It was in March at a training session in Hackney that I first became aware of the concept of 'pins'.

During a question session someone asked "will we get pins?"  ("only if you sit in the same position for too long," was the answer I was expecting.)

The question's relevance only struck home as I sat down at my desk on the first morning of duty.

Collecting pin badges, it seems, is a cult hobby and one I was pretty sanguine about. I hadn’t realised that arriving members of the Olympic Family carry with them a supply of pin badges which they hand out as a gesture of friendship - and it was only when I received my first pin that I fully appreciated the power of the gift.

It’s a simple yet quite moving little token of a visitors’ appreciation of the welcome and sheer happiness of being part of this great event.

The volunteer will attach the pin to their lanyard, which makes the ribbon look a bit like the ones you might have seen on a prize Clydesdale from a 19th Century fairground.

One of my favourite pins was given by a member of the American water polo team. It’s a red London Bus with ‘USA swimming’ on the destination board and 2012 on the side. Cute it is.

Rocket fuel for Heathrow volunteers

It probably wasn’t Captain Mainwaring who said it, but there is a certain truism about armies marching on their stomachs. One thing for certain is that LOCOG recognised the importance of feeding its troops from the outset.

Mobilising and feeding a workforce of two hundred and fifty thousand, including seventy thousand Volunteer Games Makers is a mission on a scale unseen since World War II.

Back in February at the first orientation training event there were vast amounts of Cadbury’s chocolates available for gorging on, before the appearance of Eddie Izzard.

More recently, huge boxes of chocolates have appeared once more on the accreditation desks at Heathrow and they’ve been a great source of sugar for volunteers, members of the Olympic Family (athletes are still arriving eleven days into the Games) and travellers.

When I first arrived at Heathrow on June 28th one of the first tasks completed was the distribution of meal vouchers to each volunteer.

We were issued with two vouchers per shift, each worth £5.50, to be spent in any outlet in the airport, either airside, landside or in the BAA staff canteen.

The BAA canteen offers the best deal and for one voucher you can have a full English fry-up breakfast with ten items (can you imagine a plate with ten big pork sausages on it?) a pot of fruit and a cup of tea thrown in for good measure.

Oh, and sometimes the BAA canteen deal includes receiving more vouchers back from them inviting you to eat even more later on in the day! Starving we are not.

Making a difference

Before the Games started, the general population weren’t yet fully aware of the impact the Volunteer Games Makers would make.

Certainly the national press were having a field day, writing what seemed unnecessary comment. Here’s a sample: "no self-respecting trade union official would allow their members to be dressed in uniforms liken that."

I felt that was too harsh – on trade union officials. Any trade union official who could negotiate for their members a uniform that included a pair of adidas trainers with water bottle and two daily meal vouchers would surely have a place in trade union history towering above even Arthur Scargill.

However, since the Opening Ceremony, the volunteers have shown just how wrong those idle fingers on laptops were.

The papers are now full of inspiring stories of volunteers going beyond their remit, like staying all day with a wheelchair bound visitor to the Olympic Park. I think that qualifies as an example of ‘exceptional hosting’.

But maybe you shouldn’t believe everything you read in the papers.

I’m about to spend a day off undercover to the Olympic Park. I’m looking forward to seeing some athletics, and I’ll be in my best investigative mode, finding out just how good a job the volunteers are doing. Look out for my next blog to see how they get on.