Patricia A Baker, Oct 4, 2008

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Pat Baker received the Dorothy Donnelly Service Award in 2008.  She is currently the Officials chair for Lake Erie LMSC, a task for which she recently volunteered and has made significant strides in the past few months to strengthening the local program in Lake Erie. She has begun to organize the officials and take on the task of being sure that the local officials are up to speed on rule changes, which is a model we are attempting to implement in all LMSCs. She has officiated local Masters meets for several years and, according to the LMSC leadership in Lake Erie, is known as the “one who always knows the rules”. Pat is an active member of the USMS Officials committee and has provided valuable expertise to our committee as we are developing key elements of a revised officials program to support USMS National Championships as well as LMSC minimum standards and certification criteria. As a key element of this program, USMS secured an agreement with USA-Swimming to designate our national championship meets for evaluation and advanced certification of officials. Pat volunteered her time to serve as a National Evaluator for the recent championships in Texas and she has also served as a Deck Official at several national championships. Pat Baker has given much to USMS and it is a pleasure to honor her with the USMS Service Award.