As always, we’re excited to welcome our newest member, Valori Weber. Learn more by reading her introduction below, as read by her sponsor, Brenna Baucum.
Val Weber is the owner of Weber Reporting Corporation, a court reporting and transcription company, founded in 2012, after moving from Denver, Colorado to Oregon.
Val was born and raised in northern Colorado, growing up on a farm until junior high when her dad quit farming and they moved into the City of Greeley, where she graduated high school.  Shortly thereafter, she married and had two children, Mollie and Jeff.  Mollie is here today with her husband, Nick Beleiciks (Be-lay-chicks).  Mollie graduated from nursing school in June from Chemeketa Community College — while raising three kids — and started work at Salem Hospital in August.   Nick is an economist with the State.  Some of you may have heard Nick on the local radio reporting on the state unemployment figures.
While raising her children, Val worked at the regional office of State Farm Insurance Companies in Greeley for eleven years, which she thoroughly enjoyed.  But when both of her kids went to college out of state and her marriage ended, she made the decision to pursue a career in court reporting.  She moved to California in 2001 to attend Bryan College of Court Reporting in Los Angeles.  While attending Bryan College, she discovered “digital” court reporting when she attended an AAERT (American Association of Electronic Reporters & Transcribers) conference in Virginia and wasted no time changing her direction to that of digital reporting method over the traditional stenographic method of reporting.
She moved back to Denver and launched Western Deposition & Transcription, LLC.  Along with the reporting clients acquired, five different district courts in Colorado from the Front Range of Colorado to the Western Slope were using the company’s transcription services.   Reporting clients included several government agencies such as the Department of Justice, Social Security Administration, and Merit Systems Protection Board; all of which require digital court reporters in their contracts.
When grandchild number three was due to arrive in September of 2011 in Salem, Val wanted to be closer to her family.  She sold Western Deposition & Transcription to a large reporting firm located in downtown Denver and moved to Portland where she founded Weber Reporting Corporation.  She made it to Oregon just six days before little Opal was born.
Since many of her previous clients were federal government agencies, she was fortunate to continue to work for those agencies when she relocated to Oregon and has added the United States Federal Tax Court and National Labor Relations Board to her client base.   By covering these government hearings, Val has been fortunate to travel eleven states and report in many beautiful — and not so beautiful — courtrooms.  One of the finest courtrooms she has reported in is right here in Oregon:  courtroom 71 at the Gus J. Solomon United States Courthouse in downtown Portland.  This is the courtroom where the Men of Honor courtroom movie scene was filmed.
Last summer, Val moved to Salem and became roommates with her niece, Taylor Meyers, who is here.  Taylor is a law student at Willamette.  Taylor just finished a real estate law class, so they enjoy talking about all the different cases that come up in Taylor’s classes and Val’s reporting.
Val and the Beleiciks family just returned from Homer, Alaska last week where Val’s son, Jeff, was married.  The wedding ceremony was outdoors at a venue that is right on the water of the Kenai Peninsula.  As soon as the ceremony was over, all went inside for the party, but it was a beautiful day and the view was fantastic.  Jeff is a history professor at Kenai Peninsula College in Homer.  He and his bride are the parents of grandchild number four, who was born in August.  The three cousins from Oregon could not wait to get to Alaska to meet their new baby cousin, Lev.
Another big event in 2016 was purchasing and flipping a house in Salem.  It was a great experience for the whole family, who all were great about pitching in.  In fact, Val enjoys real estate so much that she started real estate class at Chemeketa Community College last week, along with her son-in-law.  Val is set to work with a real estate agency here in Salem when she obtains her real estate license and is excited for the future.
She is especially excited to be joining the Rotary Club of Salem where she has already met some great people who have given her a warm welcome since her first visit a few weeks ago and is looking forward to getting involved in service projects and meeting all of you.