BECOME A MEMBERRenewal December 2011
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tel: 020 8907 8249 email: sec@bivr.org.uk |
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Letter from the PresidentA year ago I might have started this newsletter with the line “we are a dwindling and largely ageing membership”, but today if I said that I would be wrong. We are not. This year we have managed to attract new members. Our QRR exam days continue to be successful with many candidates achieving distinction. Several of our members have successfully sat for their STT registration with NRCPD and we have combined STT examinations with membership exams for BIVR. Applications from Crown Court reporters wishing to return to the fold have started to come in, and we are about to start a campaign to lure back practising shorthand writers with lapsed membership.
As regards training, many of you will know that Andrew Howell has been certified by Stenograph to offer training on CaseCatalyst and CaseViewNet. In addition to his current training and remote training via the internet, he will be offering a weekend training course in the New Year, details of which will be found later on in this Newsletter.
Members are reminded that they may download the BIVR logo to put on notepaper or business cards and your Council is generally looking at ways of marketing BIVR.
Here is the logo and we ask that you keep it to this size - certainly no larger:  Meanwhile, stay professional, have a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
Helen Edwards
President Communication Professional of the Year (Signature) awarded to Jean Gough MBIVR QRRI'm just so pleased to have received this award. I still don't know who actually nominated me, but I'm delighted that they did! Having been nominated and shortlisted back in 2009, it was a complete surprise to hear that I had been shortlisted for a second time.
I hope that my receiving this award will help to promote the value of speech to text communication support to a much wider audience, and I'm proud to be the first speech to text reporter to have received an award from Signature for doing my job well. It was worth the wait!
Jean Gough
http://www.signature.org.uk/awards/index.php/page/display/167 Congratulations to members:Louise Pepper and Jacqueline Thole on becoming Qualified Realtime Reporters (QRR) in October 2011.To Claire Hill, Wendy Osmond, Louise Pepper, Carnina Raglione and Kathryn Sykes who passed their AoHL STTR examinations and may now register with the NRCPD.
Mentor (or buddy) wanted!Could you mentor, or buddy, either a colleague who is making the transition from court/tribunal reporter to STT Reporter, or a trainee still speed-building? Yes, there are people learning steno!We have members throughout the country who are moving away from the more traditional CAT reporting to the very different skill of realtime Speech-to-Text reporting. Will you be a mentor, or buddy, to assist them in their endeavours? It might be that just some words of encouragement are needed, or it may be more full-on actually passing on some of your experience and, therefore, giving up a bit of time to explain things either via the phone, e-mail or maybe over a cup of coffee. Perhaps you could invite them to sit with you on a job (with permission, of course), so that they get valuable on-the-job experience. There are students who are speed-building and struggling with gaining speed whilst maintaining accuracy, something which all those qualified with NRCPD have managed to do to great effect. They know they have to keep practising, but do you have any tips? A word or two of encouragement, again, via the phone, e-mail or possibly over that a cup of coffee, to explain a technique that you found helpful might be the turning point to get off that speed plateau. Then, at a later stage, perhaps shadowing you. To offer this help to a colleague, or, if you are the one who would benefit from having a training buddy, contact the Secretary sec@bivr.org.uk so that you can be put you in touch with each other. You could also log-on to the BIVR website, and then into our private FaceBook page to meet and greet there. Saturday night and Sunday morning!We are in the process of organising a training weekend in March 2012 - precise date and venue to be announced.Events will include: Case CATalyst software training by Andrew Howell MBIVR - a trained Stenograph trainer (as per their announcement later in this Newsletter). Eclipse software training by - (to be announced). STTR workshop explaining the of setting up the various pieces of equipment for single and co-working assignments, font size etc., as well as the requirements of the NRCPD STTR exam - by Sheryll Holley MBIVR, QRR. QRR and IPS examinations by Mary Sorene Mock STT examinations to enable registration with NRCPD - by Council To aid you in your decision as to which day/s you wish to attend the the timings are as follows: Morning: QRR, then IPS speed exams (approximately 1½ hours) AGMThe 2012 AGM will be in Reading, on Saturday 19 May 2012. Premier Inn, Reading Central, Letcombe Street, Berkshire RG1 2HN
 Telephone: 0871 527 8924 Fax: 0871 527 8925 If you book now the rates are:
Date Premier Saver Premier Flexible Price per room Price per room (inc VAT & taxes) (inc VAT & taxes) Fri 18 May 12 £31.00 £48.00 Total 1 night 1 room £31.00 £48.00
Fri 18 May 12 £31.00 £48.00 Sat 19 May 12 £41.00 £55.00 Tot 2 nights 1 room £72.00 £103.00
If you book a Premier Saver room and pay with a credit card you will be charged £2 to process your payment. There is no charge for debit cards. I am reliably informed that the rate will go up to at least £75 per night if you leave booking closer to the date. I am also told that you may book now with no penalty should you have to later cancel! Sec.
Directions (taken from their website):
Exit M4 (Jct11) (A33) and head towards Reading Town Centre. After 3 roundabouts, turn right at traffic lights onto the A329 (signposted Oracle Riverside Shopping Centre). Branch immediately left onto the A327 (signposted Oracle Shopping Centre and Aldershot). Take 3rd exit of roundabout, hotel is on the right. Car park is opposite the hotel and has 40 spaces which cannot be guaranteed. Charges apply, 6pm-6am £3, parking outside of those hours is £1.50 per hr. On site car park £5.
Note: There will be free parking for BIVR delegates. Transport and local information: Reading Train station 1 mile
Please let the Secretary know soonest that you are attending and pay your contribution of £15 towards the cost of the day. See Renewal Notice at the end of this Newsletter for BIVR's bank details. e-mail: sec@bivr.org.uk Oracle Shopping Centre 50 metres Ascot Racecourse 12 miles Legoland 20 miles Heathrow Airport 20 miles We are planning to have workshops that cater for all our reporters both pen and CAT. We will have one on editing by experienced Court and Hansard Reporters.
We may also have some IPS speed tests and could put on another QRR examination. Please let us know what else you would like extra training on so that we may include it. sec@bivr.org.uk News from Stenograph:Dear Court Reporters,
In order to better serve verbatim reporters in the U.K. and Europe, Stenograph has partnered with Mr. Andrew Howell, of Dunbartonshire, Scotland to provide local reporters basic and advanced skills training on Stenograph’s Case CATalyst, as well as transition services. Mr. Howell has been certified by Stenograph as an Independent Training Agent.
Mr. Howell is offering both on-site individual and group training, along with remote training via the Internet. Please feel free to contact Mr. Howell at andrewhowell007@btinternet.com to inquire about your specific training needs.
With the addition of Mr. Howell, Stenograph further strengthens its commitment and service levels to the international community. Andrew brings extensive reporting experience using Premier Power®, Eclipse® and now Case CATalyst® and CaseViewNet® to help fellow reporters achieve higher levels of productivity using the essential tools of their trade.
Verbatim reporters who are in need of local service for their writing machines can contact Stenograph’s Authorized Service Provider, TypePart, located in Watford, England. In addition to service, TypePart sells Stenograph’s premiere writing machines, the Diamante and the Wave. Please contact Denis Tyler at denistyler@btconnect.com for more information regarding these state-of-the-art writers or service.
Case CATalyst and CaseViewNet inquiries can be directed to Cindy Krol at Stenograph’s corporate office in the U.S. at ckrol@stenograph.com.
Stenograph is dedicated to supporting the court reporting community and its programs. The company is the No. 1 manufacturer and marketer of shorthand writers and computer-aided transcription software, offers online education and provides other industry-related supplies. It also owns Prince Institute, which now has three ground locations and an online program. For more about Stenograph, visit www.stenograph.com.
Judy Wolf
Eclipse software tip from Dan Glassman:If you'd like your realtime jobs to be automatically named with the date and time, like "SEPTEMBER 30, 2011 - 951 AM," just copy and paste the line below into the field next to "Filename" under Alt-U, Realtime tab. (It's secret code for "Write out the date and put the time in.")%B %#d, %Y - %#I%M %p  The apostropheThe most frequent mistake examiners find when looking at transcripts submitted by candidates for BIVR membership is the misuse of the apostrophe, so we were interested to see the following short article in a recent article in The Observer newspaper, Sunday 6 November 2011:
It's wrong to put an apostrophe into "its" when it's possessive – even into "their's", as a huge sign on a building in Swiss Cottage does. "The cat won't eat its fish" is right; the apostrophe stands for a missing letter, as in "because it's rotten".
The apostrophe is also misused when pluralising the 1920s and other such dates, the roaring 20's is wrong (20s is correct).
Please note that only paid-up members are permitted to use the logo and/or designatory initials after their name. Julie Maher Sales Administrator Voice Products Limited Special Offer for Courtroom Transcriptionists Digital Transcription Kit consisting of VEC USB Foot Pedal + Deluxe Mono/Stereo Headset with Volume Control + Latest Version of FTR Transcription Software All of the above for £74.94 including VAT and Carriage Or purchase more than one for £72.50 per unit Other items available at special prices when you purchase any of the above USB Foot pedal for £38.00 usually £49.96 Ex VAT Deluxe Mono/Stereo Headset with Volume Control for £15.50 usually £24.96 Ex VAT Direct Tel: +44 (0) 1264 723463 Main Tel: +44 (0) 8700 503870 Main Fax: +44 (0) 8700 503872 Visit our web site at :- http://www.voiceproducts.co.uk E-mail: info@voiceproducts.co.uk or Phone 01264 723400 Crown CourtsTotal Forecast Resource Cost:- £3,483,000 No doubt you will recognise this as government-speak for: Actually, we haven't tested it to see if it is compatible with anything - why do I feel like Ian Hislop on Have Got News for You? Meanwhile, those few stalwarts who are manfully (and womanfully) transcribing these audios have their work cut out for them. The Americans, who after trying ER and finding it seriously wanting with case after case being either mis-recorded (i.e., no recording or poor quality recording) have sensibly gone back to using qualified (steno) reporters - mostly realtime. We may or may not be waiting in the wings to pick up the pieces as our members seek more lucrative and fulfilling in other areas of verbatim reporting. How many cases of a hearing not being recorded will it take before they see that sense? There were numerous cases nil recordings from the County Court. Desperate and sad defendants losing their homes discovered that the 5-minute hearing of their case was considered not important enough for a County Court Usher to switch on the recording! "Oh, they're only about 5 minutes long. We don't bother to switch it on for that!" One of many examples in a civil court. It may only take one Claimant or Defendant to have no transcript available in the Crown court for it to cost the government millions of pounds in compensation to realise that you cannot leave it to unmanned digital audio - for that is what it is. No one is checking that the system is switched on - until it is too late; that it is running properly - that the system has not crashed; that people are not over-talking - and therefore an intelligent and accurate transcript cannot be obtained. More importantly, no one is keeping a log of who is speaking, so it will be mainly guesswork as to who said what. More to the point, will we ever hear of those cases? So far they are all swept under the carpet. Here is a report from an intrepid transcriber:
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I do not think one will ever know the "true" cost of this fiasco.
I have done several transcripts now from the Crown Court using DARTS. I could hear the Clerk and Usher talking at the beginning saying how it had not worked in one of the courts the day before and was not working in another court that morning.
When I transcribed the evidence of the defendant I heard those dreaded words: "Now, Mr X" and then mumbling. My heart sank!
Approximately one hundred pages of transcript later - absolutely littered with "inaudible", or "unintelligible" the jury sent a message: "We cannot understand what he is saying when he gives long answers." By this time he was being re-examined!!!
The judge said: "Oh, counsel can repeat what he says from now on to see if we can understand."
Naturally, all of two or three questions later his evidence ended. Apparently, throughout, the defendant had been using the hearing loop (something I did not twig earlier because it was inaudible). The problem was every time the judge coughed it caused a short somewhere and cut the defendant's hearing aid off! Oh, the joys of modern technology.
I am now transcribing some four hours of a litigant in person, all coming through on just one channel. Oh, I love my job! Oh, they want it today....
THE STORY OF A DONKEY
Let us learn a moral lesson from the story of a Donkey
One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey.
He invited all his neighbours to come over and help him. They each grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well.
At first, the donkey realised what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement, he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer looked down the well, and was astonished at what he saw.
As every shovel of dirt hit his back, the donkey did something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer’s neighbours continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up.
Pretty soon, everyone was amazed, as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off.
The moral is that life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a stepping stone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up! Never lose hope.
Lighthearted corner!
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