The organization and management of volunteers in olympic games- suggestions for 2008 olympic games

Introduction

Beijing will hold the 2008 Olympic Games. To keep the promise of holding the Olympic Games perfectly, we should consider the organization and management of volunteers in Olympic Games and find a way to run the game smoothly. The present literature on the organization and management of volunteers in Olympic Games pays a considerable amount of attention to the history of Olympic volunteers (Ana Belén Moreno ,1999), the model of organizing the Olympic volunteers (Ed Eynon ,1999; Christopher Auld,1999). Great progress has been made in this field in western countries, however only little literature can be found in China. China has little experience in this field, few scholars paid attention to the issue of Olympic volunteers. To make up for the absence of study in Olympic volunteers in China, this paper presents the theory on both volunteers and Olympic volunteers in the first part. In part two the conception of Olympic volunteers is formulated as well as the specification of Olympic volunteers. From an angel of history, we show the evolution of Olympic volunteers in part three. The experience of other models is also presented in the paper. At the same time the differences between western countries and China are compared and the situation is explained in part four. Then, in the last part suggestions to the Olympic Games in 2008 are given to make the theory into practice.

Methods

Much documentation of sports volunteer is consulted. The differences in the field of volunteer organization and management between western countries and China are compared.

Results

A volunteer is one who offers his or her services freely, under no compulsion, legal or otherwise. That is, being a volunteer involves a commitment to act based on a free personal decision which is motivated by principles of solidarity and altruism. Being a volunteer, he or she may know that the job is lack of monetary reward and should have non-profit motivation. He or she may do something for the social contribution. A critical component of a successful Olympic Games is the availability in the host nation, of high quality pre-Olympic training and competition opportunities for athletes. In most cases, the value of these experiences for the athletes depends on the involvement of volunteers. There are many successful models of the host nation in the past Olympic Games. The valuable experience from those countries should be adopted by Beijing.

Discussion/ Conclusions

Through confining the conception of Olympic volunteers, reviewing the development of Olympic volunteer and comparing the differences between China and western countries, we found out that there are so many steps for the organizer of the Beijing 2008 to take. To run the Olympic Game smoothly, we have several suggestions to the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008.

References

[1]. Ana Belén Moreno (1999) International Symposium on Olympic volunteers
[2]. Richard Pound (1999) International Symposium on Olympic volunteers
[3]. Laurence Chalip (1999) International Symposium on Olympic volunteers