Been a long time since I came around....

... been a long time, but I'm back in town.

I'm back to blogging.  These past few years I've had the honor of serving as the Illinois Court Reporters Association president-elect, and then president, and with that honor comes the responsibility for writing a president's column for the Ad Infinitum, our quarterly newsletter, so that took up my writing priorities.

This is me and Georgia doing the two step then cowboy boogie.....

But now that torch has passed to Georgia Long, my amazing, intelligent, sharp, beautiful*, challenging, and insightful friend, and she will do wonderfully in this role. She's a legacy president -- her mother, Beth Pruitt, served as ILCRA president. She's got a solid background, experience, and insight to take the wheel.

(I already said "insightful." Oh well, it's my blog and I do what I want.)

So anyway, now I should be blogging a bit more often.  A lot has happened over the past two years, and I'll detail exactly what went down with regards to Senate Bill 2128 in the upcoming Ad Infinitum.  Teaser trailer:  It was NOT just about voice writing. 

Side note:  Voice writing is not the enemy.  They're our best allies in the fight against digital "reporting," plus voice writing enables reporters who experience hand/arm disability to continue to work in their chosen, trained field.  (That'll be me in a few years.)  Voice writers read back, interrupt when necessary, and can provide realtime and captioning.  And they're a witness to every single word of the procedure and create an immediate realtime draft -- just like stenography.  Their certification tests are almost directly equivalent to NCRA's certification tests, including realtime and speed.

Head to http://ilcra.org/data/cms/uploadedfiles/ILCRA%20Digital%20file.pdf for a fabulous infographic on the difference between CSRs and digital "reporting," developed by ILCRA's own vice president, Mary Ann Casale.

*Yes, I know, physical beauty is not something we humans should hold quite so dear, but she's seriously beautiful inside and out.  I mean, come on.  Sheesh.