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!