Following the NCRA Board of Directors meeting Nov. 9-10, the Board announced that Interim Executive Director Dave Wenhold, CAE, will act as Executive Director for the Association through 2020.
“We are pleased that Dave will remain with the Association for another year,” said Max Curry, RPR, CRI, NCRA’s President. “Not only does this bring greater continuity to the Association, but Dave’s great depth of knowledge about the profession and Association is an asset to us all,” he added.
“I am excited to continue the great work that staff and the Board have done in 2019,” said Wenhold. “Working together, we have created crucial committees like NCRA STRONG, worked with Congress to reintroduce the Training for Realtime Writers Act to increase funding for training reporters and captioners, increased transparency and trust, and we have cut expenses and will have our finances in the black for the first time in about a decade.”
“In the coming year, I plan to work with the volunteer leadership to take this organization to the next level. With 21 years of experience working with NCRA, I’m excited about this next stage and look forward to what we can do together to make NCRA even better,” added Wenhold.
In other business coming out of the meeting, the Board decided to change the name of the new certification to Registered Skilled Reporter (RSR), which better reflects the mission of supporting this latest professional certification than the initial title, Registered Apprentice Reporter. Created as a stepping-stone credential to ultimately achieving the Registered Professional Reporter (RPR) designation, the RSR certification supports those who are new or returning to the court reporting profession who have yet to be able to get their writing speeds up enough to earn the RPR. To earn an RSR, candidates must get a 95 percent pass rate on three 5-minute Skills Tests: a Literary leg at 160 words per minute; a Jury Charge leg at 180 words per minute; and a Testimony/Q&A leg at 200 words per minute. Testing for the RSR begins Jan. 1, 2020, and registration for the first RSR skills testing began Dec. 1, 2019.
In addition, the Board voted to reduce rates for classified ads for the print JCR to $3 per word for members (with a $30 minimum) and $5 per word for nonmembers (with a $50 minimum). Those who want to place both online and print ads will pay $5 per word for members (with a $50 minimum) and $8 per word for nonmembers (with an $80 minimum). Officialships will continue to be placed free of charge in both the print JCR and online as a service to members.
Finally, the Board approved a plan to offer value to organizations and firms who wish to invest in the Association through a planned Professional Partnership program. The program allows potential partners to support the Association by participating in events, networking opportunities, sponsorships, memberships, and support of the National Court Reporters Foundation. More details on this program and classifieds can be found by contacting NCRA’s Development Relations Manager at jlandsman@ncra.org.
