Hi, my name is Kate Randall and I’m the Games Family Services Director for Glasgow 2014 – the Organising Committee for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. I have now been in post and a resident of my new home city Glasgow for 4 months, and what a busy time it’s been.
As Director of Games Family Services I am responsible for developing the relationships between the Organising Committee and the various organisations and individuals that make up the Commonwealth Games “Family”. And for making sure that across all aspects of our organisational planning, we’re meeting the needs of this group. So who are the Games Family you ask?!
The Commonwealth Games Federation(CGF) is the organisation – the governing body if you like – that is responsible for the direction and control of the Commonwealth Games. They ultimately govern the Games and awarded the 2014 Games to Commonwealth Games Scotland (CGS) and the city of Glasgow.
Then there are the Commonwealth Games Associations (CGAs) – the 71 countries that participate in the Games. Each CGA is responsible for selecting, preparing, sending and managing their national team’s participation in each Commonwealth Games. Here that is Commonwealth Games Scotland (CGS).
Also the International Federations (IFs) – the organisations that govern each of the 17 sports on the Glasgow 2014 Programme. Of course our Head of Sport will have a pretty big role to play here too.
And the list goes on.
I’m really excited about the Games Village in the East End of Glasgow for the athletes and officials that will participate in these Games. The Games Village site was such a big part of Glasgow’s bid for the Games, and is so important to get right for the community in the East End of Glasgow, as well as for the Games Family. We’ve been doing alot of work already to make sure that it will meet the needs of everyone that will call it home, its future long term residents, and the athletes participating in the Games. I hope the entire East End community will actively contribute to make it a success.
And how about the exciting events that have been happening in the past few months already? I’ve made sure to get out and see the Gymnastics World Cup event that was recently held at the Kelvinhall (of course that venue will hold Boxing during the 2014 Games and Gymnastics will actually be at the SECC). Also the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships were held at Scotstoun, which will also host the competition at Games time. The last event of the IRB Sevens World Series was held at Murrayfield a couple of weekends ago and it was brilliant – Commonwealth countries Fiji, New Zealand and England won the Cup, Plate and Bowl finals respectively. You should check it out next year if you didn’t get along this time, it’s well worth it, and a similar format that will be used for the Commonwealth Games competition in 2014 to be held at Ibrox Stadium.
There are exciting times ahead for Glasgow and Scotland, and the Commonwealth Games has a large role to play in that. It’s a big responsibility, but in the very short amount of time I’ve been here, I’ve no doubt that Glasgow and Scotland will deliver.