Summer Tokyo 2021 Day 16 Thread

[pepsi]

I volunteered at both the Olympics in Sydney in 2000, and also the Comm Games in Melbourne in 2006, and I was very happy with the experience. Just being there in the thick of it was payment enough for me. There are some things that money just can’t buy, and for me, volunteering my time at a major international sporting event was one of them. I’d do it again in a heartbeat if the opportunity arose.

Great to hear your experience around Sydney. I will apply to be a volunteer for Brisbane, would love to be involved in a small way.

 

[Roobs321]

A lot of sporting events tend to require at least some degree of volunteer work, like temporal setting-up and pulling-down, officialing/coaching/catering, a lot of entrance fees and memberships might go to selected charity organisations. Think about a lot of community sport, it relies on that sort of passion and everyone chipping in a bit of their own time. I grew up in a SLSC which obviously has that community safety angle. My parents, siblings and I all did a variety of volunteer work there over about fifteen years.

 

[theyellowsash]

Stop equating slave labor with Olympic volunteers. It's incredibly disrespectful to those who actually are in slave labor. You've raised your point numerous times now.

Olympic volunteers are not slaves. They CHOOSE to be volunteers knowing they won't be paid.

just because people are willing to do it without pay doesnt make it right. american slave owners used those exact same arguments.

the IOC and olympics are a multi billion dollar international industry. They are not some community organisation or charity relying on local people to run at all. If the jobs of the volunteers are so important to the running of the olympics (hint: they are), then they should be paid for their work. You know damn well that if no-one volunteered, the IOC/governments would have to hire people to do their jobs. It is highly exploitative to use the prestige of the event to get people to 'volunteer' for work which otherwise would be paid work. Simply saying 'people agreed to work for free' is no different to 7/11 arguing 'people agreed to be paid $5 an hour'.

the moment the athletes and administrators stopped being unpaid/amateur, then so should all the laborforce below them.

 

[theyellowsash]

A lot of sporting events tend to require at least some degree of volunteer work, like temporal setting-up and pulling-down, officialing/coaching/catering, a lot of entrance fees and memberships might go to selected charity organisations. Think about a lot of community sport, it relies on that sort of passion and everyone chipping in a bit of their own time. I grew up in a SLSC which obviously has that community safety angle. My parents, siblings and I all did a variety of volunteer work there over about fifteen years.

community sporting events are an entirely different beast to a multi national multi billion dollar industry though (which couldnt function and make their millions of dollars without the work the volunteers do). ive volunteered for community things (like school fetes & performances) myself.