Which is it?

Recently, the Deposition Reporters Association of California asked the reporters running for positions on the NCRA Board of Directors questions so that members could be informed of where these reporters stood with regard to the issues of the day.

The first question asked if the candidates believed NCRA should remain a steno organization or become an umbrella organization.

My opponent in the race for secretary-treasurer answered: "We should and will remain what the membership decides. I do not see and would not advocate bringing in audio recording operators into NCRA."

But earlier in a post on the NCRA Forum, he said, "I'm not in favor of supporting an ER/DAR operator push for membership -- again, lacking facts to sway me to the contrary."

So I guess my question is: Which is it? Are you against it or are you only against it until someone can convince you otherwise? Don't we have the right to have an organization that advocates for what we do? Don't we have the right to have an association that advocates only for stenographic reporters? Isn't that what our Constitution and Bylaws say we are all about? And haven't the members already told the board on three separate occasions that they want to remain steno only?

I am growing tired of hearing about what DAR can do. I already know what DAR can do. But I also know what we can do, and we ought to be talking about that. The president of NCRA just admitted that for the past couple years, the NCRA board was too engrossed in becoming an umbrella-type testing organization and an umbrella-type membership organization. And my opponent has been a member of that board for four out the the last five years. She said they are now going to listen to the membership to see what direction they want the association to go in. That's great! I do question the timing of it all, coming out one month before the convention with all of these contested elections taking place, but let's advocate for steno. Let's advocate to the public and our members for realtime. Let's do what we should have been doing for the last several years.