Honored Guest Services

Honored Guest Services

KEY STATISTICS

From the 26th of June to the 3rd of July the number of Honored Guests that arrived at the Peace and Friendship Stadium were 350people throughout all the days the Games were taking place. That means on average about 53 people per day. The number of Volunteers that were occupied at Peace and Friendship Stadium were supposed to be 34, but after some cancelations that could not be replaced, the volunteers of my team were 28 Honored Guest Assistants. As far as the venue of Golf at Glyfada is concerned, the numbers were much lower. The total number of Honored Guests that visited this venue was only 75.Which means that on average about 10 people per dayvisited GGF. And the number of Honored Guest Assistants that were occupied at GGF were supposed to be 11, but finally after some cancelations, they were 6 volunteers.

HIGHLIGHTS

To begin with, the volunteers (Honored Guest Assistants) were really well trained which was obviously why they managed to provide high-quality services to the Honored Guests of the Special Olympics 2011. Our team was really well organized, the volunteers had specific duties but in order for them to be continuously occupied and to experience the whole variety of functions we were in charge of, they were rotating their posts every 3-4 hours. Good team work was also a very important factor in delivering high-quality service to our clients(Honored Guests), the whole team was united and were helping each other. The communication we had through mobile phones and PMRs was absolutely needed and helped us a lot for quick responses/solutions.As far as the non-planned services are concerned, these were only some requests we had from some Honored Guests. For example some of them needed a place to pray because it was the time for them to pray, so I contacted the Venue Manager and he guided them to an empty room and waited for them to finish praying and come back at the VIP lounge. Many of the Honored guests wanted us to call a taxi for them. Also there were some requests from the MVPs that participated in the Unity Sport Events. Such as: tables, posters, helping them gather the people that were playing in the unity sport event, etc. Everything functioned well, we did not face any crucial situation. The only problems we faced were caused because of the delay some sports had, on some specific days. And that was only because this situation was making difficult for us to inform the Honored Guests about the specific time of the awards ceremonies, or to inform them relatively with the accurate competition schedule of the day.

FAs MAJOR ISSUES & RECOMMENDATIONS

List all major issues encountered by your FA during the Games and your recommendations on how to resolve/avoid these issues

No / Issue Description / Recommendation
1 / Head Of Delegations, even though they were neither MVPs nor ASFs, insisted on using the privileges only MVPs and ASFs have. / In my opinion this situation was so frequent because obviously in other venues or maybe even in previous Special Olympics Organizations Heads of Delegations were allowed to enter the VIP lounge, and generally they were treated like MVPs and ASFs. So in order for them not to be angry and furthermore in order for us not to have troubles with them, maybe they should be informed about what is offered to them.
No / Issue Description / Recommendation
2 / Because of technical problems, or because of the way a sport is designed (like bocce for example) it is difficult to inform people about the specific time of the awards ceremonies, and also to make people stay for as long as it was needed until the ceremony takes place. / Most probably the competition schedule with the time that the award ceremonies will take place should be designed with more accuracy prior to the Games. Or maybe for these sports that you can't know the exact time and you will know it just 10 minutes before the award ceremony begins, a different system should be designed. For example the Honored Guests seating at the VIP seating area of a sport, could be informed about the award ceremony and asked directly if they want to make an award ceremony.
No / Issue Description / Recommendation
3 / The budget we had, in order to provide to the Honored Guests food and drinks at the VIP lounges was really low, and as a result some Honored Guests were making complains, for not providing them with sandwiches, tea, or more cookies.

MAJOR ISSUES WITH OTHER FAs

List all major issues encountered in your cooperation with other FAs during the Games and/or other issues observed during the ATHENS 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games

No / Functional Area / Issue Description
1 / SPORT / Because of technical problems, or because of the way a sport is designed (like bocce for example) it is difficult to inform people about the specific time of the awards ceremonies, and also to make people stay for as long as it was needed until the ceremony would take place.
2 / Presentation / Because of the way some sports are designed, the predesigned system according to the policies and procedures did not work. So Presentation should inform us about the time the award ceremonies would start, and unfortunately sometimes they forgot to inform us that soon an award ceremony is about to start, in order for us to inform our clients and bring them to the awards area to present the award ceremony.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL