tel: 020 8907 8249
email: [email protected]
Index
BIVR Council and contact details
Letter from the President
Seminar booking form
New members welcomed
Check your Reporter Search entry
Lighthearted Corner
Obituary
BIVR Council and contact details:
President - Sheryll Holley - [email protected]
Vice President - Helen Edwards - [email protected]
Georgina Ford - [email protected]
Susan Humphries - [email protected]
Ann Lloyd - [email protected]
Ian Roberts - co-opted - [email protected]
Miriam Weisinger - co-opted - [email protected]
Leah Willersdorf - [email protected]
Elisabeth (Betty) Willett - [email protected]
Mary Sorene - Secretary - [email protected]
1
Letter from the President
Hi everyone, I hope this letter finds you all well. What a nice change for the sun to be
shining – well it did earlier today at least! I think we were all beginning to get sick of
the rain.
Where do I begin? I had better start with a bit about me. I’m a young married 42
year-old – well at least I like to think I am. I’ve been married to Neil (a rather
handsome Welshman, if I do say so myself) for 23+ years and we have three
children. My eldest is Rhidian and he will be 20 years old shortly; Bethan is 18 years
old; my youngest daughter is Abigail who has just turned 17. Myself and my husband
decided to have children first and enjoy them while we were young enough to do so.
Now they are older, we fly the nest frequently on mini breaks (or wherever my work
takes me) so to speak, to get a break and do all the things that we would have done
in our twenties. We are just older and wiser now – I hope. Bearing in the mind
financial climate I have a feeling they will be living with us for a while yet!
Oh, nearly forgot we also have Sam, our dog who is a 10 year old Chinese Crested
Powder Puff and two cats called Smudge and Ella. Smudge is now completely white
all over, although she did have a tiny black smudge on her head when she was a
kitten – hence the name. Ella is a tabby cat.
I was originally born in Swindon, Wiltshire, which technically makes me English, even
though my parents are Welsh and we’ve been living 13 miles North West of Cardiff
since I was about 3 years old. My parents owned a Newsagent during my childhood
years and sadly due to pressure of work and ill health my Mum and Dad sold the
Newsagents in 1986. Due to the stresses and strains my Dad died a month before my
18th birthday in 1988..
I left school and started my working life initially as an office junior in a Solicitor’s
office and then was promoted to Secretary. I learned typing in school on an old-style
manual typewriter. I always loved to type and my Mum and Dad bought me a
typewriter at home. I also attended night school where I learned Teeline
Shorthand (it had just reared its head at that time sadly – it’s nothing compared to
Pitman's). I managed to get to a speed of around 40wpm I think on the shorthand as
it was only the basic course, however my typing speed was always really fast as I
took to it like a duck to water.
I married Neil in 1989 which is really young, but we didn’t see the point in delaying
as it was both what we wanted. I then left the Solicitor’s practice in 1992 to have
Rhidian. We had all three children in three years – a bit mad, but looking back
although it was hard work, it was well worth it. Whilst the kids were little I took on
audio-typing from home for a friend who was running a surveying practice. This then
led into part time work in a Printers shop and doing a bit of temping in Cardiff.
Whilst Neil was reading the local paper one night he came across an advert by RNID
(now Action on Hearing Loss) for people to train as note-takers for hard of hearing
2
people and students. I had always kept up my typing speed so I applied and the
hours were whatever you could do. This was right up my street as the kids were now
in school and Neil was on shift work, so we could work the childcare between us and
family who lived locally. I started working in Universities and mainly meetings first.
There are times when you feel, yes this job is for me and this was the case with the
note-taking. I used my fingers to communicate and to be honest, my self-esteem was
never great in school and I would never have seen myself helping people in this way,
least of all in University. I think the trouble is, when you are young, if you have had a
bit of trouble in school, you only see what you can’t do and not what you can do, or
have the potential to do.
Even though I loved the note-taking it was frustrating because I couldn’t get
everything down. Typing on a QWERTY keyboard just isn’t fast enough.
Then one day I was helping out at an RNID Conference in Cardiff and met a
Palantypist and Stenographer who had both been Court Reporters and currently now
helping deaf and hard of hearing people in a similar role to me (ie. supporting deaf
and hard of hearing people) but it was verbatim! Wow! I’d never seen it before. I
must admit I was in awe. How did it work? I did some research and the rest, as they
say, is history. I found Mary Sorene during my research and signed up to learn Steno.
To be honest, I found the training most exhilarating at times, but sometimes also a
soul destroying process! Learning the layout of the keyboard was easy peasy – until I
came to putting three and four key-stroke words together! Boy was that an
interesting day!
Learning something like this has taught me such a lot, though. It’s taught me to have
perseverance where before I would have given up. It has taught me patience, but
above all has taught me that actually you aren’t as dull, or stupid, as society implies
you are, or you think you are.
Well I’m 10+ years down the road now from when I started learning Steno. I now
travel quite a lot and get to see parts of the country I wouldn’t ordinarily have seen. I
love meeting and working with new people. My Mum and Dad taught me how to
treat customers from my time working part-time when we had the Newsagents.
Their lessons stick with me. Treat others as you would want to be treated yourself.
My work supporting deaf and hard of hearing people has opened up a new world; a
view of disability from a different side, if you like, although I think life is a constant
learning curve. There is a lot of truth in the saying "older and wiser".
So where am I going with all this personal testimony? Sadly, our profession seems to
be on a downward curve at the moment. I think as stenographers, palantypists and
pen writers we have to try to be one step ahead of the game and think smarter and
wiser in the times to come, otherwise we will all meet our end. I think the solutions
lie in training mainly and publicity. We need to make ourselves known and fight
3
back. Can we honestly believe that we will be replaced by a machine and that a
machine will do a better job? If we believe so, then we might as well pack up now.
Therefore, the question is how? How can we be effective in making ourselves known
and do a top-notch job and continue to evolve into the future? I think part of the
answer lies in remote transcript work and remote support for deaf and hard of
hearing clients. We are getting requests from American stenographers to do work in
the UK. Why don’t we approach the US and see where we end up? Europe is another
avenue where we could explore.
For now, I’m so pleased that we are putting on another training day in November. I
thoroughly enjoyed the last weekend away and hope this one is also a success.
If you have any suggestions for training or indeed for publicising our services,
whether it is Speech-to-Text for the deaf or taking realtime notes privately in court
or disciplinary, then please let us know. Or even different avenues to explore?
I was talking with an acquaintance a while back about the profession and I have
some ideas and the question was asked of me: Have you put together a business
plan? I haven’t, but maybe, as a profession, we need to activate a business plan?
Food for thought over the summer perhaps?
At the moment I’m travelling again to Edinburgh and have had the fortune of
managing to book a first class seat so I have space, tea and coffee and biscuits "on
tap" and I’ve now lost the sun and am travelling through a rather depressing dusky,
cloudy Lake District. I think we are feeling a bit depressed at the moment with the
state of our profession, but there are peaks of sunshine through the clouds and let’s
work smarter and wiser and do what we can to get ahead of the game.
Sheryll
President
4
Training weekend at The Met, Leeds
As the President mentioned in her letter, above, we are organising a training
weekend, the booking form with details is just below.
Several members have indicated that they wish to attend this weekend training
seminar. We have now booked it at The Met, Leeds because, sadly, rooms in
Manchester, even on the outskirts, proved too expensive, there apparently being
several sporting activities on there on our weekend. We have a few places available
for those who indicated they could only attend via Skype (or an alternative such as
GoToMeeting). This is a first for us, but it is not available for non-members.
The booking details follow. Please read it through carefully and then complete the
form and let me have your remittance. The Scoping/Editing session is on Saturday,
with our President explaining more about remote set-up for STT work. We are
holding a QRR examination first thing on the Sunday morning, closely followed by IPS
speed exams, then an early lunch and the IT sessions on Sunday afternoon. We are
finishing at 4 p.m. on the Sunday to allow people to get home at a reasonable time in
the evening. Take advantage of the Early Bird Discount and book now. If you wish to
stay over, there is a dedicated telephone number to ring.
As referred to in the details below, we are offering CPD (Continuing Professional
Development) points of one point per one hour of seminar. Most of our seminars are
actually 45 minutes' long, so the CPD is .75 of a minute for each one. This is
especially relevant to our STTR members who are registered with the NRCPD as they
are now required to undertake several hours of structured and non-structured CPD
per year from now on. More details of their requirements may be found on the
newly up-dated website: www.avsttr.org.uk
Seminar details
Saturday 3
November 2012
Session 1.
Scoping/Editing/Rem
ote set-up/Be a
Buddy (including
lunch)
9 a.m. - 6 p.m.
attending Leeds
Early Bird discount
if booked by:
Session 1a
Scoping/Editing/Rem
ote set-up /Be a
Buddy 9 a.m. - 6 p.m
Member Nons
members
Last date
for
bookings:
26
October
2012
6
Septemb
er 2012
Last date
for
bookings:
30
5
£160
£240
£136
£205
£160 Not
available
Amount
Remittin
g
attending remotely
via Skype or
similar package.
Note: limited
applications accepted
- firs- come firstserved
Early Bird discount
if booked by:
Sunday 4
November 2012
Session 2. QRR attending Leeds only
(no remote)
Septemb
er 2012
6
Septemb
er 2012
(Sorry, no
early bird
9 a.m. -9:45 a.m.
discount)
If you
wish to
join us for
lunch after
Session 3. IPS
your IPS
exams - attending
exam,
Leeds only (no
please
remote)
remit:
(Sorry, no
early bird
10a.am.-12 noon
discount)
Price per
160 exam
170
180
190
200
210
220
230
240
250
Session 4. IT from
Last date
12 noon - 4 p.m.
for
(includes lunch)
bookings:
26
- MS Word basics,
October
macros etc.
2012
6
Not
£136 available
£50
£80
£15
£15
£30
£30
£30
£35
£35
£35
£35
£35
£35
£35
£35
£35
£35
£40
£40
£40
£40
£40
£40
£40
£60
£90
Please specify if you
have a specific
training request!
Early Bird discount
if booked by:
6
Septemb
er 2012
Session 4a IT - MS
Word basics, macros
etc.,
attending remotely
via Skype or
similar package.
Note: limited
applications accepted
- first- come firstserved.
Last date
for
bookings:
Early Bird discount
if booked by:
6
Septemb
er 2012
£51
30
October
2012
£80
Not
available
£60
£51 Not
availabl
e
Lunch is included in the fee for sessions 1 & 4
Total
Remittin
g
Sessions 4 and 4a I
would like specific IT
training on:
Name:
Address:
Telephone:
e-mail address
I am a member / non-member
Pen Writer
Palan
Steno
Software currently using:
I wish to have specific IT training on: (please tell us what you want, what you really,
really want)
Please make cheques payable to BIVR and send to The Treasurer, BIVR, 73 Alicia
Gardens, Kenton, Harrow, Middx HA3 8JD
or via BACs:
Cater Allen Private Bank
7
Sort Code 16-57-10
Account No: 32972430
British Institute of Verbatim Reporters
CPD (Continuing Professional Development) will be awarded. There will be a total of
6 points awarded on the Saturday with .75 for the QRR, a total of 2.25 awarded for
the IPS exams and a total of 3 awarded for the Sunday afternoon sessions. Forms will
be provided for signature by the Presenters at the end of each day.
If staying over at The Met, Leeds, we have several rooms on hold for us please book
and pay for your room direct. For bedroom bookings please call their central
reservations team on 0844 824 6174 and mention that you are booking (either the
Friday night, Saturday night, or both nights) for the BIVR seminars.
Bed & Breakfast + evening meal, single occupancy £105 per night. There is a £35
supplement for anyone sharing a room. (I am not suggesting that you share, but we
have at least one partnership attending.)
The Met
King Street
Leeds
LS1 2HQ
The Met is only a few minutes walk from Leeds mainline station and just a 20 minute
drive from
Leeds Bradford International Airport.
By air:
Leeds Bradford, 11 miles Leeds/Bradford International Airport is 10 miles north of
the hotel, approximately 25 minute drive. The average one-way taxi fare is £15 and
the average bus fare
is £2.50. Manchester International is 90 minutes away by car. There is also a direct
train from the airport to Leeds City Station
By train:
Leeds, 2 minutes’ walk. Leave the station via the main entrance and turn left. Follow
to the traffic lights and turn left again (Queen’s Hotel will be to your left) Cross the
road at the next
pedestrian crossing. Head down the left hand side of Majestyk’s Nightclub and the
2nd right after Wharf Street Bar on to King Street. The hotel is on the right hand side.
By road
From the M1:
Take Junction 43 off of the M1 onto the M621, then exit at junction 3 signposted for
Leeds City Centre and Holbeck. Following the signs for City Centre, go past the Hilton
8
Hotel on Neville Street and under the railway bridge. At the second set of traffic
lights turn left and get into the middle lane. Go straight through the next lights with
Majestyk’s Nightclub on your right,
onto Wellington Street. Turn right at the small traffic island on to King Street, the
hotel is on the right hand side.
From the M62 Manchester:
Take junction 27 off of the M62 onto the M621 then exit at Junction 3, signposted
Leeds City Centre and Holbeck (follow above directions).
From the A62 York:
Follow signs for City centre, take a left turning signposted International Pool onto
Wellington Street (Yorkshire Post building is on the right). Follow the road as far as it
will go before you have to turn left. The hotel is on the right hand side.
Parking:
On-site parking is available for a charge. As spaces are limited the hotel request that
you check in advance of arrival. An alternative NCP car park is available at Leeds
station, a few minutes’ walk from the hotel.
Map: http://www.methotelleeds.co.uk/The_Met_Hotel_Leeds_View_Map.html
New members welcomed
We departed from our old practice of on-the-job examinations and prior to this
year's AGM we held a special meeting at which two prospective members attended
to take a verbatim note which they then edited. BIVR is pleased to welcome Mandy
Clare (previously an Associate) and new member Christina Yianni.
The format of examinations was discussed during our AGM. Once you have logged-in
please check "Resources" and click on "AGM records" where you will find the 2012
AGM minutes.
Reporter Search
Would all members please check and confirm to me that your details/information
under our Reporter Search heading is accurately recorded. [email protected]
Lighearted corner!
A composition from a confused Englishman
The English Plural according to....
We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
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Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!
Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
Neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England.
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing,
Grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them,
What do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
Should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship...
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
10
In which your house can burn up as it burns down,
In which you fill in a form by filling it out,
And in which an alarm goes off by going on.
And in closing..........
If Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop.????
Obituraries
Ron Chartres
Ronald Arthur Chartres was born in Laindon, Essex on 19th
November 1920, the youngest of four children. He died, aged 91, in
April 2012.
Ron developed a very strong work ethic that commenced when he
joined his grandparent’s shorthand writing business Martin Meredith
and Company at the age of 14, as an office boy. Ultimately he
became one of the UK’s most proficient court reporters and retired a
senior partner.
During the war Ron spent several weeks en route to Singapore, but
Singapore fell to the Japanese before he got there and the boat
turned round. That saved him from the fate of working on the
infamous Burma Railway, or worse. I think he said that he also went
to Basra with the RAF, but that he never saw the enemy!
A man with a sharp mind – having undertaken an Open University
Course in his seventies – Ron was a welcome addition to the team
when quiz nights took place at Robinson Court (his care home).
When Calvin Martin passed away in 2007 Ron wrote: "We worked
together in the old Midland Circuit for many years, the late Sir
Richard Elwes once dubbing us as 'the heavenly twins'; we both
were admitted as Members (later to become Fellows) to the
Institute on the same day." That day was 16 November 1953. Ron
later joined the Council of the Institute and was President several
times before retiring from the Council in 1986. However, he
remained an Examiner for several more years before finally hanging
up his Institute hat and later putting down his pen and retiring,
eventually moving to a retirement home. As a mark of the high
regard in which Ron was held, he as made a Life Fellow of the
Institute in 1995.
Sec.
Lord Jack Ashley
In the July/August edition of The Hearing Times, my letter to the Editor was
published, thought slightly edited by them to exclude all the web addresses that I
had dutifully put in, regarding Lord Jack Ashley which, with their permission, I
11
reproduce below:
Readers’ letters
Dear Fellow Hearing Times readers,
On the radio, when they were talking about his long and
distinguished career, no mention was made of the fact that in the
House of Lords Jack Ashley relied totally on stenographers
(Palantypists) writing to a little screen in front of his bench, even
after he had his cochlea implant.
When Jack Ashley (later Lord Ashley) lost his hearing in around
1968 it became obvious to him that he could not, however skilled
he became at it, lipread all the MPs speaking in the House of
Commons. In those early days he would rely on colleagues writing
brief notes to him, but, the point of jokes made later of little asides
made, would be completely lost to him. He needed to know every
word that was said. Thus began the search for a solution to his and
other deaf people’s need for communication support.
In his book, Design and the Digital Divide: Insights from 40 Years in
Computer Support for Older and Disabled People, Alan Newell
describes the work that he, along with John Arnott, Joe King, Andy
Downton and Colin Brookes, in the late 70s, early 80s, did in
re-designing the Palantype machine for computer-aided
transcription. In his book he acknowledges the tremendous help
given to them by Isla Beard, a Palantypist (who originally used a
manual machine with a printed paper tape for later transcribing).
Isla, now retired, was an Accredited Reporter member of the
Institute of Shorthand Writers (now the British Institute of Verbatim
Reporters), and she acted as “an expert consultant and
demonstration operator throughout our research”.
Isla was, in fact, Jack Ashley’s first Speech-to-Text Reporter
(Palantypist). Isla wrote down every word uttered for Jack to read
on a screen next to him in the House of Commons so that he could
fully participate as an MP. Later, when he was elevated to the
House of Lords, Jack had other qualified STTRs there such as
Lorraine Comerford (Chapman), Lisa Cordaro, Julie Whitaker and
Susie Romeo, to name a few. These and other Speech-to-Text
Reporters continued to write for him until his retirement, thus
enabling him to take a full part in those proceedings.
Isla re-wrote the theory book for realtime Palantype reporters to
enable them to write for the computer. The American Stenograph
machine and theory had also been up-dated for CAT (Computer
Aided Transcription) and, with the advent of faster operating
12
computers, both machines are now capable, with the input by a
highly qualified stenographer, of producing accurate Realtime
translation with the words coming up on screen in English just
seconds after they were spoken.
Where Isla led others have followed and there are now several
qualified, registered, STTRs in the UK, though more are needed and
I am pleased to say that training for Speech-to-Text continues,
though nowadays it is mostly using the American Stenograph
machine.
BIVR has many STTR members, using both the Palantype and the
Stenograph machine, assisting deaf or hard of hearing people to
participate fully in meetings or in all aspects of their lives and,
together with AVSTTR (The Association of Verbatim Speech-to-Text
Reporters), continues to fly the flag for high standards in verbatim
reporting generally. Both organisations hold training seminars for
their members and trainee stenographers, or writers of shorthand
of any system, can get extra dictation practise, in London, by
attending the IPS (Incorporated Phonograph Society) dictation
sessions on a Thursday evening, or from the free dictation offered
on their website.
Whilst the shorthand machine and its software, together with
computers, have come on by leaps and bounds over the last 20-odd
years, it is the high skill of the person operating the machine, such
as Isla Beard, who make all this possible.
Kind Regards,
Mary C Sorene FIPS, MBIVR, CRI (Certified Reporting
Instructor - USA)
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