Realtime - Are you afraid of it? If so, why?

[Marla Sharp]

My friend Reagan Evans and I are putting on a realtime seminar at the DRA convention at the Fairmont Hotel in Newport Beach February 20-22. Yes, I'm a nervous wreck because I've never put on a seminar before, not to mention I'm no realtime expert. But Reagan and I feel strongly that realtime is an excellent way for us to stay relevant and necessary in this era of electronic recording. And we'd like to help reporters overcome their fears.

So I'd like to take a poll to find out what the top fears are. I’ve listed what I think might be a few, plus a fill-in-the-blank. Put them in descending fear factor order (the biggest fear first).

__ Setting up/troubleshooting
__ Mistakes appearing on the attorney’s screen
__ Don’t feel you’re good enough to do realtime for anyone but yourself
__ Just the idea of having someone watch your output makes you want to quit court reporting
__ Fill in the blank ____________________

Thanks!

[Marla Sharp]

Chuckie?! Man alive, woman, don't you watch all the ridiculously bad Christmas shows from the '70s every year? That's Baby New Year.

So how did you change your "fears" to "concerns"? Was it from doing realtime so many times? Was it just something you worked out in your head? Whatever worked for you may work for someone else, so let me know how you got over your fears.

I've never been criticized by an attorney, but I have had an attorney say in the middle of a big arbitration, "Um, I didn't say 'the can will have,'" or whatever the misstroke came out as. I was furious. There were, like, 15 people in the room, including three aribtrators. I simply said as calmly as I could, "I know. It was just a misstroke which will be fixed when I edit it later."

Sometimes I'm amazed at how many attorneys actually expect perfection. They really have no idea how we work and that perfection is an impossibility. But just knowing that other reporters aren't able to provide perfect realtime gives me the confidence to do it. Plus, it's our job to constantly educate attorneys on what we can provide and how misstrokes happen to the best of us.

[Karen Margolis]

1. Setting up/troubleshooting. I don't have a problem with my own equipment, but I tend to panic when something goes awry!
2. Mistakes/untranslates/mistranslates appearing on attorney's screen.
3. I've pretended on certain jobs that I am doing realtime, and once I've conned myself into believing that someone's watching, I get so nervous that I make even more mistakes, and it's only me!

Thanks, Marla, for your time and effort in this discussion and seminar. It is reporters like you that help pave the way for us newer reporters and enables us to have faith that with our own time and effort, we will become as competent as you and other more experienced reporters!

[Marla Sharp]

I hear you, Karen. I hate it when something goes awry and you can't hook up. I haven't been able to hook up the last few depos, and I have no idea why. Just tonight I was able to hook up to my friend Reagan's computer without any problem. There are just so many variables with all the different setttings in our software, in the realtime software, and with the cables and adapters. You just have to be willing to give it a try.

Thanks for your kind words, Karen. Sweet of you. Hope to see you at the convention in February.

[Karen Margolis]

So what happens when you can't hook up? Does the depo just go forward without it?

[Marla Sharp]

Well, it depends on several things - how long you have to troubleshoot it, the patience of the attorneys, if the problem is fixed with your first troubleshooting try, etc. That's why it smart to arrive about 45 minutes early when it's a realtime job.

I pretty much just check all my cables and the connections, start the setup all over again, try the attorney connection again. And if that doesn't work, and if everyone's willing to give me a little more time, I call support. Every situation is different. You just can't be afraid of it not working. The key is to have a cheat sheet with you at all times and follow it.

[Kyung]

First off, congratulations!! Realtime seminar!! Great job. Thanks so much for not calling it Livenote.

Number 2, are you going to have a hands-on portion? I think a lot of people's fear and uncertainty is bec. they've never done it under the gun, so to speak. Once you've done it, it gets easier every time (true of so many things.)

My biggest concern is that the attorneys will talk too fast.

I'm not too nervous about the rest of it.

[Anthony D. Frisolone]

The two major fears I hear about realtime are setting up/troubleshooting and a combination of not feeling good enough to do realtime and mistakes appearing on the attorney's screen.

[Tami]

Well, Marla, since Reagan was a qualifier at NCRA's speed contest last summer, I think you're in great company!

I just have to add one other factor here:

The six or so people who qualified ahead of Mark Kislingbury in the realtime contest this past summer were all on Eclipse software.

Now, I'm not on Eclipse, but the carrot sure keeps getting bigger. :)

My biggest realtime fear is being asked to work a day in a non-realtime department (courtroom). If I'm not writing realtime, I really don't care to work.

[Tami]

I don't use audio, Melissa. I do write "fix" notes.

When there is a break, I go to the top of the job and search for my "stroke" and ask the attorneys right then for the spelling and/or clarification, etc.

If it's something I just didn't hear, I usually ask for clarification at the point I didn't hear it. That's how we all did it in the old days, and it still works fine. :)

[Tami]

You know, after thinking about it, I probably shouldn't have even responded to this thread. Court and depos are two different worlds when it comes to RT hookups.

In court I get to hook up before anyone's there, it's only one hookup, the variables are minimal, and if I get in trouble, I have a tech guy in the building that I can call. I'm definitely in my own comfy zone.

If I had to go to a strange place, hook up multiple attorneys all with their different hardware/software configs, it would be a totally different story. I might just freak out and start hyperventilating. :)

[Tami]

You're right. It's nice having a judge that has your back, too.

[Marla Sharp]

Melissa, that's when interrupting is simply a must. We all rely on our audio way too much. The attorneys are talking faster, knowing we have audio backup that we can check later. But what happens if we need to read it back? What happens if the audio fails? We should treat every depo as though we were going to have to read it back.

We're not only allowed to interrupt but we're required to when we're not getting it. No one in the room knows you're not getting it except you. We can't expect them to know.

Of course, we run the risk of making the client angry and having them call the agency to tell them never to send us again. I say we should all run that risk. I'd rather get every word than possibly have my license revoked because I missed something important and the audio didn't work.

All that being said, though, in Eclipse you can make your "check audio" note invisible. Not sure if other software can do that. If you're on Eclipse, here's the definition: {M:Check Note - RT} The only problem is it inserts the invisible comment at the beginning of the paragraph, not exactly where it was inserted.