I love networking. It’s true. I’m somewhat of a convention junkie.
In March, I attended the Virginia Court Reporters Association’s M.A.R. Education Day – and the M.A.R. is for Mario Rodriguez, a reporter I met early in my career and who has sadly passed away. His passion for court reporting was off the charts and his state association has found a way to honor him well.
This year’s event was held in Richmond – which is a lot closer to where I used to live than where I do now, so I was on the road for about five hours!
I was fortunate to have arranged with a friend-colleague to stay at an Airbnb about 30 minutes from the location, and she added one of my mentees to our little grouping.
Friday night was a private event at a local bowling alley/microbrewery where we got together and chatted informally. Saturday was an all-day education event, with a varied group of speakers including a reporter from the Murdaugh trial, multiple attorneys, the president doing a realtime setup and demo.
The silent auction, 50-50, and heads-tails all were great fundraisers for the VCRFoundation. At the end of the evening, we headed downtown for dinner, though we had multiple tables as our group was over 20 people! It was a great time.
One of the highlights was watching my mentee receive a student scholarship. She’s almost done with her schooling – indeed, she’s just now taken her certification exam and waiting for her results. That’s one of the great things about the court reporting family: we give back and support our students. We love to see them succeed. They are the future of our profession!
We wrapped up our stay Sunday morning with sleeping in and having a quick bite and then each headed on our way to our respective homes filled with renewed energy and passion and stocked up on hugs from our colleagues.
Make plans to attend an association meeting/convention/education day soon!
Photo credit: Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden