Short Summary
Hi. My name is Pam Gwin Coder. I've been a freelance court reporter in Texas since 1994. I have been teaching in one form or another since I was 17. Back in October of 2011 I was approached by court reporting students and teachers at the local Houston reporting school to open an on-ground school since their school was moving online. I have been working hard to do this for these students and future students since that time. I am very involved in the reporting industry. I've been a mentor to countless students since 2003. I have written a textbooks and have been helping out with seminars the past year on ethics and the reporting profession. I have everything in place to get moving except the funds needed. I will be completely honest with you. I have great credit, a high credit score, but heavy debt. Therefore, I have been unable to help these students try and reach their goals because I haven't been able to get a loan to this point for my project. I have been told by many of the students that I've worked with over the years that I am a born teacher.
This fundraising campaign is so important to me because I truly want to help these students reach all the goals that they have set for themselves and see them succeed. We will be the only captioning program being taught in the Houston area and the only night school. A lot of students need a night program because of their job or family responsibilities. We will have day, night and captioning programs. My team will be doing seminars for attorneys, other reporters, paralegals and anything else we can do to help the legal community work more efficiently with reporters. This is a for profit school, but I will NOT be taking any income from this school until it becomes necessary for me to give up my reporting career to become a full-time teacher. I will be teaching select classes and will be in charge as the director of the school.
This school will provide not only jobs for our staff, but it will provide services to the deaf and hard-of-hearing community through our CART program; captioners for TV; reporters for meetings, hearings, depositions and court proceedings. These students will have a skill that will carry them through a variety of job opportunies. Court reporting is expected to grow by 14% over the next year. I truly believe that we need to pass along our knowledge and skill to the next generation of reporters to keep the legal system strong and ethical for future generations.
So here's where you come in. All my friends and clients keep asking me what they can do to help. Well, money is my only obstacle right now. I'm asking for $250,000. I know that sounds like a lot of money, but when you add up all the costs of salaries, tables, chairs, desks, computers, printers, projectors, office supplies, books, et cetera, that's enough to get us moving and have what we need for these students to thrive.
If we don't reach our entire goal, then the money we do make should help us get an SBA loan for the balance of what we need for at least the first few months of operation. We can't open without three months' expenses in the bank as per the Texas Workforce Commission.
What we will do for you is simple, whatever you need that is in our power to help you with. If you are in our area and need a conference room, give us a call and we can do that. We will have two. If you need a place to hold a mock trial or seminar, contact us because we will have a courtroom setup. If you need a job transcribed or a tape transcription by a noncertified reporter, we will give special projects to our students to help you out. For every $100 you donate, a student will do up to a hundred-page transcription under the supervision of a certified reporter. If you don't need any of those things and just wish to help us out, my students and I will be sending out thank you notes. We will also have a huge Hall of Fame Donation book where we will have all of your names posted and on display at the school. The person who makes the largest donation will have the courtroom named after him/her. The second largest will have a conference room named after him/her.
I'm running out of time before we lose our location that we spent six months looking for. I absolutely do not want to disappoint the students who have put their trust in me to get this school open. My team has been doing career fairs all across the Houston area and we have a high number of interested students in this field. This will be a very successful program with your help. This means the world to me and these students. If you can't help out financially, please pass the word around to everyone you know. We would so appreciate your help. Please help me help you have an awesome new generation of reporters ready, willing, and able to help you down the road when you need it most. And we'll make sure we put out top-notch professionals to fulfill your future reporting needs. Thanks so much for listening and helping us. Please don't forget to post everywhere and to use the Indiegogo share tools. Feel free to call me with any questions - 281.719.0250.