Since late September, I have been involved in conducting training courses for Canada Games volunteers. There are two such courses, each of three hours duration; one on Tourism, and the other on Hospitality. Everyone who wishes to become an accredited volunteer for the Games is expected to follow both of these courses before receiving a formal placement for the Games.To that end, everyone who has filled out an initial volunteer information sheet is currently being contacted, usually by mail, to be informed as to when he or she is scheduled for one of these sessions.

    The plan was to conduct theses sessions in groups of twenty. Thus, I receive "class lists" indicating who is supposed to appear on a given night. To this point, I have been rather dismayed to experience the very poor attendance for the sessions for which I have been scheduled and I have found out that everyone else who is instructing has been experiencing the same thing. On my best night thus far, I realized a fifty percent turnout (ten of the twenty people whose names were on my list); on my poorest, it was twenty percent (four of twenty)!

    Games officials are realizing that there is a serious problem here. For some reason, local people are not volunteering at the rate needed to make the Games a success, and a very large percentage of those who did register initially are not following up. Either volunteers have not yet fully realized just how close the Games really are, or they don't care. If the former is the case, I foresee a huge backlog of training which will have to be handled later on this fall; if it is the latter ( and I most sincerely hope that it isn't) then we who care for the Games are going to witness a disaster.

    I really do believe that people care about the Games, and about our reputation as a people who can get things done, with dignity, with class and with thoroughness. But we are laid back; we do tend to take a relaxed attitude toward things in the assumption that they will be done when they have to be. in this case, though, the Games are so large and so demanding that that laid back attitude simply doesn't work.

    So, please, if you have considered volunteering, but just haven't gotten around to it, please do so now. If you have, when you receive that little post card indicating when you are supposed to come out for training, please do so. It is imperative that we do things right to make these Games work - and we can only do that if everyone of us is informed about what is expected, and prepared to act as hosts for what will be, without question, the largest event ever held around here.

    If you need any information about volunteering, or about when these training sessions are being held in either Campbellton or Dalhousie, the easiest thing to do is to call the information line 1- 877-753-2003, weekdays from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Don't be shy; the Games needs everyone who can spare some time.