The National Court Reporters Association has released the following.
While I commend the organization for such an uplifting message, I can’t help but point out that it sidesteps some very important issues.
Veritext and the big money brigade have all heavily invested in digital reporting. This will lead to the loss of stenographer seats in the private sector and exacerbate shortages in the public sector. As our number dwindles, so too does our bargaining power on the market. And with the digital brigade proclaiming that digital is realtime, it’s foreseeable that realtime rates will go down. The only unknown is time scale. Meanwhile, as corporate consolidation continues, corporate ability to set rates will strengthen. Game, set, match.
Let’s not forget Tyler Technologies’s recent acquisition of FTR. They’ve got a hell of a lot more money than Veritext and it’s pretty clear they intend to push AI. And NCRA as an organization purged the association of volunteers that were most concerned with AI and digital inadequacy. So what is the organization going to actually do to catch the ears of legislators and court officials and ensure they’re not fooled by flashy demos and sweet-talking salesmen? These are nice words. But there is no apparent plan. That means fewer jobs going to stenographers and fewer members for NCRA. That means that eventually NCRA may someday have to open up its membership to voice and digital to survive or die. Or it’ll become a corporate puppet if it’s not already a corporate puppet. After all, the organization lied to its members with regard to the legality of discussing rates for decades, and that helped agency owners, not working reporters.
I can’t help but feel our whole guardian of the record thing is a facade. We stress about nonsensical, almost meaningless moments like the placement of a comma, but we never developed as a group the skills required to communicate to the country our value. Sometimes I’m dumbstruck thinking about how many millions of dollars were flushed down the toilet over the years. Dollars that could’ve gone to preserving your jobs and enhancing leadership skills across the board.
I look back at past endeavors wondering if it was all for nothing. Maybe the rank and file working reporter doesn’t need to learn such skills. But our leaders and institutions spent their time trying to dissuade the corporate scumbags from being corporate scumbags with the anti-gifting, anti-contracting, and the realtime is the future push. Guardians? We weren’t even a speed bump. We said to them, and still say today, “take it all, take the whole market, because you have the money, so you dictate the terms.” These are entities that have asked reporters to change transcripts for their clients. These are entities that allegedly steal from their own employees. The record is in danger. We are currently losing and it doesn’t have to be that way. I proved that half a decade ago.
This all to explain why it became clear to me that the NCRA is not equipped to handle the challenges of our time. The willpower isn’t there. It’s never been. It never will be. The truth might be too stressful for some of us, and that’s okay. For the rest of us, forming something that pushes back independent of NCRA is imperative.
Maybe a publication that rivals the Journal of Court Reporting and draws eyes from outside the profession. Just a thought I had some time ago.
You are always spot-on!
Thank you!
Reports have never had the skill or training or time to learn how to communicate our message, that’s why it is essential we support our various associations with real financial backing so they can hire the people who know how to get the job done. However, over my 50+ years’ involvement in association business I have come to learn that court reporters are cheap and hate to part with relatively small sums for dues that are necessary to keep the profession alive. If it doesn’t affect them personally, they’re not interested; when it does affect them personally they scream, “What is the association doing about this?” Court reporters have always been their own worse enemy. I think of the so called leaders in the profession who have gone to the dark side to collect a payday not caring what damage the leave behind. Dues for National should be somewhere around $1000 a year, a monthy cost of $$88.33. Not very expensive for insurance to help protect your livelihood. But most reporters will never shell out that small sum, they will let the “other guy/gal” do it for them. This is the hard truth that I have experienced in my career when involved with associations, whoes leaders draw zero compensations for time or expences. “The other guy/gal will do it, so I’ll just lay in the weeds and profit from their sacrifice.” You get what you pay for in this world, folks. There is strength in numbers and finance, you can’t go it alone.
I respect your opinion but, you know, the money is there on some level, it’s just horribly managed. From all I’ve heard it’s been horribly managed for a long time. And it’s questionable whether associations can even legally push back in the way we need them to.
The court reporter volunteers make nothing, I get that, but we pay Dave Wenhold 300,000 a year to drive things into the ground. He’s our guy who’s supposed to be hired to get the job done and the board members have no willpower to find a replacement.
I know the state associations are hurting. I’m on their side. But the NCRA has problems it’s unwilling to address, and that’s killing its support.