Mensa member Dominic O’Malley spoke to Mensa Magazine Editor Brian Page before he began his role as a London 2012 volunteer.

 

Before the announcement was completed I was smiling. “The games of the 30th Olympiad in 2012 are awarded to… I couldn’t hear what came next and didn’t need to...

First one, then a second, then three, four and more car horns were sounding from all directions, drowning out the time delayed ‘live’ Radio 4 broadcast on that July afternoon in central London.

Although not originally from London, I’ve lived here for long enough to consider myself to be ‘of London’ and if the biggest world event, be it cultural, political or sporting, was to take place in this city, I wanted to be part of it.

The collective euphoria of that afternoon was snubbed out the next day, July 7, 2005, with the bombings in the capital and the sense of shock.

However, Londoners are a hardy breed and the enthusiasm was restored as time went by and in 2010 I became one of over 240,000 applicants for the 70,000 volunteer roles at the Olympic and Paralympic games. In May 2011 came an offer of an interview. In June, a uniform/costume form had to be returned. Costume? That was rather unsettling... my wife suggested that I was being considered for a cheerleader role! Thankfully, an August date was set for an interview for the Victory Ceremonies Team. Wow. I’ll have that, please.

Then, in late August, another offer was made. Would I like to be interviewed for a Selection Event volunteer role? That is, would I like to become an interviewer? The commitment was a minimum of one shift a week until the selection process finished. The volunteer selection events had begun at the ExCel Centre, London, in February 2011, while a second selection team had toured eight centres around the United Kingdom between March and August. The touring team’s props were then to be used in a second London selection venue, opening in October, and it was this interview team that I was being invited to join.

The pace now quickened. Within a fortnight I’d gone through a phone interview, a training day and done my first interviewing shift. The training day provided my first insight into the build up to the Olympic. The training took place at McDonald’s Restaurants training centre in north London. McDonalds are one of the 2012 games’ sponsors and although the training was presented by members of LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games), the event was staffed by McDonalds’ employees. And no, it wasn’t Big Macs for lunch.

At the new selection venue the interview cubicles had windows to one side. Perhaps a consequence of this had been missed – because the view from the venue is both spectacular and distracting. The 19th floor of the Canary Wharf office block, where LOCOG have offices on five other floors, overlooks a sweep in the Thames around the O2 arena with City airport beyond, the Olympic stadium to the left and Greenwich Park, venue of the equestrian events, to the right. The script didn’t cover this but, fortunately, at the start of my first interview and simply because nothing better came into my head, I invited the candidate to take in the view for a few seconds before we started. They were then guided to the chair with its back to the window. It proved to be a great icebreaker for both of us and it removed the distracting view from the candidate’s sight, so that’s now my standard opening line.

Groups of 15 to 20 candidates go through the various stages of the selection process at half hourly intervals, with the interviews taking about 20 minutes, at the end of the hour and a half that the candidates spend at the selection event. So the four and a half hour shifts can be very busy and are prone to over-running and overlapping, yet we always manage to get the candidates through. By the end of January the selection events will have interviewed approximately 120,000 candidates. There are no typical candidates. All ages and backgrounds are represented although, importantly, those ages and backgrounds are usually irrelevant; we’re currently looking for motivated, spirited people.

Most specialist volunteer roles have now been filled. The roles for which the candidates are now being interviewed will largely involve stewarding and marshalling the spectators. The candidates know this and although it hardly seems the most exciting work to be volunteering for, with every possibility that some volunteers might not even get inside an Olympic venue, the enthusiasm of the candidates is palpable and infectious, bringing a buzz to the selection events which makes the whole process thoroughly enjoyable.

Similarly, there are no typical interviewers. My colleagues range from students through all backgrounds and professions to the retired and include a JP and a former MP. We individually choose our shifts so there’s a constant changing and mixing of committed, interesting people to meet, session by session, which adds to the satisfaction of being part of the Olympic team.

I won’t reveal either the interview content or how any individual candidate performed. However, the even handedness of the process was illustrated when a colleague realised he was interviewing a past Olympic gold medallist. After the interview my colleague couldn’t resist asking what the Olympian was doing at the selection event and was told that he had approached Lord Coe, offering to help at the games and had been told that like all potential volunteers he had to go through the selection process. And to his credit, there he was.

 

Originally featured in Mensa Magazine, February 2012 edition.