Melanie Sonntag elected NCRA president

[Bill Parsons]

To view the NCRA election results, go to http://www.ncraonline.org/

Melanie Sonntag won the election for president.

A bylaws amendment to do away with requiring an endorsing member for enrolling new members was passed.

A bylaws amendment to allow videographers to join as full members was defeated.

Bill

[Quyen]

Hm. Seems to me the entire NCRA board is already in violation of No. 11:

11. Exercise the powers vested for the good of all members and the Association itself rather than for personal benefit.

[Matthew]

EXACTLY, Judy,

Isn't this about the same way the board was attacking Melanie! Hmmmm! Makes you wonder!!!!

[Quyen]

While I fully appreciate and thank you for your smug comment, admadm, I DID have the intention of going to the convention. It wasn't until I realized how useless the likes of you and your organization are to me when you all did nothing to help in our state's ER fight that I felt the NCRA was neither worth the time nor my hard-earned STENO money. Likewise, I am SO very disappointed in having missed the opportunity and pleasure, I'm sure, of meeting you.

[Judy]

Quyen,

I've met admadm while waiting the in the StarbucksStarbucks like in AnaheimAnaheim. It was uneventful.

[Quyen]

ROTFLMAO! Thanks for such a good laugh, Judy!

[Debbie Turner]

Ooo-kay. Took a deep breath to be nice.

Can't reply to Adm's arrogant e-mail. Took a deep breath and can't manage it. The arrogrance reeks.

Karen, thank you for participating. I, too, am a former NCRA member. I, too, once upon had the right to have "RDR" after my name.

I didn't have that right during all of 2009. Hah! NOTHING CHANGED. Except the fact that I had a few hundred extra bucks to spend on visiting my family this year. My income didn't go down. Attorneys didn't think less of me. Most importantly to me, I didn't throw good money down the drain.

Ack, I'm not happy with myself for not being more vocal when perhaps I should have been, but yet I wanted a peaceful world. The failure of the motion to rescind makes me -- sad, speechless. Angry. Glad to be out of NCRA.

Debbie Turner, DGR
Damn Good Reporter

[Quyen]

See, Debbie? You are a living example of what I've been saying all along: Who needs the NCRA? We were DGR before the NCRA, and we are STILL DGR without the NCRA.

You've also reiterated the points that I've made all along. No firm has ever denied/given me work based upon my NCRA certification. No attorney has requested/refused to work with me based upon some insignificant initials after my name. The only initials I need are CSR. I am no better and no less of a reporter with(out) the NCRA certification(s).

Quyen N. Do, DGR

[Marge Teilhaber (TILE hobber)]

Quyen,

Please go on the NCRA forum and say this loud and clear! I won't be quitting but I understand your sentiment totally.

Marge

[Judy]

Marge,

You're opting to keep your "Golden Handcuffs"? Mark Golden (NCRA's CEO) belongs to an organization called the ASAE. That's what the ASAE refers to the certifications that keeps the members from leaving.

[Mary Ann Payonk]

I would encourage readers to also read THIS ITEM from the ASAE & Center For Association Leadership.

It's amazing that they don't take their own suggestion:

Marketing what makes you unique

Golden-handcuff programs no longer exist in many membership organizations because they are readily available through other sources, including many sources that didn't exist until a few years ago. The best way to fight this battle is to look for an opportunity to focus on whatever it is that makes your organization truly unique.

And this as well:

Organizations that focus on making membership in the organization desired, and not just required, will be surprised how many golden retention opportunities are still out there.

M.A.

[Marge Teilhaber (TILE hobber)]

Judy,

It's 100 percent the golden handcuffs. I have 2 disability policies and an "in-hospital" protection policy that pays $200 (tax-free if you don't use the premium as a deduction) per day for inpatient and which I collected on for 2 months in 1992. I also like being in the Source Book and have gotten many calls over the years from this.

I would encourage NCRA to rack their brains to come up with as many golden handcuffs as possible. This is what makes the price of membership so worth it. I've been a member of NCRA since 1977. Never once thought of letting it go. For me, that would be totally nuts. In addition, I worked hard to attain the certs and will not let them go. My website and business card highlight it and I am not interested in saying "former RDR; voluntarily let it go because I'm ticked off at the organization" and certainly wouldn't call myself RDR if it could not be verified.

Golden handcuffs are good and I'm bound for life by them.

[Quyen]

Marge:

You've made it quite clear that no one and nothing could ever make you leave the NCRA, and if you feel so passionately about your reasons for staying, then, with all due respect, perhaps you could enlighten me as to why you'd want me to repost my comment on the NCRA forum. I'm sure there are many other reporters who feel they've "worked hard to attain the certs and will not let them go." So, why bother to waste my copy-and-paste skills?

To me, what's worse than apathy is knowing that something is very seriously wrong and/or bad for me yet choosing to go along with it anyway.