Collins Hill Branch Library

Teen Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

April 22nd, 6pm-8pm

 

Teens Representatives: Nikki & Erin

Youth: 18

 

        Tonight’s teen event was our Open Mic Night. We started off with an icebreaker called Alphabet Race. The challenge was to come up with as many words as possible that began with the letter D. There was a 90 second time limit. Each teen read aloud his/her list and if any word was also on another person’s list then he/she had to cross it out. The person who had the most words not crossed out won. 

 

        Next we went right into the performances for the night. Most of the teens participated and shared their many talents. Talents included poetry, singing, telling jokes, dancing, handstands, etc. The most interesting and unique performance included two teens showing off their double jointedness via shoulder, hands, and elbows. J We took an intermission in which teens snacked on chips, soda, cookies, and candy. During the intermission, a few announcements were made including the Ridley Pearson author appearance on May 3rd, reminder about the book recommendation contest, and an overview of what to expect for Teen Summer Reading Program. We also informed Collins Hill HS students about the arrival of their 2008 summer reading lists and encouraged them to go ahead and check out or request those books. There was also a book display of poetry books and a few non-fiction books that dealt with music or acting. Afterwards, we went into our second round of performances and ended with a dance/sing off: middle school vs. high school.

 

        All in all, the Open Mic Night was a big success. All decorations and refreshments were donated by TAB members. A huge thank you to those who donated refreshments, made decorations, and helped clean up. Our next meeting will be May 22nd.

 

 

Collins Hill Branch Library

Teen Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

April 8th, 6:00-8:00 PM

 

Teens Representatives: Erin Parks

Youth: 8

 

We started the meeting with a discussion of Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix.  Not everyone in attendance had read the book, but those who had all enjoyed it.  We drew the name of our next book club book out of a hat from a list of books created by the teen representatives. The next selection for the May discussion is Sure Fire by Jack Higgins.

            The next part of the meeting was spent preparing for the Open Mic Night on April 22nd.  The teens decided on a slogan for the Open Mic and created posters and a banner with the slogan.  The teens divided themselves up into groups to work on the banner and posters.  They used paint, markers, and cut out clipart pictures to create their banner and posters.

            The next meeting will be on April 22, 2008 from 6-8 PM.

 

 

Collins Hill Branch Library

Teen Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

March 25th, 6:00-8:00 PM

 

 

Teens Representatives: Nikki Clement and Erin Parks

Youth: 12

 

We started the night off with a quick icebreaker where everyone went around the room and told one unique fact about him or herself. 

For the first hour, we discussed ideas for the open mic night in April.  Each of the teens present volunteered to work on at least one area of the open mic night.  We now have groups to work on publicity (flyers and posters), food/drinks, setup, clean up and MCs. During the first hour, we also reminded the teens of our new blog, the book review contest, and the next selection for our teen book club (Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix).

The last hour, we spent in a spirited game of Taboo.  Even though we had other games to choose from (Clue and Scrabble), the teens were very excited about Taboo and wanted to play that the whole time. We divided the group into two teams: the Sparkle Dragons and Team Random.  Nikki kept score and Erin manned the timer.  Both teams ended up getting much help from Nikki and Erin, but a good time was had by all. The Sparkle Dragons ended up winning.

The next meeting will be on April 8th from 6-8 PM.

 

 

 

Collins Hill Branch Library

Teen Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

February 26th, 6:00-7:00 PM

 

 

Teens Representatives: Nikki Clement and Erin Parks

Youth: 6

 

We started the meeting with a fun but short game of Taboo (thanks to Amy P. for letting us borrow it). The teens had never played it before so it took a few rounds for them to get the hang of it. The teens were really excited about tonight’s meeting. Our objective was to make T-shirts with our new CHL TAB design. The teens came up with the design back in November and Alex Szaruga (also the artist of GCPL‘s Relay for Life T-shirt design) helped us out with the final design.

Everyone had a great time with this activity. We will celebrate Teen Tech Week with a special program at our next meeting on March 6th from 6-8 PM.

 

 

Collins Hill Branch Library

Teen Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

February 13th, 6:00-7:30 PM

 

Teens Representatives: Nikki Clement and Erin Parks

Special Guest: Doris Sumner

Youth: 5

 

        We started the meeting with an icebreaker called Pull My Finger. After a few rounds of that the teens were warmed up and ready to chat. We discussed the book Crash by Jerry Spinelli. The teens had many anecdotes and comments about bullying which was one of the central themes in the book. We gave the teens a page of suggestions for our next discussion. They chose Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Afterwards we listened to a special book talk by Collins Hill’s very own, Doris Sumner. She spoke about three books from the teen collection: Hush by Jacqueline Woodson, Black Mirror by Nancy Werlin, and Peak by Roland Smith. The teens really enjoyed her presentation and even checked out a couple of the titles that she highlighted. The last part of the meeting was used to discuss TAB business.  Business included:

 

We will be doing a T-shirt iron-on activity using our new CHL TAB design for our next meeting. It will be on February 26th, 2008 from 6:00-7:00 PM so don’t forget to bring a white or light-colored T-shirt with you!

 

 

 

Collins Hill Branch Library

Teen Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

January 30th, 6:00pm-8:00pm

 

 

Teens Representatives: Nikki Clement and Erin Parks (also help from Reggie Hamilton)

Youth: 125

 

At 6 PM, we opened our doors for the first Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution tournament at the Collins Hill Branch.  We had an incredible turnout with more than a hundred teens wanting to participate.  We ultimately had 69 teens sign up to play Guitar Hero and about six for DDR.  Since we had limited time after everyone signed up, we decided to only play Guitar Hero.  We divided the group into four levels: easy, medium, hard and expert.  We were able to play through the easy and expert groups and get winners, but we ran out of time for the medium and hard groups.  Many of the teens were very excited and cheered their peers on during each round. Others skimmed through the many music or video game books that were on display. Teens that did not get to play left us with their contact information and we told them we would be in touch about a make-up date in the future.  Overall, we had a very positive response from parents and the teens who participated.

 

 

 

Collins Hill Branch Library

Teen Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

January 15th, 6:30pm-8:00pm

 

 

Teens Representatives: Nikki Clement and Erin Parks

Youth: 6

 

            Tonight’s meeting was the first book discussion hosted by Nikki and Erin.  We discussed Firegirl by Tony Abbott.  Firegirl was listed on the Teens’ Top Ten List.  This list was voted on by teens around the country during the last Teen Read Week in October.  Nikki and Erin facilitated the discussion by asking discussion questions found in the book and online.  The discussion also led to additional questions about the situations and characters in the book.  Four of the six teens in attendance had read the book, and the discussion lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes.  At the end of the meeting, everyone expressed interest in having more book discussions.  We agreed on the next book by taking suggestions for titles, putting them in a hat, and drawing one at random.  The next book discussion selection will be Crash by Jerry Spinelli.  The date is yet to be determined, but will probably be in late February.

 

 

 

Collins Hill Branch Library

Teen Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

December 18th, 5:00pm-7:30pm

 

 

Teens Representatives: Nikki Clement and Erin Parks (Kudos to Danny for helping out, too!)

Youth: 22 (including 2 more new members)

 

Alas! Tonight’s activity marked our first ever Chocolate Festival. Everyone waited with great anticipation for this event. We opened up with a nice icebreaker called “Bark, Woof, Arf.” Then teens watched a short video on how Hershey’s company uses small cacao beans collected from foreign countries to make their many, many infamous chocolate candy bars that makes us all so excited. Teens were then asked trivia questions based on the video. A food break was taken before the real festivities began. Teens enjoyed chips, soda, Subway sandwiches, and Delaney’s Death by Chocolate cake (thanks for your kind donation, Delaney).

 

The activities for the evening included guess the candy bar, a chocolate relay race, and chocolate bingo. For guess the candy bar, one-by-one teens were blindfolded and given 2 small samples of 2 different candy bars. They had one chance each to guess the correct candy bars they were given. Many thought it was going to be easy as pie, but samples were taken from 10 different candy bars. Those who guessed correctly for both samples were rewarded with a Chick-Fila coupon. The chocolate relay race was also a big hit! Teens were divided into 4 groups. Each group was given a bag of Hershey kisses and had 2 minutes to completely unwrap as many as possible. To make things interesting, we originally planned for the teens to use oven mitts to unwrap the kisses. Instead latex gloves were used and everyone still had fun with it. The winning team was also given Chick-Fila coupons. Our last activity was chocolate bingo. Teens used M&Ms to cover up their bingo cards. The bingo cards used were quite unique. Instead of hearing “B3 or N1”, teens were called things like “G—The Empress’s Tomb by Kirsten Miller. Each square was a picture of the cover of a new teen fiction book. The back of the bingo card included a list of each book/author with a brief summary of the book.

 

We concluded the meeting by discussing upcoming activities, encouraging TAB membership, and highlighting our book display (several teens checked out books or placed requests for books on order). All in all, this was a very successful activity. Every teen was quite pleased with the event. Each teen left with a goodie bag on behalf of CHL TAB. The next meeting will be January 15th from 6:30-8:00 PM. We will discuss the book Firegirl by Tony Abbott.

 

 

 

 

Collins Hill Branch Library

Teen Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

December 4th, 6:00pm-8:00pm

 

 

Teens Representatives: Nikki Clement and Erin Parks

Youth: 8 (including 2 more new members)

 

The objective of the meeting was to create holiday cards for family, friends, and teachers. There was a table set up with several supplies including stamps, cardstock, ribbon, embossing glitter, markers, funky scissors, and much more. At first the teens were a little overwhelmed. Although we made example cards for them to follow, we encouraged them to get their own creative juices flowing and come up with their own designs. Everyone had a blast! The big hit for the night was the embossing technique. This process was done by stamping a card, pouring embossing glitter over the stamped designed, and lastly using an embossing gun to heat the glittered design. This created a raised image on the card. At the end of the meeting, we were probably all covered in shiny glitter.

 

Teens also enjoyed refreshments as they made their cards. Hot chocolate, apple cider, chocolate chip cookies, and spice cookies were served. Thanks to Emily’s grandmother for donating the batch of spice cookies for us to enjoy! Also, greeting card craft books were available for teens to check out.

 

The next meeting (our last meeting for the year) will be December 18th from

5:00-8:00 PM in the Meeting Room. We will be hosting our Chocolate Festival.

 

 

 

Collins Hill Branch Library

Teen Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

November 20th, 5:30pm-7:30pm

 

 

Teens Representatives: Nikki Clement and Erin Parks

Youth: 7 (including 2 more new members)

 

The main purpose of this meeting was to iron on our new comicstrip design to T-shirts provided by TAB members. Unfortunately, we had to reschedule that activity for a later date and time because Alex is still diligently working on completing our comic strip design. However, this sudden change did not ruin our night. We decided to go ahead and have a meeting anyway. Instead, old and new TAB business was discussed as well as plans for new and exciting activities/programs for 2008.

 

We will have two TAB meetings (pending approval) in December. We have planned for a holiday card making craft and a Chocolate Festival, respectively. We are also planning a book discussion for the beginning of the year. The book chosen will be Firegirl by Tony Abbott. Other suggestions made included: a pet program, video game tournament with prize giveaways, a culture night, movie night, open mic night, comic drawing workshop, bowling night, and a CSI night.

 

TAB members enjoyed a good game of Clue for the remainder of the meeting. It was such a shame to find out that Miss Scarlett was the one behind the crime that took place in the hall with the revolver. Kudos to Erick for solving the mystery! Chips and coke were enjoyed by all. The next meeting will be Tuesday, December 4th.

 

 

 

Collins Hill Branch Library

Teen Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

November 13th, 5:30pm-7:00pm

 

 

Teens Representatives: Nikki Clement and Erin Parks

Youth: 3 (including 2 new members)

 

The meeting objective was to come up with a special design specifically for CHL TAB. This design will be ironed onto shirts brought by TAB members to the next meeting. We wanted to have something to call our own just like some of the other TABs do. Dacula has the mascot Steve the Dinosaur and Lawrenceville recently renamed their TAB, ETC (Extreme Teen Club).

 

Originally, we were working with the idea of using a cartoon bat. However, in the last half hour of the meeting is when the creative juices really started to flow. After much deliberation, it was decided that we would use a comic strip to highlight our CHL TAB and give it a unique and fun image. The characters will include a cartoon bat as well as a digital picture of a green gecko. This gecko was caught perched on a shelf in the parenting section of the Children’s Area of the library. Our GCPL Relay for Life shirt designer, Alex Szaruga (daughter of Elisabeth Szaruga), has graciously volunteered her time to tweak our design and make it look more professional for our shirts. The design will be revealed at a later date, so stay tuned!

 

The next meeting will be Tuesday, November 20th from 5:30-7:30 PM.

 

 

 

 

Collins Hill Branch Library

Teen Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

September 15th, 2pm-4pm

 

Origami Cranes

 

Teens Representatives: Nikki Clement and Erin Parks

Youth: 16

 

The meeting started with a big welcome to our new Teen Rep, Erin Parks. Next was an icebreaker that was our little version of animal charades. Afterwards, Erin and I presented the purpose of the origami activity and gave a little history about the 1,000 cranes. Of course, we did not fold 1,000 cranes but the symbolism behind the cranes was the target goal. The cranes represent peace, goodwill, and good health. Then came the activity of the hour (literally)--how to fold a crane. It took a little longer than expected to demonstrate each fold in addition to going by each table to make sure everyone was on the same page. Everyone was pretty new to this although we did have a few “experts” who were whipping out cranes left and right and thankfully didn’t mind helping others who were completely lost. Once we successfully folded our first crane, everyone agreed that it was snack time.

 

Authentic Japanese snacks were provided for all to munch on. There was candy, cookies (some that looked like mini cakes and others that looked like Fig Newtons), potato chips, pocky (wafer sticks dipped in chocolate or strawberry dip), and of course for the adventurous, wasabi peas. Everyone was daring and at least tried everything once. Overall, there seemed to be good responses to the foreign goodies (although it was said that the Fig Newton look-a-like tasted more like sweet bean paste…not exactly what she had in mind).

 

TAB business included:

-introducing more resources that GCPL provides (ie-Culture Grams, Online World Book, cataloged websites, etc.) to explore more about Japanese culture or any country for school assignments

            -Teen Read Week (writing contest and YALSA book nominations)

            -Reading Festival

            -Feedback on the Teen Area in the branch

 

Then everyone jumped back into more crane folding. It was decided that there would not be a specific meeting for October but instead a bunch of smaller daily activities to celebrate Teen Read Week.