Despite a request from the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, the local Junior League is not going to encourage its members to volunteer for the 2002 Winter Games, according to the organization's president, Katy Andrews.
That doesn't worry SLOC officials. In fact, they say all they really want from organizations like the Junior League of Salt Lake City is a commitment to tell members about the drive for Games volunteers that will begin March 10.
"The bottom line is, we're getting overall support and a positive reaction," said Ed Eynon, SLOC senior vice president of human resources.
The Junior League's letter comes as organizers are meeting with hundreds of area businesses, government entities and volunteer groups to sell them on signing up their employees and members to work for free during the Games.
SLOC has even come up with a suggested contribution, the "10-6-6" plan. Companies would give up 10 percent of their work force during the Games and pay them for six of the days they volunteer. Employees would take vacation time for the remaining six workdays.
Several companies contacted about their participation in the program had yet to decide how they would encourage employees to volunteer. Alliant Techsystems, for example, is not going to offer to pay employees for any of the time they volunteer. That's been the aerospace company's longtime position on voluntarism, spokesman Dave Nicponski said
"It's not about being paid to do good in the community. We've never had to do that, and we're certainly not going to start," he said.
Nicponski said the company still expects a significant share of its 1,700 to 1,800 employees to sign up with SLOC. "Our hope is we'll see a volunteer groundswell so that maybe we can offer up that 10 percent," he said. "That's our goal."
Andrews sent a letter to the organizing committee agreeing to notify the Junior League's active members that the volunteer application process for the Games is starting soon. "However . . . we do not see a good fit for our trained volunteers, given our mission statement and project focus area," she wrote.
She went on to say in her letter that, "As an organization, the Junior League will be not be supporting the Olympics. Of course, our members are free to volunteer as individuals if they choose to do so . . . good luck with your recruitment efforts."
Andrews told the Deseret News that the letter meant the league is "not going to encourage our members to volunteer. . . . We have nothing against the Olympics at all as an organization. We certainly welcome them and wish them the best of luck, but it just doesn't work for us."
That's because the 220 active members of the league are "extremely highly trained, and we didn't feel much accommodation in that regard," she said. The Junior League describes itself as a women's group of trained volunteers who provide time and money to improve the lives of women and children.
Last year, the league co-spon-sored the U.S. National Figure Skating Championships at the Delta Center as a fund-raiser. Members had hoped to use the experience they gained there in 2002, when skaters will compete on the same ice for Olympic medals.
But Eynon and Shelley Thomas, SLOC senior vice president of public communications, said they can't make that kind of promise to any organization. Volunteers are expected to be available throughout the 17 days of Olympic competition wherever they're needed.
Meanwhile, the sports and entertainment division of the Larry Miller Group intends to tell the Delta Center's 500 part-time ushers, security personnel and concessionaires about how they can volunteer during the Games, said Jonette Jacobsmeyer, the division's human resources director.
"For them it would be a full volunteer effort," Jacobsmeyer said, because the workers don't receive paid vacations, and the Larry Miller Group has decided not to pay them during their volunteer stint. That could change, she said.
"I guess it would depend a lot on how many people volunteer," Jacobsmeyer said. "If there's a high percentage that say, 'We're not going to do it unless you pay us,' then if it comes to that, maybe we will step up and take care of that."
Anderson Lumber is trying to figure out how many employees can participate without affecting the company's stores or manufacturing plants. "We're looking at what percentage of associates at each location could be away and still run the business," said Daken Tanner, vice president of human resources.
Tanner said Anderson Lumber is considering giving employees who volunteer for the Olympics additional vacation time.
"We think that's a worthy cause to increase the PR for the state of Utah and the Olympics," he said.