Steno Speed and the Youtube Angle

Going back a couple of years ago, if you YouTube’d stenography, you’d get pen shorthand reporting from India. Happy to report that that paradigm is taking a hard shift. Today, at the top of the list is Stan Sakai’s Quick and Dirty Steno, with over a quarter of a million views. You’ve got way more than that, though. Today you’ve got Ken Wick’s court reporting videos, Katiana Walton’s podcasts, and content from tons of other creators new and old. Bottom line is American stenography and stenotype machine shorthand reporting is expanding its online presence in a big way. There’s also always been a healthy presence for stenography off of YouTube, including favorites like Mark Kislingbury, Mirabai Knight, or Marc Greenberg.

So many of these content creators are on my resource page, and I encourage professionals and students to write and comment if there’s a resource, blog, or content that you think should get added there. If you’re a content creator who’s like, “damn, why am I not mentioned anywhere on Stenonymous?” All I can say is the chance of that being intentional is pretty low. That all said, we’re pushing further along on the YouTube-Steno front. As some know, I have been working on my own YouTube channel in my spare time. There’s a multi-pronged goal of creating free resources for students so that they can have dictation available even when they cannot afford the amazing premium services out there and also introducing the idea of stenography to anybody who happens to stumble across a video of mine. Thanks to the generosity of Linda Fisher from StenoSpeed.com, down as of writing, I’m able to add over a hundred dictations to my YouTube. These dictations helped me very much as a student, they were free prior to StenoSpeed.com going down, and I am happy to put it in writing: They will be available and free once again. Simply go over to my playlists and look for the playlists marked STENO SPEED.

As of posting, these videos are still being worked on. Expect all Steno Speed audio to be posted by August 4, 2019. A great deal is already up, so don’t hesitate to spread the news and keep sharing resources together.

To anybody thinking of jumping into the mix of content creation, I recommend it. This is a vibrant field with a very loyal audience and a lot of people out there who just might need to read what you write, hear what you have to say, or watch how you do it!

Can’t Outspend? Outsell.

When many of us were in school we were given a line, steno sells itself. Many of us can probably relate to that. Most steno companies, upon hearing you’re a professional stenographer, will give you a shot. Many of us in New York came out during a big slump (2010) where steno wasn’t selling itself, but even then, it was trivial to get work. All we had to do was say we’d been working three months, and “they’d” go from sorry no work for you to “oh, here are the keys to the kingdom.” Not all of us knew it, but that’s how it was. Agency owners are good at reading confidence, and what we’re offered is often linked directly to our confidence level.

Of course, the following may be an incorrect assumption on my part, but bear with me: We have entered an era where steno is not selling itself. Company owners are being pulled into the mindset that the voice recognition is “good enough,” and some of the major players, like Veritext, have been pushing recording.

I should note, in full disclosure, that I have not been able to corroborate what I’m about to say with documents or pictures as I usually do. It’s pulled from the social media sphere, so consider it anecdotal for now, and do not be surprised if agencies start railing against social media. Even as some claim that Veritext sent an email stating they were not using recording in states like New Jersey, others have come forward across social media to say yes, this is being done behind our backs. Many of us are reportedly asking lawyers what they’re seeing, and they are seeing digital getting peddled to them relentlessly.

So what do we do when we have major players putting their resources into our replacement? Who here thinks they have more money that Veritext or their owners? Hopeless, some would say. But there is something that many reporters are realizing: This alleged shortage is a great time get private clients and begin new businesses. If Veritext or some entity swears they can’t get a stenographer, some lawyers have allegedly called their insurers and gotten authorization to use a local stenographer or stenographic firm. All their marketing moves and salespeople count for nothing if a stenographer finds themselves in the right place at the right time.

We’re the boots on the ground. We have more contact with law office staff and employees. We have the keys to the kingdom. But the people at the top have made it very clear that they’ll do whatever is convenient for them. It’s time we do the same for the survival of our industry. We don’t work for them? Try it. It might just give us access to their clients. We work for them? Guess who already has access.

Even if we don’t want to handle private clients, we could always network with an existing firm owner out there and get them clients in exchange for the work or a share. If we’re even moderately successful, big companies will be offering to buy back their business from us in a few years, and the field will be a lot healthier once the market share is spread out. Our actions determine the future. The conversation today is steno or digital. Tomorrow it just might be stay steno or slam sand.

Shortage Solutions 8: Retirement

The document that alerted us to an impending shortage was the 2013 Ducker Report. In there, it told us that in about 20 years from then, a very large percentage of reporters would be retiring. Off the top of my head, I think it was as high as 70 percent, but you’re free to read it. That point is about 10 to 14 years from today.

Obviously, this brings great opportunity, because if supply can’t meet demand, the price for the service should rise. In many markets, it has risen, especially where reporters have pushed to be paid more. Some reporters are getting out there and grabbing their own private clients because it’s a seller’s market. In response to the shortage, the field had a great many recruitment ideas including A to Z, Project Steno, Open Steno, and many schools got online to reach a larger pool of students.

A big issue for us has been if enough jobs go completely uncovered, there are interests in the market ready to jump on that and say we don’t need stenography. We can use digital recording. We can use AI transcription. We can use whatever. Veritext, from my perspective, led this charge. Notably, they’re also putting money into stenographic initiatives, but this seems to be a clear case of hedging bets in case our commitment to what we do beats the money being poured into our replacement.

So here’s where we stand: We have a large group of people slated to retire. Do we tell them not to retire? No chance. But we can collectively start spreading the word that the retired are valuable. We had this push maybe a year ago in New York. Our Association, NYSCRA, didn’t give retired reporters or educators power. Not because of any ill will or resentment, but because of a simple bylaws issue. As luck had it, who had the most time to take part in and help shape up ideas? The educators and retired! So we took a stand and voted to give them equal voting power and right to be on the board.

Let’s face facts. If we are working 9 to 6 and then going home to transcribe for an hour, it leaves us very little time to advocate for this field. We may not be able to financially take time away from work or training to be a recruiter or voice in support of this field. We may not be able to advocate for others or mentor students. It’s a great time to consider forming programs and workshops for the retired who want to remain in the field as advocates. Look at the lobbying industry. Somebody works in a field for 30 years, a private interest or association grabs them up, and then they are the spokesperson who goes out and educates politicians on the issue — sometimes for big money.

If you’re retired, if you’re about to retire, or if you know someone about to retire, and especially if you’re somewhat of an altruist, you’ve got a chance to make a difference. Anything from a kind word to a student to full-blown involvement on a board or in a professional management corporation can change outcomes. As a matter of fact, a lot of these large corporations keep veteran stenographers at the head of their court reporting programs. Even traditionally transcription-oriented companies, like Escribers, had a stenographer in management. There’s no reason why the retired can’t, if they are so inclined, put down the machine, pick up the phone, and continue to make money from this field, for this field, and grow it in a way that keeps the career bridge they just crossed standing firm.

Cert Shaming

In line with the Pitchfork Culture, since beginning this career and embarking on this journey, I have run into a social phenomenon I’ll call cert shaming. I’ll even go so far as to say it goes both ways. And we’re going to examine this, and then I’ll chime in with why it may not be good to engage in the practice.

First thing we’ll talk about is less common in my view. Shaming or viewing certified reporters as inferior. There’s been a valid and true push for years for people to get certified. It’s come from NCRA in the form of things like the TRAIN initiative to other ideas like realtime for all. Overall, this is good. We all want each other to be at the top of our game. Any interview or correspondence I’ve had with any professional in the field has led to one conclusion, the field needs great reporters. As Doris Wong put it, the field need lions. But a counterculture grew from this. There are a great many reporters in states that do not require any licensure or certification, and from that culture grew people who asked: What does it do for me? More than that, that group can fall into cert shaming, seeing the certified as snobby or entitled without ever getting to know them. If you’re reading along and feel that way, I get it. But if you have no idea what I’m talking about, this counterculture holds one motto: You write better than I do, that doesn’t mean you are better than me.

Then, of course, we have the other end of the spectrum. We have folks out there in our community that get these certifications and then decide that the uncertified are the unfit. There’s no gray area or middle ground, there’s certified or not. It doesn’t matter if you take continuing education courses, write realtime, or are out there making the field shine in your own little way. No certs, no credit, full shame.

Here is the great thing about what I am about to say: You don’t have to believe me. You can go about your business and live with a long and shining career. But here’s where I’m coming from strategically. The next time you feel like someone is inferior as a professional or reporter, examine why. If all it comes down to is whether they passed a test, then I challenge you to re-examine that view. Why? Unity. Teamwork. Commitment to one another. Commitment to this field.

We have all been stuck in a substandard position at one time or another because of somebody. We all have our own idea of what constitutes a good reporter and a bad reporter. If we take that pain and disappointment and use it to tear down the next person, we lose our ability to work together on the issues that matter. On the flip side, if you take that pain and encourage the next person to do better, to reach up and be the best reporter they can be, you’re breaking the cycle and making things a little bit better. In time, I hope we can tackle big questions together. What makes us good beyond the certs? What makes us attractive to lawyers, judges, and clients? Would the NCRA benefit from allowing uncertified people in its membership? How do we balance things so that neither the certified nor uncertified feel disenfranchised? Can we? Have we already?

Whatever your answers, know that there are other professionals out there looking to you for guidance and example, and perhaps the greatest thing you can do for them is lend your perspective firmly but politely. For a quick example, I am among the uncertified, but with every single student I have ever mentored, I have set out the truth I felt most beneficial: You can succeed regardless, and if you go for those certs you give it your all and get them. Shame your fellow reporter, and to our collective shame they may leave our field one weaker. Encourage them to do well, and they will do well.

Shortage Solutions 7: Recruitment

Check out our new table of contents!

So today we’re going to put into words one of the philosophies we go by. We have been over lots of ways for professionals and companies to beat the shortage or perceived shortage. Today we’re going to dive into the numbers.

Hopefully, we can all agree that stenography is somewhat easy to learn but incredibly difficult to do fast. Even if we can’t agree on that, we can agree there’s a high dropout rate because of the amount of focus and practice that goes into doing what we do. There is a certain percentage of people that hear about stenography, a certain percentage of people that try it, a certain percentage that like it, and a certain percentage that love it and want it to be their career. Empirically, it is difficult, and perhaps impossible, to make the education easier without sacrificing performance. So the amount of people that make it to the end will pretty much always be lower.

So let’s fake some numbers. Let’s say for every 1000 people that hear about steno, 100 try it. Let’s say 10 of those 100 are good. Let’s say 1 of those 10 loves this field and wants it to be their career. Can we, as professionals, impact those bottom numbers, and get it to be, you know, 5 people who love it and want to make it a career? A 500 percent increase? Debatable. I say let’s try.

But what do we have very direct control over? That first number. The number of people who hear about stenography. The number of people who know it’s a thing. How many people have you met that don’t believe we exist anymore? How many people have you met that don’t believe we are typing or taking down every word?

Indeed, these are likely the same principles on which A to Z, Project Steno, or Open Steno Project were founded. It’s about lowering barriers like tuition or general steno knowledge. It’s about understanding that every impression has a chance at getting someone to start the path, and that every person that starts the path has a shot at finishing it, however low or high you think that shot is.

There are different ways to perform this outreach, via social media, physical appearance at job fairs, or use of other avenues. There are already many people who have taken up recruitment efforts, and if it’s something you’re into, you can either join an existing movement or jumpstart your own thing. 10 years ago, a lot of the programs we’ve just mentioned were in their infancy or didn’t exist at all. Who is to say that your own idea won’t take off the same way?

July Jobs Jubilee (2019)

One of our anonymous Stenonymous fans asked if this month’s job post was going to be the July Jobs Report. Obviously, we’ve got a lot more creativity than that. We’re bringing you the July Jobs Jubilee at the end of JUNE.

There are still a number of state court positions posted statewide. The court reporter application is up, and test takers will be going for the exam to obtain permanent positions Saturday. Bronx Supreme still has a principal court reporter opening, filing ends July 12. New York County is seeking a supervising court reporter, filing ends July 17.

The Bronx Grand Jury Reporter position remains posted. As of writing, there are no other positions posted in NYC to my knowledge, with the understanding that the Queens DA site is down. Perhaps they’re remaking the website?

There is no federal New York slot open to my knowledge, but there are federal job opportunities across the country. Southern District Reporters seem to take resumes on a continuous basis, because they’re just that awesome.

Esquire continues its quest to attract freelancers.

Plaza college continues to seek court reporting instructors as it does its part to keep the field shining and new talent coming in.

That’s all the information I’ve got on New York positions. Feel free to comment with more jobs info.

June 28, 2019 Edit:

A link was previously given for Manhattan. Upon clicking in more, the job does not exist as of writing. See Get A Real Job for my take on finding grand jury work.

RE: Remote Judicial Reporting, WUNCRA

WUNCRA recently put out an article labeled NCRA/NCRF For Sale. I don’t reblog many of Frank’s articles for a few reasons, but I do feel that there are some things that need to be said. First of all, WUNCRA has apparently enabled comments. In months past, the option to comment was available but blocked. I, for one, will applaud WUNCRA for enabling comments, and urge that forum to continue to embrace transparency and honest discussions on the issues presented. May this be a sign of a paradigm shift towards discourse and solutions.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, Frank touches on two very important issues, but I feel doesn’t explain it as well as it can be explained, so I will take a shot at it. The issue centers around the JCR’s May 2019 edition which, in addition to Dave Wenhold’s fantastic article about change, features an article from NCRF and its chair, Tami Keenan. The article touches briefly on NCRF’s work to educate lawyers on how to make a better record, and then dives into the meat of the article and this post, RJR.

What is RJR? It’s remote judicial reporting. It’s the idea of having a stenographer attend proceedings remotely. I happened to have had the privilege of talking with Esquire’s General Counsel about their efforts to bring remote reporting to the freelance field in March, and I was overall impressed with its potential applications and the amount of work they’ve done in figuring out where it’s legal.

So on its face this sounds like a great opportunity. Decrease the amount of time reporters have to commute and increase the amount of work they can take. It’s simple math. Here is the flip side of the coin and why Frank is cautioning people about this: If you open up these remote proceedings and make them more commonplace, we will become more distant and faceless, and therefore easier to replace in the market. Today, a lot of markets demand a stenographer. That may not be so if we get a good ten years of reporting over the phone and no face time with what are essentially our customers. Remote reporting is a great idea, but it needs to promote stenography.

The second issue that Frank puts out is this idea of the national notary. The national notary idea would effectively create a national notary that could swear in people over state lines or swear people remotely, something forbidden in some states and allowed in others. This too is an idea that could be both beneficial and harmful to stenographic reporters. On the one hand, allowing people to travel seamlessly and without restriction to cover work would be a boon to many. On the other hand, there is a very real concern that stenographers in locations with a lower cost of living could undercut stenographers in markets with high cost of entry and cost of living.

All that said, Frank’s ostensible paranoia with the idea may be unnecessary. National notary does not seem to be a big topic from all I’ve been able to gather. In an exchange with a boot camp attendee that spoke on the condition of anonymity, when asked if the national notary was on the agenda, the attendee stated, “I do not remember that at all. It may have come up, but if it did, I was completely entrenched in our legislative task, so it went in one ear and out the other. I certainly do not remember that being the focus of any discussion. Or my focus, I should say.” A second attendee, writing to me under the same conditions, stated, “I don’t even remember the term ‘national notary’ coming up at all…” In my view, if two people who were there and care deeply about this field can hardly remember that coming up, it’s probably not going to be a major initiative unless and until we’ve worked out the problems I have described. As I have been told, the focus of boot camp, NCRA’s 2019 legislative boot camp, was the inclusion of court reporting schools in the Higher Education Act.

NCRA is in a tough position when it comes to these WUNCRA posts. On the one hand, if it comes out with a counter to each and every one, it ends up giving airtime to someone who just hasn’t been all that friendly towards the organization. I too worry about that. But I worry more about the cost of ignorance. If we do not take the time to introduce these ideas with some pros and cons laid out for brain food, we risk students and reporters stumbling across these ideas with no other reference or perspective. I’m happy to let my blog serve as one of many in the long run. And my personal conclusion? NCRA for sale? Not likely!

Indeed, if we are not somewhat careful in how we approach the issues, we may find ourselves in a hard position. Taking the time out to educate each other on the issues is always worthwhile, and it is important for all of us to weigh the pros and cons, and come up with ways we might influence the market, keep our skills sharp, and our customers happy. If I can pull a little bit off of Wenhold’s article, I’d say change is coming, not all of it bad. But I’d say this: We can all, in our markets and profession, be agents of change, and work to ensure change is for the better.

Shortage Solutions 6: Pay the Piper

Everybody knows the story about the Pied Piper. A town has a terrible vermin problem and the Pied Piper comes, promising to do away with the problem. The Piper uses his or her flute, pipe, or whatever musical instrument the story calls for, and plays a magical tune that lets him or her lead all the rats to the river to be drowned. Upon the Piper making good on their promise, the town refuses to pay the Piper, and the Piper uses that magical tune to lead all the children away. The moral of the story is pay your debts — or else!

When I was a newbie, people had no trouble telling me I needed to pay my dues, accept whatever an agency was willing to toss me, and move forward. Those people were right. In the beginning, one needs to be hungry and establish themselves. So it’s with some amusement that I get to say now to all of you: Make sure after that initial starter period that the Piper is paid. Court reporters, you are the Piper. The agency is not the Piper. The agency went through the trouble of marketing and receiving work to dish out to you, but if any one particular agency didn’t exist, the depositions would still be occurring, the demand is more or less fixed.

In the face of fixed demand and a fairly specialized skill set of deposition or stenographic reporting, it makes sense that as the supply of court reporters goes down, the price must rise. Here in New York we were pretty depressed on rates. Agencies were offering $3.25 a page and 25 cents on a copy, if that. Things were bad. Now the shoe is literally on the other foot, and it’s time for reporters to demand to be paid, and for agencies to pay them before the reporters take your children away.

I have to say, one starter company that seems to get this shifting paradigm is NexDep. It looks like they want to pay Reporters 4 a page and 2 a copy. 2 dollars, just so you know, not two cents. I reached out to Daniel Perelman, ostensibly NexDep’s founder, just to get a little more insight on what they’re doing or things they’d like reporters to know about their company.

My very first question was whether they had a referral program like many of the success stories out there, and he confirmed that NexDep does have a referral program where a percentage of every job from the referred client would go to the referrer.

Next I asked about wait time, and Mr. Perelman explained they don’t currently bill for wait time, but also stated he was open to it and understood the need to bill for wait time in the event a reporter was sitting and waiting for hours on their time. He did also mention to me that the reporter’s full-day appearance fee is always given, even if the deposition is a half hour long.

Asked about RFPs and whether NexDep was taking a step into any of that territory, Mr. Perelman stated that they were open to any business opportunity, but also noted that his experience with RFP contracts tended to result in low pay for reporters. My takeaway was that if it wasn’t getting his reporters paid, he wasn’t going to take it.

Finally, asked if he had anything he wanted to tell reporters or the field about his company, he wrote, “Nexdep is the first to market on-demand court reporting platform. We’re popular not because of our low rates, but because we make scheduling incredibly fast and simple on the client end, while also making the accepting of jobs fair and easy on the reporter end. We’ve made freelance court reporting a truly freelance career again.” Honestly, I first met Mr. Perelman at the Plaza College Court Reporting Symposium, and he was honest and upfront about not being a reporter, but his company policies tell me he knows who we are and the value we bring to the table.

Now all this said, I have definitely had some anecdotes from reporters who said “I signed up for NexDep and haven’t gotten anything yet.” So that indicates to me that there’s definitely a larger market share for NexDep to go out there and grab — but maybe this is an opportunity for all the other agencies and all reporters to figure out that one sure route to retain reporting professionals is to make sure they’re getting paid for doing the lion’s share of the work.

Law For Stenographers (US) (FRCP)

I had previously shared law for Stenographers in New York and my understanding of New York law as it pertains to remote swearing of witnesses. I wanted to bring out some information about the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which govern our federal depositions and activity there. The bulk of the Federal Rules have nothing to do with stenographers, but there are a number of Federal Rules that pertain specifically to our duties as stenographers and what they label as officers or deposition officers.

Rule 28. Rule 28 (a)(1)(A) lays out that a deposition may be taken before an officer authorized to administer oaths by federal law or by the place of examination within the United States. You should be very familiar with your state law as to who can administer oaths, or ask to be qualified by stipulation pursuant to any of the rules we are about to get into.

Rule 30. Rule 30 (b)(5), very similar to our CPLR in New York, has language that “unless stipulated by the parties…” long story short is that that “unless” language opens up the opportunity for parties to stipulate to things like remote swearing, or alter the procedure. Once again, one of the few times in law that attorneys can stipulate away the law. Please know a reader wrote to me on 1/16/20 and stated their interpretation was not that the attorneys can stipulate away notary law and have the notary swear the witness, but rather proceed as if the witness is under oath and have them read and sign as such. As of yet, I have no case law on this issue.

Do note there there is a list of stuff you as the officer is supposed to do here, like placing your name and address on the record, the date, time, place of the deposition, deponent’s name, your administration of the oath, and the identity of all persons present. At the end, you must state that the deposition is complete and set out any stipulations of the attorneys.

Rule 30 (b)(3) states the method of recording the deposition must be in the deposition notice. Do yourself a favor and educate attorneys to ensure their deposition notice says stenographically recorded.

Rule 30 (b)(4) explicitly allows remote proceedings, and with the language in Rule 30 (b) (5), and in the absence of contrary case law, one may draw an inference that so long as you are not violating your state law, it is also permissible to swear a witness while not in their presence.

Rule 30 (c) (2). Again, like our CPLR in New York, objections need to be made at the time of the examination on the record. If they have objections to the way you’re swearing or what’s occurring, they need to make them then and there. Long story short, they can’t really come back 9 months later and say you did something wrong — though they may try.

Rule 30 (e) tells us that upon request by a deponent or party before the deposition is completed, the deponent must be allowed to review the transcript. This is what we call read and sign.

Rule 30 (f) explains how the officer is to send the deposition to the ordering attorney. Common sense stuff like identifying it and sealing the envelope. It then largely becomes the responsibility of the attorney.

Rule 30 (f)(3) says unless otherwise stipulated, you have to retain your stenographic notes and provide a transcript upon payment of reasonable fees.

Rule 32. Rule 32 (d)(2) makes it resoundingly clear that any objection to your qualifications as an officer at the deposition must be challenged promptly, either at the deposition or soon thereafter. Rule 32 (d)(3) again makes it clear that objections that are not made pretty much at the time of the deposition are waived.

Addendum:

Unsworn depositions, particularly on the federal side, can open up reporters to liability. See Dineen Squillante’s post on this. Looking forward to its publication in Vermont!

June 9 Burngirl CaseCAT Tips (2019)

Came across a Roisin McRoberts post that let us all know she was going to be hosting or having a CaseCAT tips session at 3 p.m. PST on June 9, 2019 on her Twitch channel, Burngirl. As far as I know, there are not CEUs offered, but it is a chance to learn new things. For people on the East Coast like me, we’re looking at it being at 6 p.m. EST. For those that don’t know, Twitch is primarily a video game streaming service and business, so if you tune in before that, you might just find someone playing some video games. All I can really say is thank you for taking the time to put together what you’re putting together and I hope it makes every attendee just a little more knowledgeable.

I think this is a really interesting idea, and I would love to see our profession spread to more platforms and marketplaces, so it’s a good time to mention that you too can join the streaming world. I believe Facebook and YouTube both provide simplified live streaming service. Last I checked it, Twitch required a streaming software like the free program, OBS, to work well, but perhaps that’s changed. Regardless, if you are a trainer or teacher out there who wants to help people, there are free video edit softwares like Shotcut out there to help. There are free or low-cost screen capture softwares like OBS or Fraps. Additionally, remember that if you follow the continuing education program rules, you can also offer CEUs to your audience.

We are really at a point where we can use technology to spread our message and help a lot of people. I have had friends in the past use video gaming itself as a way to donate money to serious causes like cancer or children, and I can only imagine all the ways that these platforms could be used. We could see NCRF matching drives or other causes that support steno rise up and hit bigger audiences. It’s a world of unlimited ideas, and every contribution is important.