The president, who is retired and has no stake in the game of stenographic reporting, wrote on page 7 of his “From the President” diatribe in October’s JCR magazine about how “we’re learning that it’s the human component that is the most important part of the business of the public record.” Yeah, he knows how important it is to be the human behind pressing a record button before those spoken words (and voiceprints) are processed through an AI tool which then becomes the property of that AI company.
Yes, we believe that his and the CEO’s goal is to get all of us to sing Kumbaya with our “friends across the aisle” who use their voices to “write realtime” and are members of affiliate organizations. In case you missed church the last few weeks, the president also gave a sermon about the golden rule, storms, and showing a little kindness.
He says that “we all share the same mission: Making sure the record is captured accurately.” He goes on to say that kindness is what is needed to “… keep raising the bar and make sure everyone – no matter how they make a record – feels welcomed and valued.”
All of us here at WUNCRA want the president (who, again, is retired and no longer has a stake in our game) and the CEO to know that they exist at NCRA to represent Stenographic Reporters — and Stenographic Reporters only. They need to read the by-laws – NCRA’s Constitution.
FYI, there was EXCITING news on page 12 of September’s JCR magazine about a new court reporting program that is starting in the fall 2024 at Wallace Community College in Dothan, Alabama!
We got suspicious (apparently the president, CEO, Board of Directors, and the Editor of the magazine did not) when we saw that the program is a one- and two-year program. After a cursory web search, the first sentence of the course description says, “This course is designed to give participants a thorough understanding of how to be a digital court reporter, as well as broad training for covering legal proceedings.”
So now we have Exhibit No. 999 showing how your president, your Board of Directors, CEO, and Editor of the JCR Magazine are undermining the profession – OUR PROFESSION — of Stenographic Court Reporting.
Mr. President and Mr. CEO, it is time to turn the page, and for you to step down. We don’t know why* you are both actively and passively taking actions that, in our opinion, will destroy the profession of stenographic court reporting, but we believe that it’s plain to see that that’s where your actions (and failures to act) are taking us.
WAKE UP, NCRA!
FRANK N. SENSE
* Common sense tells us that the CEO is just trying to hold on to his very lucrative job, and the president probably just needs to be “one of the bros.”
P.S. The definition of propaganda is: information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a point of view.