The Journey Begins

The email subject said it all - Your NOC Services team Olympic Games offer!

I had been waiting since Mar 19 - eight months almost to the day - to hear. In that time I had several emails telling me that the numbers were high and so was the quality of applicants - the process would take time. I might not hear before Febrary 2012 - almost a year between interview and offer!  For an idea of what the interview process was like have a look at Nick Lansley's post.

I had resigned myself to the wait. In fact I was a little disappointed as I knew some volunteers I was advised 'might' be called for the trials to test the venues s I might hear as early as May with the London Marathon as the first trial event. So when the trails – Tennis, Eventing, Pentathlon, Cycling  and many other trail or test events  passed and no offer came, I had not quite given up hope but nearly.

So the offer email was great surprise coming out of the blue as it did, I'm sure the organizers would have said I should have remained patient and optimistic. So I encourage all those I know who have yet to  hear to be patient.

The Role

The Job Title is NOC (National Olympic Committee) Assistant though this may change, the role is described as, quote:

[The NOC Assistant] play[s] a crucial role as the interface between London 2012 and representatives of a National Olympic Committee from a designated country. This may include language support, important administrative tasks, resolving issues or driving your delegation to venues.

Put another way each Country has a Chef De Mission aka Head Person.  Depending on the size of the country's representation at the Games each Chef De Mission  is given a number of NOC assistants.  They  act as general factotums, dogs bodies, gofers  and general all round interface between the Mission and the NOC doing whatever is needed to make it  all go smoothly, successfully and happily.

London 2012 Athlete's Village

The Game Maker is a uniformed – yes a uniform - position, works shifts of eight to 10 hours with  one rest day in a seven-day period. My base will be the Athlete’s Village   during the Games which is quote located in the Olympic Park, within walking distance of the venues – enhancing the experience of athletes and officials unquote

The Training

Training  in Games Maker speak is part of “ presenting”  and MacDonald’s  is doing the presenting -   helping to  attract, select and train the volunteers aka Games Makers. Nearly 250,000 applied, 70,000 are required . There are 5 training days next year from Jan to Feb plus two driving training  sessions.

All sounds great fun, I am really quite excited about the whole adventure and looking forward to keeping you all informed on my GameMaker Journey