I volunteered for the Open House Weekend not really knowing what I was letting myself in for as we welcomed the public to see the Olympic Park for the first time. But I thought that if I want to develop at Reception when handling enquiries, I need to learn more. The best way to do this is to throw yourself in to opportunities like this and give it your best!
I arrived on the Saturday not expecting to have a crowd. Boy, was I wrong! As soon as I arrived, the room was full of people; I dropped my bag and jumped right in! The first half an hour was mostly me referring guests to other volunteers as it was a lot of enquiries aimed at ODA.
After that it became a lot of general questions about how many sports were taking part and numbers of countries participating and so on, so I was in my element. In between chats with the public, I also shadowed some of the other volunteers, this helped me a lot to find out about construction and sustainability.
The volunteer team. Me at the front...
So by the second day I was prepared a little more for questions and I really got in to my stride. At one point as I had my lunch (the caterers were lovely), I sat at a table with my sandwich and coffee and chatted to a family who were rather sceptical about the whole thing. By the end of the little chat, I had helped them realise the benefits arising from the legacy the Games will leave, I had persuaded the father to register as a volunteer and managed to get the kids to set themselves a 2012 challenge online!
I also chatted to a teacher who was trying to gather some info for her class to make a display. It turned out she was from my old primary school and she was my 1st year infant teacher! I gave her a handful of the ‘Join In’ booklets, explained about the ‘On Your Marks’ educational material and also said if I find anything else that is useful at the offices, I would pop along and drop them off…I can see the school from reception so it isn't far!
It is great to be a part of this organisation as I am from the local area and I can see clearly how, along with people in all the 5 host boroughs I will benefit from these Games.
Before I knew it though, the weekend was all done and dusted and I was actually sad the weekend was over! One thing that surprised me was the mix of people attending, young students, OAPs, parents with children, ethnic communities and so on. They were all there taking an interest and trying to find out about their Games.
The vibe that I picked up on was that everyone felt that it was their Games and I think there we have made an impact. People from all over the world that live here and local people all feel like they are a part of it and are not being excluded in any way.
Explaining the map of the Olympic Park to visitors:
It was a fun weekend mixing with some of my other colleagues from other departments that I would not generally see day to day and also, it was great to share the experience with the public who were learning about the Games, some for the first time. I am ready and willing for my next volunteering role!
Comments for this post:
1 Oct 2007, 15:17PM, paulbrock2-k said:
Ray, attending the open weekend was a real pleasure - it was great to see the enthusiasm and passion from everyone involved in 2012. We chatted for a bit and I was surprised that the 2012 expert explaining to us all about the Park plans was in fact the receptionist!! Well done everyone and keep up the good work.