President’s Message to the Michigan Association of Professional Court Reporters
By Thomas Klink, RPR, CSR
It is a privilege and an honor to be your president for this coming year. In the fall of 2003 I had no idea that volunteering to be on the board of directors for the Michigan Association of Professional Court Reporters (MAPCR) for just a three-year term would lead me to where I’m standing now. But through the encouragement of many past presidents of MAPCR, especially Cecile Gordon, having attended many board meetings, as well as being given the opportunity to attend leadership seminars, conventions, and training, I feel confident and ready to meet this challenge. However, most of my support and encouragement in this endeavor comes from my proofreader, who also happens to be my wife, Pat. I’ve also been supported by my brother-in-law Mike Van Poppelen and his wife Diane.
I am a court reporter in the Tenth Circuit Court for the County of Saginaw. As the swing court reporter I have the privilege of working with five different judges at the courthouse. Four years ago I was hesitant to begin an officialship in Saginaw because writing realtime for the judges was mandatory. The day I began working there was the day Marie Puchel retired. How right she was when she said the people you work with every single day become like an extended family. I’d like to thank Carol Harrison and Estelle Przybylski for helping me transition into a realtime writer, thus making me a better reporter.
Last year while attending NCRA’s annual convention in New York and leadership in Virginia, I learned that representatives from companies that provide other forms of making the record are on an aggressive campaign to show to both court administrators and the bar that their method of reporting is far superior to ours and that it’s cheaper. Michigan is one of their targets.
Yes, we are more expensive than alternative methods, but we provide quality and dependability.
From the time I researched the occupation of court reporting during the time I spent in school to today, almost 22 years in this profession, I have heard people say:
Do you mean you guys are still around? Aren’t you going to be out of a job pretty soon? You’re going to be replaced by “state-of-the-art” equipment – tape recorders and video.
How can we save our jobs, retain the clients that we have, and acquire more work? It does not require an increase in dues nor an expensive ad campaign. It is called marketing, and it involves each and every one of us. I’m not making a distinction between freelance, official, CART writer, or captioner. We should all work together. It is our responsibility to educate the pubic on what we do and how important our job is. This should be done whether we are threatened by new technology or not.
When asked what I do for a living, I am proud to call myself a court reporter! When my father is asked what his son does for a living, he is proud to say, “He is a court reporter,” as he demonstrates with his fingers what I do. It was almost 25 years ago that my father assisted me in finding a reporting school and pursuing my dream, and I’m grateful for that.
So how do we begin to market ourselves? Let’s begin with students. Members of the MAPCR Board, led by Rebecca Callow, have spearheaded efforts to inform teachers, counselors, and students about their reporting profession by attending career days held at schools in their local areas. I’d encourage you to seek opportunities such as this to showcase your skills and market our profession.
Officials, do you market yourselves to court administrators and judges every day by writing realtime? If you don’t, start now! When a new attorney is admitted to the bar, do you provide a complimentary transcript of their swearing-in ceremony? Do you participate in law day activates and mock trials, and are you visible to students during such activities?
From personal experience, realtime is the ultimate marketing tool. It has proven invaluable to the judges I work with, allowing them to make rulings and research testimony while still on the bench. Testimony from today, yesterday, or even a week ago can be retrieved from inside the courtroom and not from some database in another office or off-site location.
E.R. and video vendors are spending thousands of dollars in marketing their products to court administrators, yet they seldom address as a package transcript preparation by a professionally trained person. E.R. is a product. Products are easy to market, and they’re attractive, but they fail to provide a service with the added touch of the human element. Other methods may seem cheaper, but quality suffers when transcripts contain such things as inaudibles and missing testimony. We do not inadvertently record private attorney-client exchanges or sidebar conferences in the transcript.
Does the record still matter? You bet. As one federal judge has said, the Court need not listen to an attorney’s spin on what transpired unless the record accurately reflects the same because the record is still king!
As you have shown through your attendance at this convention, you are continuing to update your education and knowledge by earning continuing education credits. Please continue to do so.
Freelancers, market your abilities by offering realtime or doing a presentation of your legal support capabilities at local bar association or legal secretary association meetings.
Volunteer to write an article on how to make a useful record for your local bar association newsletter. Accommodate the public when they ask you to demonstrate how our steno machines work. Take part in pro bono services through MAPCR.
As Lynne Zakrzewski, Pat Hyland, and many others from this association have done, volunteer your time to transcribe testimonials from World War II vets for the Veterans History Project. If you don’t know what that entails, please contact Lynne or Pat.
CART providers, I hope you all had an opportunity to read the summer edition of the “Record Times,” which included an article written by Anita S. Lane detailing a hard-of-hearing law student named Hayley Rohn, who accomplished a lifelong dream of obtaining her degree from Wayne State University in May of 2007 with the assistance of CART providers. Prominently featured in this article was information on the dedicated service by MAPCR’s own Paulette Foster, Karen Klerekoper, and Felicia Jordan. What a fulfilling way to market yourselves and our profession.
Captioners, seek to educate the general public that the captioning of programs is done by a trained expert and not a machine. Market your diversity at every opportunity to showcase your skills.
Parents, spouses, friends, and family, be proud to say, “I know a court reporter!” For far too long we have been slow to react to stories in the news media when our livelihoods have been brought into the spotlight by negative comments.
MAPCR members, we must all become proactive and market ourselves every day to compete in today’s workplace. No one else will do it for you. We have a unique talent to share. What we bring to the workplace simply cannot be matched by other means of making the record.
Please join me in marketing our profession each and every day to preserve your job and those of the students who follow.