Hackney - Final thoughts

So earlier this week, we got an email from our HR department about the policy during the Games...

Basically, same old, same old...except for those who are volunteering, we get an extra 2 days off, which is pretty cool...still leaves 4 and half weeks for me to log in but hey, every bit helps and counts. Need to get that sorted this week.

My next training is on March 23rd, somewhere in East London, and we'll be touching of difficult topics like doping and security...it's going to be interesting to see how they draw the line for us. While on the one hand, we are fully part of the LOCOG organisation, on the other hand none of us ( well maybe a few), are experts in this kind of thing...so once again a steep learning curve.

I've just fininshed the book i bought " Watching the Olympics" ( Elke, did you receive yours??) and i think i 'm going to have to reread it from the beginning as weirdly enough my brain has not managed to remember all the trivia, rules, locations, greatest champions, main contenders etc...in each of the 26 disciplines.

o joy. or not.

More on Hackney Second Training

I just love the functionality on blogger that enables you to schedule Post publishing...i can write up a raft of content and stagger it through the week so that you, my dear fans and future me, keep coming back for more!


So last Saturday at hackney, i met another good group of people...you can feel the tension grow and people are starting to voice aloud what everybody thinks : this is the best volunteering thing EVER. Everybody has anecdotes about friends who made light fun of them 18months ago and now are a weeee bit jealous...or people who are now trying desperately to get involved...makes us all feel a litlle smug and actually reinforces the sense of being part of a community.

...which is widly counterbalanced by the fact that we all are nervous about the ton of things we need to learn in the short 6 remaining months...from sign language ( dare me, i'm practicing every day), to the protocols to which sport is happening where...why did they have to chose so many different locations seriously??? ...and then delivering under pressure, always with a smile. Yikes.

In May we'll know what delegation we will assigned to, so everybody is going to start studying frantically, all the athletes profiles and then add in on top their specific requirements....plus get to know the Chef De Mission of their delegation. Apparently personalities are very varied from one to another...

This is NOT a holiday, folks.

But o what an adventure.

Hackney - The Return

This Saturday i attended my second Role-Specific training at Hackney Community College....150 new faces, well maybe 147, thought i recognised a couple from the first session. Same thing: the event was super well produced and they had really taken on board the feedback we had provided from the first round...more branding, round tables instead of rows of chairs, more games, more opportunities to meet people etc. the only negative thing was that it was  freeeezing in the gym where we were.

We first went through a recap of our Orientation training ( what i did in Wembley  last week) before moving on to our stuff.

The more i write this blog the more i realise i need to be careful about what i type : they reiterated the necessity of "discretion" and " confidentiality"...anyway i'll see where this goes. Sort of paranoid now!


So...we went through the first 24 hours of a Chef de Mission and athlete's at the London 2012 Games, from landing at Heathrow or anywhere else to settling into their rooms as well as their Welcome Ceremony.

And this is when it started dawning on me that actually 2500 people looking after 40 to 50000 members of delegations ( athletes and the team officials) is actually not that much...we're pretty much going to be working flat out.

The number of Volunteers allocated to each team is minimum 3 and caps at 20...when you're talking about over 500 athletes in team GB and at least double the number of team officials, you have to swallow and straighten your shoulders.

Because once again this training reinforced  how much they will rely on us for everything, from getting food, to getting them to their appropriate location to rushing around the city because someone has forgotten their competition shoes...yes, that happens apparently as 2 team officials from Team USA explained!!

I feel i might be more stressed than they will be. Not good :-)

One more to go...

so tomorrow i have my
second role specific training...and i.ve just booked my third session for march...watch this space people

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Wembley Arena - More...:-)

At the end of the session, they asked us to do a bit of homework : in our workbook, there ar ehte basics of sign language...so the next time time you meet me, just test me, to see if i can actually say my name...I'll stick to Zab for the moment, not Elizabeth.

 

Another thing they pointed out, is that London hosted the Games in 1948...and now 2012, so there is basically very little chance of it happening it again in our lifetime, as more and more city want to host...So for all those that are still sceptical, think on that. And Act.


These are also the first Games that are coorganising the Paralympics and Olympics, under one umbrella and not as 2 separate entities,which means some of us will be working on both.

"Us" is 70000 volunteers, out of a total workforce of 200 000...talk about a HR challenge....pulling all of us together for just 8 weeks, seems like an incredible task. I just think it s amazing that all these people are coming together for something that will be gone faster than we can blink...how do you ensure the legacy of all that effort and energy...

Through sustainable Games, is what is suggested : From our uniforms to the Olympic stadium, everyhting has been built with that principle in mind, and so normally, i said normally, everything will be recycled...That makes feel a little better, for all that money and energy will live on somehow.

That's all folks for the moment.

Wembley Arena...or how to train 10000 people.

Here i am, 24 hours after the training in Webley Arena...and no, it  wasn t cold..because it was inside! It was just like going to a football match or a concert: long queues at different doors, streams and streams of people with their paper tickets or smartphones codes, more or less chatting, more or less freezing , standing outside.

Once inside, the 10000 off people, of which your humble self, were hosted by Jonathan Edwards for an afternoon of training, which i must say was well balanced, a proper exercise in edu-tairnment.

Now they asked us to use social media during the session with care, ie, more than welcome to say how cool and great it was but not to communicate anything deemed sensitive. I 'm not sure what could qualify as dangerous or confidential, as the session was really focused on common sense principles,the secret being in highlighting them so that we are all aware of them and know to use them during the Games.

Training tomorrow

...in Wembley Arena ....at the other end of London...going to be freezing too...oh the joys.

Remind me why I thought this was the best thing ever?


Just finished the rules about sailing, in "how to watch the olympics", then  realised I wasn t going to see any sailing as it is happening by the sea...duh.
Wish me luck, people.

Training and Revelations

Now we hit the good part: we're less than 6 months away from the Olympics...and they are starting to feel real, it's not just the Olympics rings in Saint Pancras and some weird buildings going up here and there, it's actually little me getting her first training.

A little scene setting:

-Who : Zab, 150 other people from around the world, 5 NOC/NPC members

-Where:  Hackney Community College, East London

-When: Sunday, January 22, 14.00 to 18.00

-What : 1st four hours out of 20 in total of training, these ones dedicated to our specific roles and responsibilities

-Why: Well, to get a first idea of what actually is in store for us. 

Voila! 

nah not really, it was actually a great afternoon, really cool to see really different people come together for this thing, i've never done any sustained charity work, so i was hit hard by the general positive buzz and ambiance in the room.

We first got introduced to our "bosses", ie the people who are currently employed by LOCOG