We got contacted by Colleen Orsmond who is in charge of recruiting volunteers for the rowing regatta at the Olympic Games in Rio 2016.

Rio 2016 volunteer program

She is very keen to get people who know the sport of rowing (Sport Specific Volunteers SSV) to work inside the regatta complex and so has set up a special code so that you will get picked for rowing and not the other venues.

Below is her detailed instruction set and at the bottom a document for you to download which sets out all the details.  Sadly, you have to pay your air fare to Brazil…. but you get free transport and meals and a ‘uniform’.   Do read the document “Understanding the SSV volunteer programme for Rio 2016 at the bottom of this post.  Applications open 28 August 2014.

Thanks for offering to help publicise our Rio 2016 volunteer programme. My goal is to recruit as many rowing “sport specific volunteers” as possible – these are the volunteers who will work in the Blue Zone at the rowing venue,  i.e. they will be the ones in direct contact with the athletes and officials, and so it is important that they they have a feeling for the sport and understand what the athletes need – hence the need to recruit rowers (or coaches, umpires, administrators – anyone who has been involved in rowing or rowing events).

We are fast approaching the launch of the application period (28 August to 15 November) and would like to get the message out to as many people as possible. As I mentioned, our main focus is on the rowing community in Brazil, but I know that there are many members of the rowing community outside of Brazil that are keen to get involved. All are welcome of course – although as is usual for the Games, all volunteers will have to get themselves to the host city and arrange their own accommodation. Still, where there’s a will there’s a way!

I’ve attached some information about the programme as well as some banners – not sure if you can use these in your newsletter format, but I have attached them anyway just in case. The key point for all would-be volunteers to note is that they need to receive a special code from me if they want to be rowing volunteers. This code is submitted along with their application, and if they don’t add the code they will land up in the big pool of generic volunteers with no guarantee that they will make it through to the rowing selection pool – the code makes sure that they are identified as “rowing experts” from the get-go. Anyone interested or wanting more information should send me an email so that I will get their details and send them the code.

Colleen Orsmond

Líder de Competição de Remo

Understanding the SSV Volunteer Programme for Rio 2016