Use of volunteer security staff or stewards is not widespread in the UK, for health and safety and insurance reasons. And think of the Walter Wolfgang affair at last year’s Labour Party conference. But at the largest gatherings like the 2000 Sydney Olympics, mass recruitment of uniformed meeters and greeters might be the only way to staff the extravaganza. And as a South African, Peter McIntosh, director of volunteer programmes at sport event consultants Rushmans told the conference, if your people fail, your security fails.
More than an add-on
Whether you are planning what Peter McIntosh termed a ‘mega event’ like an Olympics, a second tier event like a rugby union or cricket world cup, or a smaller event, “it is important not to put the volunteer programme on as an add-on, later. Volunteers are becoming more and more integral in our event organising - we need to plan early on.” A volunteering scheme might require sunset legislation, he suggested. And just because the 2003 cricket world cup in South Africa did have a successful volunteer programme, that does not mean you can take the package to the next world cup (in the West Indies).
As Peter put it: “There are parts of the world where people will volunteer to be involved in an event simply because they wanted to be part of an event; and there are parts quite frankly where people will volunteer because for the period of the event it represents some opportunity where they can get fed.”
Cost
You need to cost volunteers, he went on; a lot of people, he added, make the mistake of thinking that volunteers by definition are free labour. For the 2003 cricket world cup - and it is hoped the 2007 - volunteers got a certificate of competency in training, as credits towards a qualification.
What do they do?
What do volunteers actually do? Peter McIntosh answered; they add value, not only to spectators but sponsors, officials - and security. As for customer service, they have ‘soft skills’ - the friendly face telling you to have a nice day - and they are eyes and ears. That is, they observe, but do not enforce public safety and other rules. It could be a blocked exit; they will report. If outside the stadium, someone is walking with a glass bottle of rum, it is not for the volunteer to confiscate it, but to tell the customer glass containers are not allowed inside the venue, to hopefully head off a problem at the bag search at the entrance. The same goes for a can of Coca-Cola (say) if the sponsor is Pepsi and its rival cola brands are banned from the ground (as indeed a T-shirt saying Coca-Cola would be banned. In event organisers-speak it’s termed ‘ambush marketing’). In short, the volunteers are security’s first line of defence.
Name on the line
What’s the volunteer’s job description? Because you should not select just anybody, according to Peter McIntosh - the sponsor’s name is on the line. If a spectator walking to the ground is warned that he is carrying a prohibited item, and he ignores the warning, the volunteer has to know the channel of communication to a security or other supervisor. What of training? Peter McIntosh admitted cases of volunteers getting half an hour orientation consisting of where the toilets are, ‘and here’s your cap’. He said: “We need to train people so they understand their responsibilities - event regulations and the safety aspects of the stadium; what are the evacuation procedures. That’s a lot of training.” And - with a nod to what makes a successful team in sport - there have to be good leaders, he added.
Peculiar
The two-day conference grappled with some of the peculiarities of sports event security - events that take up to thousands of security staff to protect what are called in the jargon ‘pinnacle’ events, the very top occasions like the Olympics. Yet by definition a pinnacle event lasts only one day or at most a few weeks- though the Cricket World Cup will last much of March and April 2007. When the athletes and crowds go home, the stadium, security equipment and staff have to move to the next event, or go back to the day job.