PRESENTERS:
Nancy Varallo, CRR, RDR, FAPR, DSA recipient
Nancy is the owner of The Varallo Group, a non-traditional agency in Worcester, Mass, which manages reporting firms nationwide. Nancy has done extensive work, formally and informally, over the years to lend her expertise and support in student development. She is a past president of NCRA, has served on numerous NCRA committees, and is the 2017 recipient of NCRA’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award. Nancy also developed NCRA’s “A to Z” program and authored “Nancy Varallo’s Basic (Steno) Training.”
Nativa P. Wood, RDR, CMRS, FAPR
Tiva is currently a freelance reporter in Central Pennsylvania, and previously was an official reporter for 37 years. She is a past president of NCRA, past president of the Pennsylvania Court Reporters Association, past Chair of the National Court Reporters Foundation, CAPR, and COPE, and has served on numerous NCRA and PCRA committees. While attaining the Certified Manager of Reporting Services certificate, she became the managing reporter in the jurisdiction where she was employed as an official. Tiva has taught both the A to Z program and the Basic Training program.
AGENDA
8:00 – 10:00 REBUILDING OUR PROFESSION – TOGETHER
(2.0 hours/.2 CEUs requested)
This motivational presentation is designed to encourage reporters and captioners to work at the grassroots level to increase the number of recruits entering and graduating from steno school. Reaching high school students before they head off to college is one piece of a large puzzle we all need to make together. Project Steno has delivered successful high school programs in Texas and Massachusetts and will help attendees develop a plan to advocate for programs in their local high schools, approach school administrators, get that first meeting, and convince them that their school would benefit from having a steno course available to their students. Project Steno will share all the tools needed to sustain this grassroots effort – intro letters, handouts, and a powerful recruiting video.
10:00 - 10:15 Break/Drawing
10:15 – 11:45 THE BUSINESS SIDE OF OUR PROFESSION
(1.5 hours/.15 CEUs requested)
Whether you are a student or young professional, or seasoned freelancer, official, captioner, firm owner, or videographer, we can all benefit from thinking about the business side of the profession. So often we focus on the skills portion of our careers, but now it’s time to consider what business skills will make us shine. This seminar will touch on organizational skills, proven sales techniques, customer service, bookkeeping/accounting/taxes, insurance, establishing a brand, marketing, client retention, and other essential components of handling the business side of our work lives.
11:45 - 12:00 Break/Drawing
12:00 - 1:00 Annual Business Meeting
1:00 – 2:00 I’M GLAD YOU ASKED!
(1.0 hours/.1 CEU requested)
What did you say the last time you were asked, “Why don’t they just use tape recorders?” or “Won’t you be replaced soon?” This timely seminar will help you craft the perfect rejoinder. Tiva Wood and OCRA board members form an experienced panel of leaders that has dealt with these questions – and other thorny ones as well. The panel will bring the questions they’ve heard, the attendees will bring theirs, and together we’ll fashion some spot-on answers. Next time the attendees are confronted with these types of questions, they’ll be able to smile and reply, “I’m glad you asked.”
2:00 - 2:15 Break/Drawing
2:15 – 4:15 WATSON TODAY, QUANTUM COMPUTING TOMORROW. CAN OUR PROFESSION SURVIVE THE ADVANCE IN COMPUTING?
(2.0 hours/.2 CEUs requested)
This session addresses the advances in computing power and the threat it may (or may not) present to stenotype reporters, captioners, and videographers. From the advent of the tape recorder, stenographic reporters have constantly faced threats from different advancing technologies. IBM’s Watson is today focusing on Speech to Text. With billions of research dollars pouring in, quantum computing is the next major advance being worked on by Microsoft, Google, IBM, and others. In the face of these threats, will there still be a place for us? Nancy Varallo will share the facts you need to answer YES to this critical question.
4:15 - 4:30 Closing Remarks/Drawing
