Christopher Day’s recent article criticizing the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) for limiting access to its social media groups to members raises some provocative points — but it also overlooks some crucial realities about how professional associations operate.
Day paints the NCRA’s decision as a self-destructive move that alienates potential members and accelerates decline. But here’s the reality: the NCRA is hardly unique in restricting certain benefits to members. In fact, the California Deposition Reporters Association (CalDRA) — widely respected in the field — does the exact same thing. You cannot access their social media pages unless you’re a member.
Why? Because professional organizations exist to serve their members.
Membership dues pay for advocacy, training, certifications, and yes, even moderated spaces where professionals can exchange ideas freely. If these groups are open to anyone, including those who don’t contribute financially or subscribe to the association’s mission, the value of membership diminishes. Why pay dues if you can get all the benefits for free?
Let’s be honest: Facebook groups are not public utilities. They are curated spaces, and in the context of professional organizations, they are part of the membership package. They’re where members share sensitive discussions about clients, contracts, technology, and ethics — often in ways that simply can’t happen in wide-open public forums. This isn’t about secrecy; it’s about creating a trusted environment.
Day suggests that excluding non-members stifles engagement and innovation. But it’s equally true that a chaotic free-for-all often undermines serious professional dialogue. CalDRA’s model shows that member-only spaces can thrive, sustaining an engaged, dedicated core without needing to throw open the doors to everyone on the internet.
Day also implies something “nefarious” might be going on. That’s a heavy charge with no evidence. Restricting member benefits is not evidence of wrongdoing; it’s evidence of an organization trying to deliver meaningful value to those who support it.
And let’s remember: nothing stops anyone — including Day — from creating their own open, alternative spaces. He’s done it himself with Stenonymous, which he proudly says is open to all. That’s great. But expecting the NCRA to model itself after his platform ignores the fundamental differences between a personal blog or grassroots group and a national professional association with regulatory, educational, and lobbying roles.
If Day is serious about creating “a new association dedicated to stenographers,” he should pursue it — but undermining the value of membership organizations by insisting they offer everything for free is not the answer.
Professional communities thrive when they have both open spaces and protected spaces. The NCRA — like CalDRA — has every right to define where those lines are drawn.
The real challenge is not whether NCRA’s social media groups are open to non-members, but whether the organization is delivering enough value to make membership worthwhile. That’s the conversation worth having.
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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