February 5, 2002

Hello from Salt Lake,

Today was our first day of training. All of us working the mountain venues were taken to Park City to the bus facility we will be working out of. There we received the orientation training that all Salt Lake Olympic Committee (SLOC) employees must have. The training was geared toward setting a positive attitude for all employees. The main priority they want everyone to learn is that we want this to be the best Olympics ever. That means we all need to keep a frame of mind that is set toward making everyone's experience here, from the athletes to the officials, to the spectators, to the residents of the area, the best possible. We also learned about being sensitive to the customs of different cultures. People from all across the world will be here and many countries have customs that differ from ours. The key word they used to get the point across is 'Charge.' Charge stands for:

Committed
Helpful
Adaptable
Respectful
Gracious
Enjoy

The training made us feel a part of the SLOC team. We also learned that 5,000 GM vehicles are being used along with 2,000 buses for a total of 7,000 needed for the Olympics. Forty seven states are represented by the drivers, professionals from all across the country. The team that worked at the Team 2002 Processing Center sent an email to the director of transportation for the Olympics and had a few comments of the quality of the drivers that went through the processing in yesterday. We had over 700 drivers go through the TPC yesterday and the team working the center has been processing people in for 30 days now. They said that the group of drivers and mechanics that came through yesterday was the best group that they have worked with. It was also the busiest day for them and the positive interaction between the drivers, mechanics and the Team 2002 staff made a tough day go well.

Everyone here seems to have that positive attitude. We are all excited to be here, and everyone is working together to accomplish what needs to be done. Even when a hitch might crop up, people take it in stride and work to figure out a solution to whatever the problem may be. It's great to see that attitude from not only the drivers and mechanics, but also all the way up the chain of command to the Director of Transportation.

Bye for now from SLOC team member Len

Len's Road to the Olympics

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