So you want to volunteer?

If you've been thinking about volunteering for a while, it can sometimes seem overwhelming. There are a lot of opportunities out there with some being long term (sometimes frighteningly so!) and others just one day or one half-day events. So for any new volunteers out there, here's some hints and tips that have worked for me.

1. Know what you want to get out of it: Don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting you to write a detailed 5 year plan but people can end up unhappy in a volunteer post if they don't think about what they want out of it first. It might be that you just want to do something fun, interesting and gather up a few stories to tell the grandkids in the process. If that's the case probably large scale event volunteering would be good for you to look into, whether that be something huge and sexy like the Olympics, or whether that be a 10k event in a nearby city. If you are looking to make new friends and have something regular to fill your time then there are plenty of opportunities for this, too. Charity shops are always looking for regular volunteers, of course, but there can be plenty of other opportunities such as hospitals looking for people to chat to patients who are receiving palliative care. You might be looking for something more focussed and either wanting to up skill or gain experience in a particular field. This is particularly useful for those who are looking to change careers or who are preparing to leave school or university and want some valuable experience and perhaps an extra reference or two.

2. Know what you have to offer: You might have a very specific skill set that could be put to use somewhere such as I.T. skills, counselling skills or finance skills. For some fields knowledge of the arts, music or heritage could be useful and for other volunteer posts a friendly manner and a "can do" attitude are essential. For big events such as the Olympics the chances are that you might end up in a role that doesn't use your skill set particularly but for smaller organisations knowing what you can offer is vital. Volunteering posts can sometimes be limited and it can be competitive to get a role at times, so you need to be able to sell yourself. 

3. Know what you are willing to commit: This applies to both time and money! Many volunteers are shocked when they realise the cost of volunteering, especially at major events, but the truth is that very few volunteering opportunities are free. At the very least, you'll normally be expected to pay your travel expenses which, of course, can be cheap or free if the post is very local. Some organisations will reimburse you for travel but these are few and far between so it can't be counted on. For events such as the Olympics, there will be a lot of travelling to and fro for training and uniform collection before the games and then, of course, the cost of travel and accommodation during the games. I've been involved in youth work volunteering where I've easily spent hundreds of pounds over the course of a year buying equipment for the kids, for myself, bailing kids out when they run out of money at camp etc. If you have doubts about what things will cost, ask the relevant questions at the outset. What travelling will be expected of you? Will they reimburse travel? Are you expected to provide any equipment? Are you expected to pay for any additional expenses such as the cost of joining the PVG scheme or any insurance costs? Another issue to be wary of is if you use your car for your volunteering as this might mean an increase in your insurance costs. Always remember to inform your car insurance provider!

The other big thing to consider is what time you can commit. Be honest with yourself and whoever you are volunteering for. If you genuinely know that you can't provide the time that they need, say so. It might mean losing out on the opportunity to volunteer with them but it'll only cause bad blood if you take on a post that you can't commit to. One-off events are easy to accommodate but longer term posts might ask for one day a week or more. Many youth organisations also expect you to be available for camps some weekends or over a week or two during the summer. Make sure you find out in advance because if you can't commit to this, it might mean some or all kids missing out on their annual camp.

4. Know where to look: There are excellent general resources out there like Volunteer Scotland that list various opportunities for volunteering and sites like this are a great starting point to see if you find anything that inspires you. The great thing about volunteering is that you tend to find more opportunities the more that you do. You'll develop a network of friends who are keen volunteers and they'll share any opportunities they know of with you.

Of course, if you have a charity or organisation that is particularly dear to you, you can contact them directly and ask about volunteering with them.

For more specific experiences it is best to be proactive. If you want experience in arts or heritage, there may well be advertised vacancies on organisation or council webpages but there may not. This is where knowing your strengths is vital. Contact organisations directly detailing your skill set and asking if there would be any suitable volunteering vacancies for you. It goes without saying that large, well-known institutions can be saturated with volunteers and you might get turned down, so it is worth looking at local museums, arts companies etc.

5. Let them know what you want: Finally, don't be afraid to let the organisation know what you want. Obviously large event organisers can't personalise your experience and you just have to go with the flow but if you are going to volunteer regularly with a smaller organisation and would like specific experiences at some point or would like to have a reference a few months down the line, make that known to them. If it is vital for you that you get a reference or a specific type of experience, it might even be worth asking for them to promise you it in writing.

I have had one particularly bad experience myself on this front when I was volunteering for a museum. My contact had verbally mentioned that she would give me a reference but after months of volunteering at various events at considerable expense to myself, I was refused a reference on the grounds that references were never given to volunteers. I was made to feel affronted for asking but also felt used by the organisation. Eventually, after speaking to other volunteers, I realised that they had been in the same boat and after verbal promises, the person in question had done a U-turn when it came time to actually deliver the references. Understandably, it left a bad taste in my mouth and the reference was quite important for me and so it left me in a bad way in terms of getting future employment in the field. I had to start from scratch gaining experience in a different museum.

Good luck finding volunteering placements. Remember to have fun, put in the effort and within a short time, you'll be seeing gains from your experiences!

Frontrunning

Hot on the heels of my London 2012 experience, I was desperate for more! Sports volunteering had never been exactly "my bag". Considering my two bellies give me applause when I'm running, I'd never exactly been a born athlete and had been a bit terrified that the Olympics were going to be a painful experience where I was surrounded by toned, svelte, athletic types and I was going to be wedged into my uniform like some sort of purple/crimson marshmallow from someone's twisted nightmares. It had in actual fact been full of normal people, some indeed were svelte, toned, athletic types while others had been just as rotund as myself!

I now felt that I'd found my athletic 'niche'. I was never going to be Jessica Ennis but, by golly, I could volunteer with the best of them to make sure Jessica Ennis could get on with what she needed to get on with.

Of course, I was in luck as Glasgow had the Commonwealth Games coming in 2014! I took my wobbly backside onto my computer and typed 'Commonwealth Games, Glasgow volunteering' into a well known search engine and waited with trepidation to see the results. At this point applications weren't open for the main event, so to speak, but they did have a 'Frontrunners' programme open. Various vacancies were advertised for pre-games volunteering and one caught my eye instantly....the role of interviewer.

If you read my previous post on my London journey then you'll know the sheer terror the word 'interview' can instil in me and I reckoned being on the other side of the table could only help me feel a bit more positive when I was the victim.....er, I mean, candidate at job interviews. Plus, I knew how positive an experience the London interview had been for me and I wanted to give someone else such a positive, upbeat experience.

I applied and, after having to go through a dreaded interview of my own, I was accepted!

It is a bit of a terrifying experience interviewing someone else, especially the first interview! I couldn't help but sit there feeling I had no right to be an interviewer and the fact that I look about 12 probably didn't instil confidence in my candidates but I soon found my flow and really enjoyed the experience.

For the numerically minded among you, here are some figures:
50, 000: the number of people who applied to volunteer at Glasgow 2014
25, 000: the number of people who were interviewed to volunteer for Glasgow 2014
15, 000: the number of volunteers needed for Glasgow 2014
300: the number of 'Frontrunner' interviewers

As you can see, we had our work cut out! The process lasted about 9 months. Interviews happened 6 days a week (morning and afternoon on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays and afternoon and evening on Thursdays with that being extended to morning, afternoon and evening at the latter stages).

We could sign up to our own shifts online and we all did as much as we could. I met some truly wonderful people from all walks of life. Some stories from people were astounding and it really taught me to never judge a book by the cover!

Interviewing was far more draining than I had anticipated, though, even though each interview only lasted for 25 minutes but it was well worth the effort.

I took on a second Frontrunning role as a promotions assistant, too, as I was enjoying the experience so much and am glad that I still have something to be involved with now that the interviewing is finished. I get to go out to big events, often with Clyde the thistle, and promote the Games (and we're always popular since we come equipped with free jelly bangles)!

It is now a period of all change. The interviews finished in December and the candidates are now being informed of their roles. Most of us interviewers have decided to stay on doing some training Frontrunning, helping to deliver the training sessions for the successful Clyde-siders and our preparation for our new roles starts this month. I'll keep you all posted!

My London Journey

I suppose that I'm cheating somewhat calling this post my 'London' journey since I was actually based at Hampden Park in Glasgow during the 2012 Olympics, as the picture gives away!

For those interested in how I got involved and what being part of such a huge event was like, I'll give you a little run down of my experiences.

The Application

Like all good stories, my tale begins on a bus....or maybe I'm getting confused with some entirely different genres of stories. Alas, like it or lump it, my Olympic journey had the humble origins of starting while I had my big backside parked on a bus. We had pulled up at some lights and the bus pulled up in front had an advert for Gamesmaker applications. I was no stranger to volunteering so it caught my eye and I made a mental reminder to go home and look up the web link.

I filled in my application, not entirely sure what all the 'Functional Areas' actually meant. I remember putting down Uniforms as one of my choices mainly due to the fact that I was entirely sure that I had a good idea of what Uniforms volunteers might be doing on a day to day basis. I wasn't hugely bothered about volunteering and so I didn't wait with baited breath but one day an email arrived in my inbox inviting me to interview for 'Workforce Operations'.

Luckily, interview dates were not only available down in London and there was an interview event being held in the Science Centre in Glasgow and so I booked a date and a time and then got on with my life.

The Interview

As the interview date drew near I began to feel a little bit nervous and concerned. After all, I hate interviews. I never manage to get through an interview without saying at least one stupid thing and I'm never quite sure whether this is normal or just me. Maybe interview marking scripts have a little box that the interviewer can tick once the candidate has had their mandatory stupid thing said and out the way or maybe I'm just socially awkward. One or the other.

Interviews, in general, are not good.....even less so when you are being interviewed for the mysterious 'Workforce Operations'. I wasn't entirely sure of what 'Workforce Operations' entailed and was even less sure of what my role was. How was I going to fluff an interview about it?

Eventually I decided that I could do with the interview practice if nothing else and traipsed to the Science Centre to face the music. I was a tad early (maybe about 10 mins) and expected to just be ushered through to a holding area but was told instead to wait outside. Off I went to loiter in the foyer in my spectacularly socially awkward fashion. At that point another girl was also sent away to loiter and we started chatting. It turned out she was from the same small town outside Glasgow as me and we knew some people in common so that helped still the nerves.

Finally, we were called in. Firstly, we were handed colour coded wrist bands depending on what batch we were in. Ours were blue but there were other colours. We got to keep these as souvenirs and the man who gave us ours said we could come and swap it for another colour on the way out if we wanted. However, I had lost interest in what he was saying at this point as I'd been distracted by the huge mountain of Cadbury chocolates piled into a cardboard display. It was then that I heard the magic words, "have as many as you want." 

Of course, I had to be polite so limited myself to 2 and went to get my photo taken and ID checked before being ushered into a holding area that had information on the various sports and the layout of the Olympic Park. I noticed another mountain of chocolate in this room and so strategically positioned myself close enough to it to be able to surreptitiously grab a few chocolates but not close enough to be putting myself at serious risk of ending up in a diabetic coma.

Eventually we were taken into a cinema room to watch a motivational bit of footage that featured a lot of Eddie Izzard and a bit of Seb Coe before being taken for our interviews. Dun dun DUNNNNNN!

As we milled out like cattle, frantically searching for which pod to go into while interviewers stood around frantically searching for their candidate to take into their pod, I silently prayed for a woman. My social awkwardness usually manages to keep itself to almost unnoticeable level when I'm interviewed by a woman. I feared that a male interviewer might make me turn into a less intelligent and articulate version of Sheldon Cooper. Alas, a smiley faced man came out to guide me into a pod and thus the interview began.

And........it wasn't actually all that bad. The interviewer was very friendly and the questions quite non-threatening. The 'pod' had clearly been set up to make it not intimidate potential candidates and I left feeling that I didn't actually mind if I ended up with a role or not as I'd genuinely enjoyed the experience. I'd asked specifically if I could be based at Hampden and told that it probably wouldn't be a possibility as a lot of people wanted based at a venue more local to them. With that, I was shown the way out via a big wall where you could write a message and a small merchandise stall.

The Wait

The vast numbers of people being interviewed did mean a long wait for potential volunteers and it was a bit worrying at times as obviously, if I were successful, I wanted to be able to arrange transport to London and accommodation but eventually the email came through. I was accepted as a Workforce Operations Team Member at Hampden Park (and, in case you were wondering, I still didn't really have a clue as to what that meant)!

Preparation

Luckily, all my training was in Glasgow and so I didn't have to fork out for transport to London at all. The first training event was Orientation and it was held in Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. This event was really about getting the volunteers fired up and enthused for the event ahead. There was lots of videos, music, energy and the whole thing was presented by Olympian Jonathon Edwards. We were given a workbook with information which was very general and sometimes a little bit patronising.

Later came the more detailed training events of Role Specific and Venue Specific training. Both of these were squeezed into the same day for me at Hampden which was quite handy. We were given a guided tour of the venue and given some more general training (eg. on signing the alphabet and on being politically correct and helpful). As I say, some of the training was a little bit unnecessary and obvious but I suppose they have to cover their bases. Finally, I began to be given a bit of insight into my role. Workforce Operations signed people in for their shifts, assigned everyone their relevant food vouchers for lunch or dinner, did a spot of troubleshooting if someone turned up for a shift but wasn't on the system as being needed, made up newsletters and was responsible for giving out rewards to the volunteers. You'll never guess what the BEST part of our role was, though......we were in charge of the chocolates supplied by Cadbury! It was like I'd died and gone to heaven..........why they emailed me to say I was getting a role as Workforce Operations Team Member, I'll never know! They should just have said I was "Chocolate Distribution Volunteer" and I'd have been all over that thing!

An Unexpected Email 

About 2 months before the Games, I received an email saying they were short of people to volunteer at the Uniforms Distribution centre based at Hampden and asking if I would be willing to do it as an additional role. I jumped at the chance and I'm so glad I did!

The Uniforms Experience

There wasn't a huge amount of uniforms being given out at Hampden so it wasn't a huge operation but we did start a few weeks before the Games just to give everyone time to come in and fetch their uniform. As uniforms team, we were given our uniforms before everyone else so we could look as smart as carrots on our first shifts. It was a very exciting moment! We were given 2 t-shirts, a jacket, 2 pairs of trousers, 2 pairs of socks, a baseball cap, a pair of trainers, a watch, a notepad and pen, a bag and an umbrella all in that fetching purple and scarlet combo that I'm sure you've all seen!

Since the uniforms team started a good few weeks pre-games, it was great to get to see the stadium change and take shape. When we first arrived, there was no security. We could just walk in and walk along to Uniforms (which was at the top of the stadium steps). Over the period leading up to the games we saw more security added all the time, we saw the pitch being fixed and new goalposts being installed and we saw branding being taken down, hidden or changed. Of course, we also got to see excited faces tackling the stadium steps, biting at the bit to get their uniforms and then we also got to see most of them trundling off down the steps again holding their box by the handle despite warnings from us that it wasn't very sturdy! There were a fair few burst open boxes before the bottom of the steps were reached!

The team were great and we had so much fun! We were never very busy and so we had to find ways to entertain ourselves. It started off fairly mundane. Our boss would bring in a Kinder egg toy and hide it every day and the first person to find it won some chocolate. Someone brought in a jigsaw and we wrote up our own personal Bucket List on the wall. However, it didn't take long before things descended into something slighter closer to anarchy! Soon we were improvising a mini olympics using anything that we had to hand (some plastic chains served as skipping ropes, for example) and one particularly slow afternoon we were challenged by the uniforms team down south to see who could make the best paper plane out of cardboard. They sent us a picture of their piddly little paper plane and we ended up making a ship out of empty cardboard boxes that was about 8 foot long which a mast about 4 foot high. My personal favourite time killer, though, was our flash mob rendition of Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al". We all made heads out of cardboard boxes for some reason and then the tallest and shortest of us (me being the shortest!) took on the lead roles of Paul Simon and Chevy Chase while everyone else danced around on the stadium steps.

The Workforce Ops Experience

All good things must come to an end, I suppose. The days of uniforms ended and the games themselves rolled around. Turning up for my first Workforce Ops shift was a bit of a shock! Suddenly things were very full on! Full security was in place including security checks, x-ray machines, soldiers....the works! We had our own little office set up with computers and we had to scan the accreditation passes of volunteers, check they were on rota, mark them in and then give them lunch or dinner vouchers if they needed it. It wasn't the most exciting job but someone had to do it. Once the rush was over we would make some newsletters and distribute them in the canteen.

We handed out the reward items to each team at the start of the games with the managers being told what days each items had to be given out (we had some very cool rewards such as an engraved relay baton at the end of the games)!

Again, I was a member of a lovely (but small) team and we all got on really well with each other. We also popped over to Accreditation which was nearby when we got a bit bored but a major benefit of ours was that we had keys to an executive box in case any of the workforce had a meltdown and needed some time away from it all or in case anyone needed a prayer room. Since it was rarely used our manager used to let us take it in turns on match days to head up there and watch a bit of the game and soak up some of the atmosphere so I was lucky to catch a fair bit of the action.

What about the chocolate, I hear you cry.........

The Terrible Tale of the Hampden Chocolate

Day 1: There was no chocolate. This was a terrible thing to happen, of course, and our manager set out to see that it was quickly rectified. However, it ended up being a bit of a complicated task for him! It turned out there had been a problem with the dry storage facilities which had delayed the delivery of the chocolate and it wasn't due to come until much further on in the games. Unfortunately for us, since we only had a few match days, it was due to arrive on the very last match day!

But arrive it did.

Our manager found us buckets and tasked us with getting rid of as much of the boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes of chocolate as we possibly could in a single day! However, the buckets frightening people off making them think we were after donations of money! No one wanted our delicious, creamy, sugary, delicious chocolate....what a shame!

We did manage to get rid of some of it and eventually developed a tactic of approaching the police and the soldiers and filling their pockets with the delicious goodness as they couldn't run away when they noticed us coming at them with buckets. However, a good deal of that chocolate did end up coming home with all us volunteers......well, it would have been a shame for it to go to waste!

The Aftermath

I made some good friends and have kept in contact with a few. When I heard there was going to be a big street reception for the Scottish athletes at George Square in Glasgow, I contacted one of the uniforms team members and asked if she wanted to go. We met for lunch and then headed over to George Square. The volunteers had been told to come in uniform as a special area had been marked off for them to stand in but we ended up just standing with the crowd. The atmosphere was electric and the crowd went wild when Chris Hoy appeared on stage!

When myself and Rusne headed off home at the end, though, a very strange thing happened. Suddenly we had people surrounding us. Some wanted to shake our hands, some wanted to chat to us about our experiences, some wanted to get pictures taken with us but everyone was very thankful for the time we'd given to the Olympics. It was very touching and strange. I've volunteered many times in the past and of course I don't do it for thanks although it is nice to get it but generally your efforts go largely unnoticed except by other volunteers or people closely related to a project. This was the first time I'd been swamped by strangers wanting to thank me for the time I'd given......I really should have told them I'd essentially been paid for my time in chocolate!

Let the Games commence!

I'm Nicola, a 28 year old PhD student from Glasgow who has a love of volunteering! I've done a bit of everything over the years from helping out at uniformed youth organisations to digging in trenches as a volunteer excavator to taking part in the big, glamorous events such as London 2012 (yup, that's me in the picture looking a bit pleased to be part of it all)!

It is true what people say and you really do get more out of volunteering than you put in (well.....most of the time....I have had some bad experiences)! Since London 2012 I've noticed people seem quite fascinated with the volunteering experience and I've had no end of people asking me questions about my time in London so I thought I might start a blog as the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games are about to start and I'll be embarking on another big volunteer journey! Hopefully somebody out there will be interested in reading my inane ramblings about my experiences. Some people might be able to enjoy them as they relate to experiences that they had at London or Glasgow or elsewhere while others might find themselves inspired to go out and try volunteering for the first time or for the first time in a long while. Either way, I hope someone can get pleasure out of reading this blog as I'm sure I'll enjoy recording my memories!