Submitted by J. Edward Varallo, RMR, CRR

THE 2005 SPEED CONTEST RESULTS
ANNOUNCED AT THE AWARDS LUNCHEON ON SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 2005,
AT THE MCRA CONVENTION & SEMINAR IN MYSTIC, CONNECTICUT

Yesterday afternoon, March 18, at 2:00 p.m., a small audience watched the running of the Massachusetts Court Reporters Association Speed Contest. Our contest is at the same speeds as National's, three separate dictations of five mintues each: a 220 wpm Literary, a 230 wpm Legal Opinion, and a 280 wpm two-voice Q&A.

A percentage of accuracy of 95% is required to qualify. A trophy is awarded to the winner. Each qualifier receives a certificate.

Let me first thank my friend Ed Dinaro, who digitally recorded the contest dictation in the recording studio in his home and then copied it to CD. It is my wife Nancy's voice on the contest CD (along with my voice on the Q&A), and for that invaluable assistance I thank her. Linda Farmer and Kathryn Sweeney assisted me in grading the contestants' transcriptions, and I thank them both.

This year the winner's trophy is a special one. It is engraved as The Gary Sonntag Memorial Trophy. Gary died suddenly and unexpectedly ten days ago of a heart attack. He was 55. Gary and his wife Melanie, also a court reporter, are regular competitors who have qualified in many national speed contests. Gary was also in his first year as a director of NCRA and was to have been here today as National's representative to this convention. Both he and Melanie had planned to enter our competition.

I am pleased that our state association officers saw fit to honor Gary Sonntag's long involvement in our profession and his particular passion for writing fast by dedicating this year's trophy to his memory.

Six intrepid reporters entered the contest. We treated them badly; It was a tough test. Only three contestants transcribed. Here's the results.

The Literary consisted of five minutes of dictation at 220 wpm, a total of 1100 words. This dictation involved The Great Train Robbery of 1855 and its repercussions on the society of Victorian England. One candidate qualified: Alan Brock, of Boston, with a percentage of accurary of 99.18, only 9 errors.

The Legal Opinion consisted of five minutes of dictation at 230 wpm, a total of 1150 words. This dictation dealt with an appellate court's consideration of an appeal of a first-degree murder conviction where the defendant claimed he was denied the effective assistance of counsel. One candidate qualified: Alan Brock, with a score of 99.74, only 3 errors. Honorable mention goes to Janis Young, who failed to qualify but came close.

Lastly, the two-voice Q&A consisted of five minutes of dictation at 280 wpm, a total of 1400 words. (280 wpm is just shy of five words a second.) It was the testimony of a worker who was injured on a construction site by a pneumatic nailing gun. One candidate qualified: Alan Brock, with a score of 97.93.

There is some lack of suspense in announcing this year's winner. The MCRA Speed Contest Champion, with a winning combined score of 98.95%, is Alan Brock.