Volunteering at the ANOC General Assembly

Last week, I volunteered at the Association of National Olympic Committee (ANOC) General Assembly. It was great to volunteer for an event that had over 1200 Olympic executives attending from 206 countries. Before the event, the staff gave us a brief training which included information on the general assembly, responsibilities of volunteers and other details. They also gave us a tour of the areas that would be used within the Washington Hilton Hotel for the event. The training proved to be very helpful. 

I was glad to have gotten the opportunity to choose different positions for the three days I was going to be volunteering in. This helped me learn about a variety of tasks that gets done before and during the event. On one of the days, I was volunteering for the cultural program. Cultural program included a tour of the National Mall and volunteers needed to stay outdoors to guide the guests to the historic locations and to the busses. Unfortunately, it was raining heavily that day. However, supervisors came prepared and gave volunteers umbrellas and other things to stay dry. They also gave us the necessary information and the schedule before guests arrived.

Overall, it was great for me to volunteer at a big event like this and I think the staff was very professional and managed volunteers well. All the supervisors and volunteers were extremely nice and therefore it was a great environment to work at. After the event, they gave us a certificate and other presents, which shows that they appreciate the volunteers. I’m happy that through this experience I got an inside look at preparing and executing a major sport conference.