I recently volunteered to work 3 days at an ATP tour (men's) professional tennis tournament. It was an eye-opening experience that left me with some great memories. Since you're there on a purely volunteer basis, you can work as hard as you want, or take it easy and sneak out to watch some of the matches during your shift. I mean, what are they going to do? Fire you for not doing a good job?
The 3 shifts I worked were all varied and different, something I've never done before, and I took each one very seriously. No matter if I was passing out badges to the media, cleaning up after the players or answering the tournament phones, I did the best job I could and felt really good doing it.
The following summary will give you a glimpse into what it's like behind the scenes at one of these tournaments. It really is a rewarding experience, and I hope to do it again.
Sunday, Orientation Day
Before the tournament started, I had signed up for the types of work I wanted to do, and what shifts I was available to work. That information was mailed to me before the tournament, along with instructions to attend an orientation meeting required for all volunteers. Being it was my first time, just finding the meeting place at the "North Entrance" proved to be a challenge. I did finally end up in the right place, along with about 200 other people. It was just amazing the number of volunteers - it never even occurred to me how many people would be working this tournament. As it turns out, most of them were ushers, some drivers and a few like me volunteered to work in the office. Of the 200+ volunteers, well over half were veterans who have been returning year after year, most of them older and retired. The actual orientation gave us introductions and instructions, then we got our t-shirts and first assignments.
Tuesday, Entrance A
My first day started off with trying to find "Entrance A", the place where all volunteers were supposed to enter. Somehow they didn't really cover this in orientation...it was described as being "outside", but no specifics given. I finally stumbled onto it when I caught a glimpse of the sign, which I had overlooked several times in my haste not to be late. I was checked off the list, then instructed to go down to the Volunteer Office for my badge and assignment. Within minutes I was back up at Entrance A as this would be where I was assigned to work my first shift (8:00AM to 1:00PM). Luckily, another woman would be working with me and had 3 years prior experience doing this, so could handle the tough situations. My job was to make sure everyone coming in the door was on some kind of list - media, press, referees, players, tournament workers, ball kids, volunteers, drivers, etc. Of course, Entrance A was literally at one of the entrances and at 8:00AM, it was very cold. I was bundled up in my jacket during the entire shift, but time passed pretty fast as I was able to talk tennis with my co-worker during the slow times. She also sent me on a few errands, so I got to know my way around, and showed me a great place to watch some of the matches.
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