ATHLETES and officials can look forward to a well-organised welcome at the SA Games, which will be held in East London in March.

Twenty volunteers from the region recently underwent a two-day accreditation and registration course to familiarise themselves with the workings of the SA Games nerve centre, the arrival point for the more than 5 000 participants from South Africa's nine provinces.

The course, organised by the SA Games' organising office in East London, was presented by the South African Sports Commission's Information and Research sub-unit. Participants were introduced to the basics of data-capturing and information processing, and were taught how to use SportOrganiser, the commission's event participant and results management software.

At the end of the course, nine teams of two people each were appointed. They will each be responsible for accrediting a province as well as one or two of the sporting codes that form part of the Games. In this way, the workload will be spread out both before and during accreditation, avoiding bottlenecks and work overloads.

The teams have a tough task ahead of them gathering the data and preparing the accreditation cards, but are keen and will be commencing their work straight away.

Issued by: Buffalo City Municipality