Clic presentation #4 Teen Advisory Group

This presentation was also facilitated by Beth Crist.
Advantages of having a TAG:
-gain teen perception
-gain good ideas that may not have been thought of
- word of mouth from teens to other teens
- possibly gain some volunteers
- assitance in improving the YA collection
- help staff think like patrons
- staff use the opportunity to promote the YA collection and up coming programs
- build community good will
- can shift the perception of the library to the idea that the library is a "cool" place to be

Advantages of being a TAG member:
- Community service or service learning hours
- gives teens buy in into the library
- looks good on applications and resumes and potentially gain a good reference
-teens gain skills that help with lifelong learning
-guidance from and adult who isn't their parents or teachers
- gain skills as leaders and working in groups

What makes trends cool to teens?:
- age appropriate
- unique to them
- edgy or dangerous
- if cool celebs are doing it/supporting it
- friends are doing it
- see it on social network sites
- makes them feel independent or older

What makes trends uncool?:
-if your parents approve
-if your younger siblings are into it
-gets too old "that's so five minutes ago!"

Make and Keep TAGs (and your library) Cool:
- keep it exclusive - apply or vote in members
- staff need to be approachable to teens and give guidance, but not be an authority figure
- patience
- locations
- seeing results, indicates that they are making a difference and people are listening to their ideas

Ways to promote TAG:
- facebook
-post meeting minutes online
- school newsletter
- advertise on Computers in YA area
-radio stations
- peer to peer advertisment
- school announcements
- staff promote to teens one on one
- promote at venues that teens frequent

A good website to check out is www.jervislibrary.org/yaweb/tags.html
This presentation also came with a handout that I would be happy to share if you shoot me an e-mail.

Clic presentation #3 Storytime Stew

Storytime Stew was presented by Suzanne McGrath and Lorraine Turk. Both women worked together to acquire a CAMP grant which supported their idea of teaching children about gardening. From listening to them, their program sounded like a gardening camp. Each step in the process of gardening was used as a learning opportunity for the kids. They also used vegetables and fruits from their garden to cook something to eat each day that they met. Each meeting was 2 hours long and their activities ranged from raising worms for the soil they make to pickling cucumbers.
Some books that were used for the planning process:
-Growing Your Own Pizza
-Growing Food in the Southwest
- Literature in the Garden
- Worms Eat My Garbage
- Miss Spider's ABC
This sounded like a really cool activity and they indicated that even if you don't have the space for a full garden, you can work with container gardens.
This presentation had a really good and detailed packet of information and I would be happy to copy it for anyone who would like it, just shoot me an e-mail.

Clic presentation #2 Energize Your Summer Reading Program

This presentation was facilitated by Beth Crist. Instead of doing a presentation Beth moderated a discussion about SRP. Each person talked about what they are doing with SRP in their library. Some notable things that were mentioned in this presentation:
- Summer Food Service Program is a program that is being offered at selected schools. Kids up to the age of 18 can go for a nutritious meal each day during the summer months. It was discussed that this would be a good place to reach people.
- World Book Night is April 23rd.
- One thing that was discussed was using fine reduction or free prints as an incentive as opposed to disbosables.


These were the main items covered in this presentation.

Clic presentation #1 Job Seekers at the Library

This presentation was lead by Joyce Hannan and Kathie Stenzel. Joyce began by talking about unemployment Insurance.
-The workforce center's website is yourworkforcecenter.com/ and it's important that applicants read all of the directions and answer questions truthfully.
-After completing the applications there should be a message that states the confirmation number and if they don't see that then they didn't finish the application and need to go back in and complete and submit the application.
-One possible are of confusion is with pin numbers. There is a 4 digit pin number for the unemployment website and there is a 6 digit pin number for the debit card.
-Applicants are never paid for the first week and it could be 4-6 weeks before the claimant will see a check.

Kathie then began to discuss the employment side of things.
- connectingcolorado.com is the online workforce center and every claimant has to register through this website.
- All applicants have to contact 5 potential employers each month unless they are in a highly specialized field (ex. pilot).
- Claimants have the opportunity to upload their resume so that the computer with fill in information where able and it will end up saving time.
- If any staff would like to play with this website Kathie gave a test S.S. # and password. Feel free to e-mail me if you'd like this information.
- If a claimant forgets their password for this site they can select forgot password and the system will e-mail the password; however if the e-mail has been changed then the e-mail will go to the old e-mail and the claimant will have to call to resolve the situation.
- An account should never be deactivated without the claimant first talking to someone at the workforce center.
- For e-mail notifications the user can't use Yahoo because Yahoo will always send mail to spam.
- If someone gets phone notifications and doesn't understand the automated message, they can sign into the website and click on calls and e-mails to check for notifications.

These are just the major items discussed in the session. They tried to give a brief overview, but mostly touched on the areas where people get confused. After talking with Joyce, she indicated that she would be happy to do a webinar where she can go step by step through the process of applying for unemployment so this could be an option for a future staff training. If anyone would like her informaiton please feel free to shoot me an e-mail.
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