Sunday, July 20, 2008

1st Training Session for Singapore F1 Race Volunteers.

Yesterday was the first Official Training session for the General Volunteers of the 2008 Singtel Singapore F1 Grand Prix.
Nearly a 1000 volunteers Marshalls will be needed in September to make sure the Race is a success and now begins two month of preparations for all of us.
The venue was one of the SMU theatre, where Ankur & Raymond ( Seniors Officials) as well as Sue ( From CAMS Australia) run us through an overview of what will be expected from us comes September. It was in a very relaxed atmosphere that we were told of the different roles of Marshalls, Officials etc..
Our group was very much mixed up, with Flag Marshalls, Track Marshalls, Paddock ( Me...), administration, Fire & Rescue, Marshall services.
As yesterday briefing was more of an overview of the role of volunteers Marshalls, we didn't go into really details of each position. Those will be covered over the next month in the specialised module training.
It was interesting to see once again how many nationalities will be there to make up the group of volunteers. In our group yesterday there were Malaysians, Indians, Phillipinos, Australian, French ( me again...) and Singaporeans, quite an ecclectic and challenging mix of languages.
The next session will be on the 2nd/3rd August and that's when specialised training will start.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know something, Bruno? I think you should make full use of your connections with whatever people in power you know in the upper levels of the volunteers' management committee to apply pressure on them to make sure that the organisers supply ear muffs and protective wear like gloves to all volunteers. I will not quibble with not getting paid to do dirty work for one of the most lucrative sport in the world, but at the very least, they should not ask us to dig into our own pockets and PAY to buy things like ear muffs. I will be very honest with you, Bruno, I am currently unemployed and volunteering my time to F1 nite race, but asking me to fork out money to protect myself from deafness is a bit too much, when I am doing the job for F1. The organisers don't realise that some volunteers like me simply cannot afford the extra expense, even if it's just a few tens of dollars. You have to help us by coming out to say something on our behalf, you seem like you can be the voice for us all, the F1 volunteers. Maybe you can write in to someone in the upper levels or help to voice this out in the volunteer forum or whatever.

Bruno said...

Fellow Marshall, Be assured that I will do my best, in the interest of all of us to be supplied with with whatever is needed for our safety. I do not have any connections with anybody in the commitee, but I will voice those things out in the next few sessions.
I totally aggree that all equipement should be supplied, and will make it known. I hope you'll find a job soon and look forward to meet you again.