Congratulations to the recipients of this year’s Excellence in Service Awards, Angela, Brigitte, Jackie, Karen, Christine, Barbara, and Monika—and thanks for all the work they have done to keep the Club running smoothly and to provide events that we value!

Angela Andersen

Angela puts in an enormous amount of preparation for each presentation for the Science group. She has used Zoom to keep the group going during the pandemic and later to provide flexible access to members who may have difficulties coming to a physical meeting. She is well informed and always ready to help anyone with anything if she can.

Brigitte Jäger

Brigitte is a regular participant in the Thursday walking group, started the Go Hiking activity which involves longer walks, and recently started the Casual Evening group which offers an evening get-together for members. She has hosted several meetings at her home where she shows videos of her travels and gives informative narrations about climate change. She is an interesting conversationalist. She served on the Nominating Committee this year.

Jacqueline (Jackie) Rogers

Jackie actively participates in many Club activities and is a welcoming presence to new and old members at restaurants, museums, walking groups, and cinema events. She keeps in touch with one of our housebound members by regularly visiting her, making phone calls, and at Christmas by delivering flowers on behalf of the club. If you need help and she is able, she will always be there for you.

Karen Axelrad

Karen always offers to take photographs of our numerous events. She passed along to the EC photos of our 30th Anniversary party in 2022. She always puts information on our Facebook page which might affect our members–for example, mask requirements during the pandemic, voting processes for our American members, et cetera. She has a wealth of knowledge to share.

Christine Bell

Christine recently served as chair of the Constitution Committee. Updating the Constitution is always a big task, and this time the work was complicated by pandemic restrictions. Christine had a knack for coordinating the many ideas expressed by committee members and carefully considered all suggestions by the membership at large. She was excellent at working through the process with two different club Presidents. She served previously as an International Coordinator,and is now serving on the Charity Event committee. She is consistently reliable: if she agrees to take on a role, she does it and does it well.

Barbara Heimer

Barbara has organised the English Speakers group for many years. Barbara has taught or improved the English language of many of our members who, even after many years, continue to attend her twice-monthly sessions. She provides written articles as well as sometimes recorded radio programmes to listen to and discuss. Her long-time students describe her as a friendly, reliable person, who is always willing to help and guide you.

Monika Brust

Monika contributes a tremendous amount of work to the Club and is very reliable and helpful. She helped the Nominating Committee both last year and this year with the registration and counting process at the AGM. She has also served on the EC in the past, and currently organises many interesting tours as part of the Exploring Berlin Special Interest Group.