I'm excited to try out our new meeting place this month at Frankies tomorrow from 5:00 - 7:00.  There will be appetizers and members will get a free drink   This is a membership drive, so if a member signs up a new member, they get an extra chance to win a raffle drawing.  I hope to see a lot of new faces, as well as our old faces.  It should be a fun, relaxed meeting.
Toni

CRCB now has more information on new license requirement to have a criminal history record search by fingerprint submission.

I noticed there are two officialships open: Lubbock - County Court at Law No. 1 and 109th District Court - serving Andrews, Crane & Winkler Counties

We sent out an evite invitation for our next meeting on September 8th starting at 5:00 at Frankie's.  If you didn't get it, please let us know so we can correct your email address.  You might want to check your spam folder.  You don't have to reply to come.  See you there.

We had a great turnout for our meeting today .   I am so excited about this coming year and everything we have planned.   We didn't realize how loud it gets at El Rancho Grande, so we won't be having our next daytime meeting there.  Thank you all for coming. 
Toni

Dear Reporters,

Tarrant County Court Reporters Association (TCCRA) is starting a new year and hopes to make changes to our association that will encourage reporters from every field to get involved.  We will be changing meeting places, offering more CE hours in the form of meetings and seminars, and having social events so that we may be able to interact and network with our fellow members. Our first meeting will be at El Rancho Grande on August 3rd from 11:30 to 1:00.  We plan on alternating with having day and evening meetings.  The meeting place will probably change each month, but we will be sending out reminder notices each month.

As vice president, I am in charge of the membership committee and it is now time to renew your membership for a mere $20. Membership is good from June 1st through May 31st, but if you signed up at our Deputy Seminar in May, your membership is good for this new year.  We had a great seminar and, as a result, we have quite a few new members from surrounding areas that we need to get to know. I have attached the application and you can either mail it to us or give it to one of the new officers:  Kim Cherry, Jeannie Morris, Toni Freeman, Lorie Graham, Lisa Morton.

We have revamped our website.  We hope to make this a bit more up-to-date and informative as to the goings-on of our association. We plan on participating as a group in the American Heart Association Heart Walk and doing other charitable events in our community, which you can sign up for on our website at http://www.tccra-online.com.  If you have any suggestions or comments about the website, please let me know.

Please feel free to email or call any of the TCCRA officers with any suggestions, questions, or concerns you might have. If you don’t want to get any messages from TCCRA, please let me know and I will take you off the list.

See you soon,

Toni Freeman  tfreeman@tarrantcounty.com
 Kim Cherry kcherry@tarrantcounty.com
 Jeannie Morris j.morris_csr@sbcglobal.net
 Lorie Graham ljgraham@tarrantcounty.com
 Lisa Morton lgmorton@tarrantcounty.com

Greetings to my Fellow Members!

Writing my first President’s message is a bit overwhelming for me.  I became a court reporter to sit and listen to everyone else speak.  Speaking and writing are not my forte, as you will soon learn.  I am happy to have this opportunity though to help lead our association to new ground.  And with all of y’all’s help, I know it will be a great year.

I want to thank Brenda Hein for the exceptional job she did in the past year as president, as well as all the officers.  I also want to thank Stefanie Newton, the editor-in-chief of our Newsletter.  She has done an outstanding job and has gone over and above what has been expected of her….which brings me to the Newsletter.  Stefanie has decided it would be a good time to transition out of her voluntary position, (which she has held for 8 years) and try some new things.  I had a very informative meeting with her and she had many, many good ideas and suggestions.  So the next few months we will be revamping our website and newsletter.  We hope to make this a bit more up-to-date and informative as to the goings-on of our association. 

Many of you have given me some great ideas and suggestions for things in the next year.  I thank you for that.  We are now in a position to put those great ideas to work!  We will be changing meeting places, offering more CE hours in the form of meetings and maybe a seminar or two, and having some social events so we may be able to interact and network with our fellow members.  We have also been invited to share time with our sister association, DCRA. 

Please feel free to call, email, text, send a carrier pigeon, anything to contact me and let me know what you would like to see in the upcoming year or any suggestions you might have.  I know we have an exciting year ahead of us, so let’s have fun!

Kim

“We are the only ones that can light our own spark, and we’re certainly the only ones who can hustle to make our dreams a reality.” – Unknown –

The  Judicial Silent Auction time is upon us.  Since the Judicial Conference is going to be held in Dallas this year,  there’s a greater possibility that more local judges will be attending. 

If anyone would like to make a donation, you can make your check payable to TCCRA with "Silent Auction" in the memo line and either mail it to us or give it to one of our officers by August 1st.  We will write one check to TCRA  with everyone's name who contributed and forward it on!!  

TCCRA's walk team, Court Reporters `R Us, is joining the American Heart Association's Heart Walk to promote physical activity to build healthier lives free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke. Please  join our team and come walk with us on September 10th, 2011.  The link to our team page to join us is on the Home page under Events.  Hope to see you there.
Toni

Come join us at our next TCCRA meeting at El Rancho Grande at 1400 N. Main Street here in Fort Worth on August 3rd from 11:30 to 1:00.  We are trying to find a meeting place that is convenient for both freelance members and officials.