As we enter the ‘Olympic month’, world attention is undoubtedly focusing on Sydney. While some Sydneysiders are anticipating total disruption to normality of life, others are looking forward to welcoming the world to Sydney, whether people come in person to the Olympics or view events via the extensive telecasting rights.
Preparation for staging Sydney 2000 has primarily fallen on the New South Wales State Government and Federal Government. Given the highs and lows (that are most likely an inescapable hallmark of staging such an event) there are many in Local Government that are thankful not to be ‘too’ close to the organising.
However, many Councils have contributed in various ways to ensure the success of the first Olympics for this millennium. Not the least has been the very popular, community building, Torch Relay that has been weaving its way around the nation towards its final destination at Homebush. The logistics of running the Torch Relay, and the staging of the many community celebrations around this activity, relied heavily on the contribution of Councils.
Closer to the heart of Olympic activity, Sydney City Council has been working hard to showcase its city to the world.
Already high on the register of tourists’ preferred cities to visit, the staging of the Games has provided, and will continue to provide, huge opportunities not to be missed. The spin off for other cities and regions is also immense.
Deputy CEO, Cliff Haynes, recently described the changes that have taken place in Sydney over the past four years as having gone from ‘a building mode’ to a ‘city care mode’ and are now about to enter ‘an event mode’.
During the Olympics, Council will be operating 24 hours a day. Operational and street cleaning crews will move to three shifts per day instead of the normal two. Council’s call centre expects to be running 18 hours per day rather than the normal 10 hours service.
With many staff performing very different roles during September, they are most likely to interact with visitors, tourists and others on the streets of Sydney. To ensure all staff are up to date with the changes put in place, corporate information and all that Sydney has to offer, a clever induction program titled ‘City Safari’ has been of great assistance to current and new staff.
In use since December last year, this CD ROM presentation recently took out the Gold Award in Staff Development presented at the NSW Institute of Municipal Management Annual Conference.
At this conference, Olympic Equestrian, Gillian Rolton, gold medal winner at Barcelona and Atlanta, was a very popular speaker. Using the theme, ‘getting over hurdles to achieve your goals’, few will forget Gillian Rolton coming off her mount and landing painfully in the water. Already badly injured from an earlier fall, and not to be beaten, she remounted to complete her round, enabling the Australian team to ride on and take out the gold medal.
Emphasising that anything is possible with hard work and perseverance, she said that sometimes the goal posts will shift, so the key is to set a new goal, refocus and regain the drive.
As Australia hosts the 2000 Olympics and Paralympics, there will be countless examples of courage, inspiration and perseverance providing new incentives for all of us, no matter what we are doing, to achieve our goals.
