Setting the Record Straight

Posted bystenoimperiumPosted inCourt Reporting, UncategorizedTags:, , , , , , , , ,

A lot of bloggers have a “lone wolf” mindset, but I’ve never been one of them. Over all of my years of blogging and consuming blogs, one of the top things I have always confidently said is that bloggers need other bloggers. I have said it before, and I’ll say it again and again… Bloggers need other bloggers! Collaboration is one of the greatest ways bloggers can help build one another up. The aphorism “a rising tide lifts all boats” is associated with the idea that improvements in the general economy will benefit all participants in that economy.

StenoImperium is an anonymous blog designed to ensure that its thought-provoking ideas are evaluated solely on their own merits, without bias or prejudice towards the identity of the author. By remaining anonymous, the blog encourages readers to engage deeply with the content and the ideas presented, fostering an open-minded and unbiased discourse. StenoImperium is dedicated to highlighting the pivotal role of the stenographer as more than just the the guardian of the record, but as the Responsible Charge of the verbatim record. It will explore every facet of this responsibility, unearthing and confronting any threats to the integrity of the record.

StenoImperium is NOT authored by Christopher Day and has no affiliation with him or his blog called “Stenonymous.” They are distinctly separate blogs. However, in the interest of helping his blog succeed, StenoImperium’s author has made efforts to collaborate by doing things that bloggers in the outside world do, such as guest posting, commenting, and engaging with the Stenonymous content, featuring him in our blog posts, served as one of his informants, and shared his posts extensively, contributing to his growth to thousands of followers on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

I’ve shared his blog, leading some to mistakenly believe I wrote it, just because I shared it. Similarly, he shared my blog, and someone thought he authored it. One time, I even shared a Facebook post from an agency, and a reporter assumed I worked for that agency (I’ve never worked for an agency). It’s strange how quickly people draw erroneous inferences and make assumptions on social media.

Over the years, I’ve had limited ocassion to interact professionally with Mr. Day. I met him once in person, in passing, by chance, at the Las Vegas NCRA convention. We did a TikTok duet once, ad hoc. I’ve talked to him on the phone a couple of times. We’ve FB messaged back and forth dozens of times over maybe a decade, infrequently. We also had a Zoom call once, but he was on a train using his phone, resulting in poor visual and audio quality. In addition to living 3,000 miles apart and having significant differences in age (at least two decades), you couldn’t find two individuals who are more polar opposites on almost everything, from personality types (He’s Phlegmatic and I’m Choleric) to Star Signs to Politics to Religion, and just about everything in between. Our shared career and interest in protecting the future of stenography connects us, though we often have differing views on how to achieve that goal. We have been, at most, professional acquaintances, through his blog, and I’ve never considered him more than that. His thoughts are NOT my thoughts and vice versa. His blog is NOT my blog. Two different bloggers with two distinctly separate blogs.

I believe that if someone in our community claimed Christopher Day is the author of StenoImperium, it was an innocent, yet ignorant mistake, as I’ve seen such mix-ups happen several times. (See, I did it again, hyperlinked back to his blog with a reference to something he said, on the word “claimed” in blue font above.)

For Christopher Day’s Blog, please visit http://www.Stenonymous.com

I have no intention of damaging his brand or causing him to feel defensive. I don’t believe he could have been referring to me with any of his insinuations in his latest blog post. On the contrary, I’ve significantly contributed to the success of his brand over the years by sharing his content and engaging on multiple platforms. I’ve leveraged my influence and helped him widen his social media reach to help his blog flourish over the years.

Here are some facts about StenoImperium:

STENOimperium is ONE word.

StenoImperium will NEVER solicit money from its readers.

StenoImperium does NOT operate to gain metrics or followers.

I’ll add this to the bottom of every blog post from now on, Chris.

Published by stenoimperium

We exist to facilitate the fortifying of the Stenography profession and ensure its survival for the next hundred years! As court reporters, we've handed the relationship role with our customers, or attorneys, over to the agencies and their sales reps.  This has done a lot of damage to our industry.  It has taken away our ability to have those relationships, the ability to be humanized and valued.  We've become a replaceable commodity. Merely saying we are the “Gold Standard” tells them that we’re the best, but there are alternatives.  Who we are though, is much, much more powerful than that!  We are the Responsible Charge.  “Responsible Charge” means responsibility for the direction, control, supervision, and possession of stenographic & transcription work, as the case may be, to assure that the work product has been critically examined and evaluated for compliance with appropriate professional standards by a licensee in the profession, and by sealing and signing the documents, the professional stenographer accepts responsibility for the stenographic or transcription work, respectively, represented by the documents and that applicable stenographic and professional standards have been met.  This designation exists in other professions, such as engineering, land surveying, public water works, landscape architects, land surveyors, fire preventionists, geologists, architects, and more.  In the case of professional engineers, the engineering association adopted a Responsible Charge position statement that says, “A professional engineer is only considered to be in responsible charge of an engineering work if the professional engineer makes independent professional decisions regarding the engineering work without requiring instruction or approval from another authority and maintains control over those decisions by the professional engineer’s physical presence at the location where the engineering work is performed or by electronic communication with the individual executing the engineering work.” If we were to adopt a Responsible Charge position statement for our industry, we could start with a draft that looks something like this: "A professional court reporter, or stenographer, is only considered to be in responsible charge of court reporting work if the professional court reporter makes independent professional decisions regarding the court reporting work without requiring instruction or approval from another authority and maintains control over those decisions by the professional court reporter’s physical presence at the location where the court reporting work is performed or by electronic communication with the individual executing the court reporting work.” Shared purpose The cornerstone of a strategic narrative is a shared purpose. This shared purpose is the outcome that you and your customer are working toward together. It’s more than a value proposition of what you deliver to them. Or a mission of what you do for the world. It’s the journey that you are on with them. By having a shared purpose, the relationship shifts from consumer to co-creator. In court reporting, our mission is “to bring justice to every litigant in the U.S.”  That purpose is shared by all involved in the litigation process – judges, attorneys, everyone.  Who we are is the Responsible Charge.  How we do that is by Protecting the Record.

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