KANSAS COURT REPORTERS ASSOCIATION

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE – MAY 2020

Dear KCRA members,

I hope this message finds you all healthy and still working during these very odd and trying times.  As we are all very aware, COVID-19 has put quite a wrench in many areas of our lives, not only in our work lives but in our home lives too, especially for our members with school-aged children.   This pandemic certainly forced us all to adjust how we function day-to-day and it has most definitely changed the way we will operate in the future.  As your current President, I would encourage each and every one of you to embrace the “new way” of taking the record remotely and to be as accommodating as possible.  I believe that this will somewhat be our new norm for the unforeseeable future.  So in essence, the more knowledgeable we are, tech savvy we can become, and more accommodating we can be, means we become that much more of an asset to those who need and require our services.  Now is the time to get yourself up-to-date before it’s too late.

    As most may be aware, we had our 2020 annual convention scheduled for October 19th-21^st at The Oread Hotel in Lawrence.  The board reached a decision a few weeks ago to cancel our in-person convention this year due to the pandemic.  Our top priority is keeping our membership and those around us healthy, and having an in-person convention places too high a risk on our members and others who may also be in the hotel.  This decision was not made lightly.  We took many opinions and recommended guidelines into consideration from not only the CDC, President Trump, Governor Kelly, local health officials, but OJA as well.  In fact, if you haven’t heard already, all in-person judicial employee conferences have been cancelled for 2020 at the direction of the OJA and the Kansas Supreme Court.  And since we will not be having an annual business meeting at our convention, all of our officers and board members have graciously agreed to continue to serve in their current positions until our 2021 convention is held and we can all be together again.  

 Now, with all of that said, I have some exciting news to share.  The Oread Hotel in Lawrence has agreed to postpone our convention venue, without financial penalty to KCRA, until October of 2021. Jennifer Olsen and Claire Riling have worked diligently as your convention chairs to get these arrangements made, so big shout out and thank you to those two members for all their hard work. 

The question of what will happen to those who need the Supreme Court mandated seminar in 2020 has become a hot topic.  That question has been posed to Amy Raymond at OJA, and KCRA is still awaiting a response on that.  There have been board discussions regarding a remote webinar presented by Margie Wakeman-Wells for those who need it or would like to attend, or the possibility of the Supreme Court waiving that requirement for 2020, but nothing yet has been set in stone or confirmed one way or the other.  We will make sure to keep you all updated when we receive a final confirmation from the Supreme Court and/or OJA regarding the mandated session.

Also, if you are a member who needs CEU’s for NCRA or NVRA, you are highly encouraged to attend the many webinars that are available through those organizations in order to obtain your CEU’s for 2020.  It seems as if more and more are becoming available each day, and you will be able to obtain those CEU’s through those avenues.

On behalf of KCRA, I hope you all continue to stay safe and healthy!  Please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at mcummings@shawneecourt.org if you have any questions or concerns related to how KCRA is proceeding through this pandemic.  Please take extra care, everyone!

Miranda L. Cummings, CVR, CCR

2019-2021 KCRA President

Kansas Court Reporters Association
www.kcra.net