OCRA

President's Message

President’s Message – 5/8/08

“I believe the children are our future.   Teach them well and let them lead the way.”   I’ve always wanted to begin an article with an inspiring quote from a great thinker, but unfortunately I have more sappy pop songs stored in my memory banks than inspiring quotes from great thinkers.  So now that I’ve stolen a line from Whitney Houston, I’m going to take issue with the concept to some extent.  I’ve spent some time the last couple of months at a High School Career Fair, at the College of Legal Arts, and I’ve recently become a student mentor, so I’ve been thinking about court reporting students a lot lately, and I’ve realized that students are not only the future of court reporting, they’re court reporting today.

I’ll be honest, I really wasn’t very excited about participating in the career fair and I was nervous about speaking to the students at COLA, but I’m glad I had both of those experiences.  Being at the career fair reminded me that I first learned about court reporting from a teacher during my junior year of high school, and five years later I was graduating from Court Reporting Institute.  Going to COLA with Terri Mundt and Jenny Pietka to talk to the students about our upcoming spring and fall conventions reminded me of the time I attended OCRA’s fall convention as a student so I could network with the people who may one day hire me, and two years later I was working at a reporting firm in Portland.   Also, during my final year at CRI, one of the official reporters from Clackamas County came to the school to talk to us about working in court, and ten years later as she retired, I was one of two reporters hired to fill her position.

At each stage of my education, there were professionals sharing the information, experience and wisdom that they had gained throughout their careers.  I’m sure they each felt like they were playing a small part in guiding me towards my future, but I wonder if any of them realized just how much the future and the present were already intertwined.

I can imagine that five years from now one of the high school students I met will be captioning a live broadcast that I’ll be watching in a crowded airport or restaurant.  I can imagine that two years from now one of the court reporting students I’ve met will be working as a freelance reporter in Portland taking a deposition in a conference room next door to the one I’m working in.

There is a shortage of qualified reporters providing broadcast captioning and CART services.  Even though budget cuts and a move to ER have led to layoffs of official reporters, there are still official positions available throughout the country and here in Oregon there are attorneys who are hiring reporters to cover their trials and motions in court.

We can all be a part of promoting court reporting by participating in high school career fairs.  We can all be a part of educating court reporting students by spending time with them at conventions.  We can all be a part of ensuring the health and integrity of court reporting today and into the future by signing up to mentor a student.  Who knows?  When you help a student today, you may be playing a part in training your future employee, colleague or even business partner.