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Last Updated: Tuesday October 02, 2007

WCRA RAFFLE winner announcement!

The drawing for the raffle ticket for admission to the WCRA October Educational Conference was held at the board meeting on Saturday, September 29th. WCRA’s treasurer Lisa Hutchinson conducted the drawing and the winning ticket belonged to Phyllis Lykken. Congratulations to the winner and thanks to all who participated in the event.

Prompt Payment of Court Reporters (Opinion) - PDF file

NCRA Direct Member Voting
(reprinted with permission)

Dear State Leaders,

Happy Holidays.

My name is Robert Bramanti. I'm the chairperson of the Constitution and Bylaws Committee. Some of you I have met at NCRA’s State Leadership Conference; some at past NCRA Boot Camps. To everyone, hello.

It was suggested that I follow up the Direct Member Voting discussion held at NCRA’s Leadership Conference in November with a quick update/review. And for those on the Listserve not at Leadership, hopefully this message will give you a sense of where we are with Direct Member Voting and where we hope to be in the next few months.

As you may recall, the C&B Committee has been reviewing the issue of Direct Member Voting for quite some time following the request for more information from those members attending the business meeting in 2005 in Phoenix. We’ve made good progress since then, and we have really pushed forward following the 2006 business meeting in New York.

In October, we asked NCRA to survey voting members as to their interest in a Bylaws amendment that would allow all eligible voting members who may not be present at NCRA’s annual business meeting to vote on Bylaws amendments and contested elections via a secure Web site with the results verified by a third party. Amazingly, in one week's time, 2,118 voting members responded. 1,847 members, a bit over 87 percent, were in favor of a Bylaws amendment. 166 members were not sure. And 103 members, 4.9 percent, were against a proposed amendment. At the State Leadership Conference, though there were some technical questions, some of which were addressed, there seemed to be strong support for the proposal.

Based on member interest, the C&B Committee is currently developing a proposed framework for how online voting could be accomplished. And we’ll be conducting another survey of the voting membership about that proposed framework soon to make sure we’re on the right track. To give you some idea as to the Committee’s current thinking, the proposed Direct Member Voting amendment would work roughly as follows:

All eligible voting members would be issued a user name and password to vote online via a secure Web site. A member would only be able to vote once.
Members attending the business meeting, in addition to having the ability to vote online, could choose to vote via paper ballot on-site. If they choose to vote on-site, these members would not be able to vote online. So, again, a member would only be able to vote once.
The annual business meeting would operate just as it has in the past. Any proposed amendment to the Bylaws would be presented and the members at the business meeting would have the opportunity to debate the proposal. The members present in the business meeting would have the opportunity to amend the introduced amendment. A two-thirds vote of those members present in the business meeting would be required to amend the introduced amendment.
The final amendment language, amended or not, would be posted to a secure third-party web site for all eligible voting members to vote yes or no on its passage.
A similar process would be followed for a contested election. If there are two candidates, their names would be posted to the secure web site for a vote. If there were more than two candidates, there would be a runoff during the business meeting. The names of the top two vote-getters, as determined by those members present in the business meeting, would then be posted on the secure third-party web site for a vote.
NCRA would continue to post the rough transcript of the business meeting to NCRA’s Web site shortly after the conclusion of the business meeting so that those members voting online would have the opportunity to become fully informed on the issues that were discussed during the meeting and the debate involving any amendments.

In order to give all eligible voting members the opportunity to review the text of the debate on NCRA's Web site prior to a member voting, members would have 12 hours to vote once the final amendment language or the final two candidates’ names are posted. And it should take no more than two hours after the conclusion of the business meeting to have this information posted to the NCRA site.

I should point out that the primary focus behind the currently proposed framework is to ensure that the process remains simple to implement and as inexpensive as possible. But, again, we’ll be evaluating this proposed framework following the survey in January to determine if any changes need to be made.

President Reesa Parker's stated mission has been enhanced customer service to you, the members. The C & B Committee believes Direct Member Voting plays a big part in that improved customer service, as it provides more members with an opportunity to become empowered and involved. Put simply, in our opinion, it gives more members a voice.

As I mentioned, the C&B Committee will continue to examine the issue and revise the proposed process for conducting Direct Member Voting as we receive member input. So if you’d like to discuss any aspect of Direct Member Voting, please feel free to contact me directly at rbramanti@comcast.net.

Thank you.
Robert M. Bramanti, CSR, RMR
C & B Chairperson
617.723.7321

State of Washington Court Reporter Examination Dates in 2007

The state examinations will be held in April and October of 2007. The Department had moved the examination dates to February and August in 2006 to accommodate applicants who were also intending to take the national exams. The court reporter program relies on licensed individuals in the industry to assist in the administration of the exam, such as grading and proctoring. Due to busy schedules in the months of February and August, licensed individuals were unable to assist. We are hoping that by moving the exams back to April/October as it was for many years, more people will be available to assist with the examination.

For more information, please contact Susan Colard at (360) 664-6647 or scolard@dol.wa.gov.

Green River Community College is again offering two independent workshops to veteran court reporters like you who want to improve their realtime skills or work as a captioner or CART provider.

Green River CC Website

Retraining Flyer (PDF)

ProCAT offers many products to increase your productivity and make your life easier as a court reporter. WinnerXp software has been an excellent product with new features coming continually. In 2003, the revolutionary Stylus writer was introduced and has been a huge success. No longer do you need to haul all those heavy bags to a deposition, or carry everything into a courtroom. Just take the Stylus; it's all you need!

Stylus runs on the Windows operating system, which gives us compatibility with other products in the industry. More importantly, with Windows, we can provide updates for the writer with new features. This means that when we debut features, you don't have to spend thousands for a new machine. The Stylus has two Intel processors, one to run the translation and one for the operating system. This guards against stacking when you are writing at high speeds. Additionally, you have audio recording and playback right on the Stylus itself. You just plug in a mic!

The Stylus has the artificial intelligence features of our software built into the machine, which gives you excellent translation benefits. Stylus is also compatible with all current software on the market!

The Stylus has triple protection for backup; a compact flash card, secure digital, and 5,000 page revolving internal memory. The Stylus writes in RTF, so you can take it into any attorney's computer as well if a rough draft is needed. And if you need to do a realtime feed to an attorney/Judge, you can do it via bluetooth right from the Stylus. If you wish to have your notebook computer with you, you can feed out via bluetooth to your computer as well.

There are many, many other features with the Stylus: ability to define speakers, use paper or go paperless, and a short keystroke depth, just to name a few. To find out more about the Stylus, or to order a demonstration CD of the WinnerXp software, please call ProCAT Sales at 800-966-1221.

Digital transcripts get smarter

New product promises to improve productivity with better integration

Houston, TX, June 9, 2006 - OMTI, Inc., developer of ReporterBase, the country's number one best-selling office management software for court reporting firms, announces the development of a new product line, "smart" digital transcripts.

Currently under development, RB digital transcripts will be the first digital transcripts that are integrated into a court reporting firm's production and billing software. As an integrated part of the production and billing workflow, RB digital transcripts will already "know" a lot of the related information, such as case and billing information, that current transcript solutions do not. As a result, RB offices will not have to re-enter information from their RB systems into transcripts, which saves time and reduces errors.

RB digital transcripts will include all of the popular transcript features that the ReporterBase community has been requesting. And like all ReporterBase products, it will include some technological improvements over existing transcript solutions.

RB digital transcripts will be presented for the first time at the upcoming Team RB Conference. The fourth annual Team RB Conference, which showcases technology and best business practices for legal support businesses, is scheduled to take place October 13-14 in Houston, TX.

For over 20 years, OMTI has provided office management software for court reporting firms, records retrieval companies, and other legal support businesses. ReporterBase legal support firm software is the number one best-selling office management software for court reporting firms in the country. RB8's companion online offices product, RB Web 8, offers legal support firms the ability to customize their web services to their businesses while integrating closely with their in-house office management system. See our website, www.ReporterBase.com, for more details.

If you'd like more information about our new product, or to schedule an interview with Stella Chang, please call Stella at 832-203-6083 or email her at stella@reporterbase.com