So far, this past week the NCRA board has abandoned the Virginia Court Reporters Association during what is probably the most important hour of their history.  As long as this remains the case, the NCRA board’s actions are absolutely disgraceful! 

Here’s a synopsis that we’ve gathered together* of what happened with the NCRA board, executive director, and Virginia this past week:

1. After many years of trying to gain traction against contracting in Virginia, the Virginia Court Reporters Association finally got an anti-contracting bill sponsored by a Senator.  They were able to “crush it” (14-1) in the Virginia Senate Court of Justice Committee Hearing.
2. At the firm owners’ conference in Florida last week,  the new executive director of NCRA “quite aggressively” told a member of the VCRA, that “NCRA ‘would not, would not’ be present in any way in Va, that NCRA represented ‘all reporters’ including those that worked for the contracting companies.” (Yes, you did read that last quote correctly!)
3. The VCRA won in the full Senate (35-5).  They are now positioned to move over to the House side.
4. A VoterVoice link was set up a few months ago by NCRA so that the VCRA membership could easily email their support of this bill to their legislators.  When one of the reporters tried to use it, the link no longer worked.  The link was reinstated by NCRA after a complaint was made.
5. There were requests from members for answers from the NCRA board and its executive director regarding the issues around Virginia.  After a long delay, the president of NCRA responded that she had been quite busy in depositions and tending to her business.  She then gave a few patronizing comments about commending and respecting “the passion exhibited by those fighting for what they believe in”; that the NCRA board is doing the same**; that she believes that they are positioning NCRA to provide incredible member value,” blah, blah, blah … platitudes, platitudes and more platitudes!  She went on to say that “we respectfully ask for your patience as we define our path through our strategic plan, which should be completed by JUNE (emphasis added).”
6. An NCRA member then added that “Virginia doesn’t have until June.  They are in legislative session right now.”  It was then asked, “Will they be supported in the meantime by NCRA … in a meaningful manner?”  We have yet to see an answer from the president or the executive director to the last question.

Everybody knows that having NCRA at your side as your state is “crushing it” provides very good optics before a legislative body.  It is a complete shock to membership that NCRA has been a no-show in Virginia.  Where was the president of NCRA when Virginia needed her to be there? 

NCRA’s membership has been screaming for as long as all of us here at WUNCRA can remember about how bad contracting is for our profession.  We are sorry that some folks have emerged that don’t know the history of the anti-contracting movement in the reporting profession.  We are sorry that they don’t understand that helping contracting companies by and large hurts the reporters who work for (or, more accurately, are exploited by) those contracting companies.

And we are tired of “talking to the hand.”  Who on the board is driving NCRA to take the position that “NCRA ‘would not, would not‘ be present in any way in Virginia”?  We need transparency and accountability – now more than ever!

If you can’t give membership transparency and accountability, you need to resign from the board.  Because if you’re not transparent and accountable to membership, whose interests are you serving?***

You don’t get many second chances in life.  But right now in Virginia NCRA has a chance to get on the right side of contracting – to oppose it!  Will leadership do the right thing?

WAKE UP, NCRA!
Frank N. Sense****

P.S. Perhaps the state leaders need to boycott the Boot Camp set for March 11-13. Why head out to D.C. just to hear more platitudes when the guy most knowledgeable about reporting advocacy and governance won’t even be there? Save your state membership’s hard-earned dues and protest the grave decision of not renewing his contract, and this “strategic plan” of not showing up when your state really needs them to be there.

P.P.S. Please forward this post to ten NCRA members so that they know what their membership dues are not buying anymore, too!

*Thank you to the readers of this blog for providing much of the information for this post.  Please rest assured that we will not disclose who you are.

**Not fighting the contracting issue.

***Companies that donate $50,000 or more to NCRA’s Foundation or Steno Projects?

****While on the subject of transparency and accountability, how about the Board coming clean about the disposal of NCRA’s biggest asset?