What does the calendar department do at a court reporting agency?

What role does the calendar department play at a court reporting agency?  I have heard that as a freelance reporter that you have "play nice" with calendar managers or you won't get any work.  What is their job function and how important are they?

The reason you've heard be nice to the calendar people is because those are the people who assign reporters to report the depos when depos are scheduled with that reporting agency.

When a Calendar person calls you at the last minute to cover a depo, they will call the reporters that have not said no yet or not previously assigned to cover another depo.  so you should get your name on the "on-call list" for several agencies.  it is a good way to pick up work.

Once a Calendar person gets to know you a bit and feels comfortable that you will 'step up' to cover a depo, they generally call the reporters first who they know will accept the depo job.  -- saves them time having to hunt around for a reporter to cover a job.

But if you "don't play ball" with them, they can likely move you down their list and you might not get  as many jobs with that agency.  I said MIGHT.  

Some agencies have a protocal for assigning depos that might be more fair or is based on workload or senority.  check with your agency.

In court the Calendar court assigns  dates (based on the Code/law) and assigns courtrooms for the cases to be heard.  That's one reason few reporters like to report Calendar Court.  It is a lot of dates and numbers and it's fast!!

BUT the other side of the coin:  few transcripts are reqested from the Calendar Court.

that's your answer!!!