Court reporting, whether as an official, freelancer, CART writer, or broadcast captioner, may have been your profession for years or even decades, but you can still find different ways to use those seasoned skills. We all have a skillset that can be used in diverse environments, so go ahead and find a path that interests you and step outside of your usual work scenario.
Maybe you have kids and are already involved in school activities. Check out NCRA’s website, http://discoversteno.org/schools/, to see Recruitment Resources. They will send you the tools to give a presentation to generate curiosity into our career. Or if you know an educator who helps with mock trial teams, you could easily step into the role of the reporter.
If you’re interested in history and/or have a family background of military service, you can take part in the Veteran’s History Project, NCRA Foundation’s partnership program with the Library of Congress. Volunteer to help a Veteran’s oral stories become a printed and preserved transcript. Find out the details on the NCRA Foundation’s Oral Histories Program page.
Anyone fairly comfortable writing realtime can cross over into CART for the hearing impaired by using connections in the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. For example, you can volunteer at your church, in your community’s senior center, or at a health fair. The local hearing, speech, and deaf center can also help you find events that need your CART services. It will be much appreciated.
If you are competitive, jump into contest writing at either the state or national level. OCRA and NCRA each have a realtime contest and a speed contest at their annual convention. Join your fellow reporters and challenge yourself. Try it once and you just may get hooked!
Do you like to cheer on others? Sign up to become a virtual mentor to a reporting student on the NCRA website.
Maybe you like to stay on the edge of technology in your home life. Let that spill over into reporting. Court reporting is full of ever-changing technology. You don’t even have to go to formal training to see what’s new in reporting or maybe they’re things just new to you. NCRA has a whole host of YouTube videos that cover a wide range of topics presented by various members. Check out https://www.youtube.com/user/NCRAonline and see all of the offerings available. This is also a great way to expand your skills and get answers to questions.
Occasionally stepping outside of your daily routine to use your skills and share your knowledge in a different way can be exciting and refreshing. Also, some of the above activities can qualify for NCRA CEUs. Go ahead, try something new!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Lisa Conley Yungblut is a Mike Mobley Reporting court reporter based in Cincinnati, Ohio. She has been a reporter since 1989. Lisa is active in the Ohio Court Reporters’ Association (is a Past President), on the Advisory Board for the judicial reporting program at a local college, actively engaged in improving her skills and has mentored many court reporting students and interns.