Different day, different role – this time up front in the PSA or pre-screening area. Very customer-facing and very early start time. It turned out to be quite a cool role – as the sun was shining again and the trains were running on time everyone who was rolling into our little bit of the Olympic dream was buzzing with anticipation.
Some of them were clearly fanatics and some of them were along for the ride. Another polyglot experience but the no-liquids airport-type security rules are pretty ubiquitous the world over so language was not a problem – you just point to the recycling bins full of half empty fizzy drink bottles and they all get it. It's not my idea of sustainability.
We dealt with a steady stream of people all morning and despite having our busiest day of the Games so far there were no nightmare security lines – so whatever we're doing right maybe some of our more broken queuing systems could benefit from.
So apart from a few media folks trying to avoid the three-minute extra walk to their own check-in gate the only other drama was helping match up people with extra tickets (I know, a few weeks ago that might have sounded absurd) with others who, for whatever reason, needed one or two more. Now don't get me wrong – there were not floods of these but a handful of people were able to get in to see something they really wanted to, including a couple of folks who had competitors in the event, because other people were just plain nice.
Working up front you also get so say goodbye to pretty much everyone you said hello to a few hours previously. If people are wondering why these Games Maker volunteers do what they do then maybe they should experience that. On a day when pretty much everything went right at the venue as far as the customers were concerned and they had a fantastic time, then having several hundred people say thank you is its own reward. You can think that is a cheesy as you want but it is genuinely uplifting.
