A Message From Gwenda Applegate, VCRA President

Happy Holidays to Everyone!! Seasons Greetings from the Virginia Court Reporters Association.

The cold weather has ushered in, and we are all preparing for a festive holiday season, celebrating with family and friends, and enjoying some well-deserved time off to relax and prepare for the new year.

The VCRA board is working diligently on the upcoming convention in Virginia Beach on March 9, 2012 at the beautiful oceanfront Virginia Beach Hilton, a prestigious new hotel with luxurious accommodations. The board has secured an excellent room rate for you, but be sure to reserve your reservations early, as there are a limited number of blocked rooms available to us. We are so very excited that Anita Paul-Johnston will be joining us for the weekend, bringing Virginia reporters her vast knowledge of real time and ethics, as well as techniques to improve our writing skills. Anita will also be speaking to us about embracing change, something we all need to be thinking about, as well as a session regarding CART and captioning.

An NCRA representative will be attending our convention as well and will educate us on important national topics we need to be aware of. Lisa Phelps, the daughter of member Marilou Desetto, will be discussing pathology and how it relates to us. She is a pathologist's assistant at St. Luke's Medical Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Lisa will give us a basic foundation in human anatomy and terminology to help make our jobs a little easier, and promises to make it interesting! Diane Gray has asked to present information on the Living Legacy Project, which she joined online to record her life stories. Realizing how little is written about the everyday lives of court reporters, she created a group specifically for the VCRA where we can collectively write and share our unique experiences.

Please be sure to check out the newly updated VCRA website, VCRA.net, for important convention information. Our website is a work in progress, with future benefits such as the ability to pay dues online and view your continuing education credits earned.

The VCRA, your association, is seriously lacking in one area in particular, that of member participation on committees. Your participation is sorely needed in all areas, as we currently only have one committee at this time, the certification/licensure committee. Member involvement is the cornerstone of your association. Please consider contributing a small amount of time in areas such as advisory, ethics and voluntary certification. It would even be wonderful to have a convention committee! A small time contribution is all that's needed, and I promise the amount of professional satisfaction you receive will far exceed your time contribution. We also will have several positions on the board open in March, so be thinking about volunteering.

I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season, and I look forward to seeing you at the convention in March.

Best Regards,
Gwenda Applegate, RPR, CRR
VCRA President