Paths to volunteer commitment: lessons from the Sydney Olympic games.

Volunteers have become essential to the delivery of sport and recreation services, adding several hundred dollars of value per capita to the contribution that sport and recreation make to gross domestic product (Taylor et a/., 1996; Gerson, 1997; Davies, 1998}. Volunteers have become particularly vital for the delivery of special events, as most events now depend to some degree on volunteers for event planning and operations (Allen, 2000; van der Wagen, 2001; McDonnell eta/., 2002}. The growing dependence of the event industry on volunteers is aptly illustrated by the substantial growth of volunteering at the Olympic Games (Moragas eta/., 2000}. Volunteers were used sparingly until the 1980s. However, the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid made use of 6 7 03 volunteers and the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles made use of 28,742 volunteers. Volunteer numbers rose dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s. The 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano required 32,579 volunteers and the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney accredited 40,917 volunteers. Chalip (2000} calculated that volunteer labour in Sydney would contribute over Aus$1 09 million in comparable worthover Aus$21 for every dollar expended to secure and support the volunteers' work. Without the volunteers, the Games could not have been produced. The growing importance of volunteers to events has been paralleled by a substantial growth in the use of events in the economic and social development strategies of cities, regions and countries (Mules and Faulkner, 1996; Getz, 1998; Jago et a/., 2003}. Thus, just as events are becoming increasingly dependent on volunteers, community and national development are