VICTORY IN ANAHEIM!

The NCRA annual convention was held at the Anaheim Marriott the week of July 22-27, 2008. At the business meeting on Thursday, July 24, there were two contested elections and three bylaws amendments that were put to a vote by the NCRA membership.

DRA President Toni Pulone gave a terrific opening presentation of our amendment, which would allow the opportunity for more than one affiliate association in states that have ten percent or more of the total NCRA members. California has 18%, over 500 of whom belong to DRA. In an effort to gain representation at a national level for its members, DRA tried twice before to get this amendment passed, once in 2002 and again in 2003, unfortunately both times falling short of the two-thirds vote required for a bylaws change.

However, this time we had an overwhelming majority of support from fellow NCRA members and state leaders around the country and from YOU, our loyal DRA members. A special thanks to Rosalie Kramm, Janice Scott, Laura Brewer, Lynda Goddard, Kevin Daniel and John Squires for stepping up to the microphone to speak in favor of the amendment at the NCRA business meeting.

NCRA did a great job implementing Direct Member Voting. Within an hour of the close of the meeting, all eligible members received an email with their password allowing them access to the secure website. There were computers conveniently located on-site at the convention and plenty of NCRA staff on hand to facilitate the process. It went without a glitch. The energy was palpable while we waited for the results, which came at 12:23 that night, when we learned that the amendment had passed by 72% of the vote!!

We appreciate all of you who took the time to vote online from wherever you were! This is a big victory. There now exists the opportunity to be offered affiliate status by NCRA, where previously the bylaws prevented it.

The rest of the convention was a tremendous success as well. DRA officers and board members got a chance to mingle with the other state leaders at the NCSA reception, and the following night at the NCRA opening reception, which was a big hit. DRA’s booth in the exhibit hall had a steady stream of reporters stopping by to chat, to join DRA, to buy tickets and play the WII, our raffle prize. We are pleased to announce the lucky winner, Laura Iwai, a recent graduate of the Downey Adult School court reporting program, who took the CSR just that morning! We wish her luck.

Congratulations also to Laura Brewer, who won first place in the literary portion of the national speed contest and third place overall in the realtime competition!

To those of you who were in Anaheim, thank you for supporting DRA in person. To those of you who weren’t able to make it, thank you for being there in spirit! This is a tremendous victory for all of us.