I will post without commentary this time*. These words are from Sue Terry and posted with permission as given in the post itself.
Good morning, everyone. I indicated that I would respond on the weekend regarding the recent decision that the NCRA Strong Committee would cease to exist.
It’s a bit perplexing to us to hear that we will soon have increased advocacy working for us, as Keith has indicated, particularly at a time when the budget is so lean and the Strong Committee has been self-funding our activities, as you will see in the list of activities below. But we will as members anxiously await the announcement of those plans just like all of you.
I’m only active in a few Facebook groups, and you can feel free to copy/paste my words in other groups you may belong to.
I want to thank everyone for the support you’ve given the Strong Committee through many years, and for your texts, messages, calls, events we’ve shared with you, etc. While it has been a lot of work for all of us on Strong, it’s been well worth the additional friendships we’ve made through our service.
As I just posted on the Leaders listserv, the Strong Committee’s work has always been rooted in integrity and commitment to the NCRA membership, and more importantly, to our professional colleagues. I think you can see if you take time to view just some of our work below, it has never been about personal gain or agenda. I think any organization would be happy to have volunteers like this, but apparently there’s something much better coming than we’ve been offering.
While we are quite saddened at this development, we fully intend to regroup, of course, and will now support our beloved profession outside the walls of the association to the best of our ability.
We don’t know yet what that’s going to look like, but we don’t sit and wring our hands much. And there’s likely some of our competitors thinking this is a good kind of dream; well, think again. We are now free of constraints and will be able to push information out with a little more agility than in the past. We are Free.
I’d like to recap some of what our committee has achieved for you through the last couple of years. It’s by no means an exhaustive list since none of us kept a running list, but I think you’ll see we’ve done our job as unpaid volunteers. And just remember, “Strong” has never been about the name, it’s about the people and the advocacy.
Here is a rundown of what we’ve contributed in recent memory:
Most recent this week that was a fantastic experience:
*Joining ABA as an interested member to get their emails, offerings and what’s happening in their world. Several days ago, our committee members attended a webinar on AI in the justice system that the ABA gave. Imagine this: they acknowledged the presence of so many court reporters during the meeting, and their valuable input was welcomed. I have also watched all of their “free” bar continuing education webinars on AI/courts. So much information to share in due time.
Elevator Pitches for members.
Keeping members informed about ABA Resolutions and Guidelines.
In 2019 or early ‘20, suggested an AI Bill of Rights or Disclosure Bill, to require disclosure if a transcript was processed with ASR. (We are excited to see it’s now finally on the table.)
Supported members with information to combat a proposed push requesting federal judges to electronically record more of their trials.
Compiled a database of every state bar association to enable flow of information.
The NCRA White Paper has been cited by CNBC, Reuters, NextGov, and others.
Channel 2 Dayton news story with Kristin and I regarding the NCRA White Paper and dangers to the justice system posed by AI.
State flyers.
Video series on YouTube channel for members to use, all captioned by Strong.
Letter to US Senate Judiciary Committee for a hearing on AI use in judicial systems nationwide.
Letters to Indiana, both personal and on behalf of Strong.
Letters to Tennessee, both personal and on behalf of Strong.
Letters to Washington on sunsetting, personal and on behalf of Strong.
Other Presentations and Tasks:
Montana Bar Association.
Colorado CRA.
Zoom webinars during Pandemic to move to remote.
Quarterly articles in Journal and often in the Weekly.
Privacy webinar.
Created other webinars for the NCRA store.
Drafted NCRA Resolution which was released ahead of the American Bar Association, who then adopted their own similar resolution.
Stenopalooza.
Spring Fling.
Powerpoints created for member use.
Powerpoints created for board use to present Strong.
Updated the Tech Powerpoint the board gives at their request.
Lisa Mig drove to Sue’s to do a mini-boot camp for Texas leaders (4-hour drive each way)
Lisa Mig drove to Kim Falgiani’s, 7-hour trip each way involving an overnight hotel stay to appear with Kim for a TV interview on AI dangers in broadcast captioning and courts.
Remote and in-person presentations for Steno in the City.
Ilinois Bar Presentation to their Board of Governors (Phyllis).
San Francisco Legal Professionals
presentation at their request.
Washington Court Reporters Association presentation.
Ohio (‘21, ‘22, ‘23 and ‘24)
State Leaders Webinar on Strong Education.
Oregon Court Reporters Association presentation.
CALDRA presentation.
California Court Reporters Association presentation.
Steno in the City presentation.
NCSA meeting in Las Vegas presentation.
NCRA Convention in Orlando presentation.
Utah CRA.
Massachusetts Court Reporters Association.
Provided assistance/brainstorming Zoom sessions/letters – Arizona, Texas, Indiana (before they dissolved the association,) Illinois,
Connecticut, Minnesota, Tennessee, Nebraska preparing for elimination of jobs and raise issues.
Alaska presentation.
Many one-on-one calls for support by all the Strong team, requiring additional evenings, weekends.
Youtube video series of judges/court admins, audio forensic expert, privacy and captioning all videos.
Series of meetings with privacy expert.
Captioned the Murdaugh FTR trial clip.
Phyllis worked with “Free” audio forensic, former FBI experts, Doug Lacey and Bruce Koenig (Bek Tek LLC), who contributed to some of our self-education, work and white paper.
Work with audio forensic expert, Ed Primeau, to produce videos on alterations
Ohio Supreme Court.
Stenocat Users Network seminars.
Each Strong member spent at least four hours a week doing research, and then met every other
Sunday evening for 2-4 hours to discuss research, projects, requests, strategies, etc., upcoming articles, and a few invited guests when needed.
Liz and I as Strong worked with Max Curry in the revamp of NCSA by digging into our own old files to reinvent the history of NCSA, which was obliterated by a previous CEO, along with many of the historical documents where members could go to archives and educate themselves on the path and history of the association.
Expenditures off the top of my head by our Strong Committee out of pocket:
Software to caption our own videos and some
of NCRA’s videos $225.00 a year, two years now.
Software for live polls during webinars $210 year, two years now.
Joined IAPP (International Association of Privacy Professionals and signed up for their privacy bar emails, and that’s where much of the AI bills information and charts that I’ve forwarded to states comes from, three years of dues for that at $250 a year.
Attended Legalweek in NY (Registration, Air, Hotel, etc., cost of approximately $2,000 and also gave a full report of that experience and threats to our livlihoods and the major players threatening us to the board in a written report.)
Attended multiple court technology conferences to be able to ask pertinent questions of court recording vendors during presentations, and that’s been multiple members of Strong when the technology conferences are near them.
Boot Camp – Stacey Raikes and I both paid our own air and hotel for Boot Camp at a dent to our personal budgets of another approximately $2,000.00 each and additional days off calendar.
When we were provided a booth at our annual conference to meet and greet with members. Stacey bought a monitor to have at our booth for streaming the videos we had produced for all of you, and also provided snacks we passed out, and a life-sized cutout for “Strong selfies” for members. She wouldn’t share how much she spent or let us contribute.
Court Technology Conference this past year: NCRA did provide a table for us at CTC, and it was a very costly spot. We much appreciated that expenditure. In addition to their expenditure, Debbie, Stacey and I also funded our own air travel and took vacation days from our work schedules to man the booth, stocked the booth with candies and goodies, and also outfitted the best-looking booth there, complete with banners, etc., all paid for by us (Debbie mostly on this one). I’ve been to a lot of court technology shows, but our booth at this one was one of the most popular and we were handing out our information constantly due to our focus on AI with our tag line of “Can You Trust AI Beyond a Reasonable Doubt?” I do hope the new people are going to self-fund at the level we did, considering the reported budget shortfalls.
In closing, thanks for the many messages of thanks of support we’ve received this week, along with offers to help. Thanks to Kimberly D’Urso and Kelly Bryce Shainline for your support, too. It means a lot coming from two great leaders. Please, friends, keep your states strong (pun intended) at this pivotal point in our profession and do what you feel is necessary to urge – no, demand – that the organization that has been so crucial to our justice system continues to fight for us. If you don’t belong to your state association, please join today. If you can afford it, join a neighboring one, too. Lets, please, please, please, keep our state associations strong. Membership deserves nothing less. Business as usual shouldn’t be an option for any of us. Our profession deserves everyone’s best efforts.
Sue
————-
Back to Chris Day.
Perhaps I will make one comment.
This is how the National Court Reporters Association treats its most fervent volunteers. People admittedly willing to spend thousands of dollars of their own money for a greater good and spreading awareness to the world about the research we’ve done.
How much do you think it respects you for your membership dues?
How much do you think it respects non-members of the profession?
They’re laughing all the way to the bank.
At Strong. At you. At us.
It’s likely a simple calculation. The vendors want AI. They’re going AI. NCRA can’t have a committee making so much ground on AI awareness. We’re talking more media and legal profession attention than I could’ve dreamed. Look at Sue’s list again.
Those vendors are more important than the truth.
Those vendors are more important than your jobs.
What’re you going to do about it?
It’s time for a new national association. And if you like that idea, stay tuned for updates later in the year.
*The asterisk represents a lie pushed for dramatic effect.
——-
P.S.
So it came to be that everyone could see what I see.
Plain as could be. Eventually,
everything I’ve fought for is going to do or die.
And it’ll hurt inside
if I have to take defeat in stride.
But God knows I tried.
When worlds collide,
who comes out on top of the Great Divide?
My, oh, my. What a surprise.
When the light inside dies
one can finally open eyes
to a world of lies.
Throw off the disguise.
And embody phoenix’s rise.
Are you able to point me to an article that you have written or where NCRA has explained their reasoning for disbanding the committee? Has anything been explained to the members by NCRA? I feel out of touch with what is going on and am looking for more information. Also, have the committee members of Strong started something outside of NCRA? I would like to support them in some way.
I enjoy reading your articles and appreciate your information.
I don’t have any information from NCRA about their reasoning and my monitoring of the online discourse has only turned up that Keith Lemons has blocked a couple of people and it’s been kind of a stonewall situation. There was mention that something new would be put in place, but I’m skeptical about that.
You might want to join that Facebook group Steno Intelligence, Nothing Artificial About It. A lot of the Strong members are there if I recollect correctly.
Not feeling well today. Please ask more questions if I’ve been unclear anywhere.