Internet Scoping School

Meet the Staff

Linda Evenson, Instructor/Administrator

Hi, and welcome to Internet Scoping School!

My name is Linda Evenson and I am the creator/instructor of this course. Since you're contemplating investing your time and money, entrusting me to successfully launch you on your new career, I thought you might like to know a little bit about me.

I’ve been happily married to my husband, Ty, a former sergeant in the Missoula County Sheriff’s Department, for over 30 years. He’s a wonderful husband and very supportive of my businesses; I plan to keep him.

We have two sons and two daughters, a grandson and a granddaughter, and currently we are living with three large dogs, a cat who thinks she's a dog, and a vociferous parrot. We live on about 10 acres of pasture in the beautiful Bitterroot Valley. We have views of the Bitterroot Mountains on one side of us and the Sapphire Mountains on the other. We count our blessings every day.

I have been a scopist for over 35 years, having started out typing from dictation and learning to noteread by correspondence course. The rest of my training as a scopist was pretty much on the job, beginning my career working in-house for a reporting firm in Missoula, then working for a couple of years for a busy firm in Spokane, Washington, before going out on my own as an independent contractor.

The first computers I used were old monster mainframes. They were about the size of a large desk, had a disk the size of a pizza that held all of about 200-250 pages, and cost about $100,000 – and the only program they could run was the CAT (computer-aided transcription) system that was used for court reporting. I now own a Pentium Laptop that cost about $1,500, can run multiple programs at once, is infinitely faster, and can hold huge amounts of information. Through use of a DSL line and the Internet, I presently work for court reporters from all over the country and make about three times the income I did. Ah, technology!

I have been very involved in the National Court Reporters Association, serving on the Scopist Task Force for five years. We were involved in instituting new benefits for scopist members, as well as promoting the profession as a whole. I have been active in my state association for the past several years, and I wrote a column for our state newsletter, The Nugget, for a while. I also function as editor of the “Scoping” column in The Journal of Court Reporting, NCRA's national magazine. I have spoken at several state conventions and at nationals, covering such topics as “The Successful Court Reporter/Scopist Relationship,” “Tips From the ‘Old Pros,’” and “Scoping for Speed and Accuracy.” I have also done private training with court reporters ranging from reporting software to Windows to sending files over the Internet.

I am telling you all this to hopefully assure you that I know my job and am qualified to teach it to someone else, and that I believe enough in this profession to have dedicated a great deal of my personal time in its promotion. I think the future of scoping is exceptionally bright, and I'm doing all I can to ensure that it is!

The reason I decided to create this course is threefold:

There is a need for a good, thorough training program for scopists which will ensure the graduates know what they need to not only do their jobs well, but to make money;
I've been doing some public speaking about scoping the past few years and have found I enjoy teaching. I have also trained scopists before, find it rewarding, and think I have a knack for it;
I really believe in the concept of mentoring, but do not have the time to do it one on one, so consider this the next best alternative.

I'm not here to tell you that everything I do is right, or that the way I do things is the only way. I can tell you I've made my living in this profession for many years, and I am probably one of the more successful and well-known scopists in this country. I can tell you what's worked for me, give you tips on how to make your job easier, how to be a successful scopist, and hopefully, twenty years from now, how to still love your job. This course is meant to be done at each student's pace, and should be pretty self-explanatory. However, I will always only be an e-mail away for any questions or concerns you may have. I intend for this to be the best scoping course available, and for every graduate to not only be well-trained, but to be successful and enjoy his/her work.

So look around the site, enjoy yourself, and hopefully you'll choose this course to assist you in launching a new career!

Read my Resume

Cathy McElderry, Director

My name is Cathy McElderry, and I would like to thank you for taking the time to learn about the wonderful career of scoping. I have seen this career change people’s lives and I feel blessed to be a part of it.

My mother started typing from dictation when she was pregnant with me, then worked her way into scoping when court reporting software came out, so I guess I have been around it since before I was born. Growing up I always dreaded the question, “So what do your parents do?” because it was always a long explanation. But now I love to share information about the scoping profession and the wonderful people it involves, especially the extraordinary group of students and graduates that we have.

I had been working part-time for Internet Scoping School for about five years and had the awesome opportunity to attend NCRA National Conventions and

be a part of the ISS team. I started working full-time for Internet Scoping School in March of 2004 while my husband of six years was deployed to Iraq. Being able to work from home was a lifesaver since I was pregnant and had a four-year-old boy to chase after. I am happy to say that my husband returned safely in November of 2005 to me, my son, and our then 10-month-old daughter. We live in Lolo, Montana, about two minutes away from Linda and her pet zoo.

I am one of the lucky few who get to say they truly love their jobs. I worked in the medical billing and office management profession for five years which helped me perfect my organizational and problem-solving skills. I thrive on interaction with people and having the opportunity to overcome challenges. I pride myself on my ability to think outside of the box and come up with new, innovative ideas to improve and enhance our students’ training experience.

Thank you for visiting our website, and if you decide that scoping is the career meant for you, I hope you will become a part of our team!