Lesson Learned...

Just got back from the NCRA Annual Conference in Chicago. I had to man the shop here in Houston a couple days more than anticipated, finishing off a pesky witness that just wouldn't stop answering questions. I made it in early Friday a.m. and spent the remainder of the weekend eating, drinking and laughing the night away with my STAR friends, relishing this bonus encounter in addition to our two annual conferences. The consummate Chicago moment this trip: Landing at our window table on the 96th floor of the John Hancock Building as the Venetian Night fireworks erupted below.

Coming in Friday morning also precluded my participating in Mask Vote '04. Personally, I had every intention of voting to grant stenomaskers and voicewriters membership within NCRA, although based on what I understand transpired within the Hilton ballroom on Thursday, the National board likely would have convinced me, as they did many others who were willing to back their agenda, to shoot it down. No argument by the opposition swayed the vote of those with whom I spoke as effectively as did the attempted last-minute molestation of the bylaws by our leadership.

From what I gathered, the whole session smacked of Proposition 12 last summer in Texas: If what you're proposing is so radical a departure from your current mandate that your bylaws/constitution/{insert name of governing document here} must be materially scrapped and rewritten, you'd best be holding all the cards before presenting your constituency with a pile of special-interest/self-serving dreck and asking for their support.

The final revision of NCRA's loophole-riddled bylaws amendment, the way it was described to me ex post facto, seemed as if it were scrawled on a cocktail napkin in a rum-soaked haze the night before, and yet somehow, inexplicably, the board failed miserably to convince the membership at large that these shaky-at-best changes were for the greater good. The upshot I got was that on the heels of National's initial proposed retooling of their rules, the group would have voted down a pay raise, a hug and a cookie at that point. Here's hoping everyone in that room learned a few lessons about association governance for the future.

The good news is, if the past is any indication, we've got three years of relative peace before Mask Vote '07.

"Our constitution protects aliens, drunks and U.S. Senators" - Will Rogers