Early Friday Morning at the Olympics

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L to R: Ara Aprahamian, treasurer; Hasmig Eskenderian, welcome booth; and Hratch Najariain, chair

WASHINGTON (A.W.)–For those that regularly attend Olympics, it is a great fraternal, Armenian, athletic, and social good time. Apart from the occasional lost or late bus or long waits for elevators on Saturday and Sunday nights, the Olympics generally run like a well-oiled machine.

Think about it. Hundreds of people attend from all over the US and Canada. There are several events from the various dances, athletic events, tours, and more. Some of the events have food. There are buses that shuttle everyone from hotel to events and back again. All these events, venues, and activities need to be coordinated and manned. As a logistics and supply chain consultant, I can assure you this is not a simple task. The reason things work so well is because of the wonderful and dedicated committee that has been hard at work for at least year organizing and making preparation so that everything runs seamlessly when the weekend finally arrives.

Being up early this morning to see the golf and tennis players off, I had a chance to run into several of the committee members already hard at work at 7 a.m. In listening to them, it was clear they were all running on little or no sleep. The prospect of much more sleep before Monday night is not likely for any of them. They work around the clock making sure everything runs on-time and flawlessly. Often, we do not take the time to honor the committee. This is mostly due to the simple fact that they work quietly in the background. Certainly, the committee is listed in the AdBook but most of us, at best, only glance at that list as they peruse the AdBook.

This year we should do something a little different. Let’s honor them early in the weekend. Here is able and dedicated Olympic Committee.

L to R: Aroxie and Ned Apigian with committee member Raffi Karakashian, security and picnic
L to R: Aroxie and Ned Apigian with committee member Raffi Karakashian, security and picnic

Hratch Najarian – Chair

Chris Hekimian – Co-Chair and AdBook

Raffi Karakashian – Security and Picnic

Sevan Simonian – Social and Medical

Yeghisapet Chouldjian – Committee member and helped everywhere and anywhere

Ara Aprahamian – Treasurer and Transportation

John Altounian – Athletics

This is not the first time for Hratch. It is the third time he has served on the committee for a Washington hosted Olympics. That is an amazing level of dedication and clearly a labor of love. Raffi and Yeghisapet work for the ANC office in DC. Yeghisapet said, “Almost everyone in our office has an AYF heritage, so it is only natural that we got involved on the committee.”

So, if you are here in DC seek out the committee and say hello. Thank and congratulate them for a job very well done.

Mark Gavoor
Mark Gavoor is Associate Professor of Operations Management in the School of Business and Nonprofit Management at North Park University in Chicago. He is an avid blogger and oud player.

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