THIS month’s speaker was Mike Cooper of Rodborough and his talk was entitled ‘An Olympic Volunteer’.

He was dressed for the part in the memorable 2012 Olympic volunteer uniform and proceeded to deliver a fascinating talk.

He revealed that he had been an Olympic volunteer twice, the first in 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia USA.

It helps to have taken early retirement from an American company and to notice an advertisement for Olympic volunteers in the retired employees magazine. Mike duly applied and was successful.

Most volunteers were being inducted a month before the games began but Mike negotiated to arrive two days before the opening ceremony and to get a one to one induction.

At the Opening Ceremony in the 84 thousand seat stadium Mike was responsible for a particular section and was required to guide people to their seats.

Once everyone was seated he was free to imbibe the atmosphere and see Mohammed Ali light the Olympic Cauldron with the Olympic Torch Flame.

There was a blip when it became clear that the stadium builders had installed fewer seats than were on the plans and tickets had been sold for the absent seats.

The organisers had arranged some spare seats for just such an occurrence so Mike was able to resolve the potentially very tricky problem.

After his wonderful experience at The Atlanta Games and when he was safely home Mike wrote and self published a book about being a volunteer at an Olympic Games.

Mike attended the opening ceremony reminding us of the unfolding of Britain through the Ages - Britain Under Water moving to Britain in Medieval times followed by Britain and the Industrial Revolution leading to Britain to day with the NHS.

Mike described how emotional, exciting, spectacular and unforgettable it was. He then went on to tell us that amongst other events he had been at Super Saturday when Britain won three gold medals in field and track events in the space of a few hours.

The vote of thanks was given for a fascinating talk and a lovely reminder of what a fantastic occasion The London 2012 Olympic Games had been for Britain.