London Ambassadors Olympics 2012

I like the big sporting events like the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games. Lots of sports all in one place to pick and choose and the added bonus of international competition. London hosts the Olympics in 2012 and, let's face it, it won't happen again in my lifetime so I want to be involved. I thought of volunteering to be part of the Olympics proper but decided I want to see it and not be stuck cleaning the dressing rooms behind the scenes. So I've volunteered to be a London Ambassador to help tourists over the summer find what they want and enjoy London. I thought, 'I can do that!'.

So, I volunteered. I filled in the rather obvious form and then went to a recruitment event last week. I was told that 30-odd thousand people had applied for the 16 thousand places available. Slight hint there. I stayed for the half hour assessment that was undertaken by really nice people who clearly had no idea about recruitment and selection processes and had simply been given their part to play in the process and been told to smile a lot. It finished with an "interview" which was, basically, someone reading out a questionnaire and filling it in for me - I could've done it in less than half the time. I left the recruitment centre with the clear view that these nice people had no real idea what they were doing and were merely part of a bigger plan to weed out people who wouldn't or couldn't be bothered to turn up to the event. Hey presto, a few thousand people instantly weeded out of the process!

The lack of professionalism of this process has been increased in my view by receiving an email today asking if I have any disabilities that might require special access requirements for my trip to the recruitment centre. Um, first of all, I went last week. You should know that.

Secondly, at the recruitment centre I attended there was wheelchair access but the ramp beside the few steps was blocked off at the bottom by a whiteboard on which we were invited to place stickers with our views on why people should enjoy coming to London. There wasn't really any other place to put the whiteboard but c'mon people, that's not rocket science. If I was in a wheelchair I would hardly feel very welcomed if my arrival meant I had to sit patiently behind a whiteboard while the furniture was reorganised for my benefit. It really doesn't take very much thought, really.

There must be cheaper ways of whittling the numbers down.