Loretta Storm is a professional transcriptionist, and has made her living and helped support her family with this skill. The transcriptions that we voluntarily do for the taxpayers of Sultan represent a professional product. The industry rate for a transcription of one hour of good quality tape ranges between $75 and $120. The cost fluctuations are the result of many factors, chief among them, audio quality. Because I operate a professional business, I lose money in several ways each time I do a transcription: Once when I experience a loss of revenue because the chore takes me away from my transcriptions I should be doing myself; a second time when I pay someone else to do transcriptions I should be doing; and a third time because I am not getting paid to do them.

Many factors affect the cost and quality of a transcription; i.e., an individual's syntax and speech patterns, the content/subject matter of the tape, industry-specific terminology, the number of people speaking, the interactivity of the participants, whether or not they have accents, and other factors. Transcription companies can charge by the hour, like we do, or by the word, line or page, but it all comes out to about the same amount per tape. It's a very competitive business in which I've been able to survive because of referrals from current satisfied customers, my great customer service, and a quality product.

I have personally performed countless hours of no-charge transcriptions of public hearings and meetings. I have not received a single cent for doing them. I and my husband, Ray, have sat through almost every council meeting since April 10, 2000, and have been recording since June of 2000. Purchase of tapes and recording equipment is expensive, likewise the maintenance of electronic gear, for which we have not been paid. Additionally, since the beginning of December, which saw the birth of the Mayor's attempts to curb our recording activities, we have also had the added expense of items such as: A safety chair, a microphone stand, custom-cut Lucite, a new microphone and other items, in order to try and satisfy the city's constraints on our activities

The discussion of how much we have spent is not being communicated for the purpose of gaining reimbursement or for getting thanks. It is being said so that people will understand how important we think it is that the taxpayers of Sultan have a clear idea of what is happening in their town.

We therefore urge that residents use these freely for information purposes by which they can make a decisions as to whether or not they wish to become actively involved in city affairs. And, while transcription of a public meeting cannot be "copyrighted," I am requesting that if residents print out and/or otherwise use the transcriptions we have done for their own personal purposes, that they give us attribution for them. And if they use these for any public purpose, we request that, as a courtesy, they ask our permission to do so, in additional to giving us attribution.

Thank you,
Loretta Storm, Co-Founder, G.R.I.T.

REMEMBER: "Doing nothing is NOT an option."