There are 14 officers and directors that sit on the board of NCRA.  With all of that “hard work, service and perseverance” sitting right there before our very eyes, we wondered why in the world our now immediate past president felt it necessary to place two nonboard members on the search committee for the new CEO/executive director of NCRA.  Why isn’t the Secretary-Treasurer, who is beloved and trusted by the membership of NCRA, on the search committee, but a gentleman who lost resoundingly in last year’s election is on it?  Do you think that maybe he’ll cancel out the vote of the woman he lost to last year?

There was whispering chatter at the Vegas convention that a member of NCRA whose business services voicewriters, electronic recorders and steno reporters is vying for the job.  We’re wondering, are the two nonboard members friends with that member? Actually, with the immediate past president or the new president breaking a tie, only one of those nonboard members needs to be in the clique to vote in favor of that hire.

Is the grand “strategic plan” to dwindle the membership down to right under 12,000 voting members (from a high in the mid 30,000s) so that NCRA can become about certifying electronic recorders and voicewriters?  The dwindling part of the plan is working.

And about dwindling membership, when you have a dissatisfied customer, don’t you normally try to find out why your customer is dissatisfied so that you can rectify the problem?  How could NCRA lose 25,000 members in less than ten years and not know why so many members have jumped ship?  Could it be that they just … don’t … care?  Because, gosh darn it, they’ve lost the battles of the cries of membership to remain a steno-only organization, but it’s so satisfying to win the war!

Wake Up, NCRA!
Frank N. Sense

If you have not received an e-mail from NCRA to vote, the URL is:

https://NCRA.simplyvoting.com

Enter your NCRA ID and your password.

Please be sure to vote AGAINST the bylaws amendments, and please do not abstain.

Wake Up, NCRA!!!
Frank N. Sense

P.S. Please send this e-mail to every NCRA member on your list, so they know that the balloting is NOW OPEN, and they, too, should vote AGAINST the bylaws amendments.

We were reading through the “rationale” behind the proposed bylaws and why the board thinks that these changes are in membership’s best interests!

First of all, all of us here at WakeUpNCRA – and we’re sure the rest of the membership, too – want to know exactly which board members voted to put these terrible proposed bylaws changes to membership vote.

But that would require transparency.  And the board doesn’t define “transparency” the same way that the rest of us do.  We’re not ALLOWED to know which board members voted against ANY proposal.  The majority rules!  They subscribe to the Three Musketeers’ principle – “all for one; one for all.”  And by the way, remember that it only takes Three Musketeers on the Executive Committee to pass anything they want to pass.  Aha!  So we can just rationalize that it was Steve, Tiva and Chris that voted to place these bylaws changes on the ballot.

One thing that their rationalization states is that members do want to be able to have an active voice in their organization.  That is something that we agree on.  But these proposals take away that active voice, and they give the Nominating Committee 100% authority over OUR representatives.

The Nominating Committee perpetuates the cliques.  The president appoints the Nominating Committee, and the immediate past president presides over it.  The president and immediate past president are chums, otherwise they wouldn’t be on the Executive Committee! The president appoints at least another two of her chums to the Nominating Committee.  They always throw in an outlier or two as decoys.  But, still, they only need Three Musketeers to agree on who will be nominated.  The immediate past president (a chum) always breaks a tie vote.

Now they want to allow the Nominating Committee to put up “as many highly qualified ‘friends’” as it likes with the top three candidates for Director seats garnering the most votes to be seated. AND they don’t mention anything about the coveted Executive Committee positions in their rationalization. Why?  Because it only takes Three Musketeers on the Executive Committee to make all of the major decisions for NCRA*, and they don’t want to change that li’l ol’ skulduggery.

These bylaws changes are BAD for membership.

These bylaws changes are BAD for steno reporters.

Theses bylaws changes are  BAD for NCRA.

Please join us on Thursday, August 10^th, in voting AGAINST any changes to the existing bylaws!!!

Wake Up, NCRA!
Frank N. Sense

P.S.  Please send this to all of your fellow NCRA members so that they’re informed about Voting  AGAINST this year’s bylaws changes, too.

*  like selling the paid-for NCRA building

There are so many reasons to Vote NO!!! on the current proposed amendments, but all of us here at Wake Up NCRA! only have a few days left to sort it out before the big vote this upcoming THURSDAY!!!

One of the proposed changes to the election procedures is to expand the balloting process from 12 hours to two weeks!

Let’s explain how bad this is for membership by giving a hypothetical scenario:

You have a hypothetical Nominating Committee Vice President nominee named Maureen who has lots of friends on the board and is part of the clique. A super-qualified member named Kendra, who gets totally snubbed by the Nominating Committee because she’s just not cool enough, gets 100 nominations from Voting Members to run in a contested election against Maureen.

Esperanza, who initially nominated Maureen for the position of Vice President, has a huge list of NCRA members. In this age of leaks, Esperanza finds out that Maureen is behind in the votes on day eight of the two weeks and goes on a marathon of calling and e-mailing to get more members to vote for Maureen. Of course, none of the leaked information gets out to Kendra. VOILA! Maureen wins the VP seat by ten votes.

Hey, Board of Directors, if you want more NCRA members to vote in the election, how about spending that two weeks before the election marketing that the balloting is going to be open for 12 hours on August 10^th!!! Voting 12 hours works for choosing the President of the United States. It’s PLENTY of time to choose board members for NCRA while hopefully avoiding improprieties.

Wake Up NCRA!
Frank N. Sense

P.S. Please send this to at least ten NCRA members so that they know to vote NO! on all of the bylaws amendments on August 10^th, too.

Since our “Golden” Era, NCRA’s membership has decreased tens of thousands, and this current board’s great idea is to do away with the Retired Lifetime Membership category to build up the bank account?

The current bylaws say that if you’ve been a member for 30 consecutive years and you are no longer engaged in verbatim reporting, that you’re eligible to become a Retired Lifetime Member.  The proposed amendment is now getting hyper-technical about what it takes to qualify for retired status, and, oh, by the way, if you manage to thread the needle and qualify, you get to pay half-price until you die. 

So let’s translate this for a second.  What leadership appears to be saying is that they’ve thrown in the towel on growing membership or winning back the tens of thousands who’ve quit because leadership hasn’t met their needs.  And so now the BIG IDEA is to make more money by punishing the members who have been loyal for at least 30 years!!!

For instance, we are told that the current election bylaws amendments “…embody some strategies to highlight existing ‘transparencies’ and to simplify the election process…” when in reality, the proposed amendment takes away any membership control and gives the Nominating Committee 100% authority over who will sit on the board representing members. 

If this proposed amendment was in place last year, Sue, Christine and Debbie would NOT be sitting on the board this year because membership would not have been able to override the clique of the Nominating Committee.  If this proposal passes, the Nominating Committee will have the ability, at its discretion, to place as many “highly qualified” friends on the ballot as it likes.  We here at WUNCRA submit that Sue, Christine and Debbie would not even have made last year’s ballot even though membership determined through the election process that they are “the most qualified” to serve us on OUR board!!!

There is not one positive thing favorable to membership about this proposed bylaw amendment that we can determine here at WUNCRA.

If this Board wants to talk about “transparency,” how about some forensic accounting to determine where the $5 million went from the sale of the building that was owned free and clear by NCRA?  Hmmm, maybe we’d find out something that they don’t want us to know about?  Instead, they want to further muddy the election process.

Stop the cliques!!! Vote NO! on Article IX!!!

Wake Up, NCRA!!!
Frank N. Sense

P.S.  Please send this to ten NCRA members so that they know about how bad Article IX is for membership, too!!! Vote “NO!” on Article IX!!!

When you watched the movie ”TITANIC,” weren’t you at least silently saying, “Rose, blow the whistle! Blow the whistle! Call the rescuers back!” so Rose could be saved after Jack froze to death and sank to the bottom of the ocean?

Our fellow NCRA members, that is the exact position we are in regarding our Board of Directors. Last year we had three leaders voted on to the BOD from the floor after being dissed by the Nominating Committee. Two of them are on the Executive Committee.* The Executive Committee of five makes EVERY major decision regarding NCRA. That’s right! It actually only takes three votes of the Executive Committee to make a decision to, say, sell the debt-free NCRA headquarters building for $5 million, and disappear $2.3 million of that money without having to answer to anybody but themselves! The Nominating Committee, once again, chose a woman for the vice president position after membership voted against her last year! We submit to you that if she doesn’t have an opponent at this year’s election that the Executive Committee “trifecta” will consist of Chris, Tiva and Doreen next year.

Our sleuths did some diving into NCRA history and found a bunch of brave leaders who have previously run from the floor! We are “blowing the whistle”and imploring Donna C., Judy W., Sandra M., Viola Z. – even Melanie S. – to sign up again and rescue NCRA!

And speaking of leaders, how about Toni P., Lisa K., Rosalie, Karen M. — or even the fine gentleman from Washington State, Roger F., who recently wrote an eloquent e-mail calling for action that was forwarded on to a few of us here at WUNCRA – running for the Board of Directors?

We need to reach a critical mass of new leadership to break up the cliques! There are 14 people on the NCRA Board of Directors. Membership – YOU – without any help from Nom Com – YOU voted in three last year. Four new leaders running this year from the floor** will continue last year’s momentum and get seven leaders on the board not looking for self-gain. One running for and winning the V.P. position on the Executive Committee will surely break the triumvirate.

Perhaps you, reading this very blog right now, are one of those leaders! Have you been rejected by the Nominating Committee in the past? YOUR association needs YOU back! Or maybe you know an ideal candidate! If you do, please urge them to run!

We are blowing the whistle for new leadership so that WE – NCRA MEMBERSHIP! – can be rescued by new leaders that WE NOMINATE and WE ELECT from OUR OWN ranks!

Wake Up NCRA!
Frank N. Sense

P.S. Please send this to at least 10 NCRA members so that we get the word out that we’re looking for leaders to run for the Board of Directors.

*We have a suspicion that Sue and Debbie “Aren’t Feelin’ the Love” on the E.C. after their bravery of running from the floor last year. Just a hunch.

** The vice president (a critical executive committee position) and three director positions.

It’s Easier to Ask for Forgiveness than it is to Get Permission: 8224 Old Courthouse Road, Vienna, Virginia 22182. Plus, Board Minutes, Nominating Committee, and Advertising for ER reporter in MN.

Wow! A lot of discoveries since the last time we posted on this blog.

We here at WAKE UP NCRA got really curious about the sale of NCRA’s building back in 2015. There is a short blurb about it in the 2014-2015 Annual Report: “In 2015, NCRA sold its headquarters in Vienna, Va., which resulted in an extraordinary gain from the sale of the building.” **

Our sleuths here Googled “8224 Old Courthouse Road, Vienna, Virginia 22182” and, according to The Washington Post, the building was sold for $5 million. Our simple reading of the 2014-2015 Annual Report reflects a net gain on disposal of property and equipment of $2.695 million.

Membership deserves a FULL accounting on the sale of our most precious asset. For instance, we want to know what happened to $2.3 million – the difference between the sale price and the $2.695 million reflected in the annual report.

We looked at board minutes of the NCRA meetings and cannot find mention of the sale of the building. As a matter of fact, NCRA’s board minutes don’t say much at all about what goes on in those board meetings. Since it’s the secretary’s responsibility to “manage meeting minutes” we are looking to her to supply complete and detailed minutes of all future board meetings. For instance, it would have been nice to know which board members agreed with the sale of the building and which ones opposed it, and why. Full and complete board minutes will also allow membership to make informed decisions about the members that we want leading our 118-year-old organization – or more importantly, who we don’t want in those executive and director positions.

It’s, once again, the time of year for the Nominating Committee to meet and come up with “candidates” for the Board of Directors. Where does the time go? We noticed that one of the “candidates” is one that lost resoundingly for the vice-president position last year. Hopefully, the “Nom Com” will still listen to membership’s wishes. The cliques and the secrecy must stop! NCRA is at a fork in the road. Perhaps it’s time for the Nominating Committee to redeem themselves and go outside the “nominations” and beg the real leaders of our profession to roll up their sleeves and turn the ship around. Find the leaders who aren’t looking for aggrandizement. Find the leaders who don’t want to sit at the “cool girls’ table.” Find leaders who are truly altruistic and will not use their past “service” as a marquee for future gain. They are out there, Nominating Committee.   Find them. That is your duty.

Speaking of using past “service” for future gain. Whose idea was it to allow an advertisement to fill an ER position in Minnesota in this week’s classifieds of the JCR blast? We wonder if Minnesota’s recording system is FtR.

Wake Up NCRA!
Frank N. Sense

** Now it’s become clear WHY the business meeting wasn’t streamed on Sarah’s last day of being president. Remember that to-do?

Congratulations, NCRA Members!!! You made the NOISE, and it reverberated LOUDLY and CLEARLY in Chi-Town!!! A few months ago YOU nominated three candidates, and yesterday YOU came out in force and elected them to be OUR new LEADERS. That’s what democracy is all about!

All of us here at WakeUpNCRA want to thank Sue Terry, Debbie Dibble and Christine Phipps for being OPEN and TRANSPARENT and for running on platforms that were all about how NCRA can best serve steno reporters!!!

Now that you’ve done your job by electing them, it’s time for them to do their jobs and do everything in their power to make NCRA the organization that we all know it can be.

Again, CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ROCK!!!

Frank N. Sense

P.S. YOU REALLY ROCK!!!

Please vote for the candidates that WE, the membership at large, have nominated.

Sue Terry, Debbie Dibble and Christine Phipps are OUR candidates, and today is the day to support them with OUR VOTES.

Wake Up NCRA!
Frank N. Sense

P.S. Please remind every member of NCRA in your contacts list to VOTE in today’s election.

P.P.S. If you haven’t received a ballot in your e-mail or spam box please vote at:                                                                                                      http://ncra.simplyvoting.com