IT HAS been nearly seven weeks since the country's largest peacetime volunteer recruitment drive was launched.

Last night applications closed and today the team at Glasgow 2014 will begin sifting through every single application form.

Before long they will begin interviewing candidates at the rate of 1000 a week, with the first roles being offered in October, this year.

All along the campaign has aimed to attract as many volunteers as possible from all walks of life to offer their time to Scotland's biggest sporting and cultural extravaganza.

Neil Campion, who took up his post in September 2011, said: "The key aim for us was a programme that is inclusive and that we recruit a diverse range of high calibre volunteers for the Games.

"And in order to do that we need to make sure we do send out key messages and make sure people understand our requirements for the Glasgow 2014 Games."

As reported in the Evening Times, individuals including dentist Mike Blackie and physiotherapist Johanne Wilson have come forward for specialist roles, while eager sports fans and willing volunteers like 53-year-old carer Linda Harper and Stuart High, 33, have offered up their time and experience to be part of the historic event.

We have profiled dozens of individuals who came forward to show others that there were no barriers to playing a part in 2014.

But, before that, organisers put in place plans to make sure this message rang out loud and clear.

In the summer of 2011 they set up a volunteer advisory group to reach out to voluntary organisations across all walks of life, from learning disability charity Enable Scotland and the Royal National Institute for the Blind to the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights.

Around 45 organisations met up three times a year to discuss how best to ensure the volunteer recruitment programme could reach the widest number of people possible.

Neil said: "We used that as a sounding board and a consultation in relation to how it is best to reach volunteers within their network and an understanding of the requirements and needs of those volunteers.

"We took their advice, we also learned lessons from others Games like London and various other Olympic and Commonwealth Games.

"We listened to the local aspect. You don't just drop a volunteer recruitment campaign of such a scale into a country and think 'it worked in Australia it will work in Scotland'.

"We need to listen to the communities and the networks around Scotland to understand how best to reach and send these messages out to their networks of volunteers that they have and can help us get the volunteers that we want."

In October 2012 Glasgow 2014 launched their 'network awareness campaign', inviting more than 400 key organisations to Commonwealth House to discuss key themes in the campaign.

That covered key areas including further and higher education, public sector, voluntary sector, BME groups and sport governing bodies.

To spread their message beyond Glasgow, organisers took at open top bus on tour around key Scottish cities and launched a website for people to pledge their interest.

Before the official application process even opened, more than 50,000 people had already registered their interest.

Now the recruitment drive is complete and the team are gearing up to start the first interviews in April.

Neil said: "For mass recruitment on this scale, we have to make sure that it is fair and consistent and people get the communication that they need – so they know when to turn up for interviews, they know what is expected of them when they come for interviews.

"People will fill their applications in and they might not get an interview until the end of the year.

"It is about making sure that when they come to interview they feel valued and they go away feeling uplifted about the Commonwealth Games."

matty.sutton @eveningtimes.co.uk

AFTER two years of preparation, the drive to recruit 15,000 volunteers for Glasgow 2014 is finished. MATTY SUTTON talks to general manager for volunteer recruitment Neil Campion, as he reflects on the challenges the campaign has faced to recruit a diverse range of the country's citizens