Games Maker Offers begin

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First offers made for London 2012 Games Maker volunteer roles

The first conditional offers to London 2012 volunteers – Games Makers – are being sent out today.

Games Maker selection arrives in the North East
Jonathan Edwards with potential Games Makers at the volunteer selection event in the North East earlier this year.

A total of up to 70,000 volunteers will be needed for the Games. A quarter of a million people applied when the application process opened in 2010. Since then, a selection and interview process has been underway to find the best candidates for the roles.

By the time the interview process closes in March 2012, 100,000 interviews will have taken place. Offers will be made until April 2012.

Those who have been offered a role include 19-year-old student Erin Morgan from County Down in Northern Ireland. Erin is studying Biomedical Science at Liverpool University and hopes in the future to pursue a career in medicine. She is a keen dancer, and has volunteering experience from assisting nurses at a hospice and working with the charity Habitat for Humanity in Zambia. Erin has been assigned a role as Event Services team member at the Olympic Park.

Nader Mozakka, a 55 year-old from North London, is another to have been offered a role. Nader has not done much volunteering but recently helped out at the recent Chef de Mission event at the Olympic Park. He has had to give up his Opening Ceremony ticket in order to become a volunteer; but says it's a price he is more than willing to pay. Nader will be an NOC assistant in the Athletes' Village.

By 31 December 2011, everyone who has applied to be a Games Maker will hear from London 2012. They will either have been offered a role, been interviewed and yet to be offered a role, received an invitation to interview for a date in 2012 or been told that they have been unsuccessful as an applicant.

Hugh Robertson, Minister for the Olympics, said: 'I would like to congratulate all those who have been offered Games Maker roles. The competition for places has been intense with considerable numbers of high quality candidates putting their names forward. The Games Makers will be integral to the success of the Games and in particular the impression we make upon the global sports family.'

Mayor of London Boris Johnson added: 'Games Maker volunteers will provide welcoming faces around the venues to athletes, spectators and the world's media when they descend on our great city next year. Combined with the forces of my London Ambassadors, part of our ever growing Team London volunteer army, we will be in great shape to give people coming to the capital in 2012 a truly unforgettable experience.'

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Successful volunteers to receive initial offers this week
Around 10,000 people will have two weeks to accept their proposed volunteer roles at the London 2012 Olympic Games after initial offers go out this week.
London organisers said this is the first tranche of volunteer rollouts that will continue right up to the end of April 2012, by which time up to 70,000 positions will have been filled.

Locog said the first applicants notified of their successful application were Nader Mozakka, from north-west London who will be an NOC assistant in the Athletes’ Village, Steve Tarrant, from Poole, Dorset who has been assigned a role as a medal/flower bearer at the sailing venue in Weymouth and Portland; Maggie Hendry from Dundee, Scotland who will be a physiotherapist at North Greenwich Arena at Games time; Erin Morgan from Newry, Northern Ireland who will be an event services team member at the Olympic Park and Charlotte Evans from Caerleon, Wales who has been assigned a role as an event services team member for Wimbledon.

Locog chairman Sebastian Coe said the beginning of the offers of roles marks the next stage of the Games Maker programme to put the best possible team together to welcome the world next summer.

"It has been a privilege for my team to meet and interview so many enthusiastic and dedicated people from right across the UK who would like to volunteer with us and make the Games a success for athletes, media and spectators alike," Coe said.

Telegraph

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I have today sent gamesmaker2012.com this email

Good morning

Have just read the great news that the first offers are being made. But noticed that there is a two week time scale to accept the offer. Now I am sure most will be able to reply within two hours, but there will be those who are on their annual two week holiday, I for example will be out of the country diving in the Maldives, during November, I know the odds of the offer, if it is made, falling precisely within the 15 days I am away , is highly unlikely, but it could happen.

So question is, how ridged is the time scale, could it be stretched to say 18 days?

Thank you
Derek

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London 2012 organisers begin to welcome Olympics volunteer workforce

A tennis enthusiast from Wales and an accountant who coaches athletics are among the first confirmed Games volunteers

A tennis enthusiast from Wales who will help ensure the Olympic event at Wimbledon runs smoothly and an accountant from London who coaches athletics in the shadow of the Olympic Stadium are among the first 10,000 people to be confirmed as volunteers for the 2012 Games.

London 2012 organisers have begun informing the first batch of 10,000 successful applicants from across the country. They will be sent emails this week confirming that, subject to security checks, they will be among the 70,000 unpaid volunteers who will receive food and uniforms in return for playing an integral role in how the Games are perceived. At previous Games, most notably Sydney in 2000, the volunteer workforce have played a key role in defining the atmosphere of the event.

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog) is still interviewing for so-called Games Makers roles and will continue making offers until April next year. There were more than 250,000 applications for the roles and 100,000 were invited to be interviewed at assessment centres across the country.

Neil Crisp, a 48-year-old accountant from Ilford, was one of those selected along with the rest of his family. "Myself and my wife have been managing one of the water stations on the London Marathon for the last 10 years. More recently, my two daughters and my new son-in-law have come on board as well," Crisp said. "We were asked by the London Marathon to put ourselves forward as a team – our family and five others as well."

Crisp said he had been told that the team would be manning a crossing point during the marathon and other road events: "Just to be part of it is a great thing for us, we're really looking forward to it."

Charlotte Evans from Caerleon, Wales, will be an event services team member at the Olympic tennis tournament at Wimbledon. "It's my first time actually volunteering for anything. It's great for me because I play tennis as a hobby and I'm a teacher so I coach the tennis club at school as well."

The Locog chairman, Lord Coe, said: "Beginning to make offers of roles this week marks the next stage of the Games Maker programme to put the best possible team together to welcome the world next summer."

The organising committee is also beginning the process of inviting applications for the so-called Young Games Makers roles, which will allow 2,000 young people aged between 16 and 18 to apply to be volunteers in London.

Teachers, coaches and youth group leaders have been invited to apply on behalf of teams of young people to carry out roles including distributing results to the media and carrying athletes' kit. Some specialist positions have already been filled through links with sports governing bodies.

"The memories and experiences that they will take away with them will last a lifetime, as will the sense of pride and achievement and the friends they will make," Coe said of the young recruits. "As a result, I hope we inspire our Young Games Makers to volunteer or stay involved in sport long after the Games have finished."

Guardian News