Beijing officially launched its drive to recruit 100,000 volunteers for the 2008 Olympic Games on Monday.

The news is delightful as many people who wanted to help out the Games, but had no specific ideas as to when and how, can now make their decisions.

They can decide whether and what they can contribute to the Games by looking at the policies, requirements and procedures for applicants aspiring to join the Games' volunteer programme.

Since Beijing won the bid in 2001 to host the 2008 Olympic Games, my friends several of them from overseas have asked me about the Games' volunteer programme.

Some of them are overseas Chinese who want their children to come and join as volunteers. They believe this is once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that their children, as Chinese descendants, should not miss.

A few others have developed a more elaborate scheme for helping out with the Games.

When I went to the University of Iowa as a visiting scholar to teach a course on Chinese culture in the era of globalization in late March, my friend Judy Polumbaum, a journalism professor there, told me of her efforts to bring some of her students to work at the Games in Beijing as volunteers.

She based her idea partly on the needs of the Games, which, according to Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, will not be successful without the good and devoted work of the volunteers.

But she has worked out the plan for her students' future career development as well. She has told quite a few of her friends that "I would particularly like to get freshmen and sophomores who are thinking about, ideally, journalism and either Asian languages or international studies," as she was quoted by the Daily Iowan, the school newspaper.

She is certainly making some progress. On Tuesday, the Daily Iowan reported that "10 students will have the chance to attend the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, free of charge," thanks to Polumbaun.

It seems natural that most of the volunteers will be young people, who have more energy, passion and enthusiasm. Their experiences at the Games will surely help with their future careers.

However, there are worries about whether these young people, who lack experience in the jobs they will be assigned to, will be able to perform their duties well.

We do see that training is an important chapter in the General Policy for Volunteers for the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games, posted on the organizing committee's website, www.beijing-olympic.org.cn.

But we have yet to learn the specific professional jobs as well as the number of volunteers needed for those vacancies.

Only from a friend did Polumbaum learn that 100 or more volunteers were probably needed from English-speaking countries to work at the Games' media centre alone.

I believe that once the Games' specific professional requirements for volunteers are made crystal clear, not only young people but also those with rich experience and knowledge in those professions will also be motivated to join in.

In fact, mid-career professionals are among the people who aspire to join the ranks of volunteers. Professor Polumbaum and another media friend of mine are two who have explicitly told me that they hope to work for the Games as volunteers.

But mid-career professionals hope to know in what specific professions they will be able to help so that the Games' organizers will better tap their professional learning, knowledge and skills.

I believe it is on the organizing committee's agenda to publicize the specific jobs for the volunteers.

Moreover, as Liu Qi said, everyone can lend a helping hand to the Games even they are not able to join the ranks of the volunteers.

Email: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/31/2006 page4)