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You're right. There is 2 cafeterias. Ones a bistro that has so-so sandwiches and salads. The others a school cafe and the food is ok to baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.  But it's not expensive at least.

In the area theres Ethical Bean Coffee for sandwiches. And Bosa Foods for sandwiches. And McDonalds and Knight and Day up at Lougheed and Boundary.  

So yeah, the food...not so great. But lots of microwaves! :)

The freeway is kind of weird because it seems to make a wind tunnel or something. Its always windy out there.

GM dealership? I know there's an ICBC depot. When I'm on the skytrain shuttle I tend to talk to the drivers and don't notice the area.

How do you find working over there by the Trans Canada and the GM dealership? Must be limited when it comes to dining out options.
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I didn't ask the questions. Not my fault if there ones I can't answer. :)

OK....everyone got an IBM laptop until this month. Now there giving out Aser ones. And we all will get new ones sometime this summer. The wireless network people can "see" doesn't work...yet.

We have to change our passwords every 60 days. A pain.

The intranet is ICE, the contractor site SNOW.  

Belive me yet? ;)

for an insider you dont know much i could have answered all these questions. How about you tell us something you DO know :)
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So far that checks out. ;)

If you look out your eastern windows, you'll have a lovely view of a Chevy dealership. The ICBC AirCare center is just north of you. But yeah, I wouldn't take any note of the area either. VANOC picked a terrible location for their HQ, although I guess they were squeezed for space and choice. But it must have sucked to have gone from their prime downtown location to one in an industrial zone just a block east of Burnaby in an area that barely has any services (transit, dining, recreational).

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So what do you really want to know? ;)

Well, if you really are an insider, I suggest you find out who is in charge of the clothing designs and give them a smack upside the head.

Seriously, I've volunteered at numerous World Cups and the crap that HBC has been giving out is atrocious. Looking at the Vancouver 2010 online store, it appears nothing will change, especially given that the Beijing 2008 clothing has been unveiled (not that VANOC has anything to do with that). With HBC the common denominator here, someone at VANOC better get more involved.

Ciao

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Downtown musta been sweet. I didn't start until after the move to East Van.  

Really the food is the part that bites. Otherwise they do a good job of making us all comfortable. Which is important, since sometimes the days are looooong

So far that checks out. ;)

If you look out your eastern windows, you'll have a lovely view of a Chevy dealership. The ICBC AirCare center is just north of you. But yeah, I wouldn't take any note of the area either. VANOC picked a terrible location for their HQ, although I guess they were squeezed for space and choice. But it must have sucked to have gone from their prime downtown location to one in an industrial zone just a block east of Burnaby in an area that barely has any services (transit, dining, recreational).

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If you mean the Beijing Canadian OLYMPIC TEAM clothes that's the COC, not us. But yeah, they're pretty fugly. :)

HBC has the contract for VANOC uniforms (not Olympic teams, workers). And bear in mind that uniforms are prolly the thing that most people have the strongest opinions about. They got to be working outside and inside, snow and ice, warm and freeeezing cold.

There are issues with HBC though. Ones that must be worked out by the end of 2008 for the Games (much much sooner for Sport Events).

Well, if you really are an insider, I suggest you find out who is in charge of the clothing designs and give them a smack upside the head.

Seriously, I've volunteered at numerous World Cups and the crap that HBC has been giving out is atrocious. Looking at the Vancouver 2010 online store, it appears nothing will change, especially given that the Beijing 2008 clothing has been unveiled (not that VANOC has anything to do with that). With HBC the common denominator here, someone at VANOC better get more involved.

Ciao

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I will get fired if I am caught doing this. So no details about me.

I think that is fair. I don't think anyone should expect top secret details to be revealed (like who will light the flame or what the torch will look like). But I think it will be interesting to get the insider's perspective.

That said...I have "workforce" related questions:

1 - you said hours are long--what's a typical day's length?

2 - what are the staffing numbers like?

3 - is there a great turnover of staff? If so, do most they leave on their own or are they let go?

4 - what departments/areas are expecting the largest influx of hires in the next few months?

5 - is there any anxiety among Vanoc'ers about what they'll be doing in March of 2010?

6 - why is your workforce team ALWAYS hiring human resources and recruitment people? That seems to be the most commonly posted area of work on the website.

Thanks ; )

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Can you explain all the secrecy over the Roof? Why is Stan Hagen and the Premier not saying anything about what BC Place will look like for 2010?

Does the Premier have a big announcement planned about the Roof?

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Has your staff had meetings yet about this issue?:

from vancouversun.com

Indoor Olympic flame poses problem for organizers

Miro Cernetig

Vancouver Sun

Monday, January 28, 2008

Lausanne, we may have a problem.

We all know the global epicentre for the Winter Olympics in 2010 is going to be BC Place, our mushroom in bondage.

All the medal ceremonies and flag raisings will unfold inside our domed stadium. The world's TV cameras will be beaming images of those gold, silver and bronze medals glinting under the Olympic flame, safely out of the winter rains.

But here's the dilemma the International Olympic Committee brain trust, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, is now facing. Exactly how do you fire up the Olympics' perpetual flame -- the main cauldron cannot be extinguished for 17 days -- inside a covered stadium?

If Mr. Wizard was giving you an analogous science experiment to try at home, he might say it's a bit like sparking up a very big candle inside your family's tent. It wouldn't seem much at first, but if you do it for 17 days non-stop, better bring lots of antiperspirant -- and a gas mask. It's going to get hot and smelly in there.

This gives rise to a dilemma for the IOC -- which likes to have its iconic flame near the globally televised medal ceremonies -- and the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee.

The committee aims to have the most memorable flame-lighting ceremony of any previous Winter Games.

Never before has anyone tried to put the torch inside an enclosed building for the duration of the Games. It's an Olympic first. But it's also going to be an Olympian exercise in air conditioning.

To give Olympic organizers a helping hand, I called one of the top experts in the field, to see if it can be done. His name is Sam Shelton, a mechanical engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology, who helped design the cauldron in Atlanta, the one that was lit by Muhammad Ali.

"You want to put the flame inside? That's a first," he said, when reached at his office. Then he laughed. Then he said, "You'd have a fair bit of heat and you'd have to deal with the air quality. But I guess it can be done. But it will be expensive."

Then he laughed again.

What would probably be needed, it turns out, would be a mega-ventilation system, one that might be especially designed to sit just below the Olympic flame, to suck out the heat and any contaminants the flame might cause. It wouldn't be unlike one of the negative pressure fans on those fancy new stoves that suck the air downward and out of the house.

Of course, that gives rise to another problem in a covered stadium, where the roof is held up by pumping in massive amounts of air. Any sudden change of pressure and the roof could go saggy, or even collapse. Not something you want when the world is watching.

Still, with the proper engineering -- and enough money -- the quandary can be solved.

But there's another notion being floated, too, it turns out, that would be much more expensive. Why not put a retractable roof on BC Place, maybe in time for 2010?

This idea is now being blue-skied at high levels of the provincial government. It's being kept top secret for obvious reasons: After the retractable-roof debacle at the Montreal Olympics, and the cost overruns at Toronto's Skydome, stadium roofs are a tricky business to sell to Canadian taxpayers

But a retractable roof at BC Place is being considered as part of the plan to revamp the stadium and keep it around for at least another 30 years. The taxpayer wouldn't likely be on the hook, either, since a development plan for BC Place unveiled last week would give developers a chance to build highrise towers around the stadium in exchange for revamping the inside of BC Place and replacing its aging roof.

A retractable roof is an idea that sits well with Olympic officials, now worried about the torch. It would solve all the engineering problems associated with putting the Olympic flame inside for the duration of the Games. An open roof could also make for a better show, opening up more possibilities for pyrotechnics and fireworks exploding out of BC Place. As well, it guarantees the stadium would be cool enough during the Games so that the world wouldn't see Vancouverites watching the Olympics opening ceremonies in their T-shirts, as if they were holding a Summer Olympics.

A retractable roof for BC Place would be a pretty good legacy for Vancouverites, too.

Permanently enclosed stadiums are pretty well passe, a failed experiment from another age. Transforming BC Place into a modern, retractable-roof stadium would add utility and value to this public asset -- and avoid the tens of millions of dollars it would cost to tear it down. Opening up the stadium to the possibility of sunshine also means a chance at hosting a baseball franchise and perhaps even offering a new home for professional soccer.

But there's another problem here: Time.

The clock is ticking down fast on the arrival of the Games, which begin here Feb. 12, 2010.

Can a retractable roof be built on such a tight timeline?

Or is this a good idea that came too late and will need to be delayed until after the Olympic cauldron is extinguished and moves on?

Nothing, after all, would be worse for Vancouver, and Canada, than demonstrating to the world we're a nation that can't finish a roof on time.

mcernetig@png.canwest.com

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1. Officially 9-5, but it depends on what's on you're workload, what's coming up for deliverables, and your boss. If there is a sport event soon and you have a significant role the days are often 12 hours long. Other times we sneak out a bit early on Friday. :)

2. I think we're close to 1000 paid and a lot of part time volunteers and contractors too

3. very little, though it seems some who started in 04/05 are moving on now. One of the great things is that most people are smart, nice and dedicated.

4. I only know what's listed on the 2010 website. Sport seems to be getting bigger. And the timing people (like race timing...I forget the offical name)

5. Not a lot from what I see. The Gamers will move on to London or Sochi (or the next Pan Am, Commonwealth or Asian Games). Locals...some will go back to roles/organisations. But we all will get outplacement supports etc.

6. In total over 50 thousand "staff" are needed. But more than half are volunteers. I think alot of the "workforce" positions are about processing the volunteer applications that have been coming in since Feb. Several thousands more will be temporary service workers or contractors. So the actual paid VANOC staff are less than 3 thousand.  

I have "workforce" related questions:

1 - you said hours are long--what's a typical day's length?

2 - what are the staffing numbers like?

3 - is there a great turnover of staff? If so, do most they leave on their own or are they let go?

4 - what departments/areas are expecting the largest influx of hires in the next few months?

5 - is there any anxiety among Vanoc'ers about what they'll be doing in March of 2010?

6 - why is your workforce team ALWAYS hiring human resources and recruitment people? That seems to be the most commonly posted area of work on the website.

Thanks ; )

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This is one of those things that isn't being told to us either. Like the Mascots were

Can you explain all the secrecy over the Roof? Why is Stan Hagen and the Premier not saying anything about what BC Place will look like for 2010?

Does the Premier have a big announcement planned about the Roof?

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