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2 Making the Most of Teen Library Volunteers ALL IN THE TIMING One of the easiest groups to get quickly is the group of teens that are ­ going to come a few times over a set period. ­These teens might (on rare occasions) have a full day to volunteer, but they cannot commit to coming regularly or consistently. They prob­ably have to volunteer for a class or extracurricular, and it’s pos­si­ble that it is Friday and they need their hours completed by Monday. For ­ these teens, it is easy to have a set list of activ- ities that they can do quickly, but it is okay if they ­don’t have time to finish them. ­These are the tasks that ­don’t require a lot of training on the staff’s part. Just grab and go options. ­Don’t worry. We ­ will talk more about ­ these ­ later.­ There are plenty of volunteers that ­will volunteer semiregularly—­ when something is in­ter­est­ing to them or when they have time in their already busy schedules. They have time during the summer, but ­they’re too busy during the school year ­because they have so many obligations. They do the fall play and spring musical, but they have some time over break. ­These students ­will be around for breaks and days when ­winter there is no school. ­These are the teens who we try to find the perfect night to program for, but they are so busy and their activities vary so much that ­there just ­isn’t a perfect time. Much like the teens that are ­going come a few times over a set period, you just have to be ready when ­to they’re ready. In contrast, you ­ will also have the teens with all the time in the world. They ­ will sign up for every­thing all year round. ­ These might also be teens who ­ don’t know they want to volunteer. That is ­ until you find them the perfect job. That group of teens who get spoken to ­ every day for being too loud in the teen space (or, more likely, not in the teen space). What can you have them do? • Can they teach younger kids how to use Perler beads? • Can they help teach Minecraft or play video games with the ­middle schoolers who come to the library by themselves ­every day? • Can they make samples for an upcoming program or display? ­ There are a lot of dif­fer­ent commitments that teens have that require a set number of hours over a certain amount of time. ­ Whether ­they’re scholas- tic, scout-­based, Greek letter organ­izations or just generally philanthropic in nature, the library is a perfect match for ­ these teens. This is program- ming. This is what we do. ­You’ve got this.