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
to coordinate the NPC/NOC volunteers programme and who have been liaising with the different committees for the last 18 months to make sure we understand each and every one of their needs and they understand what we can support and help them with. And Yes, i'm already saying "we"...I guess i m now officially a member of LOCOG !

And yes, it's going to be an acronym fiesta...we even had a quizz on them 

LOCOG are the guys who are actually organising the hosting of the Olympics and Paralympics in London

IOC is the International Olympics Committee..you can deduce IPC.

NPC is a National Paralympic Committee, ie the guys in each country who are getting their athletes and officials together and ready for the Games...guess what a NOC is?

After some initial good old Powerpoint slides, we did a series of games to learn where which discipline is happening...i just got confused to be honest but realized that there is going to be a lot of driving involved. :-)

Towards the end of the session, i got the distinct feeling that i had somehow been a little stupid...the "bosses" kept hinting at these "5 weeks"...now, all through the selection process, i had been assured that i would be doing 2 weeks of work between July 9th and August 15th and i would know more at a later date. This was absolutely fine and my bosses at work had cleared it.

But 5 weeks!! (it was definitely confirmed that this is what we had signed up to when accepting the role....gloups!!) I only get 5 weeks holiday in a year and my holiday year is July to July...so basically that means no Holidays until July 2013

Re gloups. Not to mention that i have a wedding in Greece on July 14th and no way i'm missing that.

So i came out of there elated and depressed. When i chat about this to the others volunteers, it turns out they are either freelancers or they get time back if they work overtime but i'm not the only one who hadn't understood the "5 weeks" commitment, which makes me feel a little less like a donkey.

Last week, i went to my brand new boss and made my pitch with my fingers crossed and oh great joy!! he said " make it work for me" and then my other boss said the same....happy happy zab....so now the road is open!