporter, I think I would make a darn good voice writer. That doesn't mean that I am throwing out my steno machine and signing up for a voice writing class tomorrow. I do not want to be close-minded to a technology that I may need in the future. I hope it will never come to that, but I would hope it is an option should that become an issue.
I know that there may be use for alternative methods in remote courts or locations where reporters refuse to work. By utilizing an alternative means in some of these courts where there are virtually no transcripts, the steno reporters can be put in locations where their skills can be better utilized.
I am all for steno reporters and certainly hope we can get students interested. I bring my machine and attend career days, letting the students write their names in steno on my machine and watching it come up in realtime. I attend guidance counselor conferences to let them know this is a viable profession.
So I hope my message is not misconstrued. I just do not think we should feel so threatened that they will take over our association.
We elect individuals to the Board to work for the good of the members, and I think we need to trust that they are working in our best interest. Otherwise, why did we elect them? I do not believe NCRA’s board would create a situation whereby they would lose all their current stenographic members in the hope of gaining new members who use the alternative methods. It would not be in their best interest.
Jacqueline Timmons, RDR, FAPR
Chicago, Illinois
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