HRE603: Management experience gained volunteering for Special Olympics
Shyamala Sathiaseelan
Executive Summary
I learnt:
1 What is the Special Olympics?
1.1 Special
Olympics World Games (SOWG)
8 What I
learnt from this experience
The Special Olympics is
an international organization dedicated to empowering individuals with mental retardation to become physically fit, productive and respected
members of society through sports training and competition. (Special Olympics)
The Special Olympics
World Games are conducted once in four years.
From the time the first International
Special Olympics World Games were started by Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1968,
the games were always held in the
United States of America until 2003 when Ireland was privileged to host them.
One dark day in December 2001, I was
walking out of the canteen when I noticed this poster. All the poster said was “Do you speak more
than one language? If so we need you! Contact:… Special Olympics”. I do speak more than one language but they
are all Indian languages. I wasn’t even
sure if they needed my expertise. I had been working in Dublin, Ireland for the past
five years, but the only place that I had used any Indian language was at home with family
and friends. What made me curious was
“Special Olympics”. Even though I had a
cousin at home who was a “special child”, I had never heard of the Special Olympics before.
The first thing that I did when I
went back to my desk was to send a mail to the contact person letting her know
about the languages that I speak and also telling her that I would be
interested in doing some sort of voluntary work even if my language skills were not needed.
I got an immediate reply asking me if I
would be interested in applying for the DAL (Delegation Assistant Liaison) post and if I
would be able to attend the interview within a month.
There
was no turning back after that!
One thing that was mentioned in the
email was that the Games Organising Committee (GOC) was looking for more volunteers
and the more I could find the merrier.
Here I was totally unaware about Special Olympics and I was already
marketing for them! Little did I realize
what I was getting into. Within a week
I had persuaded two of my friends to volunteer
for DAL positions and
by the end of the year I had got at least ten other people to volunteer for
different positions. I realized it was easy to market something that you
believed in.
The day before I went for the
interview I decided to do some homework.
I surfed the net and found out enough basic information about the SO to answer most of the questions I was likely to be
asked. When
I went to the interview I realized that the SO
were still in their early stages of preparation and the
organizers were looking for 30,000 volunteers. It was amazing to see people from that many different countries
queuing up to volunteer.
During the interview I was briefed
on what was expected of me as a DAL. At that stage I did not even know if India
had a team. The languages that I knew
would be used in Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka as well so I was prepared to
work with any of those teams. It really did not matter which
country I was working with, because it was the
experience that mattered.
Being a DAL meant working 24x7 for
two full weeks. It meant staying with
the team from the day it landed in Ireland to
the day it left the country. We were told that we would be getting all
the necessary training.
A few days after the interview and
group discussion, I got a letter that I had been selected to be a DAL.
DAL – this was what we would be but
the job profile constantly changed from the time we had our interview till the
time the actual games happened.
We were a part of the Language
Services team. We were expected to help
in interpreting for the non-English speaking teams. Most DALs were
bilingual. We had to liaise with the
transport, catering, venue, sports and other teams as well.
When it came to the games the 160
blue t-shirt DALs where hailed as know-alls.
Ask any other volunteer for information and he/she
would say “Look for a DAL (someone wearing a blue t-shirt) and he or she will know where to find an
answer”. Out of the 30,000 volunteers
only 160 of us had a blue uniform; the rest of them were green, red or yellow.
Like me, most of the
people had no experience with special children or managing something as big as
the Special Olympics. It was decided in early 2002 that we would have several training sessions in the next year to help us through the
two-week period. Some of the training sessions were general and some were more
specific to the world games. Here I have listed the training sessions that were useful in the day-to-day sense.
The first training
session, in May 2002, focused on working
in a multicultural team. It was led by
Ms. Priti Quinn (Anucana), Ireland. I was born and brought up in a country which
is a land of diversities. India is so
big and so diverse that growing up should have taught me how to live and work
in a multicultural environment, but I realized
when I attended the training session that my knowledge was limited. We were made aware of how we tend to stereotype people. It was good that this was our first training
session as our fellow DALs were from all over
the world. We learnt quite a bit about
different cultures – all we could learn in a day! It was important to do this
training because nobody was sure which team he/she
would be assigned to. As a part of our
duty we had to know enough information about the team/country that we would be
with in order to work with a bigger group of people from different cultures
without much friction. For example,
most Indian Hindus do not eat meat, so offering a meat dish to them would be
considered offensive.
This helps me at work as I work in a
real multicultural environment. My
clients are Australian, I work with a team from India and I have Irish, English
and Spanish people working in my team.
In the
summer of 2002 (July 11-15), we had the HOD (Heads of Delegation)
Seminar. This was a two and a half day
residential training seminar. While
most of the HODs had come, some of them could
not make it for various reasons. The Indian HOD did not arrive so I was
assigned to Singapore. Two and a half
days were not long enough to get sufficient information from HODs about the team to know what to expect. There were also Host Town Committee members
present and we were taught how to coordinate
communications and instigate remedial actions in unexpected or emergency
situations. Getting to know people well
beforehand was a significant advantage, as I gained background knowledge that
helped me to interpret athletes’ behaviour and meet my colleagues’
expectations. The Singapore HOD seemed
to be a wonderful and organized person.
She had everything sorted out a year ahead,
although admittedly she was responsible for a fairly small team.
During the two days we got as much
information as possible about the team and the host town and also went visiting
venues – both sporting and accommodation.
We were talking to people who had been to World Games before.
This taught me to been attentive and
observant. Any bit of information that
I got could be useful at some stage. This also taught me to prepare myself well in advance for
anything.
This training was a real
eye-opener. I did not realize I was a
passive person until I actually attended this
training. According to Jean, who did the
training, there are three types of people – aggressive, assertive and
passive. The training started with a
self-analysis, then she gave us more information about different types of
people. We did several role-plays. At the end of the day we came back feeling
positive about ourselves.
This training really helped me
during the games and in personal and official life. During the games I often had to
put my foot down and say “No”. If I
hadn’t undergone the training I would have either kept quiet or ended up saying
“No” in a really aggressive way. Actually the training taught me how to be
diplomatic and how I should always aim for a win-win situation. I also learnt
negotiation techniques through this training.
When we went for the interview we
were told time and again that though we were required for only two weeks 24 x 7, we should apply for at least a couple of days’
extra leave. Our manager kept insisting
that we would require the extra days for rest.
This advice was followed by a full day of training in relaxation
techniques.
Techniques like Tai Chi and quick
meditation that could be done any place any time for just five minutes and would relax us instantly were taught. Though I did not practice Tai Chi regularly, I did realize that closing the eyes and
relaxing for five minutes helps quite a bit, especially if it has been a stressful day. This is something that I continue to do although
the games are over.
A good diet is an important part of
managing oneself. We had a complete
session on diets. While one half was on
diets for athletes and what we should worry about for the team, the other half
was actually about how to keep ourselves going during the games without feeling
tired.
I learnt a lot of tips and I should say that I survived the games without solid food for 24
hours together at times because I took this training seriously.
Though most of the training was
specific to the games, some parts of it can be
applied to day-to-day situations as well.
We were all provided with mobile phones to use during the games and we
had to have them switched on twenty-four hours
a day. We were given a list of contact
numbers for people that we could contact for everything that we could
imagine. We had cluster managers who
would talk to us/meet us on a regular basis during the games. In addition to this we had to fill in a report
at the end of each day, which had to be sent
in the next day.
It is amazing how little things like
these can help. Just writing the report
at the end of the day brings to mind all that happened during the day. While I was
writing the report, I spent time
analyzing my actions to assess whether I could
have done
anything better. This daily review gave me greater self-confidence the next day, as
I knew I had done my best to be as efficient and effective as possible. Knowing that there was someone senior to us
who we could contact in an emergency made me feel a bit relaxed. Learning to escalate things at the right
time was also important. That helps in
my work when there is a problem with the daily batch support.
We learnt that it was acceptable not to know all the answers. We learnt as much as possible and then we
had the DAL handbook with us all the time to refer to. Either we knew the answer or we knew where
to find it. That was all that mattered.
Each one of the 30,000 volunteers
had to be checked against Garda records and
accredited before the games. It was a
matter of security. Each one of the
volunteers had to have his or her accreditation
on at all times. The badge was colour-coded with signs and symbols with enough
information to give the security personnel an idea of where we had access to
and where we did not. Security was a
big issue and there was no excuse for being in the wrong place. Each one of the athletes, coaches, family
members, guests and media had to be accredited as well.
Security is something that we should
be aware of in our daily lives. Letting
someone in at work without knowing who he or she was
would get us into trouble. Keeping our
eyes open and questioning visitors when we are in doubt really helps.
Other SOWG specific training
included sessions on Special Olympics terms and facts. We were told what the right term to use was
and how to move with special people. As a part of the training we also got to know the history of the
Special Olympics. There were a few
guest speakers who had been to different World Games who shared their experiences with us.
Transportation was another
interesting training session. Though it tended
to be games specific, I am sure
designing and running a complete transportation unit for the teams, volunteers,
families and general public during the two-week period is no easy thing. The transport timetable for just 10 days was
as thick as the Dublin telephone
directory! There was a slight hiccup at
the end of the Opening Ceremony but everything else
ran quite smoothly. That shows
organizing things well in advance helps quite a lot.
Catering again was also games specific training. While most of the information related to athletes, there was enough
information to enable us to make life easy for everyone. Again, being organized – for example, ordering
food in advance, for the right venue –
helped a lot.
Opening
and Closing Ceremonies
During the rest of the games, volunteers
had to handle a smaller crowd than was present for
these ceremonies. Getting the
17,000 athletes, coaches, 30,000 volunteers and 75,000 spectators,
not to mention special guests, all in one
place at the same time
was a really mammoth task. Each and every volunteer had to be trained
on what to do in the event of an emergency – what
to do if an athlete
were to fall sick or was missing, for example,
or what to do if there were to be a problem
with transportation and so on.
Meet and Greet
As DALs we were supposed to meet and
greet the team at the airport. We were
supposed to be with the team from the time it landed. Picking up the team at the gate of the
aircraft meant security issues. The teams’ baggage had to be handled
separately. The same applied for
immigration and customs clearance. Problems like missing baggage had to be identified and resolved before leaving the airport.
Our volunteering started way before
the games. We were ready to show that
we were actually putting our training to use.
To show our leadership qualities, a few
of us volunteered to help recruit the Language Assistants and Language
Escorts. We helped with the inductions,
and evaluated the groups through group
discussions and talks.
Some of us volunteered to help in
producing accreditation badges. We were
given quick training on how to use the machines and how not to waste time and
paper as we were running out of time and the sponsors for the special paper
used for accreditation passes had given a limited quantity
of it.
In January, an “Adopt an
Athlete” campaign was launched. A
selected few of us represented our team in
traditional clothes.
In May 2003 when we had
the final training. A few DALs dropped
out and a few new DALs joined our group.
Even after all the training, we were not sure
how we were going to handle our responsibilities.
We were asked to visit
our host town before the games, if possible,
just to get used to the place and meet the
people. Our Host Town Committee had
arranged for a meeting so that I could meet the team there and get to know the
committee members and fellow volunteers.
That helped in creating a special bond with them when I went there with
the team.
The last few weeks before the games
were busy. We tried to get as much information as possible on special characteristics of individual athletes,
personnel data, and flight reservation confirmation from the team
in India and pass it on to GOC (Games Organizing Committee) and to the Host
Town Committee. Communication was very
important during those days to ensure accurate information was passed on
to the relevant people.
The host town representatives picked
up the team from
the airport and took us directly to the host town.
I had been communicating with the
Host Town Committee for a few months before the games. There were many
questions from both sides.
Everything would be different for the team – culture, food, language,
weather, etc. Host town people were
trying to make the team as comfortable as they could.
The very first night there I had to
use my training on assertiveness, relaxation techniques
and health and safety. While arranging for
accommodation the host town team had done their level best to put similar
groups together, but somehow there was a
problem when they actually tried to put people in the right places. By about 2
a.m. I was still trying to sort out accommodation, transportation for the next
morning, the schedules for the next day and the baggage. I wasn’t happy when I was asked to share an
apartment with a couple of athletes, but it
was too late in the night to argue so I told the host town team very clearly
that I would share the apartment that night but the very next day I had to get
a room for myself as I was not responsible for the athletes and that was a
health and safety violation.
That night when I sat down to write
my first daily report I realized the importance of all my training.
The next five days in the host town
flew. I used all my skills to get the
work done. Most days my breakfast was
just a healthy yogurt drink. I made it
a point to keep myself hydrated even if I couldn’t eat enough.
The host town problems were just the
beginning of the challenges that we were about to face! I had already had a few sleepless nights before I reached my
accommodation venue in Dublin.
Again my management skills were put
to the test when I had to allocate rooms for
the team members. After about four hours of
deliberation I thought I had sorted out all the accommodation problems. At midnight there was still an argument between my Head
Coach and me about how I should have allocated the
rooms. I handed the responsibility over to the accommodation teams and
told them to sort it out. At that stage I realized it was not my problem and I
should not deal with problems
that were not my responsibility.
Each night before I went to bed I
had to remind the coaches to order meals for
the next day, check transportation schedules, take the athletes for a medical
check if possible, check sports schedules and plan for the day in advance.
Each morning at 7:00 I had to attend
the HOD meeting where all the previous day’s problems were discussed. When I
met other DALs we shared our problems. Someone had a solution to my problem and I had a
solution to someone else’s problem.
Each day was a new experience in
itself. Problems were always handled differently from
the way I would normally handle them. Most of all, I realized patience
and persistence can work wonders.
At the end of two weeks I had gained
valuable experience. I came back home a totally changed person. I had learnt a
lot and knew that I had to learn much more.
Citations
Internet. Available from http://www.specialolympics.org/Special+Olympics+Public+Website/English/About_Us/default.htm
accessed 10 December 2003.
http://anucana.esmartbiz.com/ - The
website of Anucana with more details on Multicultural diversity.
Appendix(es)
Related Web pages
http://www.oocities.org/shyamiseelan/SpecialOlympics
- My article on the experiences that I had during the two weeks.
Common Abbreviations used in the paper.
GOC – Games Organizing Committee
SOWG – Special Olympics World Games
DAL – Delegation Assistant Liaison
HOD – Head of Delegation