Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Teen Volunteers Needed for Summer 2014!

Here is a snippet of a conversation frequently had between parents and our teen librarian about the library's Teen Volunteer Corps.

Teen Librarian: It's a great way for your child to get job experience with a minimal commitment.  We schedule each student for one two-hour shift per week for eight weeks.  We also hold a two-hour training session with a one hour focus on customer service skills, which is designed to be similar to a job orientation.  Plus, each student gets a free shirt, which will get your child used to wearing a uniform.

Parent: What will my child do?

Teen Librarian: Your child will be either upstairs working with teens or downstairs working with little kids and will pass out summer reading prizes, sign people up for summer reading, answer questions, as well as shelve materials and help keep the library tidy.  

Parent: We have a big vacation coming up during summer reading.

Teen Librarian: That is exciting.  Are you going somewhere fabulous?  (This is where our teen librarian who almost never gets time off in the summer is briefly jealous and excited for families and their awesome summer vacations.)  This is not a problem at all.  We are happy to work around scheduled vacations and camps.  We just ask that volunteers make up any missed shifts.  We will show students how to do this during training and can remind them at any time during the summer if needed.

Parent: How old does my child have to be?

Teen Librarian: Your child has to currently be in sixth grade or higher.  Applications are due Thursday, May 1st and are available on our website or in the library.

On the other end, this is what our teen librarian tells teens...
  1. It is job experience that you can use when you get your first job
  2. It is only two hours a week.
  3. It gets you out of the house and away from your siblings.  Plus, if you're not at home, you can't mow the lawn.
  4. If you get perfect attendance of 18 hours or more, you get an invite to a special event which is held on the first Saturday in August.

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