AmeriCaption - Awards&Praises

Jack A. Boenau, RMR, CRR, CBC, CCP, FAPR, President
Deanna C. Boenau, RDR, CRR, CBC, CCP

P.O. Box 50653, Sarasota, Florida 34232
941-359-8100
AmeriCaption@comcast.net

Deanna Boenau wins the first annual Florida Court Reporters Association's

2005 Realtime Cup

200 Words Per Minute, Literary Material

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FAD Achievement Award for Accessibility – AmeriCaption, Inc.

This award is presented to an individual or organization that is committed to accessibility to deaf and hard of hearing individuals in Florida. When we face disaster, we are often left out in preparedness due to the fact that a small number of television stations provide real time captioning in Florida. These people are not only specialists, but pioneers in real-time closed captioning and Communication Access Real-time Translation. With over 45 years of combined experience, they have provided only high quality services to deaf, hard of hearing and late deafened individuals in the State of Florida, donated their services to the FAD Road Tour in 2004, provided accessibility at the Rally, and contributed their expertise to the FCCDHH Licensure Task Force. It is our honor to present the 2005 FAD Achievement Award for Accessibility to Jack and Deanna Boenau of AmeriCaption, Inc.

Presented by Christopher Wagner, President of the Florida Association of the Deaf

June 30, 2005

Doral Resort and Spa, Miami, Florida

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Deanna Boenau wins First Place in the 2005 Pennsylvania Cup for Realtime

The Pennsylvania Cup for Realtime was held on Friday, April 1, 2005, in Philadelphia at the joint NCRA Midyear Conference and PCRA Annual Convention. There was an impressive turnout of 18 writers, consisting of officials, freelance reporters, and captioners from Florida, Virginia, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

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Deanna C. Boenau
Third Place in the 2004 National Realtime Contest

The National Court Reporters Association, at its annual convention in Chicago in late July 2004, held two contests -- the National Realtime Contest and the National Speed Contest.

The Realtime Contest is for reporters and captioners who have qualified to enter by obtaining their Certified Realtime Reporter status. This year, 58 CRRs entered the competition. Only four of the 58 passed with the required 95% accuracy.
Deanna C. Boenau of AmeriCaption, Inc., received the 3rd Place award in the combined percentage in the literary and Q&A tests. Deanna's previous awards include 2nd and 3rd place awards in prior NCRA realtime contests.

She also qualified in the National Speed Contest's Q&A at 280 words per minute and the Legal Opinion at 230 words per minute.

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Jack A. Boenau
Emily Mann Distinguished Service Award

Past President Peggy Belflower: The Emily Mann Distinguished Service Award is bestowed upon a person who possesses exceptional qualifications and experience in the field of court reporting. The recipient must have contributed in a meritorious manner to the welfare of the Florida Court Reporters Association. Traditionally, this award has been bestowed upon past presidents of the Association because the position of president makes their hard work and dedication to the profession highly visible.

This year, however, the selection committee has chosen an individual who has made contributions but has received no formal recognition, although his accomplishments are known by court reporters statewide, having challenged us all to achieve a higher level of proficiency and professionalism. The 1991 recipient has been a court reporter for more than 20 years. He started as a Deputy Official, later becoming an Official Court Reporter. Today he owns a successful freelance reporting agency.

Our recipient has served on and chaired numerous committees, and has been a member of the Board of Directors of this Association since 1989. He holds the National Court Reporters Association's Certificates of Merit and Proficiency and has won speed contest awards by demonstrating the highest level of skill and proficiency. He has been published in the NSR, The Journal of the National Court Reporters Association.

The recipient has dictated for RPR and Certificate of Merit tests. Most of us know him best because he pioneered realtime writing in the State of Florida. Jack Boenau has given countless hours volunteering his time to demonstrate realtime writing and the technologies which made them possible. At his own expense, he crisscrosses the state at every request to showcase advancements in court reporting technology.

Jack has worked his realtime magic to further our profession by demonstrating to the Bar, to judges, court administrators, educators, the media, and to hearing impaired citizens, the benefits and possibilities of realtime reporting, closed captioning and computer-integrated courtrooms. He has "Reported the Reporters" at the business sessions and at the National Committee of State Associations during the NSRA convention in 1989. A highlight of that convention was when Jack's captioning of the NSRA president's inauguration speech and of the Showcase Seminar were displayed on giant screens for convention participants.

Jack has also demonstrated realtime convention reporting at the FSRA state seminars in 1987 and here yesterday in this room. He has demonstrated to the Hillsborough County Commission the use of realtime writing to make public meetings accessible to the hearing impaired.

In order to advance the concept of computer-integrated courtrooms, Jack demonstrated realtime writing to the National Judicial College and for the office of the State Court Administrator, as well as the Orange and Seminole County Commissions. He recently traveled to West Palm Beach to show realtime writing to the reporters who will use Florida's first computer-integrated courtroom in that city.

Now that you know the extent to which Jack has worked quietly to further the technological advances which are critical to the future of our profession, I am sure all of us agree with the committee's selection of Jack Boenau as the 1991 recipient of the Emily Mann Distinguished Service Award. (Applause.)

I am honored to present to Jack Boenau the Florida Court Reporters Association's highest award, which bears the likeness of the ancient scribe, history's first keeper of the record. It is fitting to give this symbol of our profession's past to this man who has worked so hard to preserve our profession's future.

Jack. (Applause.)

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Article that appeared in the Sarasota Herald Tribune in 1994.

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Deanna C. Boenau
FCRA Pro Bono Award 2004

Louise Pomar: Hello. As chairman of the Pro Bono Committee, I'm honored today to present the Pro Bono Award to a most worthy recipient. Her Pro Bono deeds providing real-time, CART, and captioning to the hearing impaired exemplified the criteria for this award. She is indeed a person who demonstrates a high degree of personal unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others in providing extraordinary reporting-related services to the public.

Flo Innes, founder and president of Advocates for Better Hearing, Incorporated, and past-president of Self Help for Hard of Hearing, in endorsement of this nomination writes, "Pro Bono, a term used so seldom in today's society. She is without a doubt one of the most generous people who gives so much back to the community, aiding the deaf and hard of hearing. For many years, she has CARTed the Self Help for Hard of Hearing meetings, donating her time and skills so the members can read the spoken words. Many members come only because of her captioning. There are over 50,000 people in Sarasota and Manatee Counties that have a hearing loss. It is people like her that encourage us to participate in social activities."

In the spring of 2004, the musical presentation of "The Sound of Music" was held in a performing arts theater in Sarasota, Florida. She spent many hours in preparing the script so that it was timed exactly to the words and lyrics. At the beginning of the performance, she real-time captioned the introduction. Flo Innes describes the personal impact captioning made on her. "The Sound of Music is one of my favorite movies. I must have watched it ten times trying to understand the words. Can you imagine my amazement to understand for the first time all the words to The Sound of Music? I had tears in my eyes because I now understand the words to the songs."

She also traveled around the State of Florida for the Florida Association of the Deaf either captioning or CARTing special town hall meetings, even cosponsoring a few of the meetings by providing these services pro bono, which aided in the passage of legislation to create a commission for the deaf. Christopher Wagner, president of the Florida Association of the Deaf, explains that her contribution of over 50 hours of CART services to the Road Tour helped to justify the establishment of such a commission in addressing the needs of the more than 2.1 million deaf and hard of hearing individuals, which is the largest disability group in Florida. He boasts, "It is not difficult to notice her passion for her work in our community."

In March of this year, the first ever deaf rally was held in Tallahassee. While sitting on the steps of the old capitol building with her steno machine and a lap blanket at 9:00 in the morning in 45-degree weather, even though no funding was available for this service, she just couldn't say no because getting this legislation passed was so important to the deaf and hard of hearing community.

There is no greater honor than being nominated by a family member. Her husband, Jack, in his nomination letter, touchingly refers to her as an outstanding real-time reporter, CART provider, real-time captioner, my fellow worker, my lovely wife, Deanna Boenau.

Ladies and gentlemen, join me in welcoming and thanking Deanna Boenau.