The 8th Annual Conference on US China Economic Relations and China’s Economic Development

As an international student from China, I’m very interested in the economic, political and other relationships between US and China. So I submitted the registration form and became a volunteer for this conference. The US China relationship is now the second to none in importance for international economic relations and policy and accordingly is a major focus of many political institutions nowadays. And This China-US annual event was sponsored by the Institute for International Economic Policy of Elliott School of International Affairs at GW.

The conference had four sessions in total and started with the discussion on The China and Africa Relationship. Surprisingly, although it was not a tourism related conference, many professors mentioned the sustainable tourism in their presentations.

I would say this volunteering experience was really impressing and I look forward to participating more similar events in the future. 

Volunteer at Events DC Nation's Triathlon 2015

As I started the topic of my event volunteer experiences, all the memorable scenes came up to my mind, I have helped out several events during this semester such as:

-HSMAI's MEET Conference, September 2015

-2015 Events DC Nation's Triathlon, September 2015

-Welcome of Chinese President's Visit, September 2015

-Taste of DC, October 2015

-XX ANOC General Assembly,  October 2015

-Fudan Washington Forum, November 2015

I can pour millions of words on those experiences but the most impressive one would be volunteer at "Nation's Triathlon". I will share some of good and bad points of their volunteer management from my personal view.

Overall Experience:

2015 Events DC Nation’s Triathlon was taken place on September 13th, but the volunteer shifts started from athletes’ registration on the 11th. The event was raising money and benefited to the "Leukemia&Lymphoma Society".

I registered three shifts each day, and my positions were helping with Sports and Fitness Expo, body marking/bike racking, and helping with bike in/out on the race day. Overall, it was a good experience, I met interesting people, got a little acquaintance of “triathlon” (before this, I knew nothing).

Good points:

1) The organizer promoted the volunteer opportunity very well.

Events DC did a good job to socialize and getting people to volunteer. As I know, volunteer of this event came from different organizations, students like me got emails from our faculty, another lady was from the Society Association which the event benefit to, another guy was volunteering for military service reason, and some others belong to different sports clubs and they volunteered full time for registration days and may waive the registration fee ranging from $95-260, yeah, that's a big deal!  

And when it came to early October, two weeks before the ANOC General Assembly, emails were sent to all Nation's Triathlon volunteers to call for our repeat participation in another sport event. I think they were really good at those volunteer appeals. 

Thank you email for recognition

2) Volunteers got recognition!

I feel I was appreciated for my volunteer work, an email letter was sent to me one week after the event saying I deserve a metal! blog was posted on the event’s official website, and pictures of the “green shirts” were posted on the website too. I feel I was valuable for them!

3) Good timing on rotation.
There were 3 shifts each day, 4 hours for each shift, which was a good timing for volunteer's rotation, so that volunteers would not get too tired. Also lunch and snacks were provided during the shifts to refuel the energy.

Things need to be improved:

1) The process of training the volunteers.

Little information were collected when I registered the volunteer, and there was no training or briefing before each shift, some of the students were from high school and they were not helpful.
Also a lot of information about the event were not given, so I was confused with a lot of guests' questions. I think it is essential to train the volunteers before they start to work.

2) Insufficient Risk Management.

Weather is a big risk for outdoor events especially sport events, weather was cold and drizzling on September 12th, so athletes were worried about the weather on the next day. We have been told that the men’s swimming part of 2014 was cancelled because of bad weather, but no one informed us what was the "trigger" of cancellation for this year, so we were not able to respond the athletes' question, and I think this is an inadequate point for risk management.

In conclusion, volunteer is a good opportunity to know people and gain skills, I have been involved in all kinds of volunteer activities for many years and I will keep doing it. 

Bonnie the "Green-Shirt"!

XX ANOC GA 2015 Washington, D.C. Volunteer

The Association of National Olympic Committee (ANOC) General Assembly was held in Washington, DC on Oct. 29-30. The fist time the meeting has been held in the United States since 1994ANOC represents more than 200 national Olympic committees.  I had two shifts of the volunteer job in Washington Hilton.  One is at Welcome, Information and VIP desk. The other one is for meeting room set-up. We had a 2hours' orientation before the volunteer day. At the orientation, volunteers got their T-shirts and name cards and got familiar with this assembly and also the volunteer work.

For the first job at Welcome, Information and VIP desk, there were five volunteers included me of this job. We arrived at 8 and waited until almost 10. Someone in charge distributed jobs to us.  There are two information desks  in the hotel, one is set in front of the hotel gate and near the front desk. The other one is set in the terrace level.  I learned about locations of different stuff first. Such as the location of information desk, restroom, and others locations guests may want to know. Then I got a list of questions guests may ask, and read the sample answers. After these preparation, I stand near the entrance of the hotel and guided people who need help. When there was not much guests, I assisted other volunteers' work.  Also, when the manager needed other help, we would do that.

                                                 meeting room of General Assembly

The second job was for meeting room set-up. I was responsible for checking and placing all the flags of countries and name plates. There was an ordered list which I used to check whether these flags and name tags were in right order and in their place. When I was checking the order, I found out that a name tag was misprinted. And I reported that to the manager.

                                                name plates with flags and checklist

 After all these checking things, we finally place these name plates on the meeting tables guided by another layout document.

                                                        the manager and volunteers

After the volunteer work, I received gifts, certification and also a thank you letter by email. Overall, I enjoyed this experience. People were nice and friendly .  And I'm glad that I can be part of this successful assembly.

Volunteer with XX ANOC General Assembly Washington, D.C.

The XX ANOC General Assembly held in Oct. 29-30 in Washington, D.C. More than
1,000 representatives were attended, including presidents and secretaries general
of all 206 National Olympic Committees,the ANOC Executive Council, as well as
representatives from International Federations and future Organizing Committees
of the Olympic Games.

I've volunteered on two different shifts in 

Washington Hilton. The first shift was in
Welcome, Information and VIP Desk. I
distributed delegate materials and assisted
the continental associations staff, provided
information about local area and cultural
program. There are two information desks
setting in the hotel, one is in front of the
hotel gate and near the front desk, which
is convenient for guests arrivals to check in
and get all the information they want at the
first place; another dest is set in the terrace
level, which right in front of the continental
association desks, can guide attendees to
get their credentials based on different continent
they belong to. The two information desks work
together effectively and give help to guests at
the first place. 

The second shift I was responsible of setting up the meeting room, office space
and ballroom. Many volunteers were in the ballroom assisting with set up and preparation
of all flags and name plates for the General Assembly. We performed efficiently and
finished the setting work ahead of time. 

Then we went to assist the culture program volunteers because they were so busy. We were
quickly trained with the program information and we distributed umbrellas, water, snacks and
brochures to guests. Also we provided information of the cultural program and the possible
transportation. 

The event went on smoothly. Attendees could attend the meeting with directions everywhere
and all the volunteers were organized under the guidance of the on-site staff. They are so
nice to us. During the break times, they shared their experience and gave suggestions about
our career. After the event, the committee sent us thank you email and gave us gifts offered.
I felt being valued by the event and I think I partly make the event. This kind of feeling is
curtail for employees at any position because it partly contribute the event going on and
they will be willing to come back for the next event. People first- that's the major takeaway
i have from this event. I'm happy I can be a part of the event.