Your Association - Part Two
Massachusetts Court Reporters Association is dedicated to the advancement of professional verbatim shorthand reporting. Our goals include promoting professional court reporting excellence through education, research and technology, and to establish, maintain and protect professional standards in the practice of court reporting. We advocate for our members before legislative and regulatory bodies on issues which impact the judicial system and others served by the court reporting profession.
Massachusetts Court Reporters Association currently consists of a total of 234 members, 206 professional members, 19 associate members, 3 student members, 6 honorary-retired members. The definition of each of these membership designations can be found in your association bylaws under the “About Us” tab on our website www.mcraonline.com.
MCRA was founded in 1954, with the first president being Mary Kevill. Since that time there have been 39 presidents, three of whom subsequently served as president of the National Court Reporters Association – Lawrence Burt, Doris Wong and Nancy Varallo.
Your bylaws state that the composition of the Executive Board is as follows: “The Executive Board of the Association shall be composed of the President, President-Elect, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, the immediate Past President and four to six directors from the membership at large.”
I would like to inform you of some changes to the MCRA board. After many, many, many years of collective service on the board, Loretta Hennessey, Sue Garvin, and Michelle Kaczynski have stepped off the board. I am sure I speak for the entire membership when I extend my warm and sincere thanks for the countless hours these bright and dedicated reporters have contributed to this association and the profession as a whole. Our newest board members are Darlene Caiazzo-Sousa, Carolyn Rogers and Sue Wilson.
The slate of officers for the current MCRA board is as follows:
President – Kathleen Silva
Immediate Past President – Jill Shepherd
President Elect – Carolyn Rogers
Vice President – Megan Castro
Secretary – Marianne Kusa-Ryll
Treasurer – Lorreen Hollingsworth
Board members – Darlene Caiazzo-Sousa, Frank Dunn, Ellen Fritch, Jill Kourafas, Lisa Phipps , Sue Wilson
An election for our new board members and officers will be held at the outset of the holiday party, Sunday, December 13, at 11:00 a.m.
MCRA is in the process of an educational campaign regarding Chapter 221, Section 91D, the anti-contracting law. We are sending informational letters to insurance companies and law firms calling to their attention the existence of this law. If you are aware of any insurance company or law firm that would benefit from receiving this information, we would be happy to send it on your behalf. MCRA recently had an article published in the Mass. Academy of Trial Attorneys insert in Lawyers Weekly. The text of the informational letters and the MATA Lawyers Weekly article can be found on our website.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Mullen Silva, RPR, CRR
President, MCRA
978-821-4076