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TheTakeNote campaign, launched by the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA), the country’s leading organization representing stenographic court reporters, broadcast and CART captioners, and legal videographers, will serve as a main theme during the 2015 National Court Reporting & Captioning Week, which will run Feb. 15-21. This year’s event marks the third year NCRA has sponsored the celebration designed to help increase the public’s awareness about the growing number of employment opportunities the profession offers.

NCRA’s Take Note campaign launched in September 2014 and is based on the findings of an industry-wide outlook report conducted by the independent research firm Ducker Worldwide. The study determined that over the next five years, some 5,500 jobs in the court reporting and captioning profession are expected to become available.

Court reporters, captioners, CART providers, and court reporting schools around the country will participate in the week-long event by hosting an array of activities such as visits to high schools to showcase the profession, open houses, Veterans History Project interviews, media outreach, and more.

NCRA has made a wide range of resources available to its members, court reporting schools, and others at both crTakeNote.com and NCRA.org. Resources include tips on presenting the benefits of the profession to potential new students, press release templates, social media-appropriate logos and banners, and ideas for hosting special activities. NCRA will also support an official legislative recognition of National Court Reporting & Captioning Week and rely on its social media outlets including Facebook, Twitter, and blogs to reach thousands of people throughout the week.

“National Court Reporting & Captioning Week is an opportunity for our profession to celebrate the valuable contribution this vocation provides to ensure vital records are captured and maintained,” said NCRA President Sarah Nageotte, RDR, CRR, CBC, an official court reporter from Jefferson, Ohio.

“The areas where we work are vast and range from serving as official court reporters to freelance reporters who work strictly taking depositions or recording the proceedings of a variety of meetings and such, while broadcast and CART captioners do wonderful work to help better the lives for millions of Americans who are deaf and hard of hearing by providing captioning in real time for live sporting and theater events, church services, movie houses, and many other venues.”

Nageotte will help kick off the week with a presentation to members of the Hawaii Court Reporters and Captioners Association during a luncheon being held Feb. 14 that will cover the findings of the industry outlook conducted by Ducker Worldwide. Nageotte will also discuss the TakeNote campaign and share tips on how best to highlight the professional outlook to high school students. Representatives from Hawaii’s statewide student news network will also be in attendance and will generate a news segment to share with middle and high schools.

“I’m very excited about this opportunity to help increase awareness about the court reporting and captioning profession and will ask everyone attending to commit to contacting at least one person within their network and educate them about the opportunities this career path offers,” said Nageotte. “In fact, I’m urging everyone in the court reporting and captioning profession to do the same throughout National Court Reporting & Captioning Week.”

For more information, visit NCRA.org. Career information about the court reporting profession—one of the leading career options that do not require a traditional four-year degree—can be found at crTakeNote.com.

Excerpt:

"'There is going to be a demand, and a need, for at least 5,500 new positions over the next three to five coming years,' said Sarah Nageotte, president of the National Court Reporters Association. Fifteen percent of the industry is poised to retire. Nageotte said a lot of people are not even aware the career still exists. 

Court reporting not only exists, it's expanding.

Most new reporting jobs are outside the courtroom, doing depositions or closed captioning. There is a new federal initiative to provide captioning services to hearing-impaired students. The pay for those jobs can range from $35 an hour up into six figures. One current opening for a court reporter in San Francisco starts above $100,000, plus benefits."

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Article by Jane Wells of CNBC

February 16-22 recognized as National Court Reporting and Captioning Week

          Thomas & Thomas Court Reporters and Certified Legal Video, LLC has join second annual nationwide effort to recognize professionals, career opportunities in stenographic court reporting and captioning

The National Court Reporters Association, the country’s leading organization representing stenographic court reporters and broadcast captioners, has announced that Feb. 16-22 has been deemed National Court Reporting and Captioning Week. The awareness week pulls together a nationwide effort to highlight the contributions of stenographic court reporters and captioners to society and to showcase the career opportunities that exist in the court reporting and captioning fields.

Thomas & Thomas Court Reporters is planning to get involved with National Court Reporting and Captioning Week in Omaha, Nebraska by joining the grassroots efforts to promote the profession and educate local communities about the value stenographic skills bring to today’s marketplace. John and Gretchen Thomas have been a stenographic court reporters for 37 years and are graduates of North Technical School of Business in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They joined the NCRA shortly thereafter and have earned nationally recognized credentials, including Registered Professional Reporter ("PRP"), Certified Realtime Reporter ("CRR"), and Certified Legal Video Specialist ("CLVS").

National Court Reporting and Captioning Week lets us celebrate what makes our field unique. Stenographic court reporters have been around for a hundred years, and we’ve embraced technology which has allowed us to expand into captioning for television and for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.  Court reporting and captioning is a great example of traditional skills employing the latest in high-tech to provide cutting-edge services in the litigation arena and in captioning. Our profession is a great career choice because skilled court reporters and captioners are in high demand. National Court Reporting and Captioning Week will be marked with promotional events and marketing nationwide, including a grassroots social media campaign, presentations at high schools across the country about court reporting and captioning career opportunities and community demonstrations such as producing transcripts of veterans’ oral histories. Stenographic skills translate to a multitude of career options—including court reporting, live-event captioning for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, captioning for broadcast and specialized videography—and the strong marketplace demand means court reporting offers an abundance of long-term career opportunities. Court reporting is consistently ranked as one of the top career options as it offers both flexibility and significant income potential. Court reporters and captioners are able to begin a career without a traditional four-year college degree, and these highly trained professionals experience the continuous professional growth associated with an in-demand career.

For more information, visit NCRA.org. Career information about the court reporting profession—one of the leading career options that do not require a traditional four-year degree—can be found at CareersInCourtReporting.com.