Voila, I have my volunteer card! And I also received a whole packet of information. I could have done without the orange volunteer T-shirts, but what can you do for a good cause? The only thing that's a bit tedious is organising the shifts in the GayGames online system. I'm constantly being allocated shifts from 08:30 onwards. But I haven't even gone up before 10.00am!
The atmosphere in the registration office at Neumarkt is already a really nice start to the coming week. Lots of friendly helpers scurry around between the queues of people waiting. Everyone is in a good mood and patient. And the issue of shift times at inhumanly early hours was easily resolved on site. I met a few colleagues from AIDS-Hilfe NRW and the nationwide IWWIT prevention team straight away. They are already looking forward to their first assignments in the evening.
However, there was some displeasure about the actually great IWWIT info flyer for the GayGames. Unfortunately, the logos of the regional projects "Herzenslust" and "Fairplay" were forgotten in the rush of production. But the campaign management was contrite and our IWWIT boss Matthias personally handed out materials and condoms to the revellers in Schaafenstraße that evening, wearing a Herzenslust shirt. That's how a co-operation works really well despite minor mishaps!
By the way, the party atmosphere in the Villages was already great last night! Despite the cool weather, the first crowds gathered on Rudolfplatz and Neumarkt. The organisers put on quite a show - all respect! To celebrate, I wore my old Team Frankfurt shirt from Amsterdam 1998 and proudly held it up to anyone who didn't want to see it. At least until someone asked if I wanted to show everyone how old I was. Great! So I decided to buy a smart black GayGames 2010 shirt from the shop on Rudolfplatz. Hopefully that makes me look a bit younger now...
See you tomorrow with the report from the opening ceremony.
Your Markus
