1. What role do you expect technology to play in our profession over the next three, five and ten years?
TAMI: The possibilities of what technology holds for our profession are only limited by our imaginations. Many people are resistant to change and that resistance only works to our detriment. We have to insure we embrace new technology and use it to our advantage instead of letting technology direct the way our future develops.
DONNA: In the next three years I expect we will see an increase in “remote realtime” of all types. All anyone needs is the Internet to give them the ability to connect to a “realtime” reporter anywhere in the country and assist in the areas where there are reporter shortages.
In the next five years the multimedia record will be the rule rather than the exception with the “realtime” reporter center stage: text, audio and/or video, and hyperlinked exhibits.
In the next ten years I expect an exponential increase in demand for the “realtime textologist,” which will include an increase in voice realtime in the CART/captioning marketplace.
2. What leadership skills do you feel are important to fill the position of NCRA’s V.P. or board member? What leadership skills do you feel are your strongest and your weakest? (Answer this question in regards to the board position you are campaigning for only.)
TAMI: I possess the courage to do the right thing even in the face of opposition. I have passion, commitment to the profession and the association, a dynamic and vivacious personality, the ability to balance life and career. I am open-minded. One of my most important skills is the ability to communicate with people. While I don’t consider myself to be a weak leader, my reluctance to self-promote has forced me to strengthen other skills to interact with others. My people skills are among my strongest skills. People feel comfortable approaching me. I think I’m socially intelligent meaning someone who is adept and skilled at interacting with all types of people from all walks of life and that enables me to assess, evaluate, and act on certain situations.
DONNA: The most important leadership skills for a director are: modeling of high standards both in the skill and ethics of reporting; being “generally” knowledgeable of issues and hot topics in all areas of judicial reporting and the CART/captioning fields; the ability to listen and really “hear” what the members are saying; willing to accept challenges and weigh all sides of an issue and to broker consensus whenever possible.
I feel my strongest leadership skill is modeling of high standards as reflected in my diversification in realtime reporting. I have general knowledge of the “hot topics” in the profession, and I am always willing to listen and carefully weigh all sides of an issue before making a decision.
My weakness is that I don’t have all the answers and resolutions to all the “hot topics,” and I’m not Mark Kislingbury, Ed Varallo, or Alan Brock.
3. How is the practice of incentive gift-giving, contracting and discount pricing affecting, first, the firm owner; second, the freelance reporter and, third, the consumer litigant?
TAMI: These actions are detrimental to the professional image we are always seeking to attain. Reporters and firm owners grow increasingly frustrated with losing work to the highest bidder. It makes me wonder what cost these practices are having on the impartiality of the reporter and the record.
Somewhere someone has to pay and that usually ends up being the end consumer. They have no choice but to expect anything but inferior quality of the record or work product, and they turn out being a victim of these business practices from not knowing anything different. The firm owner who cannot or will not compete on those terms ends up going out of business or drastically reducing their staff. Reporters in various regions who cannot find employment elsewhere have to surrender to pressures to make a living or change professions. The whole situation leads to frustration on everyone’s part. In the end our whole profession loses.
It’s all about education with the bar associations. At the moment NCRA has COPE opinions regarding these practices but they need to be redefined and then once again educate the bar on our ethics.
DONNA: It affects the firm owner, first and foremost, by harming their reputation in the field among reporters and attorneys, even if they are not violating any rules or statutes in the state(s) where they do business. While they may get some business using those practices, they are losing out on a lot more because most people find the practices distasteful. You cannot separate the “officer of the court” from the “firm” in the court reporting business.
It affects the freelance reporter because they are a “representative” of the firm. The practices may negatively reflect on the reporter because of an “appearance” of impropriety and could potentially put them at risk for disciplinary action, depending on their state’s rules. To offer discount pricing just to get business diminishes the “perceived” value of the reporter in the marketplace.
It affects all consumer litigants if they are unable to receive the level of service required for the assignment; i.e., an inexperienced reporter in a highly technical expert deposition. It affects the consumer litigant who is not receiving the discount, absent disclosure rules, because it “appears” to give an advantage to another party and creates an unlevel playing field for the litigants.
4. What do you feel are the five most important accomplishments that NCRA has achieved over the last several years? Why do these five accomplishments rise to the level of most important in your mind?
TAMI: Direct member voting is one of the most important accomplishments that NCRA has achieved in the last several years. From now on all of our members will all have the ability to have a voice in what happens in their association. The days of the bylaw amendments and contested elections being passed on by a very small percent of the members are gone and everyone can truly express their vote. I am very proud of the work I did on that project.
The Reporter Education Commission gave us all a good, hard look at the education system of court reporters. The work was intense and the programs it generated are numerous. With time the results of the commission will help NCRA to assist in advancing the education of students and in this way produce better, qualified reporters.
The new strategic plan opens a door to us into the future. We need to do things differently, not necessarily do different things. This new plan is vastly different than strategic plans of old where there were visionary statements about we will strive to become the best we can. This new strategic plan lays out defined goals with timelines enabling the Board and staff to have a road map to the future.
In my opinion the new and improved NCSA which enables state leaders to have more power in the governance of their association is a big accomplishment. NCSA now has guidelines on how resolutions should be presented and how state leaders can more effectively communicate with the NCRA Board what direction state associations think NCRA needs to go. They have a listserv so they can keep in communication more often than once a year at the NCSA committee meeting. Think of the power a state association can wield now in guiding our association.
NCRA’s political impact on Capitol Hill, the Engate litigation, adding new certifications to meet our consumers’ changing needs, the ER Task Force, the Community building strategy, these are all just a few of the accomplishments that have occurred in the last few years.
I strongly feel that the members themselves have made accomplishments in the last few years. There has been some turmoil in our association and our members have remained strong and involved. The turmoil raised the awareness of issues that face our profession and while members are looking to our leaders to resolve those issues they have stayed the course. Obviously our membership cares about their profession and wishes to see it continue to thrive, so I think the membership deserves accolades for its own determination in staying involved, seeking certifications, continuing education, and asking tough questions about what is happening.
DONNA:
- Efforts towards the passage of the Training for Realtime Writers Act
- Certification for CART providers and broadcast captioners
- Realtime Coach
- Communities of Interest
- Offering “hands-on” realtime connection training in Anaheim
Why? Because “realtime” is the future. There is NO future without realtime. We are “digital”!
5. How do you feel NCRA can best serve its members?
TAMI: I’m assuming this question is solely related to the Board and not NCRA staff and so I will answer it from that standpoint when I refer to NCRA.
NCRA needs to truly listen to its membership and give the membership as many avenues as possible to voice their opinions and ask their questions, be it through the telephone, Internet, or in person. These are the members speaking out about their feelings and thoughts and the members are what comprise our association. NCRA needs to look to the future so it can anticipate trends and be in a position to assist members to be ready for changes. It can be a difficult balancing act.
NCRA needs to focus on NCRA right now and track what is good for the membership and the profession. The strength of our profession is measured by the knowledge and ability of our reporters. We need to create opportunities to interact to become better acquainted with each other. All of us are reporters who have hopes, fears, and dreams and we are all united in the advancement of our profession.
DONNA: Just keep listening…
6. How do you differentiate the inclusion of other methods of speech-to-text modes of the verbatim record into our profession today as compared to that which happened when Gregg and Pitman writers experienced the threat of Stenograph writers entering their profession?
TAMI: One of the differences is we are not denying that the other methods exist. Let’s face it, other methods are not going anywhere and will continue to evolve in their own fashion. We cannot ignore them and hope they go away. NCRA needs to remain vigilant of the changes those methods are making and we need to be in a position to work with them on common interests while working to be the best we can at our own profession. The NCRA Board can point out changes on the horizon, but it is ultimately up to the membership to decide who they want included in their association.
DONNA: I think we could liken it to an early “technology” debate as opposed to a “method” debate. They all utilized “written symbols” which were immediately “visible” on paper. In fact, stenotype was developed from the principles used in pen shorthand.
The traditional stenomask method is not an immediately “visible” and “written symbol” record and is truly a different “method,” a “recording” as opposed to a “written” record.
Voice “realtime” is closer to the immediately “visible” part (which is crucial for communication access) but does not contain the “written symbol” part which is important to judicial reporting.
7. Using 2010 as a reference point in time, what do you see as NCRA's biggest struggle moving into the next decade? How do your foresee NCRA members, state leadership and vendors partnering with NCRA to address these struggles?
TAMI: We have lost members due to people leaving the work force, personal and business cutbacks, an aging population, and fewer students entering the profession. Our biggest problem will be shrinking member participation. We are becoming more isolated as technology continues to open the door to various ways of providing our unique services, and members do not see the need to be involved with NCRA.
Our members need to remain involved and reach out to other members. Our vendors need to be cutting edge as technology evolves and keep offering new products in order for us to ever improve in our quest for making the record. NCRA needs to continue to work with schools and state associations on promoting court reporting as a viable profession to junior/high school students and those seeking a second career. State leadership needs NCRA to train them so they can train their members how to reach out across their respective states to draw new students into the profession.
DONNA: The biggest struggle will be recruiting people into the field and into the association.
I foresee NCRA members, state leadership, and CAT vendors in a nationwide “marketing” partnership for new students into individual reporters to improve their marketability. I see the “Men of Court Reporting” going on tour.
We could help provide full student member sponsorships and new reporter member sponsorships through the first two years of reporting in both NCRA and the state association and get them “hooked” early on.
8. What do you feel is NCRA’s role as regards to court reporting schools, their curriculum, and NCRA’s relationship with the individual student?
TAMI: I see NCRA’S role as offering guidance and advice to schools on how to offer a curriculum that gets students out faster but still completely trains them to be qualified reporters, alternate theories that exist, obtaining Federal and state funding, and being a source of information. I don’t see NCRA’S role as being a micro-manager of how schools are operated, but I do see it as being a watch dog, if you will, and keeping the lines of communication open for school administrators and students to address their respective concerns.
Through the various programs, scholarships, information and opportunities offered to students NCRA also plays a vital role in being a guiding light to students who are excited to be entering a new profession. NCRA’s relationship with the individual students should be viewed as a precious commodity. We need to find ways to keep the “spark” in students and schools alive so they are all encouraged and excited to be a fundamental part of our association. Belonging to a professional organization offers one the opportunity to meet and network with reporters across the country so experiences can be shared and learned from. Happy, successful, motivated students lead to happy, successful, motivated reporters.
DONNA: NCRA’s role is to be a resource and assist with development of curriculum that will meet the future demands of the “realtime” market, to include CART/captioning in addition to judicial reporting. NCRA’s relationship with the individual student is crucial because the marketplace they will enter is global.
9. Do you feel NCRA should be more transparent in their governance of the profession? If yes, what do you propose as a solution?
TAMI: Yes, any governing board should be transparent. Members are entitled to expect honesty, respect, and transparency on the part of elected leaders. The Board must listen and be willing to share the reasoning behind decisions. Board meetings should be as open to the membership as possible and members should be encouraged to attend Board meetings.
There are certainly plenty of diverse associations across the country and we could seek information by an informal polling of other associations to see how they handle their board meetings, although I am hesitant to suggest yet another “study.” It was a good beginning when NCRA started publishing summaries of Board meeting minutes.
We need to begin working on rebuilding trust between membership and the Board. We have faced some upheaval in recent years and that relationship is going to take some time to heal. It can be done, but it will take time. I hope that members continue to ask questions and seek disclosure. The Board represents the members and it is well within the members’ rights to ask pointed questions and receive straightforward answers.
DONNA: Yes! First and foremost, do not say “the board is unanimous” or “the committee or task force is unanimous” unless it really is. NCRA members understand majority rule. They want to feel they had a voice, even if it was not the prevailing one.
Upcoming board meetings should be posted in the NewsFlashes with the date, time, location, and a posted agenda. That will go a long way in creating transparency. A member should be able to take their own handwritten notes while sitting in any meeting. There should be a very narrow and judicious use of “executive session.”
10. What is your plan to build membership and member participation in NCRA’s activities?
TAMI: We should start with focusing on the current membership we have. Yes, we need to gain members but keeping members is of the utmost importance to me. If we seek to make membership in NCRA a great thing non-members will hear about it and seek to join. We need to take care of our own in a manner of speaking.
The next one sounds easy, but the Board needs to not only listen but truly communicate with the membership. We all say we listen to our spouses or children or coworkers, but how many times do we suddenly realize they were talking and we didn’t hear a word they said? Or we only hear a part of it and react strongly or dismiss them without making certain of what we heard. Rebuilding trust with the members begins with effective communication.
The biggest change starts with a small step. Sometimes you have to work on gaining one member at a time. In our interactions with members and non-members we need to show them what NCRA has to offer, not only information, but also that NCRA is a group of motivated and engaged individuals who can become invaluable resources and friends.
We need to work on promoting our profession to the general public also. How many times have you told someone what you do and they either give you a blank stare or say oh, that person who does this and mimics writing on the steno machine? We need to let people know who we are and what we do and be proud of ourselves.
DONNA: Direct Member Voting is a good start. It is creating excitement about what’s happening in the association and a feeling of empowerment. State-by-state membership task forces and think tanks (including students) could bring creativity to the process. NCSA would be instrumental in this effort.