President's Address by SueLynn Morgan, RPR
Friday, August 7, 2009
NCRA Opening Premier Session
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Complete Text
Thank you, Judge, and thank you everyone. “Greetings and salutations” – as Judge Aycock often says!
I am proud to stand before you today as the 102nd President of the National Court Reporters Association. This is certainly a great honor for me, and I am humbled by it. Thank you.
Today we begin a new year in the history of the National Court Reporters Association. I’m not going to expound on all the accomplishments and challenges, setbacks and successes we have been through during those years … and there have been many! As we move into the future, it is right to be mindful of what our history has taught us. But to avoid stumbling, we need to focus our eyes forward, not backward.
And as we look forward, I know we all recognize that we face challenges from all directions.
When I say “we” I don’t just mean my fellow board members, or state leaders or others who have official association positions or titles. I mean every member of NCRA.
We are, all of us, members of the same community. The Board of Directors you just saw installed are all, like you, proud stenographic reporters. Taken as a group, these 14 directors represent a combined 418 years of experience in verbatim stenographic reporting. Like all of you, we go to work every day to practice this marvelous profession, and we experience the same joys and frustrations that all of you encounter every day in your own jobs.
We may have different perspectives about the future, and different ideas about what will serve this profession best, but this we all share: a common history, a common love and a common commitment to stenography’s future.
Make no mistake: the environment in which we perform our jobs has changed. Technology has changed. The needs and expectations of those we serve have changed.
Some of those changes created opportunities: The invention of the stenomachine made it possible to capture the spoken word with speed and accuracy beyond what pen writers could achieve. The marriage of the stenomachine to the computer made realtime possible.
Some of those changes created challenges: technology improvements in digital audio recording expanded opportunities for those providers, too, often gained at the expense of our own stenographic profession.
We could control and drive some of those changes. Technology made realtime possible, but it was the zeal of stenographic professionals that made judicial realtime, CART and captioning services a reality.
Some of those changes we could not control. We could not make technology stop improving for those we compete with, nor could we prevent the economic declines that caused state courts to give up value in favor of inferior, but cheaper alternatives.
But whether change was of our own making, or forced upon us … whether change created opportunity or challenge, this association and this profession have a 100 plus year history of adapting and evolving and we’re still here!
For over 30 years NCRA has been promoting, assisting and encouraging every reporter to become realtime certified. We have created and supported an education system designed to teach realtime. We have secured millions of dollars of government funding to support realtime training. We have spent millions of dollars promoting the value of realtime to the public. No one can seriously doubt NCRA’s commitment to realtime.
And there is no doubt that stenographic realtime defines the gold standard, the best that can be achieved in capturing the record.
But not every stenographic reporter writes realtime. And not every client or court is going to need realtime in every case or for every deposition.
Can we, as a community, adequately serve the verbatim stenographic reporting profession if we declare that only realtime need apply? Do we want to abandon the non-realtime, verbatim stenographic reporter? Of course not.
We need to reinvent ourselves in a way that recognizes the unique place realtime holds, but that also leverages the value that we deliver whether we write realtime or not. And that value can not be measured solely on the basis of the cost per page or speed in delivering a final transcript.
For officials, perhaps that means we assume responsibility for all forms of the record in our courthouses.
In most states, digital recording is an unpleasant but established reality. While we all applaud and acknowledge the heroic achievement of California reporters in stopping the Governator himself from eliminating officials in that state, other jurisdictions have not been so successful. What do we say to officials in Utah, or Nevada or Iowa, who saw their jobs eliminated DESPITE doing everything you could possibly ask them to do to fight ER? “Sorry. You just should have tried harder?”
If we are managing all methods of record making technology, we are not the digital reporter’s peer, but rather their superior. Digital audio recording, on its own, might create a record of sorts. But digital audio recording, on its own, can not manage the record.
We can, we do, and we do it well.
We are smart and creative professionals with a fervent passion for our profession. In our 110 year history we have built bridges and moved mountains. We need to draw upon our knowledge and experience and find a way to combine our heritage with innovative thinking to provide new ideas that will sustain verbatim stenographic court reporting far into the future.
April 19, 1995, 9:02 a.m.. You ask anyone who lived in Oklahoma at that moment in time and I am confident they can tell you where they were and what they were doing at that moment when the Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City was brought down by a terrorist’s bomb.
While the event was a tragedy, two phenomena emerged from it that have been recognized throughout the world.
The first was establishment of the “Oklahoma Standard.” Now, whenever and wherever a disaster occurs, the response of the community is measured by how it compared to the response of the citizens of Oklahoma City to that bombing.
The second was the Survivor Tree. It’s more than 80 years old, an American Elm. Prior to the attack it was an important tree during the hot Oklahoma summers because it provided the only shade in the parking lot across from the Murrah building. Workers in downtown Oklahoma City would arrive early to work so they could get a parking space in the shade of that tree. When I was going to court reporting school, I drove by that tree every day and often thought, “Man that’s a pitiful looking tree, but, again, it’s surrounded by asphalt and concrete, what more can you expect?” But on that day in 1995, it survived the explosion of a 4,000 pound bomb.
Standards apply to everything in our lives. There are our professional standards. NCRA helps us to set those standards of professionalism and ethics.
We each have our own family and personal standards. I’m reminded of a teacher’s description of my dad when I was still in high school, though its meaning didn’t really sink in until years later: “Sure, farmers and ranchers have high standards, but your dad had his own set of standards. They were the J.W. Brockman standards, and if you didn’t meet those standards, you heard about it!”
And speaking of family, I would like to take a moment to introduce some of my own family, that’s here today.
I have my brother, John, and his wife Marcella, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law Scott and Debbie Morgan, and my sister-in-law, Michelle.
I was elected to the Oklahoma Court Reporters Association’s Board of Directors in 1996, and just one week after ending my state board service, I started my tenure on NCRA’s Board. Over the course of those 13 years, because of board responsibilities, I have missed too many family get togethers, birthdays, and even a nephew’s wedding. All of you have been very supportive and encouraging and I thank you for that. In two more years we can start planning family activities again, without me having a conflict.
Finally, thank you to Tracy, my husband. You’ve been right beside me for all of it. He’s driven me to the airport, picked me up at the airport, driven back to the airport at 5:00 in the morning when I forgot my contacts. You have been there for me and I couldn’t have done all of this if I didn’t have you.
Why did I mention the Survivor Tree earlier?
That pitiful tree is now one of the most famous trees in this world, and it is strong, resilient and a survivor. Seeds and seedlings of this tree have been planted all across this nation, and its sprouts will live for many generations.
Standards, survivors, roots, resiliency, adversity, strength. Let us come back together as one, let us work together as one, and let us move forward as one so that NCRA remains the Standard of Excellence.
Thank you.