Geek Philosophy

(This post is a part of my series on volunteering at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. If you’re new here, feel free to start at the beginning)

Sorry it’s been a bit quiet around here – 5 days of volunteering in a row makes it difficult to find time to post, but I’m done until February 24th so I’ll attempt to fill you in.

Shift 3! My third shift (on February 10th) was on the morning of the dress rehearsal for the opening ceremonies, so I spent much of the day preparing things for the big event. Even though there wasn’t going to be full media present, we wanted to make sure everything was functional.

Olympic rings, seen a few hours before the dress rehearsal

The morning was spent trying to get a printer working in the East workforce check-in tent – there’s always something that just doesn’t seem to want to work, and this printer is definitely in that category. Helpdesk talked to Acer, who ruled out computer problems, so we talked to Ricoh, who ruled out hardware problems, then Bell, who ruled out network problems. After a few hours of running back and forth, we gave up and asked the central technology office to double check the firewall. One week later, and I still have no idea if this printer works.

Next up was going to BC Place and ensuring that the Commentator Information Systems (CIS) had the most recent updates deployed. As with most of my volunteer tasks, this was much more manual labour than it was technological. It involved walking all through the press area and looking for a highlighted icon on the screen. After 20 minutes of searching and zero systems displaying the highlighted icon, we were finally told that the patches had been remotely deployed and verified, and that we had just wasted our time. Oh well -  I got to snap a picture of a CIS machine. These are the machines located at every venue that commentators will used to pull up stats, bios, and other information about athletes.

The Commentator Information System (CIS)

After finding lunch (easier said than done – the lower level, where I’d eaten before, was closed off due to the ceremony preparation), I spent the afternoon doing odds and ends. While I was setting up a computer for the Information Booth, spectators started streaming in – 50,000 of them. I finished up my shift,  met up with my wife and some friends, and settled in to watch the opening ceremonies dress rehearsal. For those who have seen the real opening ceremonies (that’s everyone by now, right?), the dress rehearsal was almost identical, with a few exceptions. Ben Mulroney and Tamara Taggart warmed up the crowd, albeit without the spectator participation packs. All of the performers were present, but Jacques Rogges, John Furlong, and Michaelle Jean were played by stand-in volunteers. The final Olympic flag bearers were also replaced, so I didn’t get to see Bobby Orr, Donald Sutherland, or Ann Murray. Also, the entire section involving the torch was kept a secret – the ceremony just ended before any torch people came in. Still, it was pretty fun, and k.d. lang rocked.

Stay tuned for more updates

(Click here to read the next entry in the series.)

(This post is a part of my series on volunteering at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. If you’re new here, feel free to start at the beginning)

I got a call tonight informing me that two of my shifts this week (February 4th & 5th) have been canceled. I knew this was a possibility – apparently the police are doing a massive security sweep of the compound (Stadium, Canada Hockey Place, and the surrounding areas), after which everyone going in or out has to go through the mag & bag process (think airport security, sans shoe removal).

So, unless I think of something particularly inspiring, you won’t hear any Olympic-related things out of me until my next shift on Saturday. I’m still taking questions though

(Click here to read the next entry in the series.)

(This post is a part of my series on volunteering at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. If you’re new here, feel free to start at the beginning)

I’ve just come back from finishing the final training step for my Olympic volunteering, so I thought I’d walk you all through what I’ve done so far in preparation for my first shift tomorrow.

The first training session, which was probably a year or so ago, did not impress me at all. I had submitted an application to be a volunteer in the Technology area of the games, and was called to attend technology-specific training. As it turns out, this training was much more generic – basic “get the volunteer spirit” type of stuff, what to say (“Thank you, Merci”) and what not to say (apparently referring to a Paralympian sledge hockey player as a “cripple” is a faux pas – who knew?).  I came away from this session rather skeptical about the ability of VANOC to actually pull things off.

Things were pretty quiet for a while, but as expected they’ve picked up in the last few months. I picked up accreditation and uniform a few months ago, which was sort of fun – they definitely had the process streamlined, which makes sense given that they’ll be distributing 25000+ uniforms. The uniforms came with a few useful surprises (travel coffee mug!), as well as a few odd inclusions (Excel gum, ColdFX, discount gas cards), and they’re a terribly bright shade of blue, but I can see myself wearing pieces of it for a long time. Here’s a peek:

Today was my final training session, Venue Specific Training (or VST – one thing I’m learning is that VANOC is chock full of TLAs). The venue in question is Stadium, known more commonly as BC Place. The first half of the training session was in the nearby Plaza of Nations, and was applicable to all volunteers – contact numbers, code of conduct, and other administrivia (did you know there are almost 10,000 2010 team members working at Stadium, 1300 of which are volunteers?). After that, we broke off into groups based on Functional Area and headed off on tours of the venue.

I’ve been inside BC Place before, but never behind the scenes – it’s a pretty impressive venue. After heading in through the East Airlock (BC Place has airlocks, not doors, as the current roof requires pressurization to remain inflated), we did a brief tour of levels 1, 2, 3, and 4. Most of my work will be on level 2, the press area, but there are various operations centers that will need servicing on the other levels as well. I’ll hold off discussing exactly what I’ll be doing until tomorrow – by then, I’ll know for sure!

Any questions from anyone so far? I’m limited in what I can say about some things due to a non-disclosure agreement (I *did* see some rehearsals for the opening ceremonies today, but I can’t go into it), but I’ll answer anything I can.

(Click here to read the next entry in the series.)

Welcome to the beginning of my series of posts on my Olympic volunteer experience!

So far, I don’t really know too much about what I’m doing. Here’s the basics:

• My title is “Help Desk Level 2″
• I’ll be working at BC Place (site of medal ceremonies, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies)
• I’ll also be working at Canada Hockey Place (site of men’s hockey, and probably some other things too)
• I do 12 shifts in all, including the morning of the opening ceremonies and the night of the closing ceremonies

My venue-specific training is this Saturday, and my first shift is this Sunday, so I’ll know a lot more about it then. I’m going to try to write an entry after each shift (training included), and probably a summary at the end, meaning this series should be about 15 posts – by far my biggest blog undertaking.

To help keep me motivated, be sure to leave a comment with any questions you may have about my experience. I’m going to try to answer anything you give me, as well as post whatever pictures I can – it may be limited, but I’ll squeeze whatever I can out of the volunteer’s communication protocols.

Watch this space for more!

(Click here to read the next entry in the series.)