Recruitment for Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games volunteers was
officially launched by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games
(BOCOG) on August 28 in Beijing. Both BOCOG president Liu Qi, and International
Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge, delivered televised addresses
to extend their congratulations, Beijing2008.com reported.
About 70,000 volunteers are needed for the Beijing Games and the number for
the Paralympics is 30,000. Volunteers will be selected mainly from university
students in Beijing, especially freshmen this year, who will be junior students
in 2008.
Municipal education authorities have requested that universities cultivate
Olympic spirit, service awareness, and the concept of the People's Olympics by
organizing training sessions, conducting volunteering practice, and opening
public elective courses on the People's Olympics and Daily Manners.
Officials launch the
online application system for Beijing Olympics volunteers on August 28.
[Beijing2008.com] |
According to the Sydney Olympic Games Official Report, the 46,967 volunteers
are divided into those who possess certain skills such as foreign languages or
medical knowledge and those who can help organize audiences, traffic and
information transmission.
Although volunteers are unpaid, their training activities, as well as their
uniforms and foodstuffs, will cost the organizing committee a considerable
amount. The Sydney Olympic Games Organizing Committee spent AUS$700 on each
volunteer.
What is inevitable is that some volunteers may change their minds and quit
for some reason. About four percent of Sydney Olympics volunteers left before
the Games closed in 2000.
Among all the volunteers, those who will work in the International Relations
Department (IRD) of the BOCOG are especially important.
IRD director Zhang Qing said about 20,000 foreign guests, outside of overseas
visitors and spectators, will come to Beijing and will need reception, including
delegates of 17 countries that have hosted former Olympics, 119 members of the
International Olympic Committee, representatives from Olympic Committees of 203
countries and regions, 10,500 Olympics athletes, 5,500 officials of athlete
groups, delegates of 28 international turnvereins, and 500 other working staff,
as well as 1,000 VIPs and 200 presidents and ministers of foreign countries.
The IRD will recruit 800 volunteers to subsidize the receptionists group. It
will be more like diplomatic activities for volunteers to serve foreign
officials, so these volunteers will receive strict training before they start
working.
From August 28, 2006 the Beijing Olympic Games Volunteer Work Co-ordination
Group started accepting applications for volunteer positions from people in
Beijing. Those in other provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities who
wish to be volunteers can apply starting in December 2006, and people in Hong
Kong, Macao, Taiwan and foreigners can apply after March 2007.
