President’s Message

I'd like to first say thank you to all of my fellow court reporters for allowing me the opportunity to serve as your president for 2011/2012.  Thank you to Cecily Faulkner for doing such a great job as our spring CE Chair.  A special thanks to Allison Lewis for creating our very own Facebook page, Mississippi Court Reporters Association.  Please go to our page and "like" us.
       
Thanks to Danette Horne for her work in getting PayPal set up on our website.  Now we are able to pay dues, buy directories and t-shirts and anything else we decide to sell on there to benefit our association!

If you haven't read the article on our website entitled "Measure Your Life in Love" by Monica Schroeder, RPR, CRR, CSR, please read it today.  You will find it under the MCRA News link on the left-hand side of our Home page.  I want to see all of us work together to revamp and update our website by sending our suggestions and news to Michelle at casanorm@aol.com.  We owe a huge thank you to Michelle for all of her work in maintaining and updating our website.

I hope to encourage more of you to participate in promoting our profession.  If you thought about joining the Promoting Our Profession (POP) Committee, please contact me!!!  We need your ideas, your enthusiasm and your motivation.  We need to prepare for as many career day presentations as we can attend at local high schools next spring.  Please volunteer to host one in your area!

On the coattails of our success in getting the penalties in place for our certification license, your Legislative Committee is not cooling its heels by any means.  They have already started discussions regarding anti-contracting language within their network of contacts.  NCRA has just appointed a new task force to research the
anti-contracting issue and return advice for states in their search to pass legislation in their respective state.

We are going to have a vendor table at the Annual Bar Convention in Destin, Florida in July to promote anti-contracting, our certification, and our profession, among other things.  Our delegates are Cecily Faulkner, Hope McCoy, and Patsy Ainsworth Young. 

Our delegates for representation of our state at NCSA are Allison Lewis, Due McKinion, and Danette Horne.  NCSA stands for National Committee of State Associations.  They meet before the national NCRA convention and discuss issues that are affecting each individual state.  I am so grateful for the opportunity serving on our MCRA board gave me to attend NCSA in Washington in 2009 and Chicago in 2010.  These meetings really opened my eyes to the voice we have available for our state within NCRA by sending our delegates to NCSA.  The NCSA board then takes the prevailing concerns voiced by each state to NCRA. 

We will also have our Spring CE Chair, Sheila McKinney, attending the national convention in order to network among vendors and speakers.

All I ask of each of you is to please get involved with your association!!!