Survey Monkey

Seems when one has more time on their hands they take the time to complete certain things that they would otherwise ignore like surveys; the census; income tax returns and occasionally personal hygiene. And since I have nothing but time on my hands these days and very few bad hair days, I was somewhat pleased to receive an email requesting input regarding my tennis volunteer experience. Today I became a volunteer vigilante.
The questions surprised me somewhat. For instance, I was asked to rate the variety and quality of food prepared and served to the volunteers. I have always paid strict adherence to the motto, “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you”. No complaints here. It was only when the survey asked open ended questions like, “Do you have any suggestions to improve the volunteer experience”, that I truly came to life. Other than the obvious one, pay me, I did have some comments I wanted to share with the committee. And lucky for me the comment section was rather large in scope.
First, I wanted to ask how was it that every day for nine days all contestants selected to participate for a chance to win either a Blackberry; HD PVR; or prize package from the Rogers Red Section were all attractive, twenty-something, blond, blue-eyed, and female? Tens of thousands of people in the stands and they couldn’t find one fifty something, white haired, slightly overweight, former rocket but now bordering on barely noticeable, albeit female? I’m just saying.
Secondly, I couldn’t help but notice that practically everyone on my committee seemed to be connected in some way, shape or form, except for yours truly of course. It reminded me of the concept, six degrees of separation, the idea that everyone is at most six steps away from any other person on Earth, so that a chain of, "a friend of a friend" statements can be made to connect any two people in six steps or fewer. Everything’s relative and everyone’s related.
Lastly, I was asked to comment on the captains of my committee. Now don’t get me wrong. Maybe I’m just too hard on people. But when you have 116 volunteers on your committee, some of whom are as old as 85, walking with a cane, and in their 20th year of volunteering; wouldn’t you think it a nice gesture to nominate that person for volunteer of the year? The Captain’s chose to nominate themselves as a group for the coveted award. Yes, I did find nepotism and narcissism along with several other ism’s thriving at the Rogers Cup. I’m just saying.